Harlem Consumer Education Council, Inc. HCEC Too many people are afraid to do anything because they don’t feel qualified…All you need is confidence in the rightness of your cause. The rest of it will fall into place. Florence M. Rice Founder and President P.O. Box 1165 – Triboro Station New York, NY 10035 About HCEC’s Founder and President Florence M. Rice was born on March 22, 1919 in Buffalo, NY. During her childhood, Ms. Rice spent several years in the Colored Orphan Asylum and in foster homes in New York. Upon completion of the eighth grade, she left school to work as a domestic seamstress where she became a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Ms. Rice spoke out against the discriminatory practices targeted at African American and Latino workers. She participated in the late Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.’s 1962 Congressional hearing, which probed dressmaker union’s policies. After testifyin...