Across YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn, this new series invites audiences into a story that began nearly a century ago a story rooted in a Harlem Renaissance–era business that offered dignity, training, and opportunity at a time when the world was changing and options were scarce. Preserved today in the The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem Legacy Catalog, this legacy lives on through the photographs of Winifred Hall Allen and the memory of a family that carried discipline, creativity, and service across generations. These short films trace the arc from 1920’s Harlem to the present day, honoring a lineage of entrepreneurs and community builders who transformed art into advocacy and survival into structure. As viewers follow each chapter A Time of Art, Struggle, and New Beginnings; The Legacy Begins; America on the Edge; and Empowering a Generation they witness how that early employment agency became the spiritual blueprint for what is now the CDMA Business Model® Evidence-Based CTE Ecosystem™. This is where legacy meets innovation, where the past informs the future, and where a 100-year tradition of empowerment continues to uplift youth, spark creativity, and shape leaders from Harlem to Washington, DC, and beyond.
To journey deeper into this living legacy, we invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where each episode expands the story behind the CDMA Business Model® and the 100-year lineage that shaped it. New chapters reveal unseen archival moments, modern-day student experiences, and the powerful link between Harlem’s early innovators and the young creators rising today. By subscribing, you become part of a growing community committed to purpose-driven creativity, educational equity, and the belief that our history can light the path forward. Join us, stay connected, and continue exploring the movement that began in the 1920’s and still inspires generations to dream, build, and lead.
Pioneers of Progress is a legacy-centered storytelling series highlighting the innovators, families, and cultural leaders who shaped a century of creativity, business, and community power. Rooted in Harlem Renaissance history and preserved in the Schomburg Center’s archives, the series traces how early Black entrepreneurs built pathways to work and dignity in the 1920s and how that same spirit now fuels modern workforce innovation through the CDMA Business Model®. From past to present, Pioneers of Progress honors the individuals and ideas that continue to inspire opportunity, resilience, and leadership for generations to come.