The Meeting on March 5, 2020

The featured speakers for our March 26 meeting were William B. Clark and Dr. Greg Granderson, founding members (along with others, including our very own Jim Gray!) of 100 Black Men of Sonoma County. 100 Black Men is a national organization dedicated to serving the African American community by providing activities and events to better the community. The Sonoma County chapter was started in June 1990 by a group of men who often met at the men’s breakfast at the Community Baptist Church. Their idea was to more formally discuss the problems and expectations of the African-American community and the need for involvement of concerned black men.

Our speakers, Dr. Granderson and Mr. Clark, were among the founding and guiding members of the Chapter. Both men are career educators. The focus of the Chapter is on education and development of youth, including scholarships and other assistance. Dr. Granderson stressed the Chapter’s involvement with high school and college students. He told us that kids ‘get stuck in today.’ They think that everything has to be fixed right today! 100 Black Men is here to help kids of any ethnicity and give them historical perspective about their concerns. Dr. Granderson is also a major proponent of Santa Rosa Junior College, now one of only two “community colleges” that retain the “Junior College” designation in their names! Dr. Granderson has worked all over the state on issues relating to college accreditation.  People statewide recognize SRJC as the gold standard in education and want to work towards SRJC teaching standards.

Mr. Clark had a couple of additional comments about two of our own club members. He says he was mentored by our very own Jim Gray!! And Sunrise member Arthur Cheney succeeded him as President of the Chapter! One final note about the presentation: 25 Black people in Sonoma County can’t do everything they’d like to do to help Sonoma County students and others. They’d like our support, not necessarily financial, but whatever we can do to help them with their goals. Let’s take them up on this!  Maybe we can attend a fashion show with Jim Gray on the runway! Many thanks to Mr. Clark and Dr. Granderson for their excellent presentation!