Harold Mezile

You must be determined not only to graduate from high school, but you must be determined also to go on to college or technical school. Education is very important. The most important factor in education is dedication and hard work. If you believe in yourself and if you are willing to work hard, you will be successful.

Harold Mezile

My name is Harold Mezile. I was born in 1945 and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. I am married to my high school sweetheart. My wife’s name is Peggy. She is a very attractive, classy girl. We have two daughters. One daughter lives in Baltimore, Maryland and the other daughter lives in Atlanta, Georgia. So that gives us an opportunity to travel to different places to see them.

My mother’s large family originally hails from South Carolina that moved to live in Oklahoma on a farm. Her father died early and her mother could not keep up the farm and manage the boys, so they eventually moved to Kansas City. My father’s family hailed from New York. He grew up in an orphanage. My grandmother was part of a family that came from Louisiana. They migrated from Louisiana to Kansas City in the 1920s.

When I was young there was segregation. The Supreme Court eventually struck down that law in the early 50’s. This allowed my family to move into any neighborhood they wanted to. We were the third black family move into an all white neighborhood.

My neighborhood became the seat of the Civil Rights Movement in the area. At that time the schools were still segregated. There was a school that was two blocks from our house. I could not attend that school because it was for the white students in that neighborhood and not for the black students.
I had to walk about 15 blocks away from my home to go to a school that was for, quote, Negro children. That school was so overcrowded that we had to go to school for only a half a day. Our parents went down to the school board and demanded that we get the right to go to that school. The same school that both Ginger Rogers and Walt Disney once attended. The school board capitulated, but my parents were successful in opening it up for black children.

After High School I went to the University of Missouri, where I got both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Work. I became involved in the Congress of Racial Equality, which is called CORE. I went to Selma, Alabama and was a part of the voter registration drive. It was a life-changing event for me. What impacted me more than anything else, was the very patronizing way in which some looked at the Blacks. Real empowerment for youth and all of us comes from doing with, and not for.

Not long after I graduated I got a job with the YMCA. I’ve been with them ever since. I started working for the YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri, then went to work with them in Atlanta, Georgia, then to Baltimore, Maryland, before coming to Minneapolis, Minnesota 15 years ago.

I’m now the President/CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis. My job is to empower youth by providing young people with a lot of fun and educational opportunities.