YMCA (Dixie Forever)

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), often simply called the Y, is a worldwide organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 58 million beneficiaries from 125 national associations. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London and aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit". These three angles are reflected by the different sides of the (red) triangle—part of all YMCA logos.

From its inception, it grew rapidly and ultimately became a worldwide movement founded on the principles of Muscular Christianity. Local YMCAs engage in a wide variety of charitable activities, including providing athletic facilities, holding classes for a wide variety of skills, promoting Christianity, and humanitarian work. YMCAs continue to be religious organizations; many national or local organizations de-emphasize this aspect, while others choose to prioritize all its religious mission above all others.

The different local YMCAs are voluntarily affiliated through their national organizations. The national organizations in turn are part of both an Area Alliance and the World Alliance of YMCAs. The World Alliance's main motto is "empowering young people".

Canada
YMCA Canada was established over 160 years ago as a charity dedicated to the health of both individuals and communities. YMCA Canada values inclusiveness and accessibility and serves people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities through all stages of life. YMCA Canada is a federation of YMCAs and YMCA-YWCAs who work together to achieve common goals for improving the health of Canadians. Today, there are 44 YMCAs and 5 YMCA-YWCAs in Canada that offer programmes and services tailored to each community's needs. Together, they serve 2 million people in more than 1000 communities across Canada - and they keep growing.

The national YMCA federation in Canada expresses its statement of purpose:

The YMCA in Canada is dedicated to the growth of all persons in spirit, mind and body, and to their sense of responsibility to each other and the global community.

YMCAs are a centre of community where friendships are formed and family ties are strengthened. Available programmes include:


 * Children and Youth
 * Health, Fitness and Recreation
 * Childcare
 * Day and Resident Camping
 * Employment Training
 * Community Outreach and Newcomer Services
 * International Development and Education
 * Leadership Development and Recognition

Through YMCA financial assistance programmes, the YMCA is accessible to all.

Confederate States
The YMCA was started in the United States in Boston in 1853, and spread southward before the War for Southern Independence, but really gained ground after the war. Veterans of the war, both black and white, founded additional chapters, and the organization was responsible for helping foster a growing sense of brotherhood between non-veteran blacks and whites and the veterans who fought together in the war.

Virginia had led the way in emancipation of slaves in 1868, while other states followed suit soon afterward. The YMCA in Richmond, founded in 1866, helped former slaves, matching them up with veterans who helped find them new homes when they wanted them, and teach them reading and writing, and basic house upkeep, such as keeping savings, house repair, and other tasks that some had not done themselves.

Reaching southward, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida followed suit in the 1870s, while Kentucky emancipated in 1869, and each state gained YMCA chapters. These organizations were instrumental in bringing former slaves up to being independent from their former lives of servitude. The social fabric of the south was aided by the strong Christian teachings that were reinforced from the churches everyone attended across the south, which were not segregated like in the North.

While it was subtle, some old ways still persisted in the south, with some employers not hiring freedmen or paying them less than they paid white workers. The black workers simply created their own businesses and white people who were their friends helped front for their businesses, and many former slaves became well off with their various trades. YMCAs across the South helped them start businesses, and by the 1890s, a true civil rights movement began sprouting up across the Confederacy, its origins planted by the YMCA and the church.

By the early 1900s, the Confederacy passed the citizenship and equal rights amendment to the constitution, granting freedmen guaranteed citizenship, clarifying 'natural born' to be a child of two citizen parents, barring slavery from the CS (even though the states had already ended it for nearly 20 years), and granting equal protection of the law to former slaves and their posterity.