1976: Vernon Jarrett presented his concept for ACT-SO an “Olympics of the Mind” to the DuSable Museum of African American History.
1977: The NAACP Board of Directors adopted a resolution to accept ACT-SO as an official sponsored NAACP youth achievement program that would be sponsored by local NAACP units, conduct an annual local competition and bring a contingency of gold medalists to the annual
National ACT-SO Competition.
1978: The first National ACT-SO competition was held in Portland, Oregon with seven cities participating: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New Orleans and St. Louis.
2004: Mr. Vernon Jarrett lost his battle with cancer at the age of 82. PRESENT: ACT-SO sustains approximately 200 programs nationally. Over the past thirty years, over 300,000 have participated in the program
2015 and Beyond: NAACP ACT-SO continues to promote growth, excellence and innovation to position ACT-SO competitors as “Leaders For Tomorrow and Beyond."
