BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Mayor’s Magic City Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, January 16, at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The first honoree for this distinguished award is businessperson, philanthropist and civil rights leader Leola Early Boswell. Mayor William Bell presents the award to Ms. Early – as she is known in the community – along with two other former mayors who will participate in the roast. Dr. Richard Arrington Jr. and Dr. Bernard Kincaid are on the program to pay tribute to her lifetime of service.
A product of the public schools of Selma, Alabama (Knox Academy High School), Mrs. Early furthered her education at Booker Washington Business College, and Howard University, Washington, D.C. In the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Mrs. Early served as a working member of the Alabama Christian Movement For Human Rights during the presidency of Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, and SCLC under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Additionally, she served as secretary of Coalition of Alabama Political Organization (COAPO), a vehicle head by Dr. Martin Luther King for endorsing and electing Blacks to public office. She traveled with Rev. Edward Gardner, the late Rev. S.M. Davis and other COAPO members, first to Tuskegee where Lucius Amerson was elected the first Black sheriff of Macon County, and then to Greene County, where several Blacks were elected, including Rev. Thomas E. Gilmore, first Black sheriff of Greene County. She has served on a number of boards and committees, including Minority Business Enterprise and Community Affairs Committee and National Business League. She also became NBL’s first woman senior vice-president. She has served as a secretary in the Pentagon Building and as a claims examiner at U. S. Marines Headquarters, Arlington Va.
Following the death of her husband, Hugh Jennings Early, she returned to Birmingham and served as secretary to Dr. A.G. Gaston in the A.M.E. Church Extension Department and secretary to A.M.E. Bishop Carey A. Gibbs, concurrently.
Ms. Early worked more than 29 years for the Birmingham Housing Authority, and served 10 years on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA). As an entrepreneur, she founded Madame Early Hair Care Products, which she manufactures locally.
The Mayor’s Magic City Lifetime Achievement Award is the brainchild of civic leader and educator, Deborah Clark with the full support of Mayor Bell. The planning committee includes Paulette Roby and Sadie Swyne. Former BJCTA Marketing Director Barbara Murdock is the Mistress of Ceremony.
“This event gives us the opportunity to spotlight altruistic individuals who unquestionably have made the world a better place,” said Ms. Clark.
