National History

The overall concept of The 100 began in 1963 in New York City when a group of concerned African American men began to meet to explore ways of improving conditions in their community. These visionaries included businessmen and industry leaders such as David Dinkins, Robert Mangum, Dr. William Hayling, Nathaniel Goldston III, Livingston Wingate Andrew Hatcher, and Jackie Robinson. Since inception, the vision has materialized to be shared by more than 10,000 members reaching over 125,000 underserved, underrepresented minority youth annually. Our motto, “What They See Is What They’ll Be,” very succinctly expresses how our programmatic services rendered to disadvantaged, disenfranchised and low-income youth and families positively change their life trajectory.