One of the advantages of becoming an elder and having lived a lifetime of social activism is you get to see your community evolve. Yes, you get your aches and pains and lose so many people you have cherished over the years. But you also get to see children literally grow up to become community leaders.

The groundbreaking for the Center for Black Excellence and Culture on Juneteenth was a perfect time to take it all in as the start of construction began with a host of public and private representatives — as well as a fair representation of the Black community — in attendance.

As I look at the photos of the gathering, it is truly impressive how many people of color are now leading important Madison institutions. Back in the day even 20 years ago, there may have been a Madison alder of color and a county board supervisor of color and “the one” Madison school board member of color. All of the private organizations — perhaps with the exception of an Erroll Davis who was a pioneering CEO at Alliant Energy — were led by Euro-Americans.