The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and the Urban League Guild will present the 11th Annual Salute to Women in Leadership Gala Friday, June 20 at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel.
The Urban League will honor distinguished women in leadership, at both local and national levels. Actress Anna Maria Horsford – best known for her roles in the films “Friday” and “Friday after Next” and the ‘80s sitcom “Amen” – will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I could turn on the TV and look at myself in three different projects and see my bust size go from up to down,” Horsford joked of her long-running career. “That’s a blessing that my footprint has been that deep on this planet.”
Horsford spoke with The American by phone recently after a day of filming for the sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” The actress, who is well-connected to St. Louis, had high praises for the still relatively new regional Urban League President and CEO Michael P. McMillan.
“I didn’t know people like that still existed,” Horsford said of McMillan.
McMillan created the Salute to Women in Leadership Gala when he served as board chairman of the St. Louis Community Empowerment Foundation. To date, nearly 100 women across various professions “who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to serve their communities” have received the honor. Last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to musical icon Chaka Khan.
“The Urban League is proud to give recognition to outstanding women who embody the mission of our organization to help create opportunities for disadvantaged and overlooked individuals and communities,” McMillan said.
Horsford supports McMillan in his vision, and said she is looking forward to the direction he will take the organization. At last year’s Whitney M. Young Society event launch, Horsford told attendees that the Urban League is needed now more than ever. People still need organizations to protect them and their rights and organizations like the Urban League “have our back,” she said.
St. Louis has become “a home away from home” for her, she said. Many of Horsford’s trips to the Gateway City have been at the bequest of fellow Salute to Women honoree Barbara Washington. In her long tenure at Mathews-Dickey Boys’ and Girls’ Club, Washington established prominent community-wide fundraisers, including Clifton Davis’ “Say Amen” Literacy Gala.
Several years ago, Horsford and four of her “Amen” cast members were honored guests at the club’s 20th Annual “Say Amen” Literacy Gala. It was the first time the cast had been together since the show ended in 1991, Horsford recalled. The gala was renamed after Clifton Davis, who played the Rev. Reuben Gregory on the sitcom, the following year.
Since then, Horsford has maintained an ongoing relationship with the club as a mentor to young women involved in its other fundraising events: Sheer Elegance Fashion Show and The Sky is the Limit Luncheon. Last month, Horsford gave out $1,000 college scholarships to 20 deserving students at the club’s 20th Annual “The Sky is the Limit” Luncheon.
“A lot of my friends in L.A. are from St. Louis,” she said. “There must be something in the water that makes me like all these people from St. Louis.”
Other women to be honored at this year’s gala include: Judge Glenda A. Hatchett, from the two-time Emmy nominated syndicated show “Judge Hatchett”; Esther Haywood, president of the St. Louis County NAACP; St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones; Darlene Davis, principal, Davis and Associates;andMelanie Chambers, senior human resources director for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Everybody should do something to uplift their community, regardless of a person’s stature in life, Horsford said. And she said it is better to be honored for the work one does out of the limelight.
“To be humble, you have to understand that things happen for reasons,” Horsford said, “not just because the ego needs touching.”
The gala will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a black-tie reception. To purchase tickets or ads, please call 314-615-3668.
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil.
