History & Impact of PACT
San Francisco, 1963. It was the time of civil rights unrest and Langston Hughes’ Dream Deferred poems. It was also the year PACT, Inc. was founded by Everett Brandon, J.D., and Dr. Henry Lucas.
Brandon, the first Black stockbroker in San Francisco, and Lucas, a prominent dentist who was also a small investor, would regularly lunch on Wednesdays in the Financial District, brought together by common interests: the civil rights movement and the stock market. Lucas, originally from Newark, NJ, could not get over the absence of Black employment in downtown San Francisco, the center of those days’ economy.
Together, they took to heart a desire to change that and devised a “plan of action for challenging times“ (e.g., PACT, in short). Armed with a doctor’s business card and a great deal of persuasion, the co-founders literally and figuratively opened the doors of downtown employment to their community. Pacing Montgomery Street and the Financial District, they entered buildings, walked their way up to the executive suites, and passed all the gatekeepers. They spoke to the top executives at banks, insurance companies, and department stores, persuading them to bring Black candidates to apply for their opening positions. Soon enough, they matched job openings to folks in their community, essentially becoming a free placement employment office for Black people.
Amid the Civil Rights Movement, PACT was born out of the co-founders’ desire to break down barriers, passion to contribute to the cause, and talent to do everything they could, or else nothing would happen. Incorporated in January 1964 as a nonprofit California Corporation, PACT’s first office was a room in a building located at 2nd and Market, with a $150 per month rent, boasting Lucas’ card table and folding chairs and a “no down payment phone” donated by an executive at Pacific Bell, two blocks away. The need for funding and expansion quickly became clear.
1965 marks an important year in PACT’s life. Introduced to the workings of Washington by Congressman Phillip Burton, whom Brandon had met while working earlier at the NAACP headquarters in Sacramento, PACT was able to secure Federal funding from the Health Education and Welfare Department, pioneering one of the first TRiO Educational Talent Search programs on the West Coast. This funding has consistently supported PACT from 1965 until today. Recognizing early on that survival in the job market would soon demand a college degree; PACT started helping young adults and high school students to get into college and receive financial aid.
By 1968, PACT was a $500K organization in a downtown office with a staff of 20 and a three-pronged approach to advance economic and educational opportunities for Black people: job placement and workforce development, education, and business promotion. Thanks to Louis Barnett, PACT’s Director of Minority Business Development in the late 60s, assisting Black businesses to identify areas of opportunities, secure loans, and develop a thriving business became integral parts of the business program at PACT.
With Dr. Daniel Collins as the first Board Chair and Lucas and Brandon as President and Executive Vice-President (CEO), respectively, the 70s marked a time of steady expansion. Collins, a UCSF professor, was a senior partner with Lucas in the dental office near Fillmore St; a man of high esteem and multiple talents, he was also a prominent leader of the time, engaged in the civil rights movement and politics, as well as in business.
Ms. Elizabeth Heller, a PACT supporter, eventually bequeathed a house on Webster St., which PACT used to obtain the three-story house on Divisadero, which became in 1970 PACT’s official headquarters and Educational Opportunity Center. The Department of Commerce Secretary, Maurice Stans attended the cutting ribbon ceremony. With the fall of the Nixon Administration, however, PACT’s economic development arm swiftly dried up, shifting PACT’s focus entirely to education.
By the end of the ’90s, PACT’s presence eventually expanded to 2,500 students annually, covering 14 high schools and two middle schools in San Francisco with educational advisors deployed at Mission, Philip Burton, Lincoln, Thurgood Marshall, Wallenberg, George Washington, Balboa, Lowell, Downtown, Independence, International Studies Academy, Gateway, Leadership, and Ida B. Wells, Willie Brown, and James Lick. PACT provided college advising, mentoring, enrichment exposure activities, scholarships, college and financial aid counseling, and tutoring to low-income students and students of color.
Entering the new millennium and under the impulse of Executive Director Charlene Folsom, PACT expanded into the East Bay, serving 600 students annually in Richmond and Vallejo, supported by the TRiO Talent Search Program. PACT was able to maintain its San Francisco activities until 2016, when significant shifts in Bay Area demographics made it increasingly difficult for the city’s low-income students to meet the eligibility criteria for Federal funding. PACT remains committed to reconnecting with the San Francisco Public School District as it launches its new three-year strategic planning marked by this 60th Anniversary celebration.
To measure PACT’s impact, suffice it to say that over the past 60 years, PACT has served 60,000 young people, placing approximately 36,000 students in colleges and other post-secondary institutions, most with financial assistance. Beyond its direct impact, e.g., the Alumni cohort, PACT has nurtured an incredible set of dedicated staff and volunteers over its lifetime, many of whom stayed 20+ years and counting. Some of the long-timers have retired, like David Cook, after 27 years of service, Sharlene Chinn after 25, and Charlene Folsom after 41. Some of the long-timers are still blessing PACT with their presence, like Cassandra Anderson, who has been serving the organization for 20 years; Sharon Arvi, whose career spans 33 years of student advising; and Annette Dennett, who joined PACT 16 years ago as educational advisor, at the Phil Burton school site. Annette quickly moved to Program Manager to lead the PACT Federal funding effort, and her leadership will now carry PACT forward.
Brandon acknowledges that one of the most satisfying outcomes of leading PACT for so many years has been to realize how PACT positively impacted its staff: PACT supported their living and professional development, all the while allowing them to “flourish” at the personal level, “nourished” by a tight-knit work environment that kept the vision and mission of the founders alive. Brandon uses those terms to describe the nurturing relationship between PACT and its staff. Linda and Martin White’s story further exemplify this fact as they joined PACT as administrative manager and Director of the Employment Program, left PACT to further develop their careers, and returned to PACT as Board members.
PACT at 60: an inspiring lesson in civic engagement in the fight for social and racial justice, the legacy of a long-term commitment, and an incredible example of vision and insight from the founders who led their community, the organization, and the individuals within, in making a plan of action for challenging times.
1963 was the year of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and “I Have a Dream, “the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that took the lives of four Black schoolgirls, and the assassination of Medgar Evers and President Kennedy. Dr. King said: “1963 is not an end, but a beginning“. Today, in the post-George Floyd era, we celebrate PACT’s new beginnings and are excited to look forward to the next 60 years of growth!
Thank you, Mr. Brandon. Thank you, PACT!