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WHY WE ESTABLISHED THE FOUNDATION
African-Americans in this
country, have a purchasing power of $300 BILLION. That's
equivalent to the highest gross national products in the WORLD! those who benefited from the efforts of the NAACP are
now the privileged, the most highly education and paid professionals. They seem to think that we, as a people, need only
express outrage, intellectualize the problems and then call upon others to
provide the remedies. Black colleges are closing
because of pitiful endowments; our cultural Institutions are operating on a
shoestring or only kept alive by philanthropy outside our own community.
When compared with other
foundations that have been endowed with millions, $150,000 is not
much. Yet in the 90’s, $150,000
represented millions to us and we decided to use what we have
to let down our bucket where we stand -- to put up or
shut up.
The Gray Foundation is our
effort to reverse unemployability, declining
social values and violent self-fear. We seek to
put our resources behind our words (put up or shut up). It
is time that we redefine ourselves as producers in
American culture rather than larger and better consumers.
The future, and our place in
it, is our PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY not someone else's fault. As a people, we have to put our growing resources to
use in support of our heroes/sheroes, our heritage, as well as persons and
places of learning. We must listen and learn from
each the traditions of self-help and self-reliance that once gave our
people strength.
It is our desire that the Gray
Foundation serve as an example to others so that they, too, will put up,
because we cannot afford to shut-up and still survive. Examples
remain the best source of inspiration.
Establishing this small foundation
is our message to them that it's time for a change. Each
of us, in our own way, must give back to the African-American community,
however, and whenever we can. This is the 21st
century and the plague of thinking that private solutions can be found
without private costs - is pure fiction, but it's what we have to do.
Criteria for Scholarship
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