Philadelphia Legacies will honor legends and community leaders with portraits
and applause during its 11th annual Legacies Portrait and Community Awards on Saturday.

By Denise Clay-Murray

For the last 10 years, historic buildings throughout Philadelphia have been blessed with portraits of people that have contributed to the city in various ways, thanks to Philadelphia Legacies.

On Saturday, the non-profit arts and culture organization will unveil the latest group of monuments to those who have enriched Philadelphia through their work at its annual Portrait and Community Awards, which will be held at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in West Philadelphia.

The people who will be immortalized in portraits this year include:

*Former WDAS-FM radio personality Doug “Jocko” Henderson and his son, Doug Henderson Jr.: Jocko’s rhythmic rhyming delivery was considered a precursor to modern hip-hop, and he later brought his gift to education, creating the “Get Ready” history and literacy program.

Henderson Jr., who was also a personality on WDAS-FM, is being recognized not only for his career on the air, but also for his work in media management, and with the Living Legends Foundation, which honors Black music executives and personalities.

*Valerie Still, Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, former Women’s National Basketball Association American Basketball League MVP, and author of several books including a memoir, “Playing Black and Blue: Still I Rise” and an upcoming book on the history of her family, which includes abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor William Still;

*The late Miller Parker, CEO of the Philadelphia Business and Technology Center, former co-owner of WHAT-AM and Creator of the Miller Parker Philadelphia Stars Negro League Memorial Park, the Parkside monument to the Philadelphia Stars, the city’s Negro League baseball team;

*The late Judge Fredericka Massiah Jackson, was the first African American to serve as President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the first Black woman to preside over civil trials in Philadelphia and her brother;

Louis Massiah, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and MacArthur Foundation fellow who is also the founder and executive director of the Scribe Video Center, an organization that believes that the best tellers of Philadelphia’s stories are Philadelphians themselves. Much of his work centers on activism and includes “The Bombing of Osage Avenue,” a film about the 1985 MOVE Confrontation and “W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography In Four Voices.”

As America continues to celebrate its 250th Birthday, it is also dealing with a variety of issues, many of which have been dealt with before, said Stephen Satell, founder and director of Philadelphia Legacies.

Stephen Satell

This year’s portrait honorees honor that resilience, he said.

“Philadelphia Legacies is using its 11th year to make a simple, provable argument: this city has faced — and solved — versions of today’s hardest problems before,” Satell said.

The portraits — which were painted by artists Laurie Cooper, Oronde Kairi and Ibven Taqiy — will be unveiled at the event and can be displayed anywhere that connects the honorees and their work with the exception of their homes, Satell said. The honorees are selected by a committee of community leaders which includes SUN publisher Catherine Hicks.

In addition to those being honored with portraits, Philadelphia Legacies will be honoring community leaders whose work ties into the organization’s mission of honoring the city’s problem solvers. This year’s community leader honorees are:

*Lucinda Hudson is the board president and executive director of the Parkside Association. She moved to Philadelphia in 1967 and worked in banking and social services and worked as a caseworker for the Pennsyl¬vania Department of Public Welfare. Her activism in Parkside began in 1977 when she laid down in front of a bulldozer to stop the city from paving over a playground near what is now the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to stopping the project, the protest led to the creation of the Parkside Association, which Hudson has led for 29 years. In addition to helping families with affordable housing, mortgage counseling and other programs, Hudson was instrumental in fostering the Parkwest Town Plaza development in 2006, and a decade-long partnership with Community Ventures that culminated in 2018 with a $22 million, 63-unit affordable housing development in West Parkside.

*June and the late Sam Pelzer, founders of Pelzer’s Stables. For many years, the stables gave Philadelphians the opportunity to ride horses, operate horse-drawn carriages and learn animal care while in an urban setting.

*Sharonel “Shay” Monroe, CEO and founder of Women’s Journey To Life and a longtime youth advocate. She started working with young people as a teaching assistant and aide for special needs children for the School District of Philadelphia before later working at a Christian school.

*Mister Mann Frisby, is an author, and youth advocate. In addition to his work as a novelist, motivational speaker, and filmmaker, and his work with artists like Jill Scott and Salt-N-Pepa, Frisby has raised more than $300,000 in scholarship funds and has coached national and state track champions. He has served as executive director of the Achievers Brunch Association, which supports Black male college students, since 2018 and launched a career as a commercial booking agent in 2024.

The Philadelphia Legacies awards will be held on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Restaurant School and Walnut Hill College, 42nd and Walnut Streets, in West Philadelphia. Tickets are $150. For more information on how to purchase tickets, please visit: https://philadelphialegacy.org/.