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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Reverend Wendell Anthony
Biography- (updated12/02)
Reverend Wendell Anthony is a native of St. Louis, MO. He was educated
in the Detroit Public School system from elementary through high
school. He graduated from Wayne State University with a B.A. in
Political Science, and Marygrove College with an M.A. in Pastoral
Ministry. He also attended the University of Detroit for advanced
study in Black Theology. Reverend Anthony is a Certified Social
Worker with the State of Michigan. As a student activist, Reverend
Anthony was most active in the 60s and 70s as a member of the Committee
for Student Rights, and as the student director of Special Student
Services for Wayne State University, 1969-1974. Reverend Anthony
was ordained in 1981, and became the associate pastor of Fellowship
Chapel in 1983.
He served as the commentator for the Detroit Black News and for
the Detroit Black Journal Public Television News Show (1972-1976),
he also served as news commentator for WNEC 4 Radio. Reverend Anthony
was host of the Community Health Forum Television Show on Channel
62 (1985-1986), and the host and producer of "A New Vision"
radio program, on WCHB Radio. He is a former guest columnist for
the Michigan Chronicle, with articles on racial and social direction.
Reverend Anthony became the pastor of Fellowship Chapel in December
of 1986 following the passing of Reverend James E. Wadsworth, Jr.
Through the grace of God and the labor of his ministry, the church
has experienced the greatest growth in its 32 year history.
Fellowship Chapel has a spiritual and social ministry that touches
every facet of community life. Through its James E. Wadsworth, Jr.
Community Center, it has a full-time Outreach Ministry with programs
ranging from Computer Programming, Adult Education, Narcotics Anonymous,
Homeless Assistance, Education 2000 (tutoring from elementary through
college), Job Training and Placement, special SAT and ACT college
preparation training, and much more. Reverend Anthony is the developer
of the Isuthu Institute (Coming into Manhood Program) for boys ages
6-18, dealing with black male responsibility. It is one of the oldest
Mentoring programs of its kind in the country. He also initiated
the Intonjane Institute (Coming into Womanhood Program) for girls
ages 6-18.
A nationally known lecturer and motivationalist, Reverend Anthony
is also a writer and a poet with articles and poems on the African
experience in North America and throughout the Diaspora. He is also
a special educational consultant for Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
Publisher, Inc. He was a contributor and consultant for the elementary
and mathematics series, (Mathematics Unlimited 1987, copyright),
published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and a special consultant
to the African Literature Text, an Anthology for middle and high
school students, 1992 copyright. Reverend Anthony has traveled extensively
throughout Africa. He leads a group from Detroit each year on a
special Pilgrimage to visit the roots of African-Americans and to
establish cultural ties between Detroit and Africa. He has led groups
to Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Timbuktu, Dahomey, Ivory Coast, Benin,
Egypt, and Israel.
In August of 1988, Reverend Anthony was invited by the government
of Angola in Southwest Africa, along with 18 other ministers from
around the country to conduct a fact-finding mission of the South
African Military's invasion of that sovereign nation. Utilizing
this unique honor, the group met with the U.S. Congressional Black
Caucus and House Foreign Relations Committee and presented documents
and photographs of their tour to help advise U.S. foreign policy
in that region.
In 1992, Reverend Anthony had the high privilege of being "Enstooled"
in Ghana. He was given such an honor based on his many travels to
Africa and the work that Fellowship Chapel is doing in West Africa.
He was given the name Nana Kwamina Amoesi, II. He was given a home
in the village of Akotokyir in the Cape Coast Region of Ghana. Reverend
Anthony was also a special delegate to South Africa representing
clergy from across the country. He held meetings with the African
National Congress, South African Council of Churches, Nelson Mandela,
Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Reverend Allan Bosesak to discuss reforming
the political and social conditions inside South Africa. This delegation
was a part of the American Committee on Africa and the Religious
Action Network. He has preached in churches in both West Africa,
South Africa, and the Caribbean.
Reverend Anthony served as Co-Chairman of the International Mandela
Freedom Tour to the City of Detroit, 1990. Reverend Anthony is a
member of several boards and councils inside the City of Detroit.
Among them are New Detroit, Inc., Michigan Coalition of Human Rights,
and the Minority State Health Policy Advisory Board. He is also
the past Chairman of the Interfaith Council of Religious and Civic
Leaders and a host of other boards. Reverend Anthony is a Trustee
on the General Retirement System Board of the City of Detroit, managing
over $3 Billion in Assets and Chairman of the New Stadia Development
Task Force for Comerica Park and Ford Field.
Reverend Anthony is the current President of the Detroit Branch
NAACP, the largest branch in the country with a current membership
of more than 45,000. He is a single father with two daughters, Tolani
(toe-lah-nee), age 30, and Maia (my-ee-yah), age 23, both students
at Wayne State University. Reverend Anthony has received numerous
local and national awards, among them; "Spirit of Detroit"
award; State of Michigan Special Tributes; "Frederick Douglass
Speakers" award; NAACP President's "Special Citation;"
National Black United Fund Detroit Chapter "Malcolm X"
award; Martin Luther King, Jr., "Commemorative" award;
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., "Human Touch" award; Booker
T. Washington Business Association "Brotherhood" award;
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., "Civic Activist" award;
the Ghanaian Community Association's "Black Star of Ghana"
award; Walter P. Reuther Award for Distinguished Service; International
United Auto Workers, "Michiganian of the Year" award;
National Kidney Foundation of Michigan--"Champion of Hope"
award; Anheuser-Busch Companies, "Outstanding Achievement"
award; the SHAR Foundations's "Human Service" award; Phylon
Society of Wayne State University, "Ben Richard Coleman"
award; St. Anthony's "Keep the Dream Alive" award; Urban
Bankers Award for Justice, and the Metro Detroit APRI-CBTU "Community
Service" award, just to name a few.
Reverend Anthony was also the Clergy Co-Chairman for the Detroit
Committee organized by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers
Union to assist the union organizing of Samson and Delila Plants
in Waynesboro and Louisville, Georgia. This committee was organized
to help gain union recognition and empowerment from S. Lichtenburg
and Company for the workers in that region. Reverend Anthony is
the founder of the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee.
This is a grass-roots, independent, community-based organization
with a successful record of support for activist-candidates for
elected office. The PAC is named after the late civil rights activist,
Fannie Lou Hamer, in tribute to her work in the Mississippi Delta
Region.
In 1993, Reverend Anthony organized and led a march of over 250,000
persons in the City of Detroit to commemorate the 30th Anniversary
of the March of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Detroit in June
of 1963. This march occurred before the historical march in August
of that same year. This was the largest march organized for this
purpose since 1963. In 1994, Reverend Anthony was a part of a special
delegation of the National NAACP leadership to visit South Africa
in support of the national elections held in April of 1994. He,
along with the delegation, met with various political parties on
the ballot and helped to coordinate election activities for South
Africans residing in the United States.
In October of 1994, Reverend Anthony organized a Rwanda Relief
Effort in which the Detroit Branch NAACP raised nearly $1 million
in monies for transport vehicles, food, clothing and medical supplies
to aid in the assuagement of the holocaust occurring in Rwanda and
Goma, Zaire. Reverend Anthony personally supervised the distribution
of the materials to persons in Rwanda in conjunction with relief
agencies on the ground. In 1995, Reverend Anthony was the Co-Chairman
for the City of Detroit Million Man March Committee. This led to
the largest delegation of a city in America being represented with
more than 75,000 men in attendance.
Reverend Anthony is Co-Chair of the Detroit Fair Banking Alliance,
which is responsible for negotiating over $7.2 billion in economic
development with local banking institutions. This is a precedent
for any NAACP Branch in the nation. It includes mortgage, consumer
and home improvement loans, procurement and employment of African
Americans, women, and other minorities within the City of Detroit.
He has been a member for the Detroit Building Authority since 1994,
which oversees construction and building programs throughout the
city of Detroit, and currently serves as the Citizen Trustee for
the Detroit General Retirement System Pension Fund, which manages
a pension fund of over $2.7 billion. Reverend Anthony founded the
Fellowship Chapel Health Clinic in Cape Coast, Ghana, West Africa;
in March of 1996. This clinic was built from the ground up providing
medical service to children and adults throughout the central region
of Ghana, in March of 1996. In response to the devastating flood
of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, Reverend Anthony in conjunction
with the Detroit Branch NAACP, founded Project D.R.E.A.M.Z.S. (Detroit
Relief Effort to Aid Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa). The
organization has raised over $250,000 to date, to aid the victims
of the flood. In April of 2000; Reverend Anthony led a five member
delegation to the flood-ridden countries in Southeastern Africa.
The delegation, with the assistance of Africare, distributed food,
medicine, temporary shelter materials, seed and tools for planting.
It was during this relief effort, that Reverend Anthony had an opportunity
to meet with Sofia (the Mozambican woman who gave birth to a baby
in a tree-top), and to baptize her baby, Rosita. During the 2002
NAACP National Convention in Houston, Reverend Anthony was nominated
(in an overwhelming victory) to the NAACP National Board of Directors.
More recently, in November, 2002, Anthony was elected to an historic
sixth term as president of the Detroit Branch NAACP.
Revised: December, 2002
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