MS01.01.03.B02.F23.072

5.

Division of Awards for Constructive and Creative Achievement, the program most
beneficial to Black visual artists and the one which Brady continued to
expand upon after the awards were no longer given.

In his own business ventures dealing with urban real estate, William Harmon
had personally experienced the excitement and pride of planning and developing
playgrounds for young people. Mary Brady had convinced Harmon that some aspects of
juvenile delinquency in America could be traced to a lack of publicly owned play-
areas in urban communities. So strong was her position on the matter that she
received little or no opposition from the Board of Directors who met periodically
in the 1920s to approve all major administrative decisions of the director. It
was during these early years that a number of foundations were being founded
all over the nation and several searches were underway to fill these important
new positions. The Board of Directors of the Harmon Foundation showed their
trust and appreciation in their young director and gave Brady a carte blanc hand
at the day-to-day operations of the Foundation. Brady had been actively sought
by multi-millionaire John Danforth to head up the newly formed Danforth Foundation.
She refused Danforth's offer choosing to stay with the Harmon Foundation.

Brady's interest in the cultural life of urbanites kept her satisfied
administering programs that touched upon recreation and culture, education and
creative accomplishments. The Foundation's playgrounds program became operational
in 1922. Other programs would be as late as 1926 getting started. The primary
objective of the Playgrounds Program was to provide safe community play areas
for young boys and girls who were unable to keep themselves constructively busy
during the hours after school and on weekends. Essential to the national
success of the Playgrounds Division was the support and involvement of developers
who could identify and present information which showed the need for playground areas in their communities before they
were developed. Due to the slow reaction from towns and cities to the Foundation's
ideas and its ability to make large donations to communities, the