A Historical Sketch of Our Mission

In 1962 Elder Charles Dudley was 35 years old when he was first elected to the presidency of the South Central Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He would remain president for 31 years. His tenure endured some of the most daunting years of American history. The conference territory included the 5 southern states of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and the northern panhandle of Florida just below the state of Alabama. The turbulent civil rights era had engulfed the South. Freedom riders, non-violent protests, and social dissent inflamed a backdrop of poverty and economic deprivation among African-American residents in the deep South.

In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Housing and Urban Development Act (HUD) of 1965. By 1970, Elder Charles Dudley seized the opportunity to take advantage of the provisions in the HUD law by partnering with the Federal Government to provide low-income housing for the poor and elderly. Seven properties were built and funded by the Federal Government.

After 47 years of changing social political trends, the Conference administration and housing board voted to sell the properties and used the proceeds to form The Charles & Etta Dudley Foundation.

The mission of the foundation is to carry on the vision and legacy of Charles and Etta Dudley by enhancing the educational development of minority and disadvantaged students at the elementary, secondary and college levels. The aim of the Foundation is to raise funds to build an endowment and provide resources for scholarships and capital improvements for education facilities in the South Central Conference (including the restoration of The Pagoda of Medicine* to house the Dudley Foundation Presidential Library) and beyond.

  The Charles and Etta Dudley Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All gifts are tax deductible.

*The Pagoda of Medicine, the future home of the Dudley Foundation's presidential library and archives, was designed by architect Benjamin McAdoo of Seattle, Washington for the late Dr. Carl Ashley Dent (medical missionary to the Nashville African American community for over 60 years), who bequeathed the building structure to the South Central Conference, who has now donated that building to The Charles & Etta Dudley Foundation.