Jerome Whyatt “Jerry” Mondesire October 10, 1949 – October 4, 2015 by B. Akiba Collin Staff Reporter brendaakivacollins@netzero.net
Jerome Whyatt “Jerry” Mondesire October 10, 1949 - October 4, 2015
Jerome Whyatt “Jerry” Mondesire October 10, 1949 - October 4, 2015
Jerome Whyatt Mondesire,
“the champion for the underdog”, died on October 4, 2015. When he
died, a powerful voice for social, economic and racial justice fell
silent. He was undergoing dialysis treatment at Chestnut Hill
Hospital Friday, October 2, when he suffered a brain aneurysm. He was
transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, placed on a ventilator,
but died later that following Sunday.
Jerome Whyatt “Jerry”
Mondesire was born in 1949 in Harlem, New York. His Dominican
father, Jerome Alexis Mondesire, was a follower of the political philosophy of Marcus
Garvey. His mother, Winnifred Taylor Mondesire, was from South
Carolina and strongly stressed the importance of education to her family. It is
possible that these two strong influences of his earlier life is helped to mold
his political views in his later years.
A hint of his impatience
and underlying anger in the way civil-rights activism was being carried out
could be seen in Mondesire’s thoughts as a teenager in high school. A
member of the high school’s NAACP High School Youth Council, he said that “the
national NAACP board was made up of a bunch of folks who just weren't angry
enough”.
Mondesire’s father
wanted him to study law, but instead he enrolled in the City College of New York as journalism major. After college he was employed as a reporter
for the Baltimore Sun, and later in 1974 he came to The Philadelphia Inquirer
as a reporter. During his 6 year tenure at the Inquirer he
was appointed City Desk Editor and later was the Inquirer’s New Jersey Editor,
until he resigned to become Chief of Staff for State Representative
William Gray in 1980.
Mondesire worked for the
Representative until Gray unexpectedly resigned in 1991. Following this, he
founded the Philadelphia Sunday Sun newspaper, and became heavily involved
with various political issues and organizations affecting African Americans, in
particular, and the city’s larger community, in general. It is
during this time that the moniker, “the champion for the underdog” took hold. State
Representative Robert Brady spoke of his friend for over 30 years, as
“a fighter for people who couldn’t fight for themselves.”
In 1996 Mondesire was
elected head of the NAACP's Philadelphia branch, the nation's oldest civil
rights organization. He won by a ratio of nearly 2-1 in a three-way
race. Under his charismatic and innovative leadership
he helped to end the organization’s dwindling following and to increase its
membership substantially during his leadership.
But after leading the
organization for 17 years of phenomenal growth and accomplishments in April
2014, Mondesire and 3 board members were suspended by the national NAACP over
questions about the use of chapter funds. It was alleged that he misdirected
about ten thousand dollars to his nonprofit organization, Next Generation CDC;
and later in December an election for new officers was held. Rodney
Muhammad, a minister of the Nation of Islam, was
elected as the new president of the Philadelphia NAACP.
After learning of
Mondesire’s death, Minister Muhammad said, “We will always remember the
sterling leadership of J. Whyatt Mondesire. He led us in the city,
the state and as a member of the NAACP national board, and we want to do
everything we can to build on the good that Jerry Mondesire has done."
Mondesire had become
engaged to Catherine Hicks, the public relations and event coordinator for his Philadelphia
Sun newspaper in July of this year when she threw a surprise party for him
when the NAACP annual conference was held here. It is said that sometime during
the festivities that Mondesire dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him.
Her email invitation
included the statement that “…his commitment to justice and equality for all
people, not just people of color, was unmatched. Although he is no
longer serving as president of the PA State Conference and the Philadelphia
chapter, we are celebrating him and all that he has done over the last 17
years."
In addition to his
recent engagement to Catherine Hicks, Mondesire had two previous marriages and
three children from those unions.
