Uncrowned Community Builders

Raphael DuBard was born in Columbia, SC. He came to Buffalo as a youth and attended Buffalo schools graduating from Hutchinson Central High School. He attended Hastings College in Nebraska. He married Mary Alyce Daniels.

Mr. DuBard won many awards for his community activities. In 1950 he won the local Voices of Tomorrow competition sponsored by WBEN radio and was awarded a fellowship to the Chautauqua Music Institution. He toured Europe in "Porky and Bess." He was past President of the Buffalo Branch of the NAACP. In August 1963 he headed the Buffalo delegation in the march on Washington DC led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. DuBard was a senior investigator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He was chairman of the Board of Sheehan Memorial Hospital. In 1978 the African American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier worked with Mr. DuBard in organizing, indexing and microfilming his personal papers. The "DuBard Papers" include personal correspondences, speeches and other writings that Mr. DuBard produced during the 1950s the 70s. In 1986 he helped found the Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Association of Western New York.

Mr. DuBard was 67 years of age at the time of his death. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.