T. Willard Fair, CEO of the Urban League of Greater Miami was recently recognized by the Black Alliance for Educational Options as part of the organization’s Black History Month “CelebratingHistory efforts. Mr. Fair was honored for being the co-founder of Florida’s first charter school. Read the article below.
Honoring the Co-Founder of Florida’s First
Charter School, Talmadge Willard Fair
Today we honor T. Willard Fair. Born in 1939 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Fair was the last of eight children born to John Fair and Mary Lou Fair.
Fair received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude, from Johnson C. Smith University in 1961. He received a M.S.W. degree from Atlanta School of Social Work in 1963. Fair has served as an adjunct professor at the Atlanta University School of Social Work, Bethune-Cookman College, Florida International University, and the National Urban League’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. Center for Urban Leadership.
Fair became the youngest president and CEO in the history of the Urban League movement at age 24. In 1963, he had three person staff. In less than a decade, he grew the largest Urban League affiliate in the history of the organization to that point, employing 476 full-time employees, 25 part-timers and four consultants.
Fair remembers the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. formula for success when looking to engage a new city in the civil rights movement. “In whatever city he’d visit, he’d identify the top black lawyer, the top black preacher and the top black activist in that city,” said Fair. “When he came to have his first meeting in Miami at Mount Sinai Baptist Church, I was chosen as the activist. I got a chance to meet Martin and I’ll never forget it.”
In 2010, he was appointed by President Barak Obama to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships-Miami Regional Selection Panel, reappointed in 2011. Fair has met with four different Presidents of the United States about issues concerning Black Americans.
Fair is co-founder with former Florida State Governor Jeb Bush, of the Liberty City Charter School; the first charter school organized in the State of Florida. In 2013, BAEO honored Fair for his work addressing the educational needs of Black children. Fair is a lifetime member and a former board member of BAEO.
We thank Fair for being a trailblazer in education in Florida and our country.
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