LRDA History

While working with the North Carolina Fund and the North Carolina Manpower Development Corporation, State-wide organizations funded by the Ford Foundation and monies from President Johnson’s Great Society War on Poverty to work with Community Action Agencies across the State to address conditions impacting the rural and urban poor, Roderick G. Locklear, A, Bruce Jones, Dr. Gerald Sider and Horace Locklear founded and  incorporated the Regional Development Associates, Inc (RDA) on February 8, 1968.  They also served as the initial Board of Directors.

 The purpose of the RDA was to analyze, develop solutions to the health, education, general and economic welfare problems of the rural and urban Indian poor.  The vision and goals for RDA was to: provide technical assistance and professional staff services to private and public agencies at the national, State and local levels that were seeking solutions to poverty problems, do research on the causes of poverty, including but not limited to problem identification, experimental and demonstration projects, do feasibility studies and follow-up studies.  Additionally, RDA was to conduct demonstration and on-going projects to serve the health, education, general and economic welfare needs of the Indian poor in conjunction with other agencies, private or public, national, State or local.  RDA received its first grant of monies from the National Congress of American Indians to conduct a literacy outreach effort within the Lumbee community.  Mrs. Vera Lowry was employed as the project director for this effort.

To carry out the broad mission of the RDA and this grant, within the Indian community at the local level in Robeson County, the RDA Board called together a meeting involving a cross-section of representatives from the Indian community including church leaders, teachers, elected officials, businessmen, farmers and the Indian political network from around the county and met at the Old Foundry in Lumberton to discuss the RDA, the grant and to get community involvement in implementing this grant within the Lumbee community.  From these meetings, an Indian Advisory Committee to RDA was formed.  This Committee elected their own chairperson, W.J. Strickland, and worked closely with RDA to get buy-in from the greater Lumbee community.  In conjunction with the Advisory Committee, a decision was made to have a Lumbee Homecoming event in July.  The Pembroke Jaycees and the Town of Pembroke supported this homecoming effort. With the help of the Governing body of the Town of Pembroke, an RDA office was established within the town hall to administer the grant.  Several members from the Committee were added to the RDA Board.  As support for RDA grew, the potential that the RDA had as a mechanism to serve the needs of the Indian poor was recognized within the Indian community, and by folks at the Federal, State, and local level.   

On December 6, 1970, the Regional Development Associates, Inc charter was amended to change the name to Lumbee Regional Development Association, Inc. (LRDA).  The mission stayed the same. The LRDA Board set up a mechanism for the election of Board members from designated districts within the program service area. The Advisory Committee stayed active and worked closely with LRDA..  The Office of Economic Opportunity at the Federal and Atlanta Regional Office levels began to support programs to serve the Indian community.  The Department of Labor, Department of Education and other Federal agencies also began to fund LRDA programs.  Tommy Dial was selected as the executive director for the agency.  The LRDA program service areas were expanded to include Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland, Scotland and Bladen counties. During the past 40 years, the Board grew from four members to a total of twenty-one members.  The current Board has eleven members.

In 1981, the LRDA Board put forth a referendum to the Lumbee community to vote on the LRDA to represent the Lumbee community at the Federal, State and local levels.  The Referendum passed.  The LRDA Board of Directors served as the governing body for the Lumbee tribe until 2000.  Between 1968 and 2000, LRDA administered several programs on behalf of the tribe and brought programs and millions in resources to address the needs of our people.  LRDA also fought to make sure that the Indian definitions in federal legislation and regulations included non-federally recognized Indian tribes and organizations so we could bring resources to our people.  This enabled the Lumbee members to obtain grants to train lawyers, doctors and for other professions. 

LRDA also implemented the Lumbee Tribal Enrollment Program and fought for Federal. Recognition.  In 1992, we came within three votes of obtaining Federal recognition.  LRDA participated in the planning for a tribal government for the Lumbee people.  When a constitution form of government was adopted by the Lumbee tribe, LRDA turned over tribal orientated programs such as Indian Housing, energy assistance, tribal enrollment and other programs to the governing body that continues to bring millions in resources to the Lumbee community. 

LRDA continues to seek programs and funding to serve the Indian community and that compliment programs that the Tribe has to serve our people.  LRDA administers Head Start, manpower training programs, housing rehabilitation and day care programs that benefit the Lumbee people.  LRDA conducts Lumbee Homecoming and the Miss Lumbee and other pageants with help and sponsorship from local community organizations, business, individuals, elected officials and churches. Pageant winners and other participants have well represented the Lumbee Tribe and community at the local, State and national levels and across Indian country.  We are forty years old and still serving our people in Robeson and other counties.  It has been indeed a great honor, pleasure and challenge to develop mechanisms and infrastructures to strengthen the health, social and economic status of Lumbee Indians and build Lumbee Tribal identity, Indian pride, and Lumbee recognition and acceptance at the Federal, State, and local levels, and with other tribal nations and organizations throughout Indian country over the past four decades.  We look forward to celebrating this milestone in LRDA’s history throughout the year and to serving our community for the next seven generations to come.