Lucas, C. Payne

Africare co-founder and thiry-year president, C. Payne Lucas was born on September 14, 1933, in Spring Hope, North Carolina. He grew up in a family of fourteen children and earned money as boy picking cotton and shining shoes. In 1951, he earned his high school diploma from Spaulding High School, where he was a member of the baseball team and excelled in drama and public speaking activities. In 1950, during his junior year of high school, he joined the NAACP and became a youth representative for the state of North Carolina and initiated a voter registration drive in Spring Hope.

Lucas earned a bachelor's of science degree in history from the Maryland State College, now known as the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, in 1959. During his sophomore year he left Maryland, and enlisted in the United States Air Force where he served for four years. He then went on to earn his master's degree in government from the American University in 1961.

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