Celebration of my “Life Well Lived”!

While NBC Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist may not cover the story, on this Thanksgiving Day 2020, I celebrate my “Life Well Lived”. 

Since Thanksgiving Day 2018, I realized that “LinkedIn Premium” was a means to target many of you with the things left from my life that a few of you might choose to make better.  

So as Premium ends for me on November 30, 2020, my parting message to LinkedIn is, “It has served my purpose”. And I share with you my talking points from my presentation on April 23, 2014. NOTE: For attachments, See Experience, April 1964 to Present

Morris Fountain, Honorary Speaker at Gulf Coast Community Service Association

-      experiences regarding Civil Rights / the Movement / the March, the correlation of my

-      experiences relating to Fair Housing; if any

1.   Opening

1.1. Thank you for this opportunity to the HUD FHEO Houston Office, both to Director Christina Lewis and to Gwen Carper.

1.2. And thank you to the Gulf Coast Community Service Association led by Dr. Jonita Wallace Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer

2.   Experiences regarding Civil Rights / the Movement / the March

2.1. I was born in 1942 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Our public schools were integrated, our community was almost all Black. Life was contained within community. We had no access to “public places” including all of Downtown, department stores, restaurants, hotels, theaters, swimming pools, etc. Family over night travel involved finding the Black community, then finding a public place like the YMCA in the Black community where we were put in contact with residents who had a spare room to rent for the night including breakfast.

2.2. So, I lived during the time of civil rights demonstrations, boycotts, legal battles

2.3. And yes, I attended the 1963 March on Washington. As a point of respect, we acknowledge 1963 as the year of the assassinations of Medgar Evers and President Jack Kennedy

3.   My journey with Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

3.1. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

3.1.1.   I graduated the University of Pittsburgh with my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering April 15, 1964. I married my wife of 50 years on April 25, 1964

3.1.2.   May 1, 1964, I became the first Africa American Bell of Pennsylvania Management Trainee (Peers and Bosses all White)

3.1.3.   Examples

3.2. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)

3.2.1.   1970 Two years after our first home purchase in 1968 (Fair Housing), real estate agents were using "block busting" to scare Whites to sell and move (where the surprise was that their new neighbors were African American too).

3.2.2.   Our first home purchase in 1968 was full of challenges. Examples.

3.2.3.   In fact, our experience with apartment rental in 1964 had to overcome challenges.

4.   The 1990’s were a time as successful entrepreneur deeply involved in facilitating Minority Business Contracting – Diversity, Inclusion and COMPLIANCE. See the Article, “Morris Fountain Story: Good Trouble” (experiences from 1995).

5.   Since 2001, this Life Chapter began with Social Justice and Human Service which has brought me back to Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

5.1. AmeriCorps VISTA and Community Builder

5.2. Two new mentors with a legacy from the 1960’s, one being Rev. Dr. Virgil Wood

5.3. Dr. Edgar Cahn was hired into the US Justice Department in 1963 as Bobby Kennedy's Speechwriter and Special Counsel. Edgar and his wife authored a paper, The War on Poverty, and he drafted the Legislation for President Johnson's War on Poverty.

5.4. Case Manager for Hurricanes Katrina and Ike, for the Homeless, and for Ex-Offenders

6.   The “Caring for Offender Families Pilot” project was proposed in 2011, demonstrated in 2012, and funded with a Private Foundation Planning Grant in 2014.

7.   I THANK YOU for this time both to REFLECT but also to CHALLENGE us to become the CARING COMMUNITY.

NOTE: For attachments, See Experience, April 1964 to Present, "A Life Well Lived"