Entertainment attorney Helen McCrary Salahuddin founded the organization called the d’Zert Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1993. With the help of retired international entrepreneur and husband, Philip A. Salahuddin, and “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes, an internationally known recording artist and actor serving as the organization’s spokesperson, she turned the d’Zert Club into the world’s largest and fastest growing African-American youth organization of its kind. Boasting over 25,000 members, the d’Zert Club‘s motto is “it is better to build a child than repair an adult“.
The d’Zert Club specialized in producing positive entertainment and cultural events for elementary, middle and high school students. Activities produced for young people by the d’Zert Club have included birthday and graduation parties, talent showcases, and benefit concerts featuring nationally known recording artists such as LL Cool J, Dougie Fresh and D.J. Cool. In addition the d’Zert Club produced yearly cultural events celebrating Kwanzaa, Juneteenth and Black Music Month, a quarterly newsletter, political education forums and cultural field trips. The d’Zert Club turned the educational program over to The African Genesis Educational Program in 2003.
The d’Zert Club now specializes in producing cultural trips for adults and children to places of interest to African Americans for the purpose of studying the culture and history of the descendants of enslaved African people dispersed throughout the Diaspora. Trips are continuously planned to places in Africa, Central and South America and Europe.