Valada Flewellyn is an author, poet, historian, and storyteller. Valada is the author of seven books, her latest: “For the Children: The History of Jack and Jill of America Incorporated” (2018), the oldest African American family organization founded in 1938. Valada serves on the board of the Crealde School of Art in Winter Park, FL.
She is a founding member of the Alliance for Truth and Justice (ATJ) an affiliate of the Equal Justice Institute (EJI), a member of Bridging the Color Divide, a lifetime member of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and serves as historian for the Dorothy Turner Johnson Branch. She is a member of the Seminole County branch of the League of Women Voters. Valada is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and is a member of the Washington Shores Presbyterian Church.
Valada is a graduate of Marymount College, BS in Marketing.
Poetry by Valada can be found at the Alliance for Truth and Justice (ATJ)
Dr. LaVon W. Bracy
Dr. LaVon Wright Bracy has been a champion for the rights of others since she was a child. Her legacy, as she shares in her new book, “A Brave Little Cookie,” is why she’s most known. She’s the girl who integrated the school system in Alachua County, Florida, becoming the first African American to graduate from Gainesville High School in 1965.
Her gripping story has been written for elementary school children to introduce them to the civil rights struggles and sacrifices made to make the world a better place. She’s known in Central Florida for her vigorous encouragement to increase voter registration and for single handedly registering more than 1,200 people. The wife of a minister and university dean, the late Rev. Dr. Randolph Bracy Jr., she’s also the mother of former state Sen. Randolph Bracy III and current state Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis. She is the co-founder of the New Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando.
The product of a civil rights activist and a schoolteacher, LaVon Bracy is the proud daughter of the late Reverend Thomas A. Wright and Affie Mae Wright. She is the youngest of four children born to parents who, in their school age days did not experience education in an integrated setting. These powerful community pillars wanted better opportunity for their children and fought, in and outside of the courtroom, to help bring to fruition the equality that was well deserved.
LaVon Bracy earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Fisk University. She earned a master’s degree in education with emphasis on college and personnel services from the University of Miami and earned her doctorate from the University of Florida in higher education administration. She is the author of “Making Them Whole” (1990), “Beyond Bravery” (2012) and “A Brave Little
Cookie” (2019).
LeRoy Pernell
LeRoy Pernell is a professor and former dean of Florida A&M University College of Law. He is credited with leading the law school to full accreditation from the American Bar
Association in 2009 and reaccreditation in 2014. He is also professor emeritus and former dean of the Northern Illinois University College of Law.
He began his career in legal education at The Ohio State University College of Law where he served as Professor of Law and Vice Provost of Minority Affairs. Teaching primarily in the areas of Criminal Procedure, Torts and Juvenile Law, he also created clinical education courses at Ohio State in the areas of Mental and Developmental Disability as well as Criminal Appeals and Post-Conviction Relief. At Northern Illinois University, he created the Zeke Giogi Legal Clinic, in Rockford, the first clinical program for the NIU College of Law. Professor Pernell has also held the position of a public defender and served as of counsel to the law practice of the late Otto Beatty, Jr, former Ohio state representative.
Pernell is a frequent contributor to both national and local print and electronic media on topics ranging from Elections to Criminal Justice. In 2021 he was awarded, along with the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law, the Telly Award honoring excellence in video and television across all screens for his contribution to Legal Connections: Ocoee Massacre. He has testified before the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives regarding pending federal habeas corpus legislation and its impact on persons of color. He is also the recipient of numerous awards including the CLEO EDGE AWARD and has been inducted into The National HBCU Pre-Law Hall of Fame.
Pernell earned his bachelor’s degree in government from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1971, and received his Juris Doctor from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1974.
Senator Geraldine Thompson
When Geraldine F. Thompson was elected in 2018, she became the first female Democrat and person of color to serve Florida House District 44. Sen. Thompson now represents Senate District 15 in West Orange County.
After receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami in 1970 and a Master of Science Degree from the Florida State University in 1973, Sen. Thompson served for six years as an Orange County Public Schools teacher. She later served for 24 years as an administrator at Valencia Community College where she established the College Reach Out Program, which enabled thousands of low income and disadvantaged students to fulfill their dreams of going to college.
Sen. Thompson also developed a reputation as a respected historian for compiling the history of African Americans in Central Florida and authoring the book “Black America: Orlando, Florida.” She led the campaign to preserve one of Orlando’s unique landmarks, the Wells’ Built Hotel which, during the days of segregation, provided lodging to some of America’s most prominent citizens including Justice Thurgood Marshall. Today that landmark is known as the Wells’Built Museum of African American History and Culture.
She served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2006 to 2012 and 2018 to 2022. Significant legislation that she initiated and saw passed included bills to exonerate the Groveland Four, provide compensation to James Joseph Richardson, who was wrongfully incarcerated for 22 years, outlaw discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace, and a Specialty License Plate to benefit organizations that comprise the Divine Nine with eighty-five percent of the proceeds from the sale of the plate which will be distributed to the organizations to support scholarship
She also has been elected chair of the African American History Task Force, which will plan the construction, operation and administration of a museum celebrating Black history in the state.
Jasmine Burney-Clark
Jasmine Burney-Clark is a civic engagement professional who has dedicated her personal and professional career to social and electoral justice across the state of Florida. She’s consulting director and founder of the Equal Ground Education Fund and Action Fund, a Black-led and community-centered civic engagement organization that focuses on voter registration, education and turnout.
Her work in Florida and Equal Ground has been featured on CNN and MSNBC and in the Washington Post and The New York Times. She is highly sought-after to empower and engage Black people in social and civic engagement campaigns that directly impact their lives and the generations that follow.
She has worked to expand equal access to the ballot box on behalf of many Floridians. In her previous work, she was a senior advisor to the NAACP (National), Geraldine Thompson for Senate, NextGen Climate, Supreme Court Judicial Retention and Executive Director of the Florida 501c3 Civic Engagement Table, where she advanced work by coordinating half a million voter registrants and raising millions of dollars to support statewide coordinated civic engagement programs that center Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
Awards include Orlando Magic Diversity Game Changer (Orlando Magic), Champion for Civic Engagement (Alpha Kappa Alpha), Journey Award (The Experience Christian Center), Florida Classic Making a Difference through Service (Bakari Burns, City Commission District 6), Most Influential Women in Florida List (City and State Magazine) and Power 100 List (City and State Magazine).
Burney-Clark received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bethune-Cookman University and a master’s degree in public administration from Florida A&M University.