Ninth Annual Philadelphia Legacies Portrait Awards honors Philadelphia civil rights and sports icons

PHILADELPHIA, August 5, 2024 – Six Philadelphia civil rights and sports icons will be honored for their outstanding contributions at the “Ninth Annual Philadelphia Legacies Portrait Awards,” 4:30 pm, Saturday, September 7, at the Taj Mahal Philadelphia, 2613 West Hunting Park Avenue.
Founded by Stephen Satell, author and founder of Bridging Worlds Mentor Program, the annual observance was established in 2016 to create a deeper understanding of Philadelphia’s unique place in the history of the nation. The event promotes positive images of those who have made major contributions to the city and perpetuates their legacies. The icons, their families, and organizations are awarded commissioned portraits that are unveiled at the annual fundraising awards dinner.
The 2024 portrait icons being honored are:
Samuel London Evans, civil rights leader, powerbroker, impresario, and founder of the American Foundation for Negro Affairs (AFNA) in 1968, which provided aid and opportunities to African American students seeking professional careers in medicine, law, computer science, and the creative and performing arts. AFNA mentored more than 20,000 students, including 800 doctors, 700 lawyers, 96 PhDs, and 5,000 college graduates. In the early 1960s, he was appointed by Mayor James Tate as chair of the Philadelphia Anti-Poverty Action Committee. He was appointed the city’s czar of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” and was responsible for over $350 million coming to the city, some of which went to establish the Head Start and Get Set programs. Evans was very influential in Democratic politics from the 1920s on, was an advisor to African Americans running for office, and was known in Philadelphia’s political realm as a power broker. He produced symphony orchestra concerts at the Academy of Music for over 35 years and became the first African American to gain admittance to the International Society of Impresarios.
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Cecil Bassett Moore, attorney, civil rights leader, and city councilman became an in-demand defense attorney in the early 1950s, often representing poor clients pro bono or for reduced fees. In the early 1960s, Moore was elected president of the Philadelphia NAACP, where he tripled the membership in his chapter to 25,000. In 1963, he began organizing campaigns to desegregate Philadelphia’s building trade unions and organized picket lines at the Municipal Services Building and then Strawberry Mansion Jr. High School construction sites that lasted several weeks. Moore also organized a picketing campaign against the Trailways and Greyhound Bus companies for their refusal to hire African Americans. Moore organized mass protests at the segregated Girard College that lasted for eight months in 1965, led by a group of neighborhood teens named the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters, who picketed the school daily. His use of direct action pressured the courts to speed up the litigation process. Moore represented North Philadelphia’s 5th City Council District as its council member from 1974 until his death.
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Rev. Dr. Leon Howard Sullivan, minister, civil rights leader, and social activist, became pastor of Philadelphia’s Zion Baptist Church in 1950, where he increased membership from 600 to over 6,000. In 1958, in collaboration with other ministers, Rev. Sullivan organized a boycott of companies that engaged in employment discrimination, which he referred to as “Selective Patronage.” 
Rev. Sullivan’s primary work was built on the principle of “self-help.” In 1964, he founded the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America, which offers job training, instruction in life skills, and job placement. OIC has grown into a national movement that has served over 2 million people and led to the formation of the Opportunities Industrialization Centers International in Africa. Rev. Sullivan used the church to organize the Black community and create a local economic base that would self-perpetuate. He established the Zion Investment Association, the 10-36 Plan, the Zion NonProfit Charitable Trust, a community development corporation, and Progress Investment Associates, which established Progress Plaza, the nation’s first Black-owned and developed shopping center.
In 1971, Rev. Sullivan joined the General Motors Board of Directors and became the first African-American on the board of a major corporation. General Motors Corporation was the largest employer in South Africa, and Rev. Sullivan used his position to oppose discrimination. In 1977, he created the Sullivan Principles, a code of conduct for corporations operating in South Africa.
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Dr. Bernard C. Watson, Sr., a distinguished educator and civic leader, began his career in education in the Gary Indiana School District, where he was educated as a youth. In 1967, he accepted a position with the School District of Philadelphia, where he served as deputy superintendent for planning under Superintendent Mark Shedd. Watson was one of the district representatives who negotiated with the leaders of the famed 1967 Black Student Walk-out Demonstration at the school district headquarters.
Watson moved on to a full professorship in education at Temple University’s Department of Urban Education and, in 1976, became the university’s first African American academic vice president. In 1968, Watson joined John F. White, Sr., and others in organizing the Black Political Forum in Philadelphia to increase African American participation in the political process. In 1981, Watson became president/CEO of the William Penn Foundation, where he administered the distribution of $278 million to support its mission of “improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region.” Over the next quarter-century, he became an integral part of Philadelphia’s civic fabric, serving on more than a dozen municipal, corporate, and cultural boards and commissions. His most public role was as board chair of the Barnes Foundation, where he led the fight to relocate the institution to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. He is now Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation.
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Wali Jones, basketball star, educator, and activist, began his career in basketball in the late 1950s when he starred at the legendary Overbrook High School, where he gained his reputation as a fierce competitor, winning multiple city championships. After high school, he played at Villanova University as a highly touted guard, earning All-East Regional honors and a degree in economics. Jones began his NBA rookie season with the Baltimore Bullets in 1965 and was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, eventually becoming the starting point guard, where he won an NBA Championship in 1967.
A mission that began during his NBA career, Jones led Concerned Athletes In Action, a program that utilized fellow basketball players to mentor young people. Now a beloved educator/ activist, Jones’ Shoot for the Stars program introduces Philadelphia’s youth to the rigor, discipline, and commitment that are all critical to success. Although he now lives in Florida, once a month, he flies to Philadelphia, where he gives basketball workshops and encourages the academic progress and success of the youth. A mural of Jones on the wall of HUB Playground at 37th and Mount Vernon Streets was dedicated in 2023.
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Phil Martelli, championship basketball coach, began his career in 1968 as a member of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School basketball team, where they won the Catholic League title in 1971. After graduating from the Prep, Martelli attended Widener University, where he was a point guard on its NCAA Tournament teams and set the school’s single-season and career assist marks. In 1985, Martelli was hired as assistant coach of the St. Joseph’s University Hawks. After 10 years as an assistant, Martelli was named head coach in July 1995. During his 24-year tenure as head coach of the St. Joseph’s Hawks, Martelli led the team to a record-breaking seven NCAA tournaments.
In 2019, Martelli left St. Joseph’s to take a position as assistant head coach at the University of Michigan and is now associate and acting head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. In addition to his prolific coaching career, Martelli founded the Philadelphia Chapter of Coaches Against Cancer, which raises more money than any other chapter in the country.
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“We want to bring pride to the city by highlighting people and institutions that have made outstanding contributions,” explained Satell. “This year we are honoring Philadelphia’s civil rights and sports icons who dedicated their careers to making our lives better and more fulfilling. We want to hold onto their wisdom and commitment so we can continue to learn from the knowledge they acquired as they created their legacies. Their legacies should be shared and celebrated by all.”
Outreach
Philadelphia Legacies promotes Philadelphia history throughout the year by sponsoring educational programs and tours to locations of important historical legacy. A portion of the proceeds from the annual dinner will benefit the House of Umoja, the Fathership Foundation, the NAACP Act-So Program, and other nonprofit programs. “Many of these nonprofits still struggle financially, and we want to help them continue their good work,” Satell explained.
Past Honorees
The first Legacies Awards received great support from former Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell and former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode who both attended. Past portrait awardees include historian/ bibliophile Charles Blockson; House of Umoja founder Queen Mother Falaka Fattah; physician/philanthropist Dr. Walter Lomax, Jr.; Philadelphia Flyers founder Jerry Wolman; educator Dr. Ruth Wright-Hayre; Coach John Chaney; broadcast pioneer Trudy Haynes; journalist Acel Moore; Coach Tina Sloan-Green; Professor Molefi Asante; labor leader Sam Staten, Sr. and writer/historian James Spady among others.
The celebration begins with a networking reception at 4:30 pm and ends with entertainment by the Intruders. For sponsorship information, go to http://philadelphialegacy.org or call 215-432-2898.