Title
Also naming Jefferson Street between Broad Street and 13th Street as "Donald 'Ducky' Birts Way"
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WHEREAS, Donald "Ducky" Birts was born in Camden, New Jersey, raised alongside his four siblings by the guiding force of his life, his late mother Frankie Mae Birts; and
WHEREAS, Birts attended Camden High School, where he excelled at basketball, football, baseball and gymnastics. Birts inspired by the guidance from his principal at Hatch Junior High School in Camden, Mr. R. Turner Dickerson, he eventually served as an assistant coach and later as a coach at his alma mater; and
WHEREAS, 'Ducky' became the mainstay of his family at an early age, helping his mother make ends meet by selling newspapers and subsequently obtaining a job at the Garden State Park Racetrack in Cherry Hill, New Jersey as a shoeshine boy; and
WHEREAS, 'Ducky' continued to work multiple jobs in his life, he was employed at the Camden, New Jersey Shipyard, working on the "Kitty Hawk." He was later employed at Walmart Tailors, first working as a stock boy and, at intervals, moving up to salesman, to manager and eventually to buyer; and
WHEREAS, It was through this job that he realized his "dream," to own a business. He was able to make this dream a reality in 1964, when he opened a haberdashery called "Ducky's Dashery" at 1119 Haddon Avenue in Camden. In 1968, he relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he met the Reverend Dr. Leon Howard Sullivan, the Pastor of Zion Baptist Church; and
WHEREAS, Reverend Dr. Leon Howard Sullivan became a helping hand in his quest to establish "Ducky's Dashery" in North Philadelphia. The historical site is located at Progress Plaza, the first multimillion-dollar shopping center, built, developed, continuously owned, and managed by African Americans in America; and
WHEREAS, Although this task was met with many obstacles, he persevered with resilience and kept going, never giving up. He was able to meet people on all levels regardless of thei...
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