Welcome to The Huntsville-Madison County Chapter Of
Blacks In Government

The first organizational meeting to form a BIG chapter in the Huntsville area was held on July 25, 1989 through efforts of Mary Peoples, an Equal Employment Manager at the U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (formerly called the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command) who prepared the publicity to announce the meeting. Ms. Peoples had obtained a chapter start-up kit from a colleague who was a national board member.

The meeting was held at St. John AME Church on Church Street at 7:00 p.m. with 20 people from various federal agencies in attendance. These employees were from the Army's Missile Command, Army Strategic Defense Command, Army Corps of Engineers, the Office of Personnel Management and the Marshall Space Flight Center. A special invited guest at this meeting was Mr. Johnny Smith, who gave a briefing on BIG and answered questions from the audience. Mr. Smith, at that time, was the Executive Vice President of National BIG and a member of the Muscle Shoals Area Chapter. At this meeting, temporary officers were selected and they were: President – Arthur Henderson, Secretary – Johnnie Clark and Treasurer – Theodore Dixie.