60 Years of Sabathani: Honoring Clarissa Rogers Walker and Launa Q. Newman
On August 8, 2026, Sabathani Community Center marked its 60th anniversary with our Coming Back Home Block Party, a celebration of the people, history, and community that have shaped Sabathani across six decades. The day began with a community march along Clarissa Rogers Walker Way and Launa Q. Newman Way, honoring two extraordinary women whose leadership and service left an enduring mark on Sabathani and South Minneapolis.
As we continue celebrating this milestone year, we’re proud to share more about their lives, their work, and the history they helped create. This guest article was written by Neva Walker in partnership with the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder in recognition of Sabathani’s 60th anniversary and the legacies of Clarissa Rogers Walker and Launa Q. Newman.
Sabathani: The Heart of South Minneapolis
Founded in 1966 by members of Sabathani Baptist Church and concerned community residents, Sabathani Community Center was created to provide recreation, guidance, and a safe place where neighborhood youth could learn, grow, and belong. As community needs evolved, so did Sabathani, expanding its mission to serve children, families, seniors, and the broader South Minneapolis community.
After operating from several locations, Sabathani moved into the former Bryant Junior High School building at 310 East 38th Street in 1979. The move was made possible through the vision, advocacy, and determination of community members who organized to preserve the building as a permanent resource for the neighborhood. Over the decades, Sabathani became a place where people could access food, clothing, housing assistance, employment and workforce development, health and wellness services, youth and senior programs, cultural activities, leadership development, community organizing, and a lasting sense of belonging.
Today, Sabathani is one of Minnesota’s oldest Black-founded nonprofit organizations, serving more than 50,000 residents each year. Its programs include food distribution, a clothing closet, housing stability services, workforce development, youth and senior programming, maternal and family health initiatives, health and wellness services, and environmental and energy programs. Sabathani is also developing a Community Resilience Hub to strengthen neighborhood preparedness while creating pathways to sustainable careers. Under the leadership of President and CEO Scott Redd, Sabathani continues to honor its rich history while responding to today’s challenges through innovative, community-driven solutions that help individuals, families, and neighborhoods thrive.
Sabathani’s story belongs to more people than could ever be named on one page. We honor leaders, including Reverend Stanley, Kay Williams, Bill English, Clarissa Walker, Marion Snargrass, Jim Cook, and the many others who helped guide, protect, and strengthen this institution. We also pay homage to the countless staff members, volunteers, board members, families, young people, elders, funders, community partners, and neighbors whose time, talent, labor, generosity, advocacy, and love have sustained Sabathani for six decades and continue to shape its future.
Launa Q. Newman
Publisher • Business Leader • Civic Advocate
Launa Q. Newman understood the importance of Black communities telling their own stories. Born Launa Quincy in Topeka, Kansas, in 1921, she was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and later moved to the Twin Cities, where she became deeply involved in both the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and the civic life of South Minneapolis.
Working alongside her husband, newspaper founder Cecil E. Newman, she initially supported circulation, public relations, and the newspaper’s daily operations. She gradually took on greater management responsibilities and became one of Cecil Newman’s closest business partners and advisers. After his death, she took responsibility for sustaining the newspapers and the independent Black press they represented.
For more than three decades, Newman guided the Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder, modernizing their printing and business operations and helping bring the publications together as the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder in 2000. Under her leadership, the newspaper continued documenting Black life, celebrating community achievements, challenging injustice, connecting residents to important information, and ensuring that the voices and experiences of Black Minnesotans were not ignored.
Newman also served the community beyond the newspaper, including through leadership with the Minneapolis Boys Club, Hennepin County Service Organization, and the Courage Center, among others. She also holds the distinction of becoming the first African American woman to join the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis. She eventually transferred leadership of the newspaper to the next generation of her family, helping preserve what remains Minnesota’s oldest Black-owned newspaper and one of the nation’s longest-standing family-owned Black publications.
Her legacy is one of stewardship, determination, representation, and the power of a community-owned institution to preserve history while shaping the future.
Clarissa Rogers Walker
Compassionate • Community Builder • Opportunity Creator
Clarissa Rogers Walker believed that everyone deserved a hand up, not a handout, and that every person should be treated with dignity because lasting change begins with opportunity. For more than five decades, she dedicated her life to serving families and strengthening the South Minneapolis community. She believed that if something needed to change, it was our responsibility to make that change happen. Whether helping one family or building programs that served thousands, she knew lasting change came from investing in people, strengthening families, and creating opportunities that helped communities thrive.
After moving to Minneapolis in 1955, Walker worked in the healthcare field while raising her family, then earned a degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota and dedicated her career to social work and community organizing.
At Sabathani, Walker created and led the Family Resource Center, building an interconnected system of support for children, adults, and families. She developed emergency housing assistance, food and clothing programs, and crisis-response services that met families where they were. She also coordinated government-subsidized cheese and butter distributions, a lifeline for low-income families during periods of economic hardship, ensuring that no one in the neighborhood went hungry. Walker was among the founders of the Minnesota Food Shelf Network and helped bring Southside Neighborhood Housing Services, an affordable housing initiative, to Minnesota. Her work expanded access to stable housing, emergency shelter, and long-term support for families navigating poverty, displacement, and systemic barriers. She understood that meeting immediate needs and changing the systems that created those needs were equally important.
Known to many in the community as “Southside’s Mom,” Walker led with humility and rarely sought recognition for her work. Her commitment to service was never confined to office hours—neighbors knew they could call on her whenever they needed food, shelter, help with taxes, assistance finding housing, advice, or simply someone willing to listen. She also opened doors for emerging leaders and challenged institutions to respond to people with dignity and respect. Although she never held public office, she earned the respect of community leaders, policymakers, and organizations across Minnesota because of her integrity, expertise, and unwavering commitment to families. She proved that lasting change doesn’t belong only to those with titles or elected positions; it also comes from the people who build communities, strengthen institutions, and refuse to give up on their neighbors.
Her legacy is one of compassion, humility, service, and opportunity. It lives not only in the programs and organizations she helped build, but in the generations of families, leaders, volunteers, and community members who continue to carry forward her belief that every person deserves dignity, opportunity, and someone willing to stand beside them.
Streets That Carry Their Names
In 2019, the City of Minneapolis approved commemorative street names honoring these two remarkable Black women. Clarissa Rogers Walker Way extends along Third Avenue South from East 36th Street to East 42nd Street. Launa Q. Newman Way runs parallel along Fourth Avenue South between East 36th Street and East 42nd Street.
Their streets stand alongside the institutions they helped shape, Sabathani Community Center and the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. Together, their names remind us that the history of South Minneapolis was built through service, leadership, advocacy, storytelling, sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to community.
The streets do more than honor two extraordinary women. They ensure that future generations will encounter their names, ask who they were, learn what they built, and understand that the strength of South Minneapolis rests on the vision, courage, and dedication of those who came before us.