Letter from the Founder – Remembering Melvin Miller

Dear Friends,
A. Melvin Miller was elected to the Living Legends Board in 2013. He was such an important addition that we scheduled our board meetings around his other meeting commitments—not on the second and last Tuesdays of each month and not on the Thursday before the last Tuesday!

Melvin Miller was a gentle man and a gentleman with a brilliant mind. When he disagreed he did so in a quiet voice and with a smile. I personally sought his advice most recently when planning the MetroStage Theatre Night honoring the Alexandria Civil Rights leaders of the 60s, of which he was one.

Early on, Melvin Miller’s civil rights activism led him to become a member of a group of Alexandria African Americans who met regularly to study issues affecting their community and work to improve the situation. The group was called the Secret Seven. “We didn’t give ourselves that name,” he said. We were actually eight. We think it was an FBI informer who named us after infiltrating the group,” he said. “Nobody was in charge, but we agreed we would have one spokesperson. I was mostly that person.”

Melvin Miller was the last remaining member of the Alexandria Secret Seven.

You can read more about Melvin Miller on our website and in the Alexandria Gazette.

May you rest well, dear friend. Your contributions have made a great and lasting difference to our town.

Very best wishes,
Nina Tisara
Founder, Living Legends of Alexandria