she wasn’t asking for funding, only approval of the concept. Over time, persistence paid off. “I won them over because I wore them down,” she said. “I was on a mission to save young Black boys from the bits of destruction and the criminal justice system.” Wilson credits that fighting spirit to her years at Fisk University, an HBCU, during the Civil Rights era. “We learned how to march, protest, make a difference, how not to be classified as a second- class citizen,” she said. “I was unafraid. I learned to advocate. How to stay on a mission.” So when she later found herself battling the school board for the program’s initial expansion, she leaned on the same lessons in persistence and protest.
program itself. Students who join the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project are offered the chance to pursue college or other post-secondary credentials, with scholarship funds raised annually through the foundation’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Scholarship Breakfast. Through partnerships with the organization, local universities including HBCUs like Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman offer full rides to graduating seniors who maintain at least a 3.5 GPA. Earlier this year, the program awarded 45 scholarships to Miami-Dade public school seniors. But Wilson sees these scholarships as just one part of a much bigger mission to preserve the legacy of HBCUs themselves. She has been holding onto a bill for the past two years that would allow descendants of slavery to attend HBCUs tuition-free, modeled after legislation benefiting Native American students. “I’m using that to not only save our children,
but to save our HBCUs, which is so important to the survival of our people period.” Wilson’s relentless determination has also fueled her work to confront the systemic challenges facing Black men and boys on a national stage. One of her most significant victories came with the creation of the United States Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, established through bipartisan legislation she authored that passed unanimously in both the U.S. House and Senate in 2020 following George Floyd’s murder.
Black males to become upwardly mobile.
The commission represents an expansion of the work Wilson says she began with the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, creating opportunities for Black men and boys to thrive, not just in Miami, but across the country. She has been building toward this point with the same determination that first launched the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project decades ago. To Wilson, legacy is measured by the impact of that work, defined by her passion for doing what she could to keep families whole by lifting up Black men who, she says, have too often been left vulnerable by the weight of societal barriers. “I know that I was sent here for a specific purpose,” said Wilson. “It is to change the perception of the way this country, this world, feels about Black men and boys.”
The commission examines the social disparities that
disproportionately affect Black males in America, with goals that include interrupting the school- to-prison pipeline, expanding economic and educational opportunities, and increasing public understanding of the barriers that make it difficult for
That’s how I learned how to wear them out.”
Wilson has woven her connection to HBCUs into the role model
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