10 Million Names New Orleans Reception

Monday, April 20, 2026, 5pm-7pm

Stella Jones Gallery

201 St Charles Ave #132, New Orleans, LA 70170

Click here to register

Free to attend. RSVP by April 13, 2026.

Join us in New Orleans for a private reception at the Stella Jones Gallery in support of 10 Million Names. 10 Million Names is a genealogical project that aims to recover and make accessible the names and family histories of the 10 million individuals enslaved in the United States before 1865—honoring their legacies, restoring ancestral connections, and building an inclusive historical record for all Americans. The city of New Orleans—from the initial arrival of 5,000 enslaved Africans in the decade following the city's 1718 founding through its emergence as the largest domestic slave market in the country and the abiding historic presence of free people of color—is a central part of this story, and the work ahead. With this event, we are hoping to launch a small circle of leaders and friends to help raise awareness and support for a 10MN NOLA hub.  

The cocktail reception will include a conversation with Melanca Clark, Kendra Field, and Paula Madison on the power of family history. This conversation will feature 10 Million Names research into the family history of Melanca Clark's father, pioneering artist Ed Clark.  Born in the Storyville section of New Orleans in 1926, Clark was an abstract expressionist and "the first painter credited with working on a shaped canvas, an innovation that influenced contemporary art through the 1950s and 1960s." Clark "established himself as a pioneer of abstract painting during a period when African-American artists were expected by many to create figurative work." The Stella Jones Gallery—one of the most respected African American fine art galleries in the country—has played a pivotal role in highlighting the historical relevance of African American art, and housed a number of Ed Clark's works and papers over the years. Welcome remarks by Paula Madison, 10 Million Names Advisory Board Member, and images of Ed Clark’s life and work will be shared. 

In Conversation 

Melanca Clark is the former President and CEO of Hudson-Webber Foundation. As President and CEO from 2016-2023, Clark oversaw the administration of more than 240 grants totaling over $36 million to improve the quality of life for Detroiters, and launched the Michigan Justice Fund, a funders’ collaborative advancing effective and equitable justice policy in the state of Michigan housed at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, among other initiatives.

Clark is a legal and policy leader with extensive experience in government, nonprofit, and legal sectors. Before joining the Hudson-Webber Foundation, she held senior roles in the Obama administration, including Chief of Staff for the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and for the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. She also worked on justice policy at the DOJ’s Office for Access to Justice and the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she helped advance President Obama’s justice policy priorities, and developed and implemented a number of strategies for enhancing fairness in the criminal and juvenile system.

Earlier in her career, she held legal and public interest roles with organizations like the Brennan Center for Justice, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and a major law firm, and clerked for a federal judge.

Clark serves on several nonprofit boards related to justice and civil rights, contributed to the Biden-Harris transition team, and has received multiple awards recognizing her leadership, philanthropy, and influence.

Dr. Kendra Taira Field is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University. Field is the author of Growing Up with the Country: Family, Race, and Nation after the Civil War (Yale, 2018). Her current book project, The Stories We Tell (W.W. Norton) is a history of African American genealogy and storytelling from the Middle Passage to the present. As a public historian, Field co-founded the African American Trail Project and the Du Bois Forum, a retreat for writers, scholars, and artists of color; served as project historian for the Du Bois Freedom Center; and co-curated “We Who Believe In Freedom: Black Feminist DC,” the inaugural exhibition (2023) of the National Women’s History Museum.

Paula Williams Madison is a 10 Million Name Advisory Board Member and Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC and 88 Madison Media Works Inc. In 2011, Madison retired from NBCUniversal, where she had been Executive Vice President for Diversity as well as a Vice President of the General Electric Company (GE), then the parent company of NBCU. During her 22 years with NBCU, she held a number of successful leadership roles, including President and General Manager of NBC4 Los Angeles, Los Angeles Regional General Manager for NBCU’s Telemundo TV stations and Vice President and News Director of NBC4 New York.