Our History

Project LEAD, Inc., Subcommittees targets six counties in the Greater Wilmington area, four designated rural counties and one designated urban county - Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender. Since 2012, the committee has partnered with Countywide CDC to successfully implemented several Humanities and Arts programs:

• Black & White Soiree Celebrating African American Music Appreciation Month, Musical Dinner & Theater, featuring Doug Irving Jazz Trio

• Thelonious Monk Tribute and Techmoja Dance & Theater Company.

• "School Pride: The Eastern NC Story," a commissioned, four-month exhibit examining the history of sixteen segregated schools by world renowned artist Willie Cole and a gala opening at the Cameron Art Museum.

• Internationally renowned Grammy Award winning trio The Tenors: Cook, Dixon and Young who conducted a free Vocal Music Master Class/Workshop for high school and community college chorus students and teachers.

• “I Believe I Can Fly Concert” featuring The Tenors: Cook, Dixon and Young; lyric soprano Marva Mapson Robinson and tenor Claude Robinson, III accompanied by the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra.

• Five county public school superintendents and teachers’ workshop, with Alice Walker

• Free performance workshop by the Dance Theatre of Harlem for ninth graders from the five county target areas in 2014 and 2019.

• Evening performance of the Dance Theatre of Harlem for the public in 2015 and 2019.

• Special guest’s performance of the Wilmington Symphony Youth String Ensemble during the 2015 Lyndon Baines Johnson Legacy Awards Dinner Gala.

• North Carolina Central University Jazz Band at the 2016 LBJ Presidential Legacy Civil-Human Rights Awards Dinner Gala.

• South Carolina State University Jazz Band

• Free Performance workshop Ailey II: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for ninth graders from the five counties in 2020.

• Kenny Lattimore, an American singer-songwriter in 2021.

• Rubin Studdard, an American singer, and actors. He rose to fame as the winner of second season of American Idol and received a Grammy Award nondomination in 2023 for the Best Male R&B Vocalist.

In previous years, the committee has honored international, national, and local leaders from various walks of life.

• Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian, Recipient of President Barrack Obama’s 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom and close ally of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Alice Walker, nationally acclaimed author, and civil rights advocate

• United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, Civil Rights activist, and former Atlanta Mayor

• Congresswoman Eva Clayton, first African American woman to represent North Carolina in Congress

• Robert “Bob” Brown, National Business and Special Assistant to President Richard Nixon

• Fifteen Local and National Pioneers of Civil Rights from five Southeastern NC Counties

• First and subsequent Black Local Elected Officials from five Southeastern NC Counties

• Five Outstanding Businessmen from our southern NC Counties

• Attorney Randall Robinson, an internationally respected social justice advocate and best - selling author, a professor of human rights law at Penn State University. In 1979 established TransAfrica.

• Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Chair African American Studies, William S. Tod Professor of religion and African American Studies at Princeton University.

• Congressman James Clyburn, an American politician, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina. He has served as House Majority Whip since 2019.

• Dr. David Satcher, an American physician and public health administrator. He was a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the 10th Assistant Secretary for Health, and the 16th Surgeon General of the United States.

• Eric Eskiogu, M.D. Novant’s Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Director of The Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

• Michele Perez, Assistant Deputy Secretary Office of Field Policy and Management

• Secretary Donald R. Cravins, Jr., Esq., US Department of Commerce for Minority Business Development