Rev. Mac Legerton

Rev. Mac Legerton is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Community Action (CCA), a multicultural, community-based, nonprofit organization in Lumberton, N.C that specializes in grassroots empowerment and multi-sector collaboration as the foundations of social change. Throughout its 23 year history, CCA has been a leader in the areas of community development, grassroots leadership development, systems change, policy advocacy, family support and literacy, education improvement and reform, youth leadership development, environmental justice, cultural education, legal reform, responsible and equitable governance, and multi-sector collaboration. Mac directs seven CCA projects that provide diverse approaches to youth, family, community, and leadership development and systems reform. A graduate of St. Andrews College in Laurinburg and Union Theological Seminary in New York, Rev. Legerton is presently enrolled in the nonresidential, EdD Program in Adult Education at Columbia University, Teachers College. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Rev. Legerton is an experienced mentor and supervisor of college and university students and interns and is a frequent lecturer and workshop leader on the local, state, and national level.

The Center For Community Action includes members of all ethnicities and racial groups. Its mission is to organize and empower individuals, families, communities, and institutions in order to improve the quality and equality of life in Robeson County, N.C. Robeson County is a large, rural county located in the Coastal Plains of Southeastern, N.C. Based on the 2000 Census, its multiracial population of 123,000 is 38% Native American, 32% European American, 25% African American, and 5% Latino/Hispanic. The Asian population is less than 1%. Its highly diverse population earns Robeson County the distinction of being the most ethnically diverse rural county in the U.S. (Flora, Flora, Spears, & Swanson, 1992). It is the home of the Lumbee, the largest Native American tribe East of the Mississippi River. Its present poverty rate of 24% and illiteracy rate of 38% are indicators of low economic and social well being that have persisted for generations. Social challenges as these are the very conditions and situations that CCA seeks to significantly change.

Rev. Legerton raises and manages CCA’s annual organizational budget of $400,000 and has raised over $10 million for CCA since its formation in 1980. He has also assisted in raising over $25 million in grants for collaborating programs in Robeson County. Keys to CCA’s financial stability include a highly diverse funding base, a good track record of program and fiscal management, and effective and successful programs that achieve concrete results and outcomes in the lives of families, communities, institutions, and systems in Robeson County, N.C.