100 People of Color · Honoring since 1995
We honor the ones who showed up when no one was watching.
Every year we put the people who hold their communities together on a stage, in front of a room that stands up for them, and hand them their flowers while they can still smell them.
What this is
A night, a class, and a door left open.
Once a year, in each city, we fill a room and read one hundred names out loud. The people we call up are the ones who have been doing the work for years without a thank you. Teachers. Nurses. Coaches. Small-business owners. Mothers who kept everybody else going.
They come up with their families. They get a standing room. They become a class, and that class stays on this website for good.
Then the money goes back out. A portion of what each gala raises funds scholarships for young people heading to college, plus leadership and mentoring programs. That is the whole loop: honor someone, then open a door behind them.
One family.
Four honors.
Each honor gets its own night, its own class and its own cities. They share a stage, a standard and the Pathway.
100 Men of Color
Business, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, government and service. Honored since 2013.
New England · Richmond · Charlotte
100 Women of Color
The women who give first and get recognized last. Leaders, mothers, educators, nurses and community builders.
New England · Richmond · Charlotte
100 Young Men of Color
The GEM Conference. Middle schoolers honored in front of their parents and teachers, with workshops and mentoring built around the day.
New Haven, Connecticut
100 Young Women of Color
The Crowns & Roses Conference. Leadership, self love, sisterhood and opportunity, with Equity Enrichment Alliance and The Archer Foundation.
Yale University · March 2027
Moments
From the galas · Photography includes Merieta B
Who has been in the room
The stage carries weight.
Past guests and honorees have come from film, television, music and professional sport. They come because the people being honored have earned a room that size.
And many more across the years.
Anika Noni Rose
Actress
Dreamgirls · The Princess and the Frog · Power
Ray Allen
NBA champion
Hall of Famer
Michael Bivins
Artist and executive
New Edition · Bell Biv DeVoe
Eric Thomas
Speaker
Motivational speaker
Lauren Lake
Television
Host and judge
Derek Anderson
NBA champion
Professional basketball
Nykesha Sales
WNBA
Professional basketball player
Inky Johnson
Speaker
Motivational speaker
Desiree Ross
Actress
Greenleaf · Falling Skies
The Pathway · Six values, read in order
Step six hands off to somebody else's step one. That is the point of all of it.
Read the PathwayThe youth work
GEM Conference
Generationally Enhancing Males. A morning of workshops, mentoring and a formal awards ceremony for middle school boys, held at Southern Connecticut State University.
Figures from the 2025 GEM Conference report. It is the only conference in the country known to honor one hundred young men of color through an award ceremony of its own.
An invitation
Tonight we honor the ones who showed up when no one was watching. Thank you for letting us lift you.June Archer, Founder
