Horace Small
UMN Founder and Executive Director

Horace has been working professionally for non-profit organizations, government, political campaigns and unions since 1974. He served as President of the National Federation of Black Organizers and Activists for a two-year term and founded the Philadelphia Community School, which trained hundreds of activists in the skills of organizing and citizen empowerment. Horace has gained a reputation as one of the savviest organizers in the country.

Highlights of his work include:

• Organized a successful statewide campaign in Pennsylvania that secured mortgage foreclosure protection for distressed homeowners…the only law of its kind in the nation;
• Organized the nation’s first gun buy back resulting in more than 2,000 guns taken off the streets of Philadelphia;
• Coordinated a statewide campaign in Pennsylvania, saving legal services for the poor from the Republican budget chopping block;
• Formed a coalition that defeated the NRA in Philadelphia, passing in the City Council an ordinance banning the sale and ownership of assault and most semi-automatic weapons in the city’s limits;
• Organized a campaign prednisone that won no shut off of utility services to the poor during the winter months.