League of Women Voters presents Gladys Muhammad for 'Lunch With the League on Zoom'

Andrew S. Hughes, South Bend Tribune
·1 min read
Gladys Muhammad the recognition plate she received as one of five 2023 national winners of NeighborWorks America’s Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership. She and the others will be honored Oct. 27 at a ceremony during the organization’s Community Leadership Institute.
Gladys Muhammad the recognition plate she received as one of five 2023 national winners of NeighborWorks America’s Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership. She and the others will be honored Oct. 27 at a ceremony during the organization’s Community Leadership Institute.

SOUTH BEND — The League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area presents Gladys Muhammad as the speaker for “Lunch With the League on Zoom” at noon Jan. 12.

Muhammad served as the associate director of South Bend Heritage Federation for more than 35 years and continues to run the Charles Martin Youth Community Center. She will discuss South Bend Heritage’s activities and how the community benefits from its work.

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Born in Mississippi, she moved to South Bend with her family at the age of 3 and has spent a lifetime serving the city.

In 1978, she helped establish and became the first director of the YWCA’s Shelter for Battered Women. After six years, Muhammad became the deputy director of South Bend’s Department of Code Enforcement and, in 1987, she joined the staff of South Bend Heritage as a community organizer.

At South Bend Heritage, she played a major role in the development of affordable housing in a once-notorious, drug-infested west side neighborhood.

She was also instrumental in the vision, planning and establishment of the Charles Martin Youth Center, the Salvation Army Kroc Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation of St. Joseph County and the Civil Rights Heritage Center (formerly the Engman Public Natatorium).

Gladys Muhammad poses for a portrait Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, inside the Charles Martin Youth Center in South Bend.
Gladys Muhammad poses for a portrait Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, inside the Charles Martin Youth Center in South Bend.

Muhammad was in the first class of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Community Change’s “Change Agent Project” and participated in President Clinton’s roundtable on neighborhoods held in Little Rock, Ark.

For more information or to join the Zoom meeting, visit lwvsouthbend.org or facebook.com/LWVSouthBend.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: League of Women Voters' Zoom lunch features Gladys Muhammad