Top Image © Courtesy of One Hundred Black Men
One Hundred Black Men of New York (OHBM) is celebrating its 60th anniversary on February 22, 2023, with a star-studded gala awards reception and concert. The gala theme is “A Diamond Legacy: The Men, The Movement, The Milestones.” OHBM will honor community and corporate leaders.
These leaders include Robert Smith – founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners; Brett Hart – President of United Airlines; Patricia Wang – CEO of Health First; Sandy Cross– Chief People Officer of the PGA; Hope Knight – President & CEO and Commissioner of Empire State Development Corporation; Tyronne Stoudemire – Senior VP for Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Hyatt; Roger Arrieux – Managing Partner at Deloitte; Marc Morial – President, National Urban League; Michael J. Garner – VP and CDIO of MTA, and Leo Salom – President and CEO of TD Bank.
For the 60th anniversary concert, Jeffrey Osborne, Eric Benét, Howard Hewett, and Ruben Studdard will lend their unique talents in a special salute to the Men of R&B!
Working in the community for 60 years, OHBM is the founding chapter of an international organization of over 100 chapters serving over 50,000 people each year through mentoring and community service programs. The mission of OHBM New York is to play a proactive role in leveraging our collective talent, ability, and energy toward achieving meaningful gains for the Black community.
Their initiatives focus on education through mentoring, wealth-building strategies, fostering economic development, and raising awareness of health issues affecting Black communities. OHBM was founded to close equality gaps and help people overcome challenging situations to succeed. Leading up to its 60th anniversary gala, the nonprofit is focusing on ramping up its community support. OHBM provides scholarships, internships, and mentoring for young people, along with meaningful activities throughout New York.
In 2022, OHBM of New York focused on fostering excellence by awarding 45 scholarships and 10 paid summer internships, mentoring over 600 students—twice as many as the year before. During the holidays, OHBM fed 10,000 people through their citywide holiday hunger relief program. They are now preparing to launch the One Hundred Black Men Business and Entrepreneurship Centers to help justice-involved young people through their new citywide restorative justice and business development initiative.
Recognizing the need to reduce recidivism among justice-involved young men, OHBM secured a $5 million grant through the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to launch citywide restorative justice/business development centers. These centers will serve up to 800 young men, ages 18 to 29, who have a present or past history with the criminal justice system.
“The goal of the program is to provide young men with hard skills, soft skills, and useful tools they can use to open businesses,” said Mr. Courtney A. Bennett, OHBM’s executive director.
To support Black small businesses impacted by the pandemic, OHBM awarded over $2.3 million to businesses in 40 states and 400 cities, in partnership with the Hennessy Unfinished Business Program. Because of this program, hundreds of businesses have been able to keep their doors open. Alongside their initiatives for their milestone year, OHBM also started a music performance program and awarded more than $2.6 million to struggling Black small businesses across the country in partnership with Hennessy.
Since 1963, OHBM has put education at the forefront of its mission. They are actively engaged in the arts and culture scene of the Black community not only in New York City but worldwide. Utilizing their presence in arts and culture communities, they work towards encouraging their scholarship recipients and mentees to learn more about the power of
the arts.
Known for their positive impact on the community, OHBM hosts annual events to raise money for their scholarships and other programs. Funds are used to uplift communities in need. The events include the Annual Dr. Roscoe C. Brown Golf Classic, in which OHBM just hosted their 15th annual event and the first annual OHBM/PGA Junior One Hundred Challenge, which paired students with top executives from companies such as the PGA of America, National Grid, UPS and Enterprise Holdings, and others for a day of education and golfing.
In 2004, OHBM founded the first Eagle Academy for Young Men, and today six Eagle Academies serve more than 4,000 students each year. Looking towards the future, OHBM is setting their sights on fostering greatness in the Black community for the betterment of New York as a whole.
Visit us at ohbm.org to learn more, and or to sponsor the Diamond Legacy gala and concert, visit dayoftheonehundred.org
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Leaders lead. In these unsettling times, the founding chapter of One Hundred Black Men remains committed to its ongoing efforts of pursuing meaningful gains for the Black community.
