Karl B Rodney, Publisher, New York Carib News/Board of Directors Member United Way New York City (during the 9/11 Period)
Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, 2001, New York City experienced a tragedy almost beyond comprehension. The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center took thousands of lives, devastated families, destroyed an important part of Lower Manhattan and sent shock waves across the nation and the world. In a matter of hours, a city accustomed to functioning with extraordinary efficiency was thrown into shock, uncertainty and chaos.
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We rightly remember the firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel, construction workers and countless others who rushed toward danger when others were fleeing from it. Their courage remains an enduring part of the history of September 11. But as we commemorate the 25th anniversary of that terrible day, we should also remember another group of heroes,men and women whose contributions did not necessarily take place before television cameras or at Ground Zero, but whose leadership was essential to restoring the social and human infrastructure of New York.
Among those unsung heroes was Ralph Dickerson Jr.
At the time of the attack, Ralph Dickerson was President and chief professional officer of the United Way of New York City, one of the most important institutions supporting New York’s network of nonprofit and human-service organizations. He understood immediately that the catastrophe would produce needs far beyond the physical destruction at the World Trade Center. Families would require emergency assistance. Workers would lose their employment. People would need housing, counseling, health services and financial support. Community organizations would suddenly face demands far greater than their resources could sustain.
While much of the city was still struggling to comprehend what had happened, Dickerson was already asking another question: What must we do now?
On the afternoon of September 11, Dickerson met with Lorie Slutsky, President of The New York Community Trust. Together, their two institutions moved with extraordinary speed to establish The September 11th Fund, designed to meet both the immediate and longer-term needs of victims, families and communities affected by the attacks. The historical record shows that the partnership was conceived within hours of the collapse of the Twin Towers, demonstrating the kind of clear and decisive thinking that becomes indispensable in a crisis.
The private sector, foundations, corporations and ordinary citizens responded with extraordinary generosity. Ultimately, the September 11th Fund raised approximately $534 million from more than two million donors and distributed approximately $528 million through 559 grants. Those resources provided cash assistance, employment assistance, counseling, health care, legal and financial services, community rebuilding assistance, support for children and youth, and help for rescue and recovery organizations. More than 100,000 people were ultimately assisted through the Fund’s work.
Those numbers are impressive, but numbers alone do not tell the story.
I had the opportunity to see something of this effort firsthand. It was not simply a matter of raising money, writing checks and issuing press releases. Ralph Dickerson understood that organizations struggling in the aftermath of September 11 also needed to know that New York had not forgotten them. Board members were taken to agencies throughout the city to see conditions for themselves, to speak with those providing services and to understand what was needed. There was financial support, but there was also moral support, the reassurance that people were standing with organizations suddenly carrying enormous responsibilities.
That was leadership of a special kind.
In a catastrophe, government necessarily has responsibilities that no private organization can assume. But one of the lessons of September 11 was the importance of partnership among government, philanthropy, business, nonprofit organizations and community institutions. The private sector could sometimes move with a speed and flexibility particularly valuable during the earliest days of the emergency. The September 11th Fund became an extraordinary example of what could happen when institutions put aside ordinary procedures and concentrated instead on the urgent needs of people.
Within its first eight weeks, the Fund had already awarded 80 grants totaling approximately $47 million. Thousands of emergency checks were distributed, people received crisis counseling and mental-health services, displaced workers received employment assistance, children participated in bereavement counseling, and other urgent needs were addressed. Grants that under ordinary circumstances might have taken months to process were sometimes researched and approved within days.
That kind of response does not happen accidentally. It requires leadership, relationships, institutional knowledge and the ability to make decisions in circumstances where there is no established roadmap.
Ralph Dickerson brought those qualities to one of the darkest moments in New York City’s history.
There are many kinds of heroes in a disaster. There are those who rescue people from burning buildings. There are those who treat the injured. There are those who search through rubble. There are those who comfort families. And there are also those who make certain that the institutions serving ordinary people remain alive when the normal systems around them are collapsing.
Their work may not produce the dramatic photographs that become symbols of history, but without them recovery itself becomes impossible.
As New York and the nation commemorate the 25th anniversary of September 11, we should broaden our understanding of who helped save the city. The story belongs not only to the individuals whose names are already familiar, but also to a vast network of civic leaders, nonprofit workers, volunteers, donors, board members, community organizations, clergy, social workers and ordinary New Yorkers who stepped forward because their city needed them.
Among them stands Ralph Dickerson Jr., a giant of civic leadership who, at a moment of extraordinary uncertainty, helped transform compassion into organization, generosity into resources and resources into immediate human assistance.
He did not stand amid the cameras seeking recognition. He saw a need and responded.
Twenty-five years later, that service deserves to be remembered.
We salute Ralph Dickerson Jr. and all of the unsung heroes of September 11 whose courage, compassion and determination helped bring New York back from tragedy toward some measure of normalcy, and whose contributions must remain part of the history we pass on to future generations.
