Joe Beasley, a human rights and civil rights activist, is celebrated throughout North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean for his extraordinary service to underdeveloped communities and underserved African-descendant populations. In 2014, the US Library of Congress recognized Beasley’s tireless contributions to the betterment of underserved communities when it inducted his oral interview as one of a select number of black Americans who define the black experience in America into its historical archives. (See the permanent repository of The HistoryMakers Collection http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/joseph-henry-beasley-41).

Joe Beasley was born to Rozie and Alice Beasley, sharecroppers on a rural plantation in Inman, Georgia, on December 27, 1936. Beasley received his primary education in a segregated one-room schoolhouse before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1952, where he excelled in the local public schools. It was during this phase of his life that Beasley began to set high expectations and committed himself to a life of service. He ultimately received his B.S. degree in criminal justice from Park College in Kansas City, Kansas, and attended graduate school at Clark Atlanta University.

Beasley’s career began in the U.S. Air Force, from which he retired as a police superintendent after twenty-one years of service. Beasley joined Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in 1976 as a member of the Board of Directors of its Kansas City affiliate and assumed the position of Executive Director of that chapter in 1978. Three years later, Beasley moved to Atlanta, where he was named Chapter Coordinator and in 1995, was named Southern Regional Director.

Under the leadership of the Reverend Cameron M. Alexander, Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church North, Beasley successfully tackled issues related to racial injustice, the eradication of poverty, and economic development in underdeveloped and underserved communities around the globe. During the 1994 election that swept Nelson Mandela into power, Beasley worked with the African National Congress to register voters. Likewise, during Haiti’s second democratically held election in 1995, he served as an election monitor. Beasley is also credited with making a high-impact visit to Zambia in 2002 after its contested presidential election. Closer to home, Beasley served as the Georgia Deputy Director for Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, and also became engaged in the challenge of redistricting Georgia’s congressional boundaries to increase African American representation in the United States Congress.

Although focused on the plight of African descendants, Beasley also demonstrated concern for injustice everywhere in the world. He has met with a key representative of his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, and visited a refugee camp in Amman, Jordan, and consulted with the Israeli government on ways to advance the course of peace in the Middle East. He was elected as the first African American president of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta (1991-93), served as a member of the Peace Makers Tour, traveling to the Middle East and South Korea (1993-95), and helped found the Atlanta Friendship Council in 1998 to foster understanding between Koreans and African-Americans. Further, Beasley served as the President of African Ascension, an organization he formed to develop economic and political ties throughout Africa and the African Diaspora.

Accordingly, the bulk of Beasley’s later work has focused on the unification of African descendants for economic, political, social, and cultural empowerment. In keeping with that commitment, President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia requested that Beasley serve on a commission to conduct a comprehensive review of Colombia’s institutions, policies, and programs in an effort to devise new strategies to bring African-Colombians into the social, political, and economic mainstream. Beasley has also been eminently involved in monitoring activities under provisions of the U.S.-Colombia Action Plan on Racial and Ethnic Equality, which recognizes ethnic and racial diversity as a crucial element in the development of democratic and multicultural societies. Another key issue for Beasley in Colombia is the right of Black Colombians to collectively own their ancestral lands. With the discovery of oil and other valuable minerals, those lands have become increasingly valuable assets, and powerful forces have resorted to all manner of force and foul play to gain control over them. Under provisions of the Plan, the government of Colombia has undertaken an initiative to provide protection for Black Colombian leaders who have been attacked and murdered while pursuing land rights and civil rights for affected Black Colombians.

Beasley has received dozens of awards and honors for his good works at home and abroad. His tireless work has resulted in the procurement and distribution of millions of dollars of medical supplies and equipment to underserved communities all over the world, St. Andreas Islands, Zambia, Liberia, Haiti, and Ghana) and has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and numerous other newspapers, periodicals, and magazines, as well as on CNN and other major American television networks.

Beasley has served as a board member and catalyst for change on numerous other forward-looking organizations that have impacted the welfare of ordinary citizens in the United States, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and South America. Some of his responsibilities include serving as a member of the board of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City; a board member of Afronet in Lusaka, Zambia; a board member of Afrobras in Sao Paulo, Brazil; a board member of Christ Institute in Atlanta; and as Chairman of both the Benedita de Silva International Foundation and the Asian American Center, each located in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Beasley was also a founder of Zumbi dos Palmares College in São Paulo, the first Afro-Brazilian-controlled institution of higher learning in Brazil. He has been appointed as a member of its Board of Trustees and has the distinction of having the college’s library dedicated in his honor.

In addition to his many other blessings, Beasley married the late Sandra Jarrett Beasley of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The couple had three children, seventeen (17) grandchildren, and thirteen (13) great-grandchildren. Beasley views his life, his family, his many friends and associates, and his numerous accomplishments as a testament to the fruits of spiritual growth, vision, and commitment.

One of the many honors bestowed upon Joe Beasley during his lifetime is the title of Ghanaian Chief, Malgu Na (which means the Peace Maker). The institution of chieftaincy is significant in Ghana and is guaranteed by the country’s constitution. Although chiefs are not permitted to participate in politics, they play an important role in Ghanaian society. The National House of Chiefs has authority over traditional laws and customs, and chiefs have a great deal of influence in the community and government.

Other honors include:

• Being named one of Georgia’s 50 Most Influential Men of 2014

• Receiving the Steve Biko Institute Award 2014 for his successful efforts to have Coca-Cola provide the organization $500,000 for cultural programs.

• Having his oral interview inducted into Black History Makers archives of the United States Library of Congress

• Receiving the Coca-Cola Enterprises Award for the formulation of a strategy through which Coca-Cola Enterprises borrowed $26 million from Citizens Trust Bank of Atlanta to help grow and stabilize that community-oriented bank: COCA-COLA AWARDS $2.1 MILLION TO BRAZIL ORGANIZATIONS COCA COLA COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD COKE BRAZIL PRESIDENT

• Receiving the Caring Citizens of the World Award presented by the United Nations, and he was an influential and inspiring leader, whether at home or abroad

AT AMERICAN EMBASSY IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA; AT CITY COUNCIL IN SALVADOR, BRAZIL, ENTERTAINS INT’L LEADERS AT HIS HOME PAYING HOMAGE TO THE FOUR LITTLE GIRLS KILLED IN BIRMINGHAM BOMBING

• Having the Joe Beasley Learning Center Literacy named in his honor in Watamu, Kenya THE JOE BEASLEY LEARNING CENTER IN WATAMU, KENYA

• Having the “No Ordinary Joe” Coffee Blend named in his honor