In the September 2008 issue of EBONY Magazine, Johnson Publishing’s boss broke from company tradition and endorsed Barack Obama for President of America.

Chicago-based Linda Rice Johnson carries a lot of clout. She heads the world’s largest African-American-owned and-operated publishing company. With established businesses in publishing, cosmetics, television production and fashion, Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) brands, such as EBONY and JET magazines and Fashion Fair Cosmetics, are considered staples among African-Americans.

For the first time in JPC history; EBONY officially endorsed a presidential candidate. Company President Linda Rice Johnson called this election the “most crucial in our lifetime” and that “During this campaign, Barack Obama’s brilliant and innovative views on the issues have been more in line with the thinking of Black America”. To commemorate “the historic presidential election,” JPC brands created a special line of EBONY and JET Obama apparel and accessory merchandise products. Sales of the products may be the way Johnson’s company intends to make requisite money from the campaign.

Black Enterprise publisher Earl G. Graves Sr. called it “our moment of history.” He said, “This opportunity may not come again in our lifetimes… there’s no way we’ll get another shot at the White House for decades to come… and our concerns as citizens will be off the table, perhaps permanently.”

Ms. Johnson, Mr. Graves and broadcast maven Cathy Hughes represent the leading black businesses in the communications industry. Other members of the Black Media were enamored with Barack’s run, didn’t feel they got any love in return. Local black newspaper and broadcast owners voiced enthusiasm at the prospect of a black man becoming US president. But, though they expected to be beneficiaries of the most lavish campaign advertising budget in history, black newspaper owners didn’t fare well from Obama’s campaign.

But, when they were getting the milk for free, why would’ve Obama operatives feel the need to buy the cow? Black newspaper owners said they were locked out of Obama’s $90 million dollar advertising budget that their reporters were often ignored. Publishers such as Lenora Carter of Houston’s Forward Times said that candidate’s handlers thought that “black people are so anxious to get a black president that we’ll support him no matter what. So why waste money on us?” She said “I have bills to pay” and that Obama’s campaign operation showed “total disrespect for the black press”.

While most Black Americans were giddy about the campaign, black newspaper owners groused about their lack of business opportunities. They complained that they got no ads, weren’t even considered as mediums to get messages out for the campaign. Houston Forward Times publisher Carter said, “He came here in early March and nobody black could get to him”. She said, “Blacks set up a headquarters for him here in the 3rd Ward. He never visited it, and ignored requests to visit the black radio station, which was just six blocks from where he stayed.”

The Obama campaign bypassed local black newspaper operations with paid staff that opened campaign offices in black areas. They hosted neighborhood barbecues and “dropped in” barbershops and beauty salons. Campaign operatives simply sent voter-information press kits to black media outlets. But, BET and TV One were in the $4 million buy to run Barack’s half-hour television infomercial.

Linda Johnson’s father could tell blacks in the media business a thing, or two, about press access and power. John H. Johnson overcame the racial barriers to become the personification of black media power. He never endorsed in a presidential campaign, but regularly held court with American Presidents. In 1996, he received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from Bill Clinton.

Obama is going to have to do like every other politician and appease his campaign supporters. In his first 100 days as Barack offers visions of his top priorities he should convene a forum where he uses the Black Media to give his administration’s interest and intent on the “Black Perspective”, along with withdrawing troops from Iraq and addressing universal health care and energy and climate change

William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com

MLK – Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The question about African Americans’ “empowerment” is not as much about our political clout as it is whether or not we are better off economically than we were when Martin Luther King was killed in 1968.

Some black Americans are doing very well. Barack Obama’s presidential run, Tiger Woods is the world’s best-paid athlete and former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O’Neal pocketed $160 million in a golden corporate parachute. But these blacks are the exception rather than the rule. Where MLK’s civil rights activities paid off the most was in spawning a Black Middle Class. Since the Civil Rights Movement, the black political and middle-income class has grown significantly. Forty years since MLK declared American owed a debt to Black Americans, Barack Obama is black’s race-neutral Messiah, and our middle class group is regressing.

With their contemporary image of surfeit, the question surrounding the Black Middle Class Era is “What contribution have they made toward Martin’s ‘dream of economic equity’ in America?” The black middle class grew from the Civil Rights Movement through public policy and increased opportunities for skills development. Since King died the black middle class population has quadrupled. In 2008, over a million black households have annual incomes of $100,000 a year or more. These upward strides and their excesses have given the illusion that race cannot be the barrier that some make it out to be.

The rates of self-obsession and consumption among the generations of black middle class illustrate how static hold reaps regression. Many of the black middle class are now caught up in the financial meltdown. Despite their displays of opulence, similar salaries and educational backgrounds, the majority of the black middle class never enjoyed class-equivalency to whites

The “black middle class” is predominately a development that arose after the 1960s. Prior to then, African Americans had limited opportunities. In 1960, blacks had little to no access to higher education and only three percent graduated from college. Those blacks who were professionals were mainly confined to serving the African American population. The Black Middle Class MLK had envisioned was to grow and impact traditional black communities.

While a black underclass has remained rooted in urban poverty, blacks of middle class means started to leave them in the 1970s to pursue quality schools, security and appreciated property values in suburban neighborhoods. Nowadays, many blacks are finding their grip on middle class is precarious. The value of many Black middle-class homeowners wealth is falling. Loans that many of them received in the 1990s were high-cost sub prime loans. Now, the value of their homes is sinking as foreclosures occur and their banks have frozen home equity lines of credit. Their “trappings of power” are being foreclosed and America’s contemporary black middle class is being revealed as having been more “symbol” than “substance”. In what Booker T. would have called “frivolous actions,” the black middle class’ activities have tilted more toward trappings of consumption than economic advancement for the race.

The Black Middle Class cashed in on the check MLK said America owed. As they became “middle-class” they became adherents of the status quo. Many among the Black Middle Class never think, or act, outside a mainstream mindset. They became establishment-oriented and provided “insufficient funds” toward lifting up their fellow Black Americans.

“If they have no bread, let them eat cake,” is how the black middle class has responded to their urban and underclass cousins. To their determent, middle class blacks have been obsessed with “mainstreaming”. Their unflinching support of the Obama candidacy and acceptance of the American establishment’s indifference to the plight of poor blacks and social policy needed to maintain affirmative action, end law enforcement and judicial injustices, and increase race-targeted antipoverty programs to help poor blacks illustrates their abandonment of any legacy of King’s economic dream. As they reel backwards, wonder how many of the black middle class recognize the error of their deeds? By

William Reed, Week of October 26, 2008

The fastest growth rate was not on America’s shores but among households in developing regions, such as China and the Gulf States. In these regions, the world-wide axiom applies: the families who were already rich got richer. Wealth is growing among households in Asia and the Pacific Rim – rising 14 percent. Wealth growth was fueled by manufacturing in Asia and commodities in Latin America and the Middle East.

The world’s wealth is increasingly concentrated among those that have the most. The top 1 percent of the world’s households owned 35 percent of its wealth last year. Meanwhile, the top 0.001 percent, ultra-rich households holding at least $5 million in assets, commanded $21 trillion – a fifth of the world’s wealth. Forbes lists 1,125 individuals and families as billionaires. Americans account for 42 percent of the world’s billionaires and 37 percent of their total wealth. Russia is number two with 87 billionaires. Germany is third with 59 billionaires. Africa has two of the world’s richest, South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe and Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote. Mohamed “Mo” Ibrahim is a Sudanese-born communications billionaire based in Briton. The planet continues to mint new millionaires rapidly. The biggest jumps in 2007 of second-tier rich came from emerging countries in Asia and Latin America. Overall, the number of millionaire households in the world grew to 10.7 million last year.

Hampered by the mortgage crisis and credit crunch North Americans’ personal wealth growth slowed to 3.8 percent last year. The number of U.S. millionaire households is now roughly seven percent of all households – 9.3 million. The number of millionaire black households in America is 110,000. Most black millionaire households get their wealth from family businesses – funeral homes, medical practices, real estate and construction, retail and service sector businesses. America’s two black billionaires, Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson amassed their fortunes in communications and entertainment, and real estate.

TNS research company reports that the median age of the head of millionaire US households is 58 percent – 45 percent are retired. Roughly 19 percent own in whole or part a professional practice or privately held business. Over 50 percent of millionaires said they had become more conservative in their investment approach over the past year. Their wealth is the result of long-term wealth accumulation. Although real estate is not their sole source of wealth, it remains a staple for many American millionaires. Forty-six percent own investment real estate like a second home or rental properties and 70 percent of millionaire households own stocks and bonds, and 68 percent own mutual funds.

Reports show that while the world’s rich have been making some adjustments as a result of the financial crisis. This year, assets are being shifted to more conservative investments, more money is being kept onshore in home markets and some investments have been curtailed. The outlook for wealth markets and the banks who serve them remains dimmed by the current financial crisis. Banks, brokerages and money managers will have little choice, but to expand their presence among these individuals, families and investment programs in the world’s fastest growing centers.

Personal wealth in America is expected to continue growing, but at a slower pace. With Wall Street’s slump, growth in assets is expected to rise less than 1 percent. Things are expected to improve over the next five years with personal wealth growing more than 3 percent annually – well off the 8.5 percent set between 2002 and 2007. While Black Americans have increased their presence in mainstream and middle-class-status numbers, their wealth profile remains comparatively low. The median black household income was $33,916 (national median: $50,233). Blacks’ per capita incomes was $18,428 (national figure: $26,804). Their poverty level was 24.5 percent (national rate: 12.5%). Blacks’ rate of poverty remained statistically unchanged.

By William Reed, Week of October 19, 2008

MLK – Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The question about African Americans’ “empowerment” is not as much about our political clout as it is whether or not we are better off economically than we were when Martin Luther King was killed in 1968.

Some black Americans are doing very well. Barack Obama’s presidential run, Tiger Woods is the world’s best-paid athlete and former Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O’Neal pocketed $160 million in a golden corporate parachute. But these blacks are the exception rather than the rule. Where MLK’s civil rights activities paid off the most was in spawning a Black Middle Class. Since the Civil Rights Movement, the black political and middle-income class has grown significantly. Forty years since MLK declared American owed a debt to Black Americans, Barack Obama is black’s race-neutral Messiah, and our middle class group is regressing.

With their contemporary image of surfeit, the question surrounding the Black Middle Class Era is “What contribution have they made toward Martin’s ‘dream of economic equity’ in America?” The black middle class grew from the Civil Rights Movement through public policy and increased opportunities for skills development. Since King died the black middle class population has quadrupled. In 2008, over a million black households have annual incomes of $100,000 a year or more. These upward strides and their excesses have given the illusion that race cannot be the barrier that some make it out to be.

The rates of self-obsession and consumption among the generations of black middle class illustrate how static hold reaps regression. Many of the black middle class are now caught up in the financial meltdown. Despite their displays of opulence, similar salaries and educational backgrounds, the majority of the black middle class never enjoyed class-equivalency to whites

The “black middle class” is predominately a development that arose after the 1960s. Prior to then, African Americans had limited opportunities. In 1960, blacks had little to no access to higher education and only three percent graduated from college. Those blacks who were professionals were mainly confined to serving the African American population. The Black Middle Class MLK had envisioned was to grow and impact traditional black communities.

While a black underclass has remained rooted in urban poverty, blacks of middle class means started to leave them in the 1970s to pursue quality schools, security and appreciated property values in suburban neighborhoods. Nowadays, many blacks are finding their grip on middle class is precarious. The value of many Black middle-class homeowners wealth is falling. Loans that many of them received in the 1990s were high-cost sub prime loans. Now, the value of their homes is sinking as foreclosures occur and their banks have frozen home equity lines of credit. Their “trappings of power” are being foreclosed and America’s contemporary black middle class is being revealed as having been more “symbol” than “substance”. In what Booker T. would have called “frivolous actions,” the black middle class’ activities have tilted more toward trappings of consumption than economic advancement for the race.

The Black Middle Class cashed in on the check MLK said America owed. As they became “middle-class” they became adherents of the status quo. Many among the Black Middle Class never think, or act, outside a mainstream mindset. They became establishment-oriented and provided “insufficient funds” toward lifting up their fellow Black Americans.

“If they have no bread, let them eat cake,” is how the black middle class has responded to their urban and underclass cousins. To their determent, middle class blacks have been obsessed with “mainstreaming”. Their unflinching support of the Obama candidacy and acceptance of the American establishment’s indifference to the plight of poor blacks and social policy needed to maintain affirmative action, end law enforcement and judicial injustices, and increase race-targeted antipoverty programs to help poor blacks illustrates their abandonment of any legacy of King’s economic dream. As they reel backwards, wonder how many of the black middle class recognize the error of their deeds? By

William Reed, Week of October 26, 2008

Let’s fact it, gambling is a reality around the world and growing in America among people who have the desire and money for it. It’s time that African Americans do something transformative toward generating more economics where we live with more of us owning places where bets are placed. If example, polls in Maryland show that 7 of 10 residents support legalizing slots; and if the state’s voters approve the initiative in November, Maryland will become the 38th state to allow slots or casino-style gambling. Due to the state’s black legislative officials, African American entrepreneurs will have numerous operations in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, the nation’s wealthiest majority-black county

Gambling is where the money’s at. Americans wager more money than they spend on all leisure things except alcohol. The gambling industry had 2005 gross revenues of $84.65 billion and proponents say it provides localities valuable tax revenue and job opportunities. Across America in 2006, commercial casinos provided over 354,000 jobs and yearly state and local tax revenue of $5.2 billion.

Gaming operators mainly provide a place or a means to play games of chance, where the odds of winning favor the “house.” Gambling is legal under US federal law, but the states are free to regulate or prohibit it. If state-run lotteries are included, almost every state allows some form of gambling. Levels of government down to township municipalities have the right to authorize multiple forms of gambling from bingo in church basements, to multi-million dollar poker tournaments. The American Gaming Association breaks gambling down into the following categories: Card Rooms, both public and private; Commercial Casinos; Charitable Games and Bingo; Indian Casinos; Legal Bookmaking; Lotteries; and Pari-mutuel Wagering.

Black economic empowerment can occur in gambling businesses. There are 17 states (and 1 US Territory) that allow commercial casinos in some form. There are approximately 450 commercial casinos. Most casinos are small. Companies with large operations include MGM Mirage and Harrah’s Entertainment. About $35 billion of annual revenue is taken in by commercial casinos, $20 billion by state lotteries, about $25 billion by Indian casinos, and the rest by horse racing, bingo, charities, and bookmaking operators. (For gambling companies, “revenue” is the total amount bet minus winnings paid to gamblers.) The industry has become highly concentrated: the top 20 companies hold more than 60 percent of the market.

Actual operations of casinos involve acquiring and servicing gambling machines, usually from large game equipment manufacturers such as International Game Technology and Bally Technologies. Gambling operators are free to set the odds of winning as long as they prominently post a pay schedule on the machine. Gambling licensees pay states a percent of gross revenue – 20 to 25 percent. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations and effective marketing. Large operators have the financial resources to make large investments in facilities and computers.

Detroit-native, Don H. Barden is the country’s only African American owner of a national gambling company and first to own a Las Vegas casino. Barden has been a millionaire since the 1980s and a casino owner for 12 years, with six casinos in five states. He owns large casino establishments in Tunica, Mississippi and Gary, Indiana. The Barden’s Company was selected Black Enterprise’s 2003 Company of the Year. The Baden Companies have annual earnings in excess of $350 million and is perennially among Black Enterprise’s top ten black companies.

Many blacks will oppose gambling, saying “it leads to corruption, compulsive gambling, and higher crime rates” in their communities. But, nationwide polls show 66 percent of Americans view gambling as “moral acceptable” and support it. Over the last decade, legal gambling businesses have expanded exponentially and politicians have become intimately connected to the industry. If gambling is being discussed in your town, you need to ensure lawmakers get minority businesses 25 percent, or more, of gambling-related contracts, and guarantees that the venues will hire local residents. People interested in entrepreneurial opportunities in the industry should research their local legislation on gambling.

By William Reed, Week of October 5, 2008

Lawmakers that pushed for the legislation hailed it as key to saving thousands of jobs in the state.  Detroit Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, chair of the 43-member Congressional Black Caucus, played a major role in passage of the legislation.  What many will call “corporate welfare” enables General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to get at least $5 billion each.  This allows them to borrow money at interest rates as low as 4 percent. Over several years, the automakers could save hundreds of millions in financing costs. The car companies will have five years before they start repaying the loans.

Black Americans hold 13 percent of auto industry jobs and have significant interest in the Detroit 3’s survival.  With approval of the low-interest loans, the U.S. auto industry won help it urgently needs to rework its vehicles.  The plan was in the Congressional queue months before the Wall Street bailout came to the fore.  But the loans are one of several government aids – from research funds to consumer tax credits – automakers will increasingly rely on to build technology they need to survive. The automakers first sought an installment of loans totaling about $6 billion, but the nationwide credit crunch crimped their ability to borrow. The $25 billion is just a down payment, automakers will seek another $25 billion next year to retool old assembly lines and develop advanced, fuel-efficient technology.

The idea behind the loans is to buy time while the Detroit 3 revamp their lineups, develop new hybrids and other fuel-sippers, and convert old SUV plants into factories turning out cars able to compete with comparable Japanese models. Consumers reeling from $4 gas have fled the big trucks and SUVs the manufacturers milked for two decades, and Detroit’s smaller cars tend to rate poorly compared with competitors.  The domestics’ U.S. market share is now about 48 percent, a staggering fall of nearly 20 points since the start of the decade. GM and Ford are expected to produce about 1.3 million fewer cars this year than in 2007.  Even cheap loans will do little to help erase years of red ink and it’s going to take some time to make a dent in their debt load.

Blacks have a stake in the trillion-dollar automotive industry, and many jobs are at jeopardy if the Detroit 3 stay in the doldrums.  But, as taxpayers it’s time to consider what “a billion” actually means:  Counting non-stop, one number a second, it would take almost 32 years to count to 1 billion.  A billion here and a billion there and soon it adds up to real money that has to be repaid.  But the reality is that automakers face a life-threatening crisis if the U.S. car market doesn’t rebound. General Motors reported a second-quarter loss of $15.5 billion and Ford Motor reported an $8.7 billion loss. GM and Ford could start to run out of cash by the second half of 2009.  Chrysler’s sales are down even more than Ford and GM.

Vehicle purchases are the second-largest purchase most black families make.  Import and domestic dealers, in total, have annual new car and truck sales of about $480 billion.  Annual new and used car and truck sales in the US amount to a near-trillion dollar business.  Minorities accounted for 22 percent of the US new-car market, but just 5 percent of dealerships.

African American should hope the loan infusion doesn’t just produce more of the same for them in the automotive marketplace.  Due to discrimination, black buyers have to spend more than other groups at the time of their purchase of vehicles.  On top of their taxpayer burden to the industry, blacks shouldn’t have to pay higher loans rates than whites on 60 to 72 month contracts after they’ve paid an average price of $30,000 for a new car or truck.

By William Reed, Week of September 28, 2008

African American political icon, 76-year-old Charles Bernard Rangel is in hot water regarding his Chairmanship of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee of Ways and Means. Harlem’s Congressman heads the 110th Congress’ chief tax-writing committee. The U.S. Constitution requires that all bills regarding taxation originate in the House of Representatives, and House procedure is that all bills regarding taxation must go through Rangel’s committee. The 19-term Congressman is accused of slovenliness regarding his person financial and tax filings and real estate deals and under pressure to vacate his high position.

“Charlie” Rangel was born in New York City on June 11, 1930 and has been a Democratic member of Congress representing New York’s 15th Congressional District since 1971. Even though his district is the smallest in the country in geographic size, Harlem’s Congressman is one of Congress’ most senior and legendary Members. He became chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in January 2007 and is the first African-American to chair the committee.

The emperor has no clothes. Rangel was an original founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, but instead of gaining standing as a paragon of African Americans’ political empowerment, his political chicanery has been more of an embarrassment. The man who heads the nation’s tax policies admits to a string of errors on his federal tax returns and congressional discourse forms that possibly go back 20 years. Rangel is being forced to re-do his state and local returns and has hired forensic accounting experts to “conduct a thorough, independent review” of his statements for the last 20 years.

The author of “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress,” may have to give up his chairmanship due to “bad days” of ineptitude the House Ethics Committee may dredge up examining Rangel’s records. His transgressions include failure to report ownership of a Florida condo, and assessing the value of his Caribbean rental home at $250,000 one year and $40,000 another – and not reporting it at all in a third tax year. More galling is his four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem and apparent failure to report income from the sale of a home he owned in the District of Columbia. In the face of Harlem residents seeking affordable housing, Rangel rents four apartments in the Lenox Towers, three of which he uses as a residence and the other as a campaign office. Because the units are rent-stabilized, Rangel’s monthly payments are well below market rates.

But, if you thought Rangel was irresponsible regarding his accounting practices, the antic that has Washington bureaucrats hopping mad involves his “vintage” Mercedes Benz. Reminiscent of rube neighbors that leave junk cars on blocks in front yards, Rangel used a House of Representatives parking garage for years as a free storage space for his old Benz – in direct violation of congressional rules. The 1972 silver sedan was parked in a coveted section of an indoor lot near elevators that led to his office. Before it was towed, the car sat covered with a protective tarp and no license plates. Records show Rangel’s registration on the vehicle expired in 2004.

In spite of his missteps, since his chairmanship Rangel has been one of the Democrats’ top fundraisers. Due to his position, Rangel is flooded with contributions from lobbyists and political action committees. Rangel regularly raises millions for the party, but says that corporate entities seeking his attention should “support policies that help mostly African-American and Hispanic constituencies” in inner-cities.

That’s big talk on his part, but the question of the moment is: “Should someone that ethically obtuse continue to sit as chairman of Ways and Means?” Should blacks blindly support Rangel to hold his chairmanship, or hold him to a high standard of performance? Friendly fellow that he is, Rangel’s antics, whether simply through slovenliness, neglect, or both, should be brought to an end.

By William Reed, September 21, 2008

Dr. Crouch’s Presidential works are of note because they are setting precedence for racial progress and measurable inclusion.  In 2006, Crouch took an unprecedented step to break down racial barriers, end common miscommunications and continue arouse black heritage.  In a plan considered “controversial,” Crouch and Georgetown are trying to increase their minority student’s recruitment numbers through relationships with historically black Baptist denominations to adopt the legacy of Bishop College.

With “race issues” so prominent in the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Crouch’s move sets an attention-getting tone.  While the prevailing national discussion evolves around “race natural” and “colorblind” issues, Crouch says, “Everybody talks about ‘diversity’.  We must learn to live, work, and play together.  Therefore, the effectiveness of diversity depends on the sincerity of its delivery”.

Typically marginalized and unrepresented in America, Blacks should recognize actions of inclusion that’s more than talk.  Crouch’s plan to Bishop College’s alumni involves making Georgetown their adopted alma mater.  Georgetown offers scholarships to children or grandchildren of Bishop Alumni or students nominated by Bishop Alumni. Upon graduation, these students receive diplomas with the name and insignia of Bishop College.  The focus of Crouch’s ploy is to help Georgetown increase its minority enrollment to 25 percent by 2012.

Crouch is leading a $27 million campaign that will preserve the memory, spirit and advancement of Bishop College.  Saying he’s captivated by Bishop’s history and its graduates’ accomplishments, Crouch hopes the “Bishop College Alive” campaign will get Bishop Alumni to send good black students his way.  Georgetown College is 897 miles from Bishop’s old Dallas, Texas campus.

Crouch’s initiative includes Legacy Scholarships and a new building named for Bishop, founded in 1881 in the name of a white Northern couple that provided the initial $10,000.  Through financial support of white philanthropists Bishop grew.  During the 1930s through the ‘50s, Bishop was nationally known for its two-year ministerial program – participants included the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Jesse Jackson.  By 1986 Bishop had amassed huge debts, lost its accreditation, filed for bankruptcy and closed.  Paul Quinn College now occupies Bishop’s old campus.

Dr. Crouch acknowledges that boosting Georgetown’s minority enrollment is “absolutely critical” to his quest for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.  But, to meet that challenge Crouch currently endows Bishop Scholarships at $500,000 annually.  He is raising $4 million for the academic building at Georgetown that will carry the Bishop name and be designed by a black architect.  Bishop’s ministerial Alumna has pledged $1 million toward the project and serves on Georgetown’s board of directors.

With words not spoken in Polite American Society, Crouch says “Diversity in higher education is critical to creating future leaders”.  Crouch has added more African Americans to Georgetown management and admissions positions.  Georgetown officials plan to house sermons and other historical materials related to black Baptist ministers.  Georgetown sought and received a government grant and houses the Kentucky Underground Railroad Research Institute in a building that once served as quarters for slaves in transit.

Dr. Crouch has gotten Sovereign Bank, Simplex Corp., the Army and others to help Bishop People “preserve their heritage”.  He says Georgetown will award an annual honorary doctorate to distinguished Bishop Alum and reintroduce and market a Bishop clothing line.  Crouch’s plan gives Bishop’s People a home away from home.  He’s offered to host Bishop Homecomings on Georgetown’s campus. African-American fraternities and sororities are encouraged to establish chapters in Georgetown’s “Greek” culture.

Crouch is right that the 21^st Century will be increasingly diverse and that culturally-diverse education better prepares people to live and work together.  He’s to be congratulated for his meaningful body of work navigating the historically white Baptist institution past a history based of slavery, segregation, and racism.

By William Reed, Week of September 14, 2008

Former Colonial Power Pays Africans Reparations

Under Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s prolonged and persistent pressure for justice, Libya became the first African country to receive apologies and compensation from a former colonial power.  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently apologized to the North African country for damage Italy inflicted during 40 years of colonial rule and signed an agreement to pay $5 billion as compensation to resolve colonial-era disputes.

Libya’s leader said the settlement opened the door to partnership between the two states.  Long a pariah among Western powers, Gaddafi called the treaty “historic” and that it “marked the defeat of colonialism”.  Gaddafi said “Tyranny has a price which must be borne by the perpetrators,” while Mr. Berlusconi said the deal ended “40 years of misunderstanding”.

Italy was a minor player in European whites’ “Manifest Destiny” of domination over lesser races to shape the world in their image.  During their Colonization Period European nations extended their sovereignty over territories beyond their borders by establishment of either settler or exploitation colonies during which indigenous populations were directly ruled, displaced, or exterminated.  For almost a century European countries engaged in systems of direct political, economic, and cultural intervention and hegemony over weaker, and almost always non-white, nations.  Italy invaded Libya in 1911. It also invaded Ethiopia and occupied Eritrea and Somalia.

When Italy invaded the North African country that borders the Mediterranean, much of the European thinking was that colonialism was legal.  Rome and Tripoli Rome have spent years arguing over compensation for the colonial period.  But, Gaddafi doggedly pursued reparations and labeled colonialism as “crimes recognized in international law”.

Although the Italian Reparations have numerous self-serving tenets, African leaders are pondering: “Will the move set a precedent?” And, “Whether other former colonial masters will pay reparations for the civil wrongs and human rights abuses they visited on former ‘subjects’”?

Until Italian confession and penance, former colonial powers had refused to acknowledge the legal and moral basis for reparations for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, human rights abuses and other international injustices they committed in Africa. Mr. Berlusconi told Libyan journalists that the $5 billion compensation was a “material and emotional recognition of the mistakes” that Italy had made during colonialism.  But, many said say that the deal has much more to do with Italy’s concern about oil and immigrants.

Mr. Berlusconi said he’d pay $200 million for infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a coastal highway across Libya from Tunisia to Egypt – to be built by Italian contractors. There will also be a colonial-era mine clearing project.  Italy also returned an ancient statue of Venus, the headless “Venus of Cyrene”, taken to Rome during colonial times.

Italy has been swamped by thousands of African migrants trying to reach its shores by boat and Berlusconi wants Gaddafi to crack down on African migrants and Italy is to pay for $500 million of electronic monitors along Libya’s coast as part of the compensation package.

“In this historic document, Italy apologizes for killing, destruction and repression Libyans during the colonial rule,” Col Gaddafi said.  Gaddafi has pushed for the United States of Africa for years. Libya is a North African country that borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north and lies between Egypt to the east and Sudan to the southeast, the former Ottoman territory is an area of almost 700,000 square miles, 90 percent of which is desert.  Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. Oil was discovered in 1958 and has transformed its economy. The capital, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya’s 5.7 million people.

Now that Libya has been compensated by its former colonial master, who will follow suit?  France, a major ex-colonial force in Africa, downplayed the treaty as “strictly an arrangement between Italy and Libya to enhance relations between Libya and the international community, including European”.

Proper restitutions will begin when all Europeans acknowledge they benefited from colonialism and that it was a crime against humanity whose consequences are still with us.

By William Reed, Week of September 8, 2008

As African activists celebrated Marcus Garvey’s 121^st birthday, Black Entertainment Television founder-turned-billionaire developer Robert Johnson was building a four-star, beachfront resort to open March 2009 near the Liberian capitol of Monrovia.

Most African Americans know little of Liberia.  Located on Africa’s west coast, Liberia’s name denotes “liberty” as a result of Black Americans’ colonization in 1822. By 1921, Garvey had the conviction that American Blacks should have a permanent homeland in Africa and sought to develop Liberia.  He had intended to build colleges, industrial plants, and railroads as part of an industrial base from which to operate. During the 1980s and 90s, the country was embroiled in a civil war that destroyed its economy and image.

Now, Bob Johnson says, “Last September, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf captivated an audience at the Clinton Global Initiative with descriptions of the extraordinary challenges facing her country. Sirleaf’s courage and vision inspired me and a group of colleagues to commit to revitalizing the historic but dormant relationship between African Americans and Liberia.  After all, Jewish Americans have been vital to Israel’s welfare.  African Americans should play a similar role for Liberia.”

Johnson led the first American investment mission to Liberia in over 30 years and initiated the RLJ Liberia Initiative, a RJR Companies development fund, to help bring Liberia back from its war-ravaged struggles.  The RLJ Kendeja Resorts & Villas will be an 85-room, four-star resort on the Atlantic coast.  “There is no hotel in West Africa like this,” says Johnson.  “This will be a Class-A beachfront property, with great views out to the ocean”.  Johnson is taking a risk on an upscale project in a country that has not seen a new hotel room built in 20 years.  Ground was broken with a labor force of 500 Liberian workers.  The RJR Kendeja will have rates of $150 to $200 a night.  Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is expected to host the first guests.  And, if all goes as planned, she will be followed by ambassadors, multinational corporate executives, foundations and others looking to fuel Liberia’s growth.

The property is located outside Monrovia, a city of 400,000, which only has a handful of hotels.  Johnson says the project furthers his “commitment of mobilizing resources to aid Liberia’s rehabilitation and signal to the international and local sectors that Liberia is open for business.”   As the Liberia government seeks to boost tourism, it’s hard not to see Johnson’s initiative as a good thing.   Just six hours from America’s East Coast, Liberia has 300 miles of white sandy beaches and attractions such as shallow lagoons, islands, lakes, mangrove swamps, rivers, volcanoes and colonial-styled wide porch homes. Liberia’s unique history as the first black African republic and a haven for freed black American slaves in the 19th century can be great attractions.

RLJ Liberia Enterprise Development Fund programs aid entrepreneurs and coordinate advocacy and outreach efforts with President Johnson-Sirleaf’s programs.  The American Johnson says revenue returns will help spur reconstruction of the country’s schools, roads, hospitals, utilities and businesses. Some could see the initiative as Bob Johnson taking up where Marcus Garvey left off.  Best known for the “Back to Africa” movement, Marcus Garvey is credited with creating history’s biggest movement of people of African descent. His business and social movements of the 1920s is said to have had more participation from people of African descent than the Civil Rights Movement

Though Garvey never actually went to Liberia, large numbers of U.S. tourists went before the wars.  Now, Johnson is chronicling Garvey’s back to Africa movement.  Johnson says, “Liberia deserves American support, and African Americans especially must come forward to reestablish the historic bond between our nations”.  He has increased the U.S. government’s has attention and investments and programs toward Liberia. In many sectors, Liberia has world-class natural resources.  While many still condemn Johnson about the content of BET programming, the paradox is that Garvey would probably be proud of Johnson and his successes at “working the system”.  He is to be applauded for addressing very real economic issues in the motherland.

By William Reed, Week of August 24, 2008