Carl Ray, Community Activist
from Bay Area Newswire

akland, California January 2001

City Flight Newsmagazine and Intel Corporation held its 2nd Annual, "10 Most Influential African Americans In The San Francisco Bay Area", awards at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Oakland, California. Carl Ray, Community Activist, was the recipient of the Community Service Award.

Ray, is a stand-up-comedian, motivational speaker and the performer of a one-man play "A Killing In Choctaw." As a stand-up-comedian, Ray has performed for several years on the comedy circuit. He is currently performing, "A Killing In Choctaw" (a story about his life growing up in Alabama before and during the Civil Rights Movement) throughout the United States.

For the past 13 years, Carl has sponsored tours to historically black colleges for Bay Area students. To date, more than 1200 students have participated in the tours. Seventy percent of the students that have enrolled in college as a result of the tours have enrolled in Black Colleges.

Ray started a Youth Opportunity Program in East Palo Alto in 1968, and began recruiting youth to attend historically black colleges in 1970. Ray sponsors a college preparation program for foster children in grades 10-12, in which he assists them in selecting high school courses required for college entrance, preparing for SAT exams in their junior years and completing financial aid forms.

Since 1988, Ray, together with his wife Brenda, operates Courtland Esteem School - a private school in San Jose, CA that educates African American youth in grades 1-6.

Born in Butler, Alabama, Carl Ray obtained his BS Degree in Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University, and is currently a resident of San Jose, California.

The other nominees for Community were, Mark Anthony Jones Sr., President of 100 Black Men of the Bay Area and President and CEO of Freedom Fund, and Ken Norton, Jr., of the San Francisco 49ers.