Yesterday’s UNCF's Cleveland Mayor’s Luncheon fundraiser blew the roof off the targeted expectations for the event.

With a not yet official total hovering at $350,000, the second annual luncheon far surpassed this year’s target of $250k. Last year’s inaugural event, held virtually just weeks after new Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb took office, raised about $100,000.

The bulk of the funds raised go towards college scholarships for black students. Contrary perhaps to popular opinion, students can use the aid to attend the college of their choice. In fact, Ohio State University is the most popular student destination student choice in Ohio, according to Steve Miller, UNCF area development director for Ohio and Northern Kentucky.

Miller clarified student options in a post-event interview, in which he noted his organization has 37 members, all of which he said are private colleges and universities not supported by state or federal funds. There are 103 HBCUs in total, he said.

Yesterday’s luncheon was attended by about 650 people, including over 100 students, mostly from John Marshall High School's drumline, the Cleveland School of the Arts choir, and a cohort of students championed by WEWS-TV5 anchor Danita Harris, who served as luncheon emcee. The choir members opened the program with a rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing that was by turns reverent and rousing.

Worthy of note was the invocation by Rev. Dr. Jawanza K. Colvin of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, who incorporated a history lesson in his invocation of thanks for all that African Americans have suffered in their journey to this day.

Mayor Bibb in his brief remarks hailed his mother as his most courageous student leadership model, noting how she one day made the decision to go back to school even while struggling as a single parent to make ends meet.

Other speakers included the event chairman Quentin McCorvey, president of Paradigm Institutional Investments; Eric Gordon, CEO of Cleveland schools; Congresswoman Shontel Brown; and Dr. Airica Steed, the new chairman and CEO of MetroHealth Systems, which served as lead sponsor for the fundraiser. 

Wilberforce University president Dr. Elford Anthony Pickard , right, with UNCF Area Director Steve Miller.

Keynote remarks were delivered by Dr. Elford Anthony Pinkard, president of Wilberforce University, a UNCF member, and along with Central State University, one of Ohio’s two HBCUs.

Pinkard began by tracing WU’s illustrious history as the oldest continuing HBCU and noting its founding by African Americans in 1856. Frederick Douglass was a trustee, William E. B. DuBois a faculty member, with Bayard Rustin and Leontyne Price among its most famous alumni.

Pinkard centered his remarks on the “crippling paradigm” that Wilberforce has done much with little. He would prefer that it do much with more, arguing that the major difference between HBCUs and the nation’s most prestigious universities was money. If Wilberforce had equivalent resources, he argued, within a generation, they would be the equal of the finest schools in the land.

Pinkard punctuated his remarks by demonstrating the deep connections of HBCUs in the life of the black community and the community writ large. By the time he finished his litany of questions asking people to stand if they were alumni, relatives, co-workers or friends of HBCU grads, virtually the entire room was standing, including County Executive Chris Ronayne, one of the few few elected officials in attendance.

Throughout the program emcee Harris, Mayor Bibb and several other speakers engaged in back-and-forth bantering about the superiority of their respective fraternities and sororities. On this day of community and cultural celebration, the “Qs” managed to have the last word when UNCF official Miller, reserving the last speaking position, one-upped event chair and Phi Beta Sigma man Quentin McCorvey by concluding his remarks with the woof and signage of Omega Psi Phi.

A video recap of the event is available here.

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UNCF Mayor's Luncheon evokes past, looks to future

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This article has been updated to make the following corrections. Dr. Pinkard's first name is Elford, not Elfred, and Quentin McCorvey is a member of Phi Beta Sigma, not Alpha Phi Alpha. We regret the errors.  Additionally, a link to a video recap of the luncheon has been added.