African American Character Creed

1. African American Character Creed • I have the character of being dedicated and loyal. • I live by the creed that no one is more honorable or professional than I am. • I am a member of a time honored race, with time honored traditions which are the essence of my existence. • I am proud to be a member of this race and will at all times conduct myself so as to bring credit to my family, my race, its culture and my country regardless of the situation in which I find myself. • I will not use this pride and influence to attain personal pleasure, profit or safety.

2. Character Creed • Competence is my watchword. • The basic responsibilities I will always keep foremost in my mind are: • To Honor my God • To look after the welfare of my family • To pursue the edification of my race, its people • To accomplish of any task I undertake • I strive to remain effective, efficient, competent and where possible proficient in every undertaking.

3. Character Creed • I am fully aware of my role and my responsibilities. • I will fulfill the responsibilities inherent to that role. • All members of my race are entitled to outstanding leadership and demonstration of our potential in the world. • I know my people and will always place their needs above my own. • I will communicate consistently with my family and my people and never leave them uninformed. • I will be fair to all God's creation, and will be impartial when imparting justice, helping the needy or dispensing rewards and administering punishment.

4. Character Creed • Leaders within my race will have maximum time to accomplish their duties and responsibilities, they will not have to accomplish mine. • I will earn the respect and confidence of those with whom I have influence. • I will be loyal to those with whom I covenant myself regardless of their station in life. • I will capture the initiative to take appropriate action, consistent with divine guidance, in the absence of specific wisdom.

5. Character Creed • I will not compromise the integrity, moral courage, heritage, and honor of my race. • I will not, nor will I allow my fellow members, to forget that we are a proud race, talented, intelligent, rich with culture and history. • We are leaders! • I will maintain my bearing at all times and conduct myself as a professional and a gentleman. • I will face fearful situations with courage maintaining my calmness and firmness.

6. Character Creed • I will not to be overtaken and lose faith. • I will uphold what is right and divine regardless of the consequence. • I will always evaluate the facts, the possible solutions and make prompt decisions. • I will perform required tasks without mumbling. • I will put forth the highest effort in order to obtain the highest standard of performance. • I, like my ancestors, will exercise the mental and physical stamina to endure hardship, in order to merit the respect of my family and race.

7. Character Creed • I will remain optimistic and enthusiastic about our future. • I will take the initiative to secure that future with God's grace. • Being made a righteous man by grace, I may walk proudly with soundness of moral principle and integrity. • I will be truthful and honest with my members as though. their lives were placed in my hands with a sense of duty. • I will evaluate facts logically and weigh solutions in order to make sound judgments. • I will never act hastily and jump to conclusions.

8. Character Creed • Whenever possible I will anticipate situations and deal with them. • I will reward according to merit I will learn and keep learning. • I will keep current with the programs, policies and laws which affect my people. • I will deal with others with tact respect and courtesy, expecting the same treatment in return. • I seek only to know myself. Though I am the culmination of my ancestors and predecessors, always striving to improve for my successors.

9. Character Creed • In this respect I seek and take responsibility for my actions. • I will set the example of what it is to be "A Black, African-American". • I long to know my people and preserve their welfare, not to exploit them. • I will seek to develop the same sense of responsibility in them by ensuring the task(s) ahead are understood, facilitated and accomplished.

10. Character Creed • I dedicate myself to training us as a people, a team, a unit, a society and. a nation. • Once again. An African. American. citizen, inter-dependent, autonomous. culturally pluralistic, unique and proud of who we were, who we are now, from whence we came. • Wherever we go from here I vow to employ our strengths to divestiture of our past weaknesses and improve our future capabilities.

11. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE Always STRIVE to get on top in life, because it's the bottom that “feels” the power. If you're not on the way, you're in the way. Emerson said "Whatever a man’s mind can conceive and believe...he can achieve." It’s not going to be easy, but that's alright. An airplane can't fly without the resistance of air, You can't learn good horsemanship by riding a tame horse,

12. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE Your can t fix lemonade with just sugar alone, you've got to have some sour lemon, The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. Just keep on fighting! I urge you STRIVE to be a member of the top 5 percent. There are three kinds of people in life: Those that make things happen, Those that watch things happen, and Those that don't know what's going on.

13. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE When you look at some statistics, (and this is the richest country in the world) I think we should all pay attention very closely to this.... The current statistics indicate that young men and women, starting at age 25.. by the time they're 65 (in the richest country in the world) Many with college education... Many with military experience and vocational training... Many heads of families.

14. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE After receiving over 12 years of education.. How many do you think will be successful? Looking at young men and women. Full of vim, vigor and vitality. If you asked them "Are you going to be successful?" They'll say "Yes." But looking at the statistics of 100 young men and women.. age 25, by the time they're 65.

15. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE One will be rich, Four will be well to do, Five will still be working, Thirty-six will be dead, and Fifty-four will be dependent on welfare, family and friends to SURVIVE. In fact, 95 percent of them will not be worth $700. 95 percent will not be able to survive for 90 days without government assistance to provide for the bear necessities of life, in the richest country in the world!

16. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE That's why it's so important that you STRIVE to get on top. That's why we can be filled with enthusiasm. We can laugh, celebrate and feel good.. that you have only just begun! The challenges that you must face are awesome, but you can handle it! Choose to be uncommon! Someone said" I choose not to be a common man.

17. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE It is my right to be uncommon, if I can. I seek after truth, and not security. I don't want to be humbled, kept and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk, To dream and to build, To fail and to succeed, I refuse to live from hand to mouth. I prefer the challenges of life, to the guaranteed existence.

18. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE The thrill of fulfillment to the stale, calm of Utopia. I will never cower before any master, nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid. To face the world boldly and say... "This I have done. That's what it means to believe in yourself! So finally, let me say.. that if you apply everything that your family has been trying to teach you,

19. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE That your teachers in school and administrators have been :trying to share with you. That some young man or woman "listening" perhaps has a cure for cancer. The same blood flows through your veins, as flowed through the veins of Benjamin Banneker, who gave this world the first almanac, who because of his photographic memory the White House is standing where it is today.

20. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE The same blood flows through your veins, as flowed thru the veins of Charles Drew, who gave us the method of blood transfusion, yet who bled to death on the steps of a hospital, because they didn’t accept Blacks. The same blood flows through your veins, that flowed through the veins of Harriet Tubman, of Fredrick Douglass, of Martin Luther King, of Malcolm X,

21. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE of all the other Great Leaders before you. That same blood flows through your veins. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. Let me leave these words with you! A man named Henry said "whatever your goals and aspirations in life,

22. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give up your time, peace and sleep for it, if all your dreams and schemes are about it, and life seems useless and worthless without it, And if you'd gladly sweat for it, threat for it, and plan for it,

23. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE Lose all your terror of opposition for it. And, if you simply go after that thing that you want With all your capacity, strength and tenacity; Faith, hope and confidence: Filled with voracity. If neither false promises, famish and fault; Sickness and pain in body and brain can keep you away from the thing you want. If God in grandeur will grant you for "seizure” with the help of God you1ll get it.

24. AFRO-AMERICAN (BLACK) HERITAGE GO FOR IT!