Our History
In Memoriam: Nola Bright
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT, WESTSIDE BRANCH NAACP
Bright Leadership Institute was founded by Vera Davis in 2008 in memory of Nola Bright. Nola Bright was a School and community activists who dedicated her career and life to the service of others. She spent the major portion of her life living in, defending, and working to improve what is commonly and affectionately known as the West Side of Chicago. Role model, mother-figure, and mentor to many, she started to work with the Chicago Youth Centers as a way of making sure that children had after-school recreation and leisure-time activities.
Nola Bright was a champion of the underdog and spent much of her life working with and on behalf of individuals and causes often considered to be the least popular. During the mid-1960s, a period of great civil unrest, social change and the establishment of new structures, she held a leadership position with many organizations she worked and volunteered for including Chicago Youth Centers, Martin Luther King Neighborhood Health Center, Westside Association for Community Action’s Sickle Cell Project, Better Boys Foundation, District 8 Education Council ,Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission, Sears YMCA, Habilitative Systems Social Service Agency and many more.
For 20 years or more of her life, Nola Bright was totally committed to keeping the Westside Branch of the NAACP alive and functioning. She served as president, secretary, treasurer, membership chairman and held every other office.
Nola Bright is an inspiration and model, and we at Bright Leadership feel a great privilege to be named in honor of her. Her vision was leadership development, community programs, youth development and her life and work is a blueprint and example of how mentorship, collaboration, youth engagement, can bring positive changes to underserved communities. Nola Bright and our organization's name serves as a reminder to us all that a life in service to others, is a life worth remembering.