Why the name Founder's Delegation?

The Founder's Delegation Local No. 5

is named to honor the works and persons that made up a delegation of Afro-Americans that traveled to England to meet with Emperor Haile Selassie I.  The members of this founding delegation belonged to a grassroots organization.

Many organizations sprung up in Harlem the main area where efforts were concentrated; one example being the Menilek Club formed by public-spirited black citizens in 1936. This very small but spirited group desired to integrate all of the existing Ethiopian Aid societies into one organization officially recognized by the Ethiopian Authorities. The efforts of the group culminated with a delegation being sent to England in the summer of 1936 to confer directly with Haile Selassie I, who received them at his residence Fairfield House in Bath. The mission consisted of three prominent Harlem figures, all leaders of the black organization known as the United Aid for Ethiopia: Reverend William Lloyd Imes, pastor of the prestigious St. James Presbyterian, Philip M. Savoy, chairman of the Victory Insurance Company and co-owner of the New York Amsterdam News, and Mr Cyril M Philp, secretary of the United Aid. The delegation stressed to the monarch the necessity of sending a special emissary to America to direct the collection of all contributions and to help awaken flagging Afro-American support for the Ethiopian cause. Impressed Haile Selassie decided to dispatch an envoy to the United States.

He selected his personal physician, Dr. Malaku Emanuel Bayen, for the new position. Later events were to prove that the emperor could not have made a better choice. Melaku Beyan was a young, charismatic speaker. Beyan had married an African American activist, Dorothy Hadley, and together they created a newspaper called Voice of Ethiopia to simultaneously denounce Jim Crow in America and fascist invasion in Ethiopia. (READ FULL STORY HERE )