Podcasts about reverend jesse jackson

The contemporary era of black intellectual thought 1975 to the present is characterized by a growth in black feminist thought, an expansion of rainbow coalitions by prominent black leaders, an explosion of the black middle class and a black bourgeoisie, and an extension of black political, social, and cultural ideas by influential scholars and academics. In opposition to the New Left Movement, there was a significant rise in conservatism not just in America but throughout the globe. This led to a drastic decrease in liberal welfare programs as well as a decrease in the practical reliance on socialism: Booker T. Washington's ideology specifically concerning education became the norm in the contemporary era. This period also witnessed the rise of the New Jim Crow: a system of mass incarceration and control of millions of primarily poor black and brown people as evidenced by millions of dollars governmental investment in for-profit prisons throughout America. The eventual election of President Barack Obama was not only a call to transcend the partisan bickering of Washington, but his presidency stood as a symbol of black excellence against traditional social hierarchies of white supremacy. The feminist Barbara Smith at the 1980 Combahee River Collective argues that world changing revolution don't have to just redistribute resources, but they also must be pro-feminist and antiracist to be comprehensive enough to include the most historically marginalized people in the modern era, black women. Many feminist and male freedom fighters such as the black panthers, were political prisoners who have garnered immense support for freedom in the modern era. Furthermore, the seminal first black mayor of Chicago Harold Washington through his reform of the segregated city revealed its racist structure and sought to undermine it. Intellectual feminists such as Audre Lorde indicated the necessity of identifying the elements of the oppressor in the oppressed, while Dr. Bell Hooks sought to illustrate the hierarchies of race, class, and gender and how we can overcome them. This era also saw massive opposition to the South African Apartheid state that lasted for four decades by such black icons such as Randall Robinson and Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jesse Jackson's rainbow coalition from his run for presidency in the mid 1980s would foreshadow the rise of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, 20 years later. However, education perspectives would transform more than politics. Academic scholars would shift the consciousness of minority student towards a greater appreciation of education by moving away from Eurocentric models of learning. What scholars like Dr. West and politicians like President Obama would recognize is that political advancement is more seated in understanding the need for hope, meaning, and purpose rather than identifying elements of subjugation against black America. These ideas would be drawn from many black figures of the past such as academics like W.E.B. Du Bois and social reformers like Dr. King and President Abraham Lincoln.

On this episode of Mea Culpa, I'm joined by Jesse Jackson Jr., former Congressman, son of civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson, and author of “A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights” and “The Finger of God.” In 2013, Jesse was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for violating campaign finance laws, and like me, he hoped for a pardon from President Biden. Jesse reflects on his father's legacy and his own efforts to uphold those values in Congress. We discuss the challenges of public life as the child of a prominent figure, the need for ethical leadership in today's polarized climate, and the urgency of systemic reform to create fairness and opportunity for all. Jesse also shares his views on mass pardons, criminal justice reform, and the impact of socioeconomic inequality. Thanks to our sponsors: VIIA: Try VIIA Hemp! https://viia.co/COHEN and use code COHEN! Lumen: Go to https://lumen.me/COHEN to get 20% off your Lumen. Subscribe to Michael's NEW Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMichaelCohenShow Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PoliticalBeatdown Add the Mea Culpa podcast feed: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen Add the Political Beatdown podcast feed: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Fake Christianity (4) (Audio) David Eells – 1/12/25 Ask for the Old Paths A.F.- 08/21/2007 (David's notes in red) This dream was so strong and memorable that I knew I needed to pay attention. I dreamed my husband and I bought a new house. It was actually a very old house (the house the Lord raised up 2000 years ago). It had been converted to a restaurant (to feed the true Word). We intended to convert it back to a house. (getting back to what was ordained of God: 1Jn.2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father.). It was awful. The decor was old and rotten. Full of heavy, dusty drapes and old furniture made from rare exotic wood but now out of date and unappealing (because of a falling away the original house has fallen into disrepair). As we took possession of the house, we started exploring all the rooms. Many rooms had been added on over the years. (Rev.22:18 I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book.) The front porch had been converted to a trinket shop full of tacky crafts and dusty Christmas junk (Since man-made religious systems are not supported by God through the faith of the leaders, they resort to Babylonish merchandising.). When I was examining the porch I pulled back the nasty, rotten carpet and found a good clean wood deck underneath (the old foundation). I made a mental note to rip up the carpet, dump the trinkets and merchandise and restore the porch to a place where you could sit and rest (a place to rest from man's works on God's Sabbath). From the porch, there was a stairway that led to another part of the house that had been added on and I was shocked to see how big the house had gotten (Again adding to the Word brings a curse. It was big but not good or effective, like the mega-churches). This particular wing was like a whole house in itself but it obviously had been used for commercial business offices (the merchants of Babylon). There was one narrow blue (heavenly) tiled staircase in this part of the house that had been closed off (men have closed off Jacob's Ladder [Hebrew: staircase] which represented the true path to heaven [Gen.28:12]. Luk.11:52 Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.). In the dream I knew it had once led to a pool or water source of some kind (to the true source of the living Waters of the Spirit Word). Even though it was roped off I tried to look up the staircase and was startled to see what appeared to be an angel at the top (The ministering spirit angels ascended and descended between Jacob and God. Jesus, the Word, said that He was this staircase, the way to heaven and God's way to us [Jn.1:51].). Then the angel began walking down the stairs, saying the area was closed, and then disappeared (It won't be closed much longer; Jesus is coming in His firstfruits to lead the church back to the water of life.). As I toured the house, making notes about what I would do to renovate it, I had a baby boy with me. Sometimes I carried him; sometimes he toddled beside me holding my hand tightly. I knew he was not my natural child but one that I was caring for and I wanted to keep him close to me (The fruit of Christ in the spirit man coming to those who seek the old house with the “old paths.”). I think the house definitely represents apostate religion. It has been used for business for too long and is now rotten and meaningless. I assume the baby boy is the man-child ministry. (The man-child will lead the true called-out ones back to the “old paths.”). Jer.6:16 Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk [therein]. 17 And I set watchmen over you, [saying], Hearken to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken. 18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in privily, [even] they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness (a license for self-will), and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Apostate leaders have denied Jesus the Lordship of His Church.   God Reveals the Apostate Leadership B.A. - 06/21/2015 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was inside a two-story house (which represents Heaven and Earth) with a family of seven children who were all boys. (The leadership of the seven churches of Revelation, six of whom represent the apostate leadership of the six church types that were corrected by the Lord in revelation. One is the Man-child leadership of the Philadelphia Church of brotherly love that was praised by the Lord and promised to escape the hour of trial. Rev.3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth: 8 I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), that thou hast a little power, and didst keep my word, and didst not deny my name. 9 Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them that say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10 Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11 I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. 12 He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name. 13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.) I was standing in the living room on the first floor (which represents the earth; things that are earthly and not from above or Heavenly). (Col.3:2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. Mat.16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men. And Php.3:18 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. 20 whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. 21 who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.) Immediately, I was sent to the basement level (a place of darkness and deceit) of this home where six of the boys had their bedrooms, along with their mother. (Representing the corporate body of the earthly Church.) The father was not home but in the dream; I knew that “the father” was at work. (The Father is at work to reform the six churches and their leaders through judgment.) Joh.1:5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. Mat.5:15 Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. I was allowed to enter into each of the children's bedrooms to inspect the condition of their rooms. (As the Lord did to the six churches in Revelations.) Upon entering each of their rooms, I immediately detected a foul, uninviting odor. (This is the smell of rebellion) Amo.4:10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I have made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. Their rooms were filthy with dust and dirt everywhere. (Uncleanness represents a lack of sanctification, “without which no man shall see the Lord” [Heb12.14].) I could tell that their rooms had not been cleaned in a very long time. I also opened each of their closet doors and inspected their garments. I wasn't surprised to find filthy, dirty, stinky clothes lying all over the floor. (Garments represent our works.) There were vulgar posters and other disgusting things hanging all over their walls as well. (That which they admire is sin.) I went into their mother's bedroom and it wasn't any better! (The mother reflects the children because they are born from her and are a part of her body.) Also, I was led to go into the basement bathroom that they all shared and it was covered in filth and had a very foul odor as well. I began to pray, as an evil spirit of darkness, like a thick black cloud, was all around me. (The church today reflects nothing we see in the example of the Church in the word.) After this, I was led back up to the first level and found myself in the kitchen, where the mother (apostate church) was preparing food (doctrine of demons) for six of her children. 1Ti.4:1 But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron. I watched as she placed the food she had prepared onto each of their plates. I couldn't help but notice that the food looked and smelled spoiled and inedible to me, and it was amazing to me how none of them could detect the foul odor or see the spoiled condition of this food. (They have even been known to appreciate the terrible spiritual food fed in the churches. Their leadership has eaten it but they also feed it to the children.) (No spiritual discernment whatsoever! 2Th.2:11 And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: 12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.) What will happen to the false leadership and their followers is history repeated. They are going into captivity to be devoured by the curse, in hope of their repentance. In Ezekiel 17, there were two great eagles, representing two portions of the great eagle of America; i.e., a civil war. One great eagle was D.S. Babylon which was conquering the eagle of Egypt. Representing God's people who were trusting in Egypt, their arm of flesh, to save them from D.S.Babylon that brought them into captivity. The morning I received this dream I also received Zechariah 5, the story of the apostate woman going into Babylonish captivity. This is an answer to what will happen to the woman and her offspring. At the same time, we received Jeremiah 46:19-28, which is Egypt conquered by Babylon. Many people of God had fled to Egypt to escape the Babylonish captivity, which means they trusted in the arm of flesh and were not in right standing with God to escape. In this text, a remnant learned their lesson and returned to their land, as also in Jeremiah 44:11-14. Then we received the same story again in Hosea 7:7-8:7. Some look around and think that the Satanists, communists, homosexuals, leftists, etc. are tearing down the country and they say it's because we have a bad president. No, he was sent by God. God's Word says that because we have bad Christians, “He” has been tearing down the country with bad leadership. The answer is not to fight or run; the answer is to repent. God took credit in the Bible for sending many kingdoms to conquer His people when they were apostates. Why is it they don't see this? It is because of their lack of love for the truth that they are happily fed garbage by the preachers.  God's people forgot how to read.) Then I found myself standing inside the room of the seventh son. (The place of the Philadelphia Church of brotherly love. The seventh is the place of rest; of abiding in Christ, of Jesus, our dwelling place and refuge.) Psa.91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust.) Upon entering his room, it had the smell of a room that had just been wiped clean. A fresh and inviting aroma permeated the entire room. 2Co.2:15 For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; 16 to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. I noticed that his bed (resting in the Lord) had been meticulously made. I could see that much care had gone into the making of his bed. (The rest in faith in the Lord's promises is what sanctifies and saves. Those who ran down to Egypt in their own works of the flesh to be saved are in Isa.30:1-3 Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of me; and that make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, 2 that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. He said to them in Isa.30:15 For thus said the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. And ye would not: 16 but ye said, No, for we will flee upon horses (trusting in their flesh of the Beast); therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. 17 One thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill. i.e., a remnant.) I listened as he was praying for his family below in the kitchen. And as he was praying, I saw food come down out of Heaven and enter into his body. End of dream. Psa.78:24 And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven. Joh.6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. 32 Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world. (The Philadelphia Church is also typed as the Bride, the Church of the Man-child.) Also read confirmations: Church of Brotherly Love Man-child: Born of Philadelphia Church   Vision of Two Rivers Josh Fontaine - 09/01/2015 (David's notes in red) This is a good exhortation. As I looked at this vision, I saw that it was not speaking of two rivers, one good and one bad, but one river which started out clean but was polluted more and more as it passed through man's hands and went downstream. We were all given the Bible from the mountain of God's Kingdom. It is truth, it is pure, but many self-ordained, man-ordained shepherds have perverted it to divide the flock unto themselves. Their walk will not permit them to see the truth and purity. Their idols have deceived them, as in Ezekiel 14. The story of this vision is in Ezekiel 34 and you will notice they had the clear waters in their hand but decided to tweak it to confirm their own evil walk or lifestyles. Eze.34:18 Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have fed upon the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? 19 And as for my sheep, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet (or walk), and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. This is saying, don't trust second-hand and third-hand, etc. word; go straight to the head of the river and read the Bible and listen to the Spirit for yourself. Php.2:12 So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Dirty water will not clean the church. Eph.5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. In July, I received a vision from the Lord concerning polluted waters and bad fruit. Before I share that vision, I would like to say that I love the church! I'm passionate about the church and I'm more convinced than ever that the church is God's answer for the world. Having said that, it is also important to recognize that we aren't where we should be and the Lord is answering with a pure move of His Spirit in our day. I will attempt to share this vision just as I received it and not add any of my own opinions to it. In the vision, the Lord and I were together in a great valley that stretched several miles in each direction from where we were standing. The Lord led me to the banks of this river and it was a relatively wide river with rapidly-moving water. As we approached the banks, I began to notice a horrible smell coming from the water. Once we reached the edge of the bank, the smell was overpowering me and it reeked like severely stagnant water and when I looked down into it, there was no life in this water, other than tadpoles and leeches, but no vegetation or fish. What I was seeing didn't make sense to me because this was an active, rapidly moving river and should have been full of life. I asked the Lord how this water could be stagnant yet moving so rapidly. The Lord spoke to me and said that this water wasn't stagnant; it was polluted. He then took me up the river to the mouth of it. The river was flowing out of the side of a mountain. Located at the corner of the valley and the mountain there was a very large factory. It was surrounded by a very high fence with razor wire across the top. The large door had a sign written across the top of the door that read “The Modern Church”. At all four corners were high watchtowers with armed guards on each of them. The Lord spoke to me and said that these watchmen were looking for an enemy, but I thought it wasn't the enemy. I asked the Lord whom they considered their enemy and He said that they were watching for any man or woman who would dare challenge the practices of the modern church. He then told me that they were highly trained character assassins and they would stop at nothing to silence the voices of those who would speak out and challenge carnal practices of the modern church system. We went behind the factory where the river ran beside it and there was a concrete ramp leading down into the water. There were people dumping barrels of substances into this water. Each barrel was labeled. I saw labels like: humanism, universalism, carnality, lust, sexual immorality, compromise, greed, and fear of man. He then led me down the river and we came upon a large fruit field. We crossed a bridge and approached the trees. These trees were some of the greenest trees I've ever seen, but when I approached them they were either void of any fruit, or the fruit was molded, rotten and infested by insects. The Lord told me that these trees were meant to bear good fruit, but the roots were tapped into contaminated and polluted water. We then moved farther down the river to a village. I saw people walking around this village. The people were very trendy and modern in their style and dress. I walked up to a man with his back to me and touched his shoulder. He turned around and I stepped back because his eyes were whited out and he was zombified. Death was in his face. I began to declare to him that he was dead, but that I could lead him to life. He began to defend his position with all sorts of philosophies and nothing I said was impacting him. I asked the Lord why the man wouldn't hear me and He said because “He wouldn't endure sound doctrine”. The Lord then told me that this man was the product of people eating rotten fruit and drinking from polluted waters. The part that stood out the most about this encounter with this man was the fact that he was utterly convinced he was alive. He couldn't be convinced of his condition. From here, the Lord then took me into the mountain where the river began. He took me past the factory and into a cave where the water was coming out. He took me up into the mountain and the water flowing through this mountain was the clearest, most beautiful water I've ever seen. (The polluted river had one beginning, one mouth, and it was clean. Its beginning is the Word of the Lord in the mountain that represents the Kingdom of God.) This water was living and vibrant. The Lord spoke to me that this river was the pure movement of His Spirit. He told me that this river was where His power and anointing was found. He said that many people are looking for Him in the “valley of man”, but He wasn't found there. He was found in the hill of the Lord. (This reminds me of Ezekiel 34 where the shepherds partook from the pure waters of the Word but fouled it by their own walk. It was their own factory to turn out duplicates of themselves, so God's solution was to depart from them and take His sheep and minister to them the pure water through his end-time David Man-children.) He told me that He was issuing an invitation to His people to come and flow in this river. He said that even though the invitation was to all of His ministers, many wouldn't tap into it because of what was going to be required to flow there. (They would have to take up their cross to lose their old life but their love of the world won't permit it.) He then gave me the following requirements to stay in the pure river: Only say what He says with no fear of man Honor Him and love Him more than the praise of man Abstain from sexual immorality Never prostitute the gift He has given me for money Stay humble Always be a good husband to my wife and a good father to my children He said if I would maintain these things in my life and ministry, He would allow me to flow in His pure river. He then said if I violate any of these things then I would no longer be able to stay in the mountain of God. He then quoted Psa.24:3 Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. He said that many ministers begin their ministries in the clean river, but after time, find themselves in the valley. He warned me strongly that once you go down to the valley, though it's possible to make your way back to the mountain, it is almost impossible because many times it will require public repentance and public humility. Many have trouble dealing with their pride in doing that. My prayer in this hour is that the true church of Jesus Christ would rise up with clean hands and pure hearts. There are two rivers flowing. Let's decide to flow where He is flowing.   Satan's Latter Rain Valerie Gleaton - 08/25/2009 (David's notes in red) I wanted to share with you a dream I had in 1996. I told my friend about it the next day because it was a little frightening to me. A few days later, we were at Blockbuster and I ended up renting a film on Nostradamus. (Nostradamus was a false prophet who used occult practices, witchcraft and divination.) I must tell you, I never had an interest in him, nor could I understand why I was compelled to rent this film. I went home and we began to watch the film. I was working on my laptop at the time and really wasn't paying attention to the movie and all of a sudden, I looked up at the TV and witnessed my exact dream unfolding. My friend looked at me and clearly exclaimed, “That's your dream!” I've never shared it with any of my former pastors because I believed they would not be able to help me understand it. It would be great if you could provide me with an understanding of it. This dream is still as vivid to me today as if I had it last night. The setting was an Old English-type. I had exited from this old, stone building leading out to a cobblestone street. (The stone building is God's true Church of old times, for we are the stones of His Church when we “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints”. The stone street is walking on the Word of God.) There was a black full-size car parked across the street next to a two-foot, stacked, stone wall. Just as I reached the rear of the car, I looked up and saw the clouds turn dark gray and they began to roll like storm clouds. (Coming tribulations.) Then they rolled back and black rain began to come down on my children and me. (This is Satan's latter rain of false anointings and doctrines coming to attack the church. Nostradamus was used to symbolize these. He not only was into divination, a false prophecy anointing but was also devoted to Catholicism and its false doctrines. “Catholic Church” means “Universal Church” because it was a unifying of false religions, including apostate Christianity, into a one-world order religion, a type for our day. This black rain is like the Dragon/Serpent of Rev.12:15-16 spewing a river of lies out of his mouth to catch the woman and her children, but the earth swallowed these lies.) Crying with panic, I ushered my children into the car and told the driver to get them out of there. They were crying and did not want to leave me. As they drove off, they were up in the rear window, crying and reaching out for me. (The immature will have to be carried out of this deception to the secret place of the Most High by the mature - Rev.12:14; Psa.91.) I picked up a bicycle and prepared to ride it, as I stood and watched them go down the hill. (Children have to be carried on four wheels but riding a bicycle represents balance, without which one falls, and forward motion, without which one falls.) End of dream. In the film, it was exactly the same, except it was a Caucasian man and his two children, a boy and a girl, whereas I had three children, a girl and two boys.   False Knowledge and the Great Falling Away G.W. - 05/21/2008 (David's notes in red) I had a dream of walking into this beautiful glass building. As I looked into the room, I noticed that there were stacks and stacks of books everywhere in this room. I then looked up into the air of this building and I noticed people falling out of the air on top of these books. They would land on the stacks of books and fall down dead. I then looked up again to where they were falling from and instantly I was on the top balcony of where these people were falling from. I then saw a guy that was about to jump off the balcony onto the books below. I noticed in his hand was the first chapter of Ephesians. I then began to warn him, “Do not jump! You have to look at the Bible that is in your hand!” Without any hesitation, he said, “Oh, no. I'm going to jump.” He then turned around and jumped to his death without any hesitation. I then turned around and I saw this large wooden room that was empty. Immediately I sensed demonic presence all around the room. I began to cast out the presence in Jesus' Name. Immediately I awoke in the fear of God to meditate on the dream and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 came to mind: “let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”. The very evil heart of the glass house of apostate religion is not hidden from God or man. These people are relying on false perceptions of the sure salvation mentioned in Ephesians 1. They are trusting in all the false knowledge of the books that religious men have written to give them a false justification and eternal security. Their false hope is that this will cushion their fall from grace to spiritual death(?)   Resting in the Midst of Chaos K. H. - 05/20/2011 (David's notes in red) At the beginning of the dream, I was with two other young women in the living room of a one-story white house. (Curt Bryan had a dream that we were all in a white house and I was warning people to stay inside; a fire was outside and it burned everything a foot deep but it stopped at the property line.) Shortly after I realized I was there in the room, I felt in my spirit that we needed to hide because someone was coming to look for us. So, we all crouched down under the windowsill. Then I saw a man dressed in all black with a button-down shirt and nice pants. It looked like a uniform but it had no identifying marks on it. He ran up to the window and looked in the house to see us but he couldn't see us. Psa.91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I noticed that the window was open slightly and there was a screen blocking him from being able to stick his hand in the house but he pulled a long sewing needle out of his pocket and stuck it through one of the holes and tapped the windowsill with the needle. He quickly removed the needle and ran away from the house. As soon as he ran away, I looked outside the house and saw there was chaos like I had never seen in the street. People were running all over the place and there were burning homes and lots of destruction all over the area. I was unsure of what had happened to cause this chaos but I knew it was a judgment from the Lord. As I was looking at what was happening, I noticed a sister from our local fellowship. She was standing outside of her house and looking at what was going on. It struck me because, just like me, she was at peace. (In these times ahead, we will see many things that will be troubling and will cause unrest amongst many people around the world but His children who abide in Him will have peace. Praise God! Joh.14:26 But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. Then, I saw a group of between 10-20 dark-skinned men running up the street. (Those walking in darkness.) I was surprised to see that their heads were on fire; they had been burning for so long that their brains were exposed. (When I told my mom about their heads being on fire, my mom said, “Coals of fire.” (These are the enemies who have persecuted God's people and are under His wrath for it. Rom.12:20 But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.) This led me to look up Psalm 18 which is about judgment and preservation.) The men ran to a house a few houses away from the house I was at and stopped. One man ran up to the front door and knocked. Reverend Jesse Jackson answered the door. The man asked him, “Why is this happening to us?” He said, “You're toxic!” (And you are in bad shape if Jesse is looking down on you and considers you toxic.) I then was back in the house with the other two women and I had a feeling in my spirit that I needed to go because the uniformed man from the beginning of the dream was coming back with more men to lay siege to the house I was in. I immediately was translated from where I was. (There is no place that God cannot save you. Translations will be very common in the days ahead.) The next thing I knew, I was on a very green mountain top and the sun was shining very brightly. On the right, in the corner of my eye, I saw a large shadow coming and as I looked up I saw that it was huge wings overhead, covering me. (I was reminded of Psa.36:7 How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings.) Then I woke up. (It is the Psalm 91 Passover.) Shortly after I woke up, the Lord spoke this scripture to me: Isa.63:8 For he said, Surely, they are my people, children that will not deal falsely: so he was their Saviour. I then read the verses above and below that verse that He spoke to, which says: 7 I will make mention of the lovingkindnesses of Jehovah, and the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. 8 For he said, Surely, they are my people, children that will not deal falsely: so he was their Saviour. 9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. The understanding that the Lord gave me about this dream was that there was nothing to worry about in the times to come, just to stay close to Him and trust Him to protect and watch over me and the rest of His children. Thank you, Lord!   Why BUY Strong Delusion? B.A. - 04/20/2012 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was in some kind of strange church building with no name. (It did not have the name, which means the true nature, character and authority of God, and it was strange because I didn't recognize their Jesus.) 2Pe.2:1 But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of. I saw a long line of people going down to an altar to look into a small bowl (the golden calf). Exo.32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. 2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3 And all the people brake off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received it at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it a molten calf: and they said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. On their way to the bowl, there was a large coffer and people would walk by and throw their money into the coffer, then they would proceed on for their opportunity to look inside this bowl. (This is the way that leads to death -- laying up an earthly treasure in an earthly box, trying to buy their way into God's gifts.) Mat.6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also. I watched this for a while and was curious as to what was in that bowl and why some people were giving large amounts of money just to get the privilege of looking into this bowl. Pro.14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death. I watched as a man in a nice business suit (trying to make the flesh look good) went up to the coffer and put in a large check. I thought to myself, Wow, there must be something really special in that bowl. I decided to go have a look inside this bowl for myself. I didn't have any money with me to put into this coffer, but no one was paying attention to me anyway. (I wasn't trying to buy my way into God's kingdom. Also, I didn't look like them, so they weren't interested in me.) As I approached the bowl (idol), I could detect a foul odor. (Worshipping idols and walking in unholiness is a stench in the nostrils of God. We can be a sweet aroma to God in repentance and cleansing from sin.) (Num.15:3) And will make an offering by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savior unto the LORD, of the herd, or of the flock. It didn't seem to bother anyone else, but as I got closer to the bowl the smell became almost unbearable, like fire and brimstone. I quickly looked down into the bowl and, to my surprise, all I saw was the bottom of the bowl. I thought to myself, What are these people paying for? I don't see anything. (People are pouring money into churches that offer no spirituality in return whereas the Lord gives freely. Isa 55:1-3 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  2  Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.  3  Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Jesus commanded His disciples in Mat.10:8, “freely you have received, freely give.”) The smell of the bowl was so overwhelming that I had to go outside and get some fresh air (a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit outside the camp where a legitimate sacrifice of flesh should be). I saw a couple of people standing around, so I went up to them and asked them, “What did you see in the bowl?” A woman who was standing in the group with a lot of makeup on her face (apostate church [faking spiritual beauty] and hiding behind their false doctrine), spoke up and asked me, “What did you mean by asking that question?” I said, “Well, I went and looked into the bowl and I didn't see anything but the bottom of the bowl”. She said to me, “If you had spiritual eyes like we do, you wouldn't have any trouble seeing what was in the bowl”. (Having self-delusion and pride will keep anyone from God's gift of true spiritual sight.) Joh.3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Rom.8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 2Co.4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Rom.1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And Rom.11:10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. Her words troubled me, as I believe that I do have spiritual eyes to see. There was a bench nearby, so I decided to go over and sit down to think about this bowl and what this woman said to me. As I was sitting there, an elderly man came up to me and asked if he could share the bench with me (a messenger from God). I said, “Sure, there's plenty of room for the both of us”. He said, “I couldn't help but notice your troubled face. I'd like to listen if you would like to share what's troubling you”. So I told this nice man about the bowl and what the woman had said to me. I told him I was concerned because I thought I did have spiritual eyes and didn't know why I couldn't see what they saw. (Those of us who come to the true knowledge of God will not have any problems seeing through the lies with our spiritual eyes.) This kind, elderly man said to me, “Daughter (Jesus?), you do have spiritual eyes and there is nothing wrong with your spiritual eyes”. I said, “Then why couldn't I see what was in that bowl like the other people?” He said to me, “It's their eyes that can't see”. They have hardened their hearts to the truth, therefore, God sent them a strong delusion to believe a lie. 2Th.2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. I said, “I don't understand what you mean. Can you please explain what you mean to me?” He said, “Did you notice that they all had to pay and some had to pay dearly for the privilege of looking into that bowl? That's not acceptable to God”. (The Lord means charging people a tithe by putting them under the law in the New Testament for their bowl of spiritual food is an abomination. If you have to buy it, then it's not true food. God wants a freewill offering from the heart -- 2 Corinthians 9:7. Jesus said tithing was of the Law -- Matthew 23:23-24. Ministers must freely give what they freely received and walk by faith -- [Read Greed and the Tithe.] Because of Jesus' commands they learned to walk by faith. Mat 10:8-10  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give.  9  Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses;  10  no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food. Eph.2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. He said, “When they looked into that bowl, each one of them saw what they wanted to see or what they paid to see. The truth of the matter is, there was nothing in the bowl, as you saw for yourself; and because you did not pay to look into the bowl, the Lord allowed you to see the truth.” Mat.6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. If your eye is totally focused on Jesus Christ, who is “the light of the world”, then everything that enters into you will be Him and you will be full of Him. When you are full of Him, you are like Him. PTL!   Beware the Flood of the Serpent G.C. - 09/11/2008 (David's notes in red) The living waters that Jesus said would flow out of believers are thoughts, words and ways of the kingdom, which bring life. The waters that the serpent casts out of his mouth in Revelation 12 to destroy the woman are the thoughts, words and ways of the devil sent to pervert and destroy God's people. The strong have been able to use the media of the world in relative safety but it is becoming more and more dangerous as porn is common on TV and even religious TV and radio are imparting demons to Christians. The time will soon come when we should use none of their media and is here already in most cases. The wilderness will become more and more separation from the things of the World. UBM intends by God's grace to create a Christian channel that will be Unleavened Bread to feed God's people. God's people were warned in Exodus 12 that during the last seven days, as types of years, if leaven was found in the people's houses they would be cut off from His people. If a little leaven leavens the whole lump, what will a lot of leaven do from the world? There can be no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness even now. Fellowship is giving and receiving. When we go to the world it should be only giving and not receiving of their thoughts, words and ways. In any relationship with the lost we are not to be yoked to unbelievers. Permission is only given in marriage when the believer is already married to one so that they may be saved through your faith and example. In a dream, I was living a simple existence in the deep woods. Anytime I needed to travel somewhere, I would swim through a deep creek that would take me anywhere I needed to go. This creek was my lifeline to the outside world. I did not have a car or any means of transportation, so the creek was my bridge to the outside. I enjoyed the creek and was pleased to be able to use it. At some point in the dream, I was standing on the bank of the creek with my brother in the Lord, CJ. We looked over to our left and saw a massive wall of floodwater rushing toward us from upstream. The floodwater swept through the area and swelled the creek. After the floodwaters came through, the creek was polluted. The floodwaters had brought massive amounts of large snakes and fish into the creek. CJ and I could see all types of large snakes on the shores of the creek and hanging from the trees, as well as swimming through the water, all of which were brought in from the floodwaters. The creek no longer appeared safe and useful like it had once been. CJ said that he would never get in the creek again because of all the snakes. I told him that I was not afraid of the snakes, and they could not hurt me. I don't know if this was false bravado or confidence in the Lord, but nonetheless I was not about to let these snakes scare me off from using the creek. I told CJ I was going to swim in the creek like I had always done. I got in the creek and began to swim through it. I could feel all the fish and snakes in the water; my feet would brush against them and it would feel strange but I continued swimming. I noticed a lot of snakes but I was not scared, even though many of them seemed dangerous. Then after a few minutes of swimming, I glanced backwards and saw a very large, hideous snake coming toward me. For the first time I began to realize this was not a good idea, and I realized the creek was no longer a safe place. The snake swam up to me and he was two feet around and had rows of razor-sharp teeth like a shark's. He was going to bite me for sure! I straddled him, put my hands inside his mouth, and grabbed onto his jaws to keep him from biting me. To my surprise he could not or would not bite me; he could have easily bitten my hands off but somehow his jaws were frozen. I managed to swim back to shore and vowed never to use the creek again. It was no longer the same useful tool that it had once been; now it was totally overtaken by vile creatures. Over and over I keep seeing the verse, even in the dream this came to mind. The floodwaters that rushed through the area reminded me of it: Rev.12:14 And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. 16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. I strongly feel that the creek is our connection to the world; it is our comfort zone. It represents habit, ease and easy access to modern society. I was living in the wilderness but I still had this way to the world if I wanted, like a bridge. As Christians, we live in the world but we are not supposed to be like the world. In the past, it has been possible for Christians to do who live amongst society, all the while remaining spotless. But I feel that there is coming a time that if we do not completely and utterly abandon everyday modern habits of interacting carelessly in secular society, we ourselves will become demon-infested. For a long time, God has had grace on many in the kingdom because of the fact that it's almost impossible to completely separate yourself from society and the world. But I feel there is coming a time, and now is, that the world and its members will be so full of evil and demonic oppression that we will have to completely separate ourselves from them, except to give the message of the Gospel. Our whole being will be solely for the Gospel -- nothing else. I feel that once the Serpent's flood comes at the beginning of the wilderness God will totally cut off and curse our bridges to the world. He is doing this because he is cutting off Egypt and He does not want us to swallow the polluted rivers of water that the whole earth is about to drink. There is about to be a great demonic outbreak and God is going to spiritually quarantine us by destroying all those old paths and bridges to the world. God is warning us that He is about to curse Egypt and make a separation between them and His people, to keep us from receiving their plagues. The things that God has had grace on for years are about to expire and He will no longer allow safe passage back and forth from Egypt to the wilderness. If we seek to continue traveling to and fro, from the two worlds like an open border we may very well lose our life.   God Said, “Go! Gather the People!” B.A. - 05/26/2013 (David's notes in red) In a vision, I saw an angel of the Lord come down out of Heaven and give David Eells a scroll-like piece of paper. (David represents the Man-Child company of Davids.) I walked over to David and I was allowed to read the wording on the top of the page and it read, Greater UBM in bold letters and under that on the second line, in slightly smaller letters, it read Member List. (Meaning members of Jesus' body in greater UBM.) The angel of the Lord spoke this message to David: “Go! Gather the people on this list.” I discerned that this was a command from the Lord to His Davids, that very soon they will be gathering His people to go to the feast! (God is going to send the Man-child Davids to gather the Woman company out of Babylon and take them into the wilderness where they will be nourished.) Rev.12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days. (The overcomers will walk on the highway of holiness and be sanctified.) Isa.35:8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness (separation from the world); the unclean shall not pass over it; but is shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein. (They will be feasting on the unleavened bread, the true word of God for the seven years.) Exo.23:15 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days (the seven years of tribulation) thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty: (They had to bear fruit.) Exo 12:15 Seven days (the seven years of tribulation) shall ye eat unleavened bread (pure truth); even the first day ye shall put away leaven (pollution) out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. This command to the Man-child ministers to “Go! Gather the people” will be a repeat of history, as the Lord said it would be. Ecc.3:15 That which is hath been long ago; and that which is to be hath long ago been: and God seeketh again that which is passed away. Exo.3:2 And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. ... 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt (the world). Moses was incapable, according to his own witness, to lead God's people out of Egypt and through the wilderness tribulation. Father chose him to prove that His power is made perfect through man's weakness. This is a type for the Man-child ministers who will do the same thing. The wilderness represents a lack of dependency on man and instead learning of our supernatural supply from Heaven. It was a place of testing to weed out the unbelieving mixed multitudes, meaning part Christian and part world. The flesh of Israel died in the wilderness. Their children, representing the fruit of the spiritual man, went into the Promised Land. The faithful Joshuas and Calebs were alive and remained to enter the spiritual land of milk and honey in their body. Eze.20:33 As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be king over you: (as it was in Egypt before the people went into the wilderness tribulation) 34 and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out; 35 and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face. 36 Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, saith the Lord Jehovah. History will repeat. 37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38 and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. 39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Go ye, serve every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me; but my holy name shall ye no more profane with your gifts, and with your idols. No more denominations or demonizations among them to distract their allegiance. 40 For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them, serve me in the land: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first-fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41 As a sweet savor will I accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. 42 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I sware to give unto your fathers.

Send us a textIn this episode we take you to the Democratic National Convention to hear some of the greatest public speakers of the 1990s. 1. Jerry Brown, former Governor of California (and future Governor of California and future Mayor of Oakland) he was a 1992 Presidential candidate who near the end emerged to give Bill Clinton a little challenge at the end of the primary. He hit on economic inequities in the system and slammed both parties over campaign finance reform. He is a fiery speaker and knew how to stir up a crowd. the speech however was remembered for what he did not do, which was mention Bill Clinton, at all. 2. Zell Miller, Governor of Georgia, delivers the 1992 Convention Keynote address, and he does it with all the fire of Southern stump meeting, attacking Bush on his economic record, and Ross Perot on his positioning as a political outsider. He feeds the crowd plenty of red meat. Later, he would turn his fire on his own party in 2004, and famously challenge Chris Matthews to a duel on national television. 3. Reverend Jesse Jackson, civil rights pioneer and political activist, he always speaks to the downtrodden, ran a powerful campaign for President in his own right in 1988, but finds himself in a much diminished role after he made comments that offended Jewish people and found himself at odds with the party nominee, Bill Clinton, over comments Clinton made about rap lyrics. 4. Ted Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts, he is the Liberal Lion of the Senate, former Presidential candidate in 1980 that helped rip apart the Democratic support of Jimmy Carter, and he had a long history of undermining both Presidents he disliked of both parties. He was still a formidable speaker and this speech lives up to the billing as he endorses Bill Clinton and attacks the record of the Reagan-Bush years. This is a great show if you like great speakers even if you don't agree with much of anything they actually say.  But, alas, I am a Republican so take that for what it is worth. Still, I love a great speaker and raw meat politics of both sides.  Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcastsThanks for listening!!

On December 19 of 1970, the Indianapolis affiliate of the Southern Leadership Conference's Operation Breadbasket held a “Black Christmas Parade” on Indiana Avenue. The parade featured marching bands, floats, and local celebrities. The grand marshal of the parade was the Soul Saint, an Afrocentric version of Santa Claus.  The “Black Christmas Parade” was part of a full day of events, that also included a keynote speech from Reverend Jesse Jackson. The day ended with a ”Black Christmas Party” at Foster's Motor Lodge, featuring the greatest funk and soul bands in Indianapolis, including The Highlighters, The Moonlighters, The Turner Brothers, Indy 5, The Perfections, and others. The purpose of the “Black Christmas Parade” was bigger than spreading holiday cheer. A spokesperson for Operation Breadbasket said the parade was created to raise awareness of the services and products available through local Black business owners, and to develop a sense of Black pride in the Indianapolis community.  This week on Echoes of Indiana Avenue, listen to a tribute to the “Black Christmas Parade”, featuring music from Indianapolis bands that performed at the event.

In this episode of Change Makers, Michael Hayman sits down with Bradley Akubuiro, Partner at Bully Pulpit International (BPI), to discuss an exciting new chapter as Seven Hills joins the BPI family. This transatlantic partnership is set to create a powerful force for change, with Bradley stepping into the role of co-host for future episodes, bringing fresh insights from both sides of the Atlantic. Bradley reflects on lessons from his early days working with civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson and shares insights into BPI's roots in the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign. With a mission to make meaningful change possible – from addressing diversity and equity challenges to navigating the political forces shaping corporate responsibility, this conversation explores how business leaders can inspire trust, drive progress, and make an impact across borders.

This week, Donny sits down with his long time friend and civil rights activist, the Reverend Al Sharpton. Reverend Sharpton, fresh off of his appearance at the 2024 DNC, sits down for an in-depth discussion about his speech at the DNC, the 2024 presidential race and what Kamala Harris has to do to keep the momentum going. Sharpton, who hosts Politics Nation, weekends at 5:00 pm ET on MSNBC, also discusses why he wanted to speak at the DNC and what it meant to him to be there with Reverend Jesse Jackson and 4 members of the exonerated Central Park Five. Be sure to check out the On Brand with Donny Deutsch YouTube page. There you will find all of Donny's conversations in video form. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, talks to WCPT's Richard Chew about the recently completed Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which she called "the best show I think the party has ever had." She added: "The DNC, in the way that it was produced and implemented last week, gives me a lot of hope that we can figure out a lot of stuff here in Chicago and in the state of Illinois, when you have that level of cooperation." Gates also spoke about the Democratic Party's growing diversity, arguing that the 1984 Democratic National Convention "is where Reverend [Jesse] Jackson began to revolutionize the Democratic Party to make it more inclusive for a Barack and for a Kamala." Catch "Chew's Views" with Richard Chew weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/wcpt820). Photo: www.ift-aft.org/Team/stacy-davis-gates

The night before the Democrats convened their presidential convention in Chicago, there was a civil rights Rainbow PUSH convention going on in honor of the Reverend Jesse Jackson of Chicago. An event not as spectacular as the Democrats. But for me, something extra special to think about because, in Chicago politics, Reverend Jackson and I […]

Why labor unions still play a crucial role in elections. Plus, what's at stake for young voters. And an appreciation of Reverend Jesse Jackson. All that, and more!

In this podcast episode, Heather recounts her early inspiration from Reverend Jesse Jackson's compelling speeches, sparking a desire to communicate with impact. Initially steering towards law, she discovered her passion for public speaking through feedback in mock trials.   Transitioning through diverse career paths, Heather honed her skills, drawing motivation from influential figures like Shep Hyken. With steadfast determination, she earned the prestigious Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, signifying excellence recognized by the National Speakers Association.   Reflecting on her journey, Heather encourages listeners to persevere towards their dreams, emphasizing the power of support and continuous improvement. Discover how holding onto dreams, diligent effort, and a supportive network propelled Heather from aspiration to achievement, inspiring others to pursue their own aspirations.

TVC 638.4: Ed welcomes Pat Boone, the trailblazing singer, entertainer, humanitarian, and philanthropist who recently marked his seventieth year in show business and who will celebrate his ninetieth birthday this coming June 1. One of the first white artists to record rhythm and blues songs to mainstream audiences, Pat discusses his longstanding activism in support of African-American singers and songwriters (including featuring and performing with many black artists on his ABC variety series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, during the Civil Rights Movement) and the praise that Pat once received from the Reverend Jesse Jackson in recognition of his efforts. Pat's new single, “My Stupid Tattoo,” a humorous ode to those who got a tattoo (and later came to regret it), is available as a digital release through Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and wherever else music is sold. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we discuss the Reverend Jesse Jackson stepping down as the head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and his impact on our society the last 50 years. We muddle through Florida's absurd Black History Standards and the ensuing mayhem this last week.   Ask Your Oldhead is a creative project exploring modern manhood at the intersection of race, gender, culture, and class. We are specifically interested in capturing the stories of transition from child to young man to healthy adult. Please listen, rate, share, and subscribe. Peace   Support this podcast by becoming a patron here. ← Click there.   Twitter: @justicerajee Instagram: @justicerajee https://www.facebook.com/oldhead.rajee/ www.askyouroldhead.com www.askyouroldhead.libsyn.com The Ask Your Oldhead Shop Leave a message: 971-206-4010   ©2023 Justice Rajee  

"The activists need to pay attention to mass awareness. Political change is a function of gaining political power through mass awareness, mass mobilization, and mass unification. And we're in a period on the left right now, which has happened in history before, where there's a lot of internal focus about the fairness of the processes within NGOs and activist organizations. And the legacy of racism in these organizations and gender and identity issues, all of which are essential and important and valid, but those are not the pathways to mass awareness and mass unity. If you overemphasize those kinds of issues, it's a kind of sectarianism, which is the opposite of how you unify people to get political power. If you don't assemble majority support - majority sentiment doesn't mean everybody - it means majority, then you can't take power. And if you can't get power, guess what? You can't help the vulnerable. You can't help the oppressed. This is, like most things in life, a question of balance. If you overfocus on the legitimate feelings and plight of subgroups of the population, by necessity, you won't establish what Reverend Jesse Jackson used to call the Rainbow Coalition. And without the Rainbow Coalition, you don't win. So, what I hope is that the scientists and the activist community can pay as much attention to cognitive science as they do to climate science. And then we'll get somewhere definitely."How can we effectively communicate that we're moving beyond climate change to a state of climate crisis? The trapped heat energy on Earth is equal to a million Atomic bombs going off every single day. Today we talk to someone who's been mobilizing the public mind for over 50 years. David Fenton, named “one of the 100 most influential PR people” by PR Week and “the Robin Hood of public relations” by The National Journal, founded Fenton in 1982 to create communications campaigns for the environment, public health, and human rights. For more than five decades he has pioneered the use of PR, social media, and advertising techniques for social change. Fenton started his career as a photojournalist in the late 1960s – his book Shots: An American Photographer's Journal was published in 2005. He was formerly director of public relations at Rolling Stone magazine and co-producer of the No-Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and other artists. He has also helped create JStreet, Climate Nexus, the Death Penalty Information Center, and Families for a Future. He sold Fenton a few years ago to work on climate change full time. He is the author of The Activist's Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator.https://davidfentonactivist.comwww.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Activists-Media-Handbook/David-Fenton/9781647228668https://fenton.comX / twitter @dfentonIG @dfenton1 facebook.com/davidfentonactivistwww.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcastAll photographs © 1968-2022 David Fenton

Recipient of the Jesse Jackson Legacy Award and Solutions and Resources' Pastor Donovan Price joins Ramblin' Ray and Jane Clauss on the Steve Cochran Show to discuss the impact Reverend Jesse Jackson had on his professional journey, holding Chicago youth accountable, and the motivating factors the drives him to continue to work on creating safe communities on the South and West Side of Chicago.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can we effectively communicate that we're moving beyond climate change to a state of climate crisis? The trapped heat energy on Earth is equal to a million Atomic bombs going off every single day. Today we talk to someone who's been mobilizing the public mind for over 50 years. David Fenton, named “one of the 100 most influential PR people” by PR Week and “the Robin Hood of public relations” by The National Journal, founded Fenton in 1982 to create communications campaigns for the environment, public health, and human rights. For more than five decades he has pioneered the use of PR, social media, and advertising techniques for social change. Fenton started his career as a photojournalist in the late 1960s – his book Shots: An American Photographer's Journal was published in 2005. He was formerly director of public relations at Rolling Stone magazine and co-producer of the No-Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and other artists. He has also helped create JStreet, Climate Nexus, the Death Penalty Information Center, and Families for a Future. He sold Fenton a few years ago to work on climate change full time. He is the author of The Activist's Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator."The activists need to pay attention to mass awareness. Political change is a function of gaining political power through mass awareness, mass mobilization, and mass unification. And we're in a period on the left right now, which has happened in history before, where there's a lot of internal focus about the fairness of the processes within NGOs and activist organizations. And the legacy of racism in these organizations and gender and identity issues, all of which are essential and important and valid, but those are not the pathways to mass awareness and mass unity. If you overemphasize those kinds of issues, it's a kind of sectarianism, which is the opposite of how you unify people to get political power. If you don't assemble majority support - majority sentiment doesn't mean everybody - it means majority, then you can't take power. And if you can't get power, guess what? You can't help the vulnerable. You can't help the oppressed. This is, like most things in life, a question of balance. If you overfocus on the legitimate feelings and plight of subgroups of the population, by necessity, you won't establish what Reverend Jesse Jackson used to call the Rainbow Coalition. And without the Rainbow Coalition, you don't win. So, what I hope is that the scientists and the activist community can pay as much attention to cognitive science as they do to climate science. And then we'll get somewhere definitely."https://davidfentonactivist.comwww.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Activists-Media-Handbook/David-Fenton/9781647228668https://fenton.comX / twitter @dfentonIG @dfenton1 facebook.com/davidfentonactivistwww.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcastAll photographs © 1968-2022 David Fenton

"The activists need to pay attention to mass awareness. Political change is a function of gaining political power through mass awareness, mass mobilization, and mass unification. And we're in a period on the left right now, which has happened in history before, where there's a lot of internal focus about the fairness of the processes within NGOs and activist organizations. And the legacy of racism in these organizations and gender and identity issues, all of which are essential and important and valid, but those are not the pathways to mass awareness and mass unity. If you overemphasize those kinds of issues, it's a kind of sectarianism, which is the opposite of how you unify people to get political power. If you don't assemble majority support - majority sentiment doesn't mean everybody - it means majority, then you can't take power. And if you can't get power, guess what? You can't help the vulnerable. You can't help the oppressed. This is, like most things in life, a question of balance. If you overfocus on the legitimate feelings and plight of subgroups of the population, by necessity, you won't establish what Reverend Jesse Jackson used to call the Rainbow Coalition. And without the Rainbow Coalition, you don't win. So, what I hope is that the scientists and the activist community can pay as much attention to cognitive science as they do to climate science. And then we'll get somewhere definitely."How can we effectively communicate that we're moving beyond climate change to a state of climate crisis? The trapped heat energy on Earth is equal to a million Atomic bombs going off every single day. Today we talk to someone who's been mobilizing the public mind for over 50 years. David Fenton, named “one of the 100 most influential PR people” by PR Week and “the Robin Hood of public relations” by The National Journal, founded Fenton in 1982 to create communications campaigns for the environment, public health, and human rights. For more than five decades he has pioneered the use of PR, social media, and advertising techniques for social change. Fenton started his career as a photojournalist in the late 1960s – his book Shots: An American Photographer's Journal was published in 2005. He was formerly director of public relations at Rolling Stone magazine and co-producer of the No-Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and other artists. He has also helped create JStreet, Climate Nexus, the Death Penalty Information Center, and Families for a Future. He sold Fenton a few years ago to work on climate change full time. He is the author of The Activist's Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator.https://davidfentonactivist.comwww.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Activists-Media-Handbook/David-Fenton/9781647228668https://fenton.comX / twitter @dfentonIG @dfenton1 facebook.com/davidfentonactivistwww.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcastAll photographs © 1968-2022 David Fenton

Ralph and our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, discuss how they compiled letters they sent to various government officials and representatives that have gone unanswered into a book titled “The Incommunicados” and how this unresponsiveness violates our First Amendment right to petition our government for redress of grievances. Then Washington Post opinion columnist, Helaine Olen, highlights the corporate equivalent, how hard it is to reach a human being for customer service and how all of this plays into the free-floating anger and general unrest of an American population that feels unheard.Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law.  Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.Today, I couldn't have gotten through to members of the Senate or House on the auto safety issue. We couldn't have gotten through for them to even consider (much less pass) the auto safety legislation that they did in 1966. Because I could get on the line and even if I couldn't get a member, I could call and get the chief of staff or get the legislative director in order to have access. I could go down to Capitol Hill and get the hearings, get the media attention, and get the law to save millions of lives. So, this is serious. It isn't just a matter of literary courtesy here.Ralph NaderWhat we have in the right to petition for the redress of grievances is an effort to prevent a repeat of the deaf ear that King George was turning to the grievances of the colonists. And the right to petition implies a corollary obligation to respond… That's the heart of what democratic discourse is about. Part of what holding government officials accountable is about— requiring them to explain their decisions. They don't have to agree with us, but they can't just ignore us and treat us as though we're not human beings.Bruce FeinHelaine Olen is an expert on money and society, and an award-winning columnist for the Washington Post. Her work has appeared in Slate, the Nation, the New York Times, the Atlantic, and many other publications, and she serves on the advisory board of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She is co-author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated and the author of Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry.This is part of why Americans are so angry. Is our lives as consumers. In the United States we often confuse our consumer lives with being a citizen. We think if the phone line isn't working if the airline isn't working, if we can't get through to the doctor's office, there's something wrong with the state of the country. And every time one of these interactions deteriorates, there's this sense of ‘things don't work,' which I think is pervasive in the United States… and I think it translates into this free-floating anger that then gets turned around and leveled at random people at the government, fill in the blank.”Helaine OlenThere's this dominant narrative out there right now that American consumers are becoming greedy and grasping and they're abusing the help— which happens, I don't want to say every consumer is a perfect citizen by a long shot— but I think it is partly a response to the fact that people are often treated very very badly. And there's really no one to complain to that will actually do anything about this.Helaine OlenIn Case You Haven't Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. The Screen Actors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, has joined the Writers Guild in going on strike following the collapse of negotiations with the studios. This new strike covers 160,000 actors and coming as it does amid the writers strike, will effectively shut down Hollywood production for the foreseeable future. In a widely shared video, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher decried the studios for "plead[ing] poverty…[while] giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs."2. The Intercept reports that AOC has authored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring “the CIA, Pentagon, and State Department to declassify information related to the U.S. government's role in the Chilean coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power.” Much of what the public knows about the Chilean coup came out through the legendary Church Committee hearings, and it is encouraging that someone in Congress is interested in taking up that mantle.3. In Florida, a joint investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald uncovered the disturbing reality underlying Governor DeSantis' revamped Florida State Guard. While recruits were initially told they would be trained for a nonmilitary mission – to “help Floridians in times of need or disaster” – they were instead taught how to “rappel with ropes, navigate through the woods and respond to incidents under military command.” Major General John D. Haas, charged with overseeing the program, is quoted saying the State Guard is a “military organization” that will be used not just for emergencies but for “aiding law enforcement with riots and illegal immigration.”4. Longtime civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson has announced that he is retiring from his role as president of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, per The Hill. He had led the group for over 50 years, even after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017. President Biden said of Jackson, “I've seen him as history will remember him: a man of God and of the people; determined, strategic, and unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our nation.”5. Uruguay, the small South American nation sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil, is experiencing its worst drought in 74 years. The situation has become so dire that authorities are mixing salt water into the public drinking water. Now, the Guardian reports that Uruguayans are protesting a planned Google data center that would consume two million gallons of water per day. In response to this crisis, a new group has cropped up – the Commission to Defend Water and Life, backed by the country's trade unions – and their slogan has become ubiquitous: “This is not drought, it's pillage.”6. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus, got herself into trouble this week by calling Israel a “racist state,” in a speech to the progressive summit Netroots Nation, per CNN. While clumsily worded, Jayapal's statement actually vastly understates the issue. According to mainstream groups like Amnesty International, Israel is in fact an “apartheid” state.7. More on Israel, the New York Times reports that “At least 180 senior fighter pilots, elite commandos and cyber-intelligence specialists in the Israeli military reserve have informed their commanders that they will no longer report for volunteer duty if the government proceeds with a plan to limit judicial influence by the end of the month.” While media coverage of the protests against this judicial overhaul has slowed, the protests themselves are very much ongoing and these resignations prove there is significant discontent among secular Israelis. It remains to be seen whether the opposition by mainstream Israeli society to authoritarian creep will substantively address any of the underlying issues, such as the occupation of Palestine.8. In an update to the Guatemala story from last week, Al Jazeera reports that in a statement, “the public prosecutor's office denied accusations that its actions were aimed at derailing the [anti-corruption] Seed Movement's prospects as it competes in the final round of voting.” This prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche, has “previously targeted anti-corruption campaigners and has been placed on the US Department of State's Engel List for ‘corrupt and undemocratic actors'.” The decision to ban the party has already been reversed by Guatemala's Constitutional Court, the highest court in that country. The party's leader, Bernardo Arevalo, has stated “We are in the electoral race, we are moving forward and we will not be stopped by this corrupt group.”9. The Houston Chronicle reports that “Officers working for [Texas Governor Greg] Abbott's border security initiative have been ordered to push children into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to migrants” These abuses were revealed in an email from a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”10. Finally, Universal Studios appears to have unlawfully trimmed trees on the public sidewalk outside of their building in Los Angeles, a transparent attempt to discourage picketers by denying them shade during the ongoing heatwave. City Controller Kenneth Mejia has announced that his office is launching an investigation. Ironically, this shows Hollywood executives are perfectly capable of cuts at the top. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

00:00 INTRO 10:36 Kevin Garnett supports Chicago TVL clothing line 17:36 NBA Legend Dwayne Wade joins ownership group of WNBA'S Chicago Sky 25:28 FDA approves Opill, the first daily birth control pill without a prescription 33:09 Blackexcellence the county's first black trans takes public office 39:33 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc starts 1st Black-Owned, Women-Led FMO Credit Union 48:35 Reverend Jesse Jackson steps down as President of Rainbow PUSH 55:17 CPD superintendent candidates down to 3 1:03:42 Teen takeover method in Chicago 1:06:07 New viral rap song on how to commit bank fraud 1:12:24 Two new possible NBA teams to be added as expansion teams 1:14:00 Do men like when other men heart there pictures?

00:00 INTRO 10:36 Kevin Garnett supports Chicago TVL clothing line 17:36 NBA Legend Dwayne Wade joins ownership group of WNBA'S Chicago Sky 25:28 FDA approves Opill, the first daily birth control pill without a prescription 33:09 Blackexcellence the county's first black trans takes public office 39:33 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc starts 1st Black-Owned, Women-Led FMO Credit Union 48:35 Reverend Jesse Jackson steps down as President of Rainbow PUSH 55:17 CPD superintendent candidates down to 3 1:03:42 Teen takeover method in Chicago 1:06:07 New viral rap song on how to commit bank fraud 1:12:24 Two new possible NBA teams to be added as expansion teams 1:14:00 Do men like when other men heart there pictures?

In a recent statement, President Joe Biden expressed his profound admiration for the work of Reverend Jesse Jackson, emphasizing what he calls the significant impact Jackson has made in advancing equality and justice in America. The president hailed Rev. Jackson as an exceptional leader who has played an instrumental role in shaping the course of the nation. The White House says that over the course of their friendship, President Biden has witnessed firsthand how Rev. Jackson has steered the nation through turbulent times, leaving an indelible mark on history. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden also expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Rev. Jackson for his lifelong dedication to public service. They also extended their appreciation to the entire Jackson family for their unwavering support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a historic transition of power, the renowned civil rights organization, established by the Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1984, has announced new leadership. Dallas Pastor Frederick Douglass Haynes III, who leads Friendship-West Baptist Church, has been appointed as the organization's new head. The momentous occasion was celebrated during a special event held at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, paying tribute to Reverend Jackson's life and legacy. Amidst an atmosphere charged with enthusiasm and reverence, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a heartfelt speech honoring Reverend Jackson's contributions to the civil rights movement and his enduring impact on American society. She also spoke about her personal relationship with Dr. Haynes. "It is my joy to congratulate Reverend Dr. Freddy Haynes. I have known him and worked with him for over 20 years, including when we worked together years and years ago in the early days of the criminal justice reform movement. And I am so confident in his leadership and his ability to carry on the greatest traditions of this organization and to meet the challenges of this moment," she said. The vice president underscored the importance of continuing Jackson's mission of equality, justice, and empowerment. "We celebrate one of America's greatest patriots, someone who deeply believes in the promise of our country, a fighter for freedom and human rights for all people. At the core of Rev's work is the belief that the diversity of our nation is not a weakness or an afterthought, but instead, our greatest strength," Harris added. Pastor Frederick Douglass Haynes III, widely respected for his unwavering commitment to social justice and equality, has long been recognized as a leading voice within the civil rights community. As the leader of Friendship-West Baptist Church, Haynes has demonstrated his dedication to uplifting marginalized communities and advocating for systemic change. His appointment to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition signifies a new chapter in its history, aligning with the organization's core principles of empowering the disenfranchised and fighting against racial injustice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Radio ratings peaked in 1948 and the networks used excess profits to help launch TV. By 1950 NBC, CBS, and ABC were filling their entire primetime TV schedule. After eighteen years as one of radio's highest-rated weekly shows, the just-heard Fibber McGee and Molly began airing five nights per week for fifteen minutes on October 5th, 1953. As America moved west after World War II, turning farms into suburbs and western towns into cities, the pattern of radio listening was changing. The desire to expand the Major Leagues into new cities gained traction thanks to an upstart league known as The Continental League. In order to block its entry into the marketplace, Major League Baseball finally expanded in 1961. When the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota before the ‘61 season to become the Twins, Washington received a new Senators franchise. Thanks to the success of the Dodgers, The American League added the Los Angeles Angels, upping the junior circuit to ten teams. The following year, the National League added two new teams: The Colt 45s, who, in 1964 changed their name to the Astros, and the New York Metropolitans, colloquially known as the Mets. One by one, old ballparks were being torn down—Ebbets field in 1960, The Polo Grounds in 1964. Both sites are now occupied by housing projects. New stadiums were often multipurpose —able to accommodate both football and baseball. Like with baseball, how America got its entertainment was also changing. By 1960, scripted radio drama was dying out as shows either moved to TV or were canceled. Although baseball would still be broadcast on the radio, fans now tuned into TV for their favorite games. A new generation of sportscasters emerged, like former Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto. He called Roger Maris' record-breaking sixty-first home run at Yankee Stadium on October 1st, 1961. Rizzuto had a respectable playing career—winning the 1950 AL MVP award, but it was his work as a Yankees announcer that got him voted into the MLB Hall Of Fame in 1994. In 1956, while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, Jackie Robinson was putting the finishing touches on his remarkable career. That December 13th, the Dodgers traded Robinson to the Giants for Dick Littlefield and thirty-thousand dollars. Jackie Robinson opted to retire, rather than report and move to San Francisco. Within a few years he was hosting his own syndicated radio show, Jackie Robinson's Radio Shots. In 1960, he interviewed perhaps the most famous African-American pitcher in history, Satchel Paige. Jackie Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Robinson was also the first African-American television analyst in MLB history, and the first African-American vice president of a major corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. On October 15th, 1972, at the second game of the World Series between the Oakland Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds, at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, Jackie Robinson was invited to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in honor of his twenty-five years of service to Major League Baseball. Complications from heart disease and diabetes made him almost blind by middle age. He used the opportunity to make one last statement to the baseball establishment. It would be Jackie Robinson's last public appearance. Jackie Robinson died nine days later at his home. He was fifty-three. His Manhattan funeral service attracted twenty-five hundred mourners. Many of his former teammates were pallbearers. Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered the eulogy. On April 15th, 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Major League Baseball unanimously retired Robinson's number forty-two across the league. He is the only man to receive such an honor.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Jewish Story Season 6  Episode 13 – American Antisemitism Part IV When the cracks start to open up in American race relations, Jew-hate seeps into the mainstream. Here is an episode about Reverend Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan and … Read the rest The post The Jewish Story Season 6: American Antisemitism Part IV first appeared on Elmad Online Learning. Continue reading The Jewish Story Season 6: American Antisemitism Part IV at Elmad Online Learning.

When the cracks start to open up in American race relations, Jew-hate seeps into the mainstream. In this episode of The Jewish Story Rav Mike Feuer speaks about Reverend Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan and the evolution of black antisemitism. Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gotovan/49958357796/

When the cracks start to open up in American race relations, Jew-hate seeps into the mainstream. Here is an episode about Reverend Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakhan and the evolution of black antisemitism. image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gotovan/49958357796/ license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

The Larry Elder Show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Protect your IRA or 401(k) with precious metals today: http://larryforgold.com/ Pundits, liberal and conservative, underestimated the impact on the midterms of the reaction to the reversal of Roe v. Wade. In states like Kentucky and Michigan, where abortion was on the ballot, restrictions to abortion lost and “protecting access” to abortion won. According to The New York Times, in the two months following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, there were 10,000 fewer abortions than would have been expected over that period of time. If the price of saving 10,000 lives is that Republicans underperformed in the midterms, it is, in my opinion, a small price to pay. At one time, this famous person agreed with me and wrote a personal compelling article that makes the case against abortion. This is what he wrote: “I was born out of wedlock (and against the advice that my mother received from her doctor) and therefore abortion is a personal issue for me. From my perspective, human life is the highest good, the summum bonum. Human life itself is the highest human good and God is the supreme good because He is the giver of life. That is my philosophy. Everything I do proceeds from that religious and philosophical premise. The author is Reverend Jesse Jackson. He wrote this in 1977. Seven years later, he ran for president as a pro-abortion Democrat. ⭕️Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

Bradley Akubuiro's parents raised him to have a deep and strong work ethic. His father came to the United States from Nigeria at the age of 17 and worked to put himself through school. As Bradley describes, both about his father as well as about many people in extremely impoverished parts of the world, such individuals develop a strong resilience and wonderful spirit.   Bradley has led media relations and/or public affairs for Fortune 50 companies including Boeing as it returned the grounded 737 MAX to service and United Technologies through a series of mergers that resulted in the creation of Raytheon Technologies. He also served as an advisor to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and to the Republic of Liberia post-civil war. Today Bradley is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm founded by leaders of the Obama-Biden campaign.   As you will see, Bradley is a wonderful and engaging storyteller. He weaves into his stories for us lessons about leadership and good corporate communications. His spirit is refreshing in our world today where we see so much controversy and unnecessary bickering.   I look forward to your comments on this episode.   About the Guest: Bradley is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm founded by leaders of the Obama-Biden campaign. He focuses on corporate reputation, executive communications, and high visibility crisis management and media relations efforts, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion matters for clients. Bradley has led media relations and/or public affairs for Fortune 50 companies including Boeing as it returned the grounded 737 MAX to service and United Technologies through a series of mergers that resulted in the creation of Raytheon Technologies and has also served as an advisor to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and to the Republic of Liberia post-civil war. A nationally recognized expert in his field, Bradley has been quoted by outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and The Washington Post, and his columns have been featured in Business Insider, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine, where he is a regular contributor. Bradley is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he currently sits on the Board of Advisers and serves as an adjunct member of the faculty.   About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:21 Well, hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us on unstoppable mindset today, we have Bradley Akubuiro with us. Bradley is a partner in bully pulpit International. He'll tell us about that. But he's been involved in a variety of things dealing with corporate communications, and has had a lot of adventures. He deals with diversity, equity and inclusion. But most of all, before we started this, he had one question for me. And that is, how much fun are we going to have on this podcast? Well, that really is up to Bradley. So Bradley has some fun.   Bradley Akubuiro  01:56 Michael, thank you so much for having me is is going to be a ton of fun. I'm really excited. Thanks for having me   Michael Hingson  02:01 on. Well, you're you're absolutely welcome. And we're glad that you're here had a chance to learn about you. And we've had a chance to chat some. So why don't we start as often and Lewis Carroll would say at the beginning, and maybe tell me about you growing up and those kinds of things.   Bradley Akubuiro  02:18 Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. And, you know, I think it would be remiss if I didn't start off talking about my parents a little bit before I talked about myself. My dad grew up in the Biafran war in Nigeria, Civil War, Nigeria. And you know, while he was going through school, they were bombing schools, and it wasn't safe for adults to be out. And so, you know, he was the guy in his family at six years old, who was taking crops from their plantation. They grew up maybe about six hours outside of Lagos, Nigeria, and was moving, you know, some of these crops two miles away, to sell in the marketplace. And you know, at a very early age was learning responsibility, not just for himself, but for the family.   Michael Hingson  03:02 Wow. Which is something that more people should do. So what what all did he do? Or how did all that work out?   Bradley Akubuiro  03:09 Yeah. Well, you know, this was a really interesting time in Nigeria's History, where you had a lot of folks who were in this circumstance, and my dad was a really hard worker, his parents were hard workers before him, his father was a pastor. And so he had a certain level of discipline and support in his household. But, you know, he knew that he had this kind of onus on him. So grew up at a time then where not only do you have this responsibility, but a big family, brothers and sisters to take care of. He was the guy who was chosen later, you know, flash forward a few years, to come to the United States, to be able to find an opportunity here in this country, and to be able to always hopefully, give back to his family.   Michael Hingson  03:59 So he came, and How old was he? When he came here?   Bradley Akubuiro  04:03 When he got to the States, he was about 17. So came to New York City, not a lot going on there. And, you know, he had to put himself through   Michael Hingson  04:15 school. Did he know anyone? Or Was anyone sponsoring him? Or how did all that work? He had a little   Bradley Akubuiro  04:20 bit of family here, but he had to find his own way, get a full time job at a gas station, and work to figure out what this country was all about, but also how to be successful here.   Michael Hingson  04:32 Where did he stay when he got here then   Bradley Akubuiro  04:36 got a little apartment up on the kind of Washington Heights Harlem area of New York, little hole in the wall and, you know, continue to work to pay that off while he was trying to pay off school. So not easy, but at the same time, you know, a really, really great opportunity for him to kind of start fresh and create some opportunity for himself and family.   Michael Hingson  04:58 So did he tell him at least With a little bit of money, how did all that work? It's funny, he   Bradley Akubuiro  05:04 asked that question. He did come with some, but it wasn't a lot. Let's start off there. But you know, what's interesting about that is, you know, he put himself through undergrad, put himself through a master's program, you know, and was doing a PhD program over at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And at Penn, he blew through his entire life savings and one semester. And so, you know, was on a great path. You studying engineering, and, you know, a semester and he's like, Oh, what am I going to do ended up going across the street to Drexel, where they were able to bring him in and give him a scholarship, as long as he was one a TA, which he really enjoyed doing. And he was able to put himself through the PhD.   Michael Hingson  05:50 Wow. So he started there as a freshman then   Bradley Akubuiro  05:55 started, so he went to several different schools started in New York. Yep, sorry, started in New York at Hunter College, did a master's program at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, and then came up to do his PhD at Penn. And then went to Drexel, and went to Drexel.   Michael Hingson  06:12 He moved around how, how come? What, what took him to Atlanta, for example? Do you know?   Bradley Akubuiro  06:18 Yeah, well, it was the opportunity. You know, one of the things that he had learned and had been instilled in him growing up, which he's passed on to me is, you follow the opportunity where it's and as long as you're not afraid to take that risk and take a chance on yourself and your future that will ultimately more often than not pay off in the end. And so he followed scholarship dollars, he followed the programs that would have an opportunity for him. And he went exactly where it took,   Michael Hingson  06:45 and what were his degrees in.   Bradley Akubuiro  06:47 So his master's degree was in chemistry, his PhD was chemical engineering. Wow. Yeah. What did he What did he do with that? So well, you know, the world was his oyster, I suppose, in some ways, but you know, he ended up you know, going into a couple of different companies started with Calgon, carbon and Pittsburgh, and spent a number of years there and on later on to Lucent Technologies, and fiber optics. And so, you know, he's moved on to a number of different companies, engineering roles, eventually got his MBA and has been, you know, employed a number of different places and continued over his career to work in a number of different geographies as well, whether it's like going to Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Atlanta, Massachusetts. They're now living in Rochester, New York, which I've never lived in. But it's a very charming place. It's, yeah.   Michael Hingson  07:44 It is. It is a nice place. I've been there many times. Yeah. And for customers and so on, it's a fun place to go. Well, he obviously learned in a lot of ways, some might say the hard way, but he learned to value what was going on with him, because it was the only way he was going to be successful. So nothing was handed to him at all, was   Bradley Akubuiro  08:10 it? That's right. He had a very strong family foundation. And he definitely learned a lot from his parents and from his family, and they were very close. So I think that he would say that's what was handed to him, but he certainly didn't give any get any leg up.   Michael Hingson  08:26 Right. Well, that's a good thing to have handed to you, I guess. Well, how did he meet somebody from Gary, Indiana, which is a whole different culture.   Bradley Akubuiro  08:36 Well, this becomes a love story pretty quickly. That's an article.   Michael Hingson  08:42 You can embellish how you want.   Bradley Akubuiro  08:46 Oh, my parents actually met somewhat serendipitously. They were at two different schools. My mom was going to school in Alabama, Alabama a&m. My dad was going to school at the time and Clark, Atlanta and Atlanta. So about four hours apart, Huntsville, Atlanta. My mom's roommate was dating my dad's roommate. And so my mom agreed to come with her roommate to go and visit her boyfriend at the time. She happened to meet this strapping young Nigerian man in Atlanta, and they ended up hitting it off and as fate would have it, the other two their respective movements didn't make the distance but they had a budding romance that ended up lasting now at this point several decades.   Michael Hingson  09:37 Wow. So they're, they're still with us.   Bradley Akubuiro  09:41 They're both still with us   Michael Hingson  09:42 both going strong. That is, that is really cool. So what do you think you learn from them?   Bradley Akubuiro  09:48 I learned a number of things. You know, I learned first of all, and you heard my father's story, resilience. He has learned to take whatever is thrown at been thrown at him. Be able to not only take it in stride, which I think is good, but more importantly, to turn it around and channel it and to use it to his advantage, no matter what that might be. And he's instilled that in me and my two sisters, two sisters, ones, older ones younger. And that's, that's really been important. You know, when it comes to my two parents, the things that they value a ton are education, family. And when you think about the world around you, how are you leaving it in a better place than you found it. And if you can really focus on those handful of things, then you are going to have a very fulfilling and successful life. And that's how he measured success. I've taken that away from them.   Michael Hingson  10:41 He doesn't get better than that. And if you can, if you can say that I want to make a difference. And that I hope I've made at least a little difference. It doesn't get better than that does it?   Bradley Akubuiro  10:53 That's exactly right. So then   Michael Hingson  10:55 you came along. And we won't we won't put any value judgment on that.   Bradley Akubuiro  11:02 Thank you for that we   Michael Hingson  11:03 could have for Yeah, exactly. But actually, before I go to that, have they been back to visit Nigeria at all?   Bradley Akubuiro  11:11 Yeah, absolutely. And unfortunately, the most recent time that my parents took a trip back was the passing of my grandmother, a handful of years ago. And so that brought them back. But, you know, one of the things that I'm hoping to do, and I haven't done it yet, is just spend some real time out there. I've got plenty of family that's still there. So go in and spend a little time in Nigeria that's longer than a quick in and out trip. I spent some time and we've talked about this before Michael, but in West Africa, generally in Liberia. And that was a great experience. But there's not quite like going back to where it all began with your family.   Michael Hingson  11:49 No, it's still not home. Right. Well, so you you came along. And so what was it like growing up in that household and going to high school and all that?   Bradley Akubuiro  12:03 Well, there's a couple ways to answer that. Go ahead. Well, let's put it this way, I we have a very close family bond. And so you know, when you think about the folks who have finished your senses, who laugh at your jokes, because they think it's funny, and if you hadn't told that joke, first, they probably would have told that joke, the kind of family we have. It's a great, great dynamic. And so I was very fortunate to have grown up in that household with parents who truly, truly embraced that that side. You know, it was also a tough household. You know, my parents were very strict, my father, especially coming from this immigrant mindset, and this Nigerian culture, I mentioned the value of education. What I didn't mention quite, but might have been a little bit implied, and I'll say it more explicitly is anything less than an A was entirely unacceptable. There were a number of times where I found myself on the wrong side of that. And, you know, we grew up in different times, as my parents were trying to provide the best life they could for us, and a number of different urban settings. And, you know, one, one period of life for me was particularly studying in high school, where, you know, the school district of Springfield, Massachusetts at a time graduated about 54% of the students that went through that system. And so you're thinking about one in two kids who don't make it out of high school, much less make it the college, much less have a successful and fulfilling career in life. And my father, especially, but of course, both my parents want us to do absolutely everything in their power to ensure that those would not be our statistics that we would be my sisters, and I would be able to have every tool at our disposal to be successful. And they work hard at that, despite the circumstances.   Michael Hingson  14:08 So how were they when I'm sure it happened? It was discovered that maybe you had some gifts, but there were some things that you weren't necessarily as strong as other things. How did that work out for you?   Bradley Akubuiro  14:21 I want to be very clear, the list of things that I wasn't quite as good at, especially in those days, was long enough to stun you. So you know, it we we work through it together, right? I think one of the things that I admire most about my parents now that I maybe didn't appreciate enough growing up was just the amount that they leaned in, and we're willing to be hands on and helping with our education. And so my father would give us times tables when we were in elementary school and make sure that we worked through them. And if we didn't get them quite right, we would do them again, and we do them again, and we do them again. And And I remember a time when I was in the fifth grade where my father had me up until 1am, doing math problems. And, you know, I was thinking to myself, I cannot imagine doing this with my kids, when I was at that age, and then I swore at that time that I never would, I'll tell you what my blood now I swear that I definitely will maybe not till 1am, I think there's probably a more reasonable time. But to be able to invest that level of effort into making sure that your kid has everything they need to be successful. I just have I admire the heck out of it.   Michael Hingson  15:36 I remember a couple of times, I think one when I was oh seven or eight, when we were living in California, and going back to visit relatives in Chicago, or driving somewhere. And my dad said to me, and my brother who was two years older, you guys have to learn the times tables. And we spent time driving, just going through the times tables. And it took me a little while. And a couple of times, I tried a shortcut that messed me up. But eventually I got it all figured out. And he said, when you say the times tables correctly, we'll give you 50 cents. And they did when I got the time two times tables, right? They did. And also, I was learning algebra from him. My dad was an electronics engineer. And so he really worked because I didn't have books in braille early on until I was in the fourth grade, I had to study with them to a large degree. So he taught me a lot more than the schools were teaching little kids as it were. So I learned algebra early, and I learned to do it in my head, and still do. And in high school, it got me in trouble in my freshman year, because my math teacher said, Now whenever you're doing things, you have to show your work. Well, you know, I kept trying to tell her that, for me, showing my work in Braille isn't going to do you any good. I can tell you what I do and how I do it. And she wouldn't accept that and she was going to fail me literally fail me in math. Until one day I wrote out, I think one of the problems and I think just in case she took it and went somewhere where she could find somebody to read Braille. I wrote it out correctly. But I got to see an algebra one because of that one thing. By the way, after that, I never got below an A in math. She was insistent that you had to show your work, and wasn't flexible enough to recognize that there are a lot of ways to show your work. Oh,   Bradley Akubuiro  17:35 yeah. Well, that's part of the challenge, and not to make this an entire commentary on our education system. But there are so many different ways to your point to get to the right answer. And I don't think there's nearly enough flexibility in our system in many cases, except for those who really, truly tried to find it and create that environment for their students. But at a at a you know, broader look, there isn't nearly enough flexibility to appreciate that we're going to have many different ways to get these answers.   Michael Hingson  18:04 I think that really good teachers, and there are a lot of good teachers. But I think the really good teachers make that leap and allow for flexibility in what they do. Because they recognize everyone learns differently. But the big issue is, can you learn and can you demonstrate that you learned?   Bradley Akubuiro  18:24 Yeah, well, that's what we're all striving for.   Michael Hingson  18:27 It is I was pretty blessed going through school, especially in high school, a lot of the times, I would stay after school and extra period to study in the library because again, not everything was available so that we actually had people who would read material to me or give me information that was written on boards that I didn't get any other way. And usually, the teachers would come in, we would set up days and they would come in and give me tests. And what was fun about that was we would go through the tests fairly quickly and spend most of the hour chatting and I got to know a number of my teachers that way and that was so valuable for me. One of them especially Dick herbal Shimer, I still know and you know, he's going to be what 85 I think it is this year, and he will be at five I think August 28. We still keep in touch, he came to our wedding. And he tells me that I'm getting to be closer in age to him and I point out that I'll never be as old as he is. And he tries to convince me that mathematically I'm getting closer and I say 13 years is still 13 years.   Bradley Akubuiro  19:35 Hmm, yeah, don't let them don't let them try to get you. That's   Michael Hingson  19:39 right. It's not gonna work.   Bradley Akubuiro  19:42 was gonna ask you if you had a favorite teacher because I feel like teachers, if you put together this for many years have such an incredible impact on you and how you see yourself.   Michael Hingson  19:52 I remember a lot of things from a number of my teachers and I can tell you the names of most all of my teachers. I remember in my freshman year English, our teacher was a Mr. Wilson has actually Woodrow Wilson was his name was an older gentleman. And one day we were sitting in class and he was just talking about philosophy. And he's talking about people's ethics. And he said, and I remember it that, you know, a good example is, if you need to borrow a quarter from somebody, be sure you pay that quarterback, where does that come in English? But nevertheless, those are the kinds of things that he said, and other teachers said various things, and they stick with you.   Bradley Akubuiro  20:36 Yeah, no, it's so true. I mean, for me, my favorite teacher was Darlene Kaffee. She was my fourth grade teacher, taught all kinds of, I mean, touch everything you learned in fourth grade. But the most important thing for me was, she gave me confidence in my writing ability. You know, I had always enjoyed writing, but I never really thought of myself as someone who could potentially be a writer. And she was the first person who sat me down and said, Hey, look, you submitted this assignment. And it's really good. You could be a writer one day, and you know, she had me write poems, you had me write a number of different things that weren't class assignments. But there were things that she was like, Hey, if you want to do this, then you got to practice it. And I learned so much from her. But the most important thing I took away was that confidence in my ability to do these things.   Michael Hingson  21:27 Yeah, yeah. And that's one of the most important things that good teachers can bring to us and not tear you down, because you don't necessarily do something exactly the way they do or want. But if you can demonstrate you learn that is so cool.   Bradley Akubuiro  21:42 Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. So,   Michael Hingson  21:47 as I said, I keep in touch with declarable Shimer won his 80th birthday, I flew to Nebraska where they live and surprise him for his birthday, which was nice. That's awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And hopefully, we'll get back there one of these days soon. Meanwhile, I'll just give him a hard time on the phone.   Bradley Akubuiro  22:08 Cathy's out here listening when I'm not going to surprise you don't listen to Michael. But if I show up, then I'll have a cake or something.   Michael Hingson  22:17 Yeah, exactly. Well, so. So what was high school like for you? I think you said there were some things that happened in high school.   Bradley Akubuiro  22:26 Yeah, high school was a I mean, when you think about formative man, this was a formative experience for me. So it was between my sophomore and junior year of high school, when one of my very best friends a guy who I consider to be like an older brother to me, was shot and killed in the drive by shooting. It was devastating. You know, I had a period over a few months, where not only was he killed, and I found out about it, 45 minutes after I'd left town to take my older sister, with my family to college and 22 hours away. So this wasn't something he did every night. And I likely had been with him had we not been on that trip. But you know, he unfortunately passed that night with a 45 caliber bullet hole in his heart. You know, my experience with school with with life that I mean, it really took a turn at that point. Because not only had I lost somebody who was very close to me, but the police didn't catch the guy who did it. In fact, they caught a guy who was a friend of ours that had absolutely nothing to do with it, and put him through absolute hell, only to find out that he wasn't responsible for this, any of us could have told you that right up front. You know, that was a terrible time. You know, a couple of months later, Michael, we had another one of our close friends who was shot and killed. And the girl who was with her at the time was shot in the leg trying to get away. And you know, and another month and a half after that another one of our good friends was you know, shot in his own driveway trying to get into his car and head to the grocery store. And it wasn't safe for us. And it was a really, really challenging time, just to exist, much less to try to focus on school and to focus on other things that are going on. How could you do that? When you didn't know if when you left in the morning, you were going to be able to make it home at night?   Michael Hingson  24:32 Why was there so much crime? Well, that's   Bradley Akubuiro  24:36 a million dollar question. You know, there's so many factors that go into it. And since then, I've spent a lot of time thinking more about the kind of, you know, macro factors, but it's a very specific on the ground situation at that time was there was a gang war between two rival gangs, street gangs in the city. And my engineer who I just referred to lived right in the heart of Eastern Avenue, which is the home of the app and Springfield became there. And across State Street was Sycamore and a number of different folks and rivalries had kind of established then. And so, you know, this was not that there's ever, you know, really sensical reasons that, you know, these things happen. But this was as nonsensical as it could be, you know, people who are killing each other and dying for reasons that if you were to ask those who survived now, why they would ever pull a trigger and situation like this, they probably couldn't really tell you or maybe even remember.   Michael Hingson  25:38 So it wasn't race or anything like that. It was just the whole gang environment, mostly.   Bradley Akubuiro  25:45 Yeah, that's right. And at the time, you know, you think about the economic factors that go into this. And I talked about this in the context of Chicago all the time, because that's where I live now. And the situation is just as salient here. But if you were to be on the west side of Chicago, Northwestern most neighborhood within the city limits of Austin, you would be in one of the poorest and one of the most dangerous zip codes in the industrialized world. If you were to go two miles over to Oak Park, one of the suburbs just outside of the city. It's one of the wealthiest in the region, and it is an amazing neighborhood, and the infrastructure across the board when it comes to the education system, and the amount of money per pupil. If you were to look at the crime statistics, if you were to look at the policing, if you were to look at any measure of quality of life, it is night and day different, but it's separated by a couple of streets. And that to me is unfathomable.   Michael Hingson  26:52 It is crazy. Chris, you also have some really serious gangs back in Chicago. You know, the notorious was the cubs in the Sox, for example.   Bradley Akubuiro  27:03 That's right. And you know what the competition? beaters? You don't get in the middle of those two sets of fans?   Michael Hingson  27:09 Ah, no way. and never the twain shall meet, period. That's right. That's very many people who will say they're fans of both.   Bradley Akubuiro  27:20 I don't think that's legal, actually. Ah,   Michael Hingson  27:23 that would explain it. I'll tell you sports fans are really tough. I remember when I lived in Winthrop, mass right outside of Boston. And every year, I would on opening day, I'd be somewhere in Boston. And if the Red Sox lost immediately, basically everybody on the news and everyone else just said wait till next year. Yeah, they were done. It was no faith at all. It was amazing. And and I remember living back there when Steve Grogan was booed off out of the Patriots game one year and just I'll tell you, they're, they're amazing.   Bradley Akubuiro  28:04 Well look at the dynasties they've gotten now. Unbelievable. Although, you know, I live with a die hard. Tom Brady fan. My fiance has been a Patriots fan since the beginning. And it's been a complete complete nightmare trying to figure out are we watching the Patriots? Are we are we watching the Buccaneers? And are we Tom Brady fans are Patriots fans? You know, it's a little bit of everything in that house. But I can't ever say that I'm not happy. I am a fully dedicated supporter of all things. Somebody in SNAP, otherwise, I'm in a   Michael Hingson  28:39 lot of trouble. It is safer that way. Well, I have gained a lot of respect for Tom Brady, especially after he left the Patriots. And not because I disliked the Patriots, but because of all the scandals and the deflated footballs and all that sort of stuff. But he came back and he proved Hey, you know, it's not what you think at all. I really am good. And he continues to be good.   Bradley Akubuiro  29:03 Yeah, it's 100%. Right. Well, and that to make this, you know, given a broader topic about Tom Brady, he gets plenty of press. But you know, the fact that he was able to say, All right, you have decided that I'm done in this sport. You've decided I'm too old to play this sport, but I have not run to the end of my capability. And in fact, I've got a lot more to offer this game. And he went and he took it with someone who would respect that and the Buccaneers and he won another championship. I mean, you can't you can't make this up.   Michael Hingson  29:38 No, absolutely. You can't. And so we'll see what the Rams do this year. I liked the Rams. I grew up with the Rams, Chris, I'm really prejudiced when it comes to sports and probably a number of things because we've been blessed out here in California with great sports announcers. I mean, of course, Vin Scully, the best of all time in baseball, and I will argue that with anyone But then Dick Enberg did a lot of football and he did the rams and he did the angels. And of course we had Chick Hearn who did the Lakers, their descriptions and the way they did it, especially Vinnie just drew you in. And I've listened and listened to announcers all over the country and never got the kinds of pictures and announced me announcing and announcements that I got by listening to people in California, so I'm a little prejudiced that way.   Bradley Akubuiro  30:31 Well, and you shouldn't be you absolutely should be. And I will say this, the power of storytelling that these folks that you just described are able to wield is phenomenal. And it's a skill that I actually wish more folks had and more different industries. Because if you can tell a strong compelling story, you can make it visual, you can bring people and like that the power it has to bring people together, and to motivate them to act is just unbelievable.   Michael Hingson  31:01 Johnny most was a was a good announcer a pretty great announcer in basketball, but not really so much into the storytelling, but he had a personality that drew you in as well. Well, that counts for a lot. It does. I remember living back there when the Celts were playing the rockets for the championship. And the Celtics lost the first two games. And Johnny most was having a field day picking on the rockets and so on. But Moses Malone, Malone was criticizing the Celtics and said, You know, I can go get for high school people. And we could beat these guys. Wrong thing to say, because then the Celts came back and won the next for Johnny most really had a field day with that. That's what happens. Yeah, you don't open your mouth. Alright, so you went to Northwestern, that's a whole different environment.   Bradley Akubuiro  31:59 Totally different environment. And, you know, I gotta tell you, I owe a ton to Northwestern. The exposure, it gave me two more global mindsets, people come to that university from all over the world, all kinds of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and looking to do so many different things, the academic rigor of the institution, and the resources that were at our disposal, were so incredible that it completely changed my experience. And frankly, the outlook I had for my own self and career. How so? Well, I'll put his way I went to school, for example, at the same time, as you know, students who had some similar backgrounds to the one I did, to being in school at the same time, as you know, Howard Buffett is the grandson of Warren Buffett, and you know, Bill polti, you know, whose grandson of, you know, the polti, you know, the namesake of Pulte Homes, and you know, literally billionaire families. And so you start to realize, if you can sit in a classroom with folks like this, and with all of the opportunities that they've had, the education, they've had private schools, things along those lines, and these are good friends, by the way, you know, when you can do that, and then realize, hey, you know what, I can keep up, I can do this. And then you know, you are receiving, you know, grades professors who support you opportunities, in terms of internships, all of these things, and realms that you never even considered possible even just a year or two earlier. It truly broadens your horizons in ways that I don't even think I could have appreciated before I was into it.   Michael Hingson  33:44 Wow. And that makes a lot of sense, though. We're all we're all people. And we all have our own gifts. And the fact that you could compete is probably not necessarily the best word because it implies that there are things that we don't need to have, but you are all able to work together and that you can all succeed. That's as good as it gets.   Bradley Akubuiro  34:05 That's exactly right. And I do find compared to a lot of places, Northwestern have a very collaborative culture. I found that, you know, from faculty, the staff to students, everybody was very interested in seeing everybody succeed. And you know, we believed truthfully, that all of us could there's enough room on the boat for all of us.   Michael Hingson  34:29 What was your major journalism? No surprise being Northwestern?   Bradley Akubuiro  34:36 Yeah, I was I was a big, big, big proponent of the journalism school and actually still remain affiliated. I'm on the faculty over there and sit on the board of the journalism school and have loved every second of my time, wearing the purple t shirt.   Michael Hingson  34:52 There you go. Is my recollection. Correct? Wasn't Charlton Heston, a graduate of Northwestern?   Bradley Akubuiro  34:57 You know, I don't know the answer to that but I will wouldn't be surprised if it really seems,   Michael Hingson  35:02 it seems to me, I heard that he was doing something where he was he was doing something for Northwestern, as I recall. But that just strikes my memory.   Bradley Akubuiro  35:12 Yeah, there's some very remarkable graduates from that organization.   Michael Hingson  35:16 So you were involved, as I recall, in our conversations about and about such things in dealing with minority enrollment, and so on, and you met some pretty interesting people during your time there. Tell me about that, if you would?   Bradley Akubuiro  35:32 Yeah, no, absolutely. So my freshman year, we will actually, this was my sophomore year, we actually only brought in 81 black freshmen. And that was the lowest number in terms of black enrollment in a given year at Northwestern since the 1960s. And so, you know, the university was looking around and trying to figure out what what is it that we're doing? And where are we missing the mark? And how do we not only attract black applicants, because we were able to get folks to apply? The challenge was to actually get them to choose to matriculate. And where are we losing folks in the process. And so, you know, I had been really, really interested in participating in some of the work around minority recruitment enrollment, from the time that Northwestern had recruited me, because I recognized my background wasn't necessarily what you would consider to be orthodox for the folks that got into schools like this. But they took a real hard look at me and said, We think this guy can be successful here. And I wanted to encourage others who might not necessarily think of Northwestern as an option that was attainable to them, and I don't even know about it, to really start to understand the opportunities that could be available to them. And so I was, you know, flying to different schools, not only in the Chicago area, but back in places that looked a lot like where I grew up, and telling, you know, folks, Northwestern wants you, and you should really give it a shot. And so that was a fascinating time for me, and my own development, that space.   Michael Hingson  37:11 So what did you do for the school and dealing with the whole issue of minorities in that time?   Bradley Akubuiro  37:19 Yeah, there were a handful of things. You know, there's there's one was how do you create programs that channel some of the frustration that a lot of students who look like me had, and so a number of folks, actually, this is the spirit of college students, gotten together, you know, put up signs and decided to kind of protest. And so instead of going through, and just kind of registering our anger, what I did was work with the admissions office. And I did actually formally work as a work study student and worked on some of the stuff, it wasn't just volunteer, but take this energy that the students had, and create programs like a pen pal program, like a fly in programs, some volunteer initiatives that we can have, that would allow students who are upset about the outcomes, to help change those outcomes by direct engagement with those who might come to Northwestern, and really improve our metrics for the following year. And we were able to do that, both in the African American and Latino communities. What did   Michael Hingson  38:23 you discover? Or what did the university discover about why people might apply, but then didn't matriculate. And then how did you turn that around?   Bradley Akubuiro  38:32 Yeah, there were a couple of things. So one was, for students who are getting into places like Northwestern, very commonly, we saw that they were getting into places like University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Harvard, a number of other universities at the same time, particularly if you were to think about the minority students who are applying and getting in, and what those schools had, that Northwestern didn't quite have, was full need blind admissions processes, which Northwestern did adopt. But the short version of this is, if you got into one of those schools, you are probably going to be able to get if this if your circumstances required a full ride. And so, you know, the economic opportunity was really significant. And you were at a disadvantage. If you were a student who was interested in going to Northwestern, or any of these other schools that was really good, but couldn't you couldn't afford to go and you're gonna go to the place that you could afford to go and maybe that's your local school, or maybe that's one of these other schools, but we had to really do something to create the funding to ensure that these folks could go to the school and do it at a at a rate that wasn't going to break the bag.   Michael Hingson  39:49 And you found ways to do that. Well, I   Bradley Akubuiro  39:52 certainly didn't do it alone, but the university   39:55 there see University found ways to do that. Yes, that's right.   40:00 We started up a commission. So a number of students, myself included, foreign petition at the time, Marty Shapiro, who was the President of University took this issue very seriously as a economic scholar, and genuinely his background is in the economics of higher education. And he started at the school as president, while I was in again, my sophomore year, as a lot of these things were kind of taking shape and taking hold. And as one of the most successful leaders that I've met, invited us in students, the leaders in the university who are focused on this, and we had asked for a taskforce to focus on this. And he set one up, and he chaired it. And it was focused on how do we create opportunities for access, particularly for this community that had need, but wanted to be here. And, you know, one of the things that he did pretty early on in his tenure, was to establish a fund that was going to be dedicated to programs to financial need to a number of different things that would directly address this community. And we built on it from there.   41:14 Wow, that's, it's great that you had a strong champion who was willing to be farsighted enough to help with that, isn't it?   Bradley Akubuiro  41:22 Absolutely. It would not have been possible without that.   Michael Hingson  41:25 So you met as I recall you saying Jesse Jackson, somewhere along the way? in that arena, especially since you're in the Chicago area? That makes a lot of sense.   Bradley Akubuiro  41:35 Yeah, you know what I'm starting to put together thanks to you hear that this was a pretty big year for me.   Michael Hingson  41:41 To see, I'm getting impressed. So I did about yourself.   Bradley Akubuiro  41:50 You know, it's funny. But yeah, there was a convergence of things. And so in this particular year, I did meet Reverend Jesse Jackson. And this started a relationship that's been incredible and life changing that remains to this day. But the way that it happened, Michael, is that there was a woman Roxana Saberi, who had been taken political prisoner by Iran, and she worked for the BBC. She had been a former Northwestern middle student. So a number of us who are part of the journalism program, Adele had decided that we were going to get together and as college students are wanting to do, we decided to protest and hopes that we would, on our campus in Evanston, get the State Department to pay more attention to this particular issue. And hopefully, it takes negotiating for her really seriously. And while I have no idea whether, at the time Secretary Clinton saw anything we were doing, my guess, is probably not Reverend Jackson, who to your point was just on the other side of Chicago did. And the connection there is Roxanne's buried, did her first interview with the BBC as a professional reporter with Reverend Jesse Jackson. And he was committed to advocating for her release. And so he actually reached out to us, via the university asked a few of us to come down and join a press conference with him, where he intended to go and negotiate for her release on humanitarian grounds. And I participated in that with another student. And it was absolutely phenomenal and led to so many doors being opened for me.   Michael Hingson  43:35 Wow, what your were you in school at the time?   Bradley Akubuiro  43:38 So this was my sophomore year. Great, great. Again, still part of the great sophomore year. Yeah, and I continue to work with Reverend Jackson, throughout the remainder of my time in college and for some period after college. But there were a number of things, but it all tied back together, because the issue that Reverend Jackson was advocating for at the time that spoke most deeply to me, was this issue of college affordability and access, and you have this program called reduce the rate, which was all about reducing the interest rate on student education loans, because we had bailed out banks. And you know, the autos and so many others, rates of zero to 1% and said, Hey, you're in trouble pass back when you're ready. We'll make it cheap and affordable for you to do that. But we never granted that level of grace to students who are supposed to be our future. And instead, we were breaking their backs was, you know, interest rates of six to in some cases, as high as 18%. Without any, you know, kind of recourse you get stuck with these things for life.   Michael Hingson  44:47 And people wonder why we keep talking about eliminating the loans today or lowering the interest rate and the reality is, as you said, students are our future and we should be doing all we can to say point that that's absolutely   Bradley Akubuiro  45:01 right. I still firmly believe that and, you know, our loan system, and frankly, the cost of education is just crippling. It's, it's, it's crazy. And this is for multiple generations. And I'm sad for what the future will look like if we can't figure this situation out.   Michael Hingson  45:23 Yeah, we've got to do something different than we're doing. And it's just kind of crazy the way it is. It's extremely unfortunate. Well, so you got a bachelor's? Did you go get any advanced degree or?   Bradley Akubuiro  45:36 Well, I did actually attend Northwestern. For a good portion, I masters that integrated the integrated marketing communications program over there. And that dovetails really well into where my career ultimately went and where it currently resides. But you know, Northwestern was the educator of choice for me.   Michael Hingson  45:57 So, career wise, so what did you then go off and do? Since you opened the door? Yeah.   Bradley Akubuiro  46:03 So you know, it's been a number of different things. And this will sound disparate, but it all comes together. I went, after working with Reverend Jackson to Liberia, and I spent time in Liberia working for the president of Liberia on postwar kind of reestablishment of a democracy, which was a big thing. And frankly, way above my paygrade, I got an opportunity to work on it, because I had spent time working with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and that will come back in a second. But there was a student who was doing his PhD program at Northwestern, who had been who is I should say, the grandson of a former president of Liberia, who had been killed in a coup in October. And I had been friends with him, I knew that I wanted to get to West Africa to do some work, particularly around education and social programs. And he connected me with his mother who had been deputy minister of education. And I had been fortunate enough to create an arrangement that I was really excited about to go to Monrovia, and Liberia, the capital city, and to spend some time working on programs out there. And when she found out that I worked with Reverend Jesse Jackson, she called the president and said, This could be a great opportunity. And they cooked up a program where I would actually champion and work on establishing a program and policy around leadership development, and capacity building for the country post Civil War, which was, again, an absolutely amazing and life changing experience, really hard.   Michael Hingson  47:45 What was the world like over there? And what was it like for you being from a completely different culture as it were than over in Liberia?   Bradley Akubuiro  47:53 Well, the first thing I'll say is, if you live in the United States, and you believe, you know, poverty, you ain't seen nothing yet. Because, you know, one of the things that you will find in countries like Liberia, and some of the places and post war, Eastern Europe and the 90s, and different kinds of places is, there is a level of resilience and a level of spirit that is built into society that comes almost entirely from experience with incredible hardship, just absolutely incredible hardship. And Liberia at the time that I was over there was amongst the, you know, five poorest countries in the world, after what had been 14 years of concrete civil war and 30 years of civil unrest. But the people that I met could not have been better spirited, and just nicer, more optimistic and incredible people.   Michael Hingson  48:52 So how long were you over there?   48:54 I was over there for less than a year and spent some time doing consulting, even after I came back to DC, but was on the ground for less than a year.   49:03 And when you came back from Liberia, what did you go off and do?   49:07 When I came back from Liberia and I want to, you know, couch this and my rationale, I had worked for Reverend Jesse Jackson on these big kind of global programs that that presidents and heads of state and you know, business leaders and all these different folks went over to Liberia and got this chance to work on, you know, kind of reinstituting a democracy and meaningful ways with the president who later on became a Nobel Prize, Peace Prize Laureate. And you know, what I came to realize, Michael, was that my opportunities were quickly outpacing my experience. And so what I said is, let's now try to find a place where I can get some of the fundamentals some of the framework for a lot of the work that I had the opportunity to do. And the place that I chose to go is Booz Allen Hamilton is a management consulting firm and you One of the largest public sector practices in the world. And so I went in with the intention of really being able to shore up my skills. And what happened? Well, hopefully they'll tell you that I was successful.   Michael Hingson  50:11 Okay, good.   Bradley Akubuiro  50:16 It was a really fascinating time to be there. You know, Booz Allen, had a lot of significant contracts. This was the time of the Affordable Care Act's passage. And so, you know, at the time that I went over, I got to work almost exclusively on ACA, and a lot is talked about in terms of the legislative kind of process to get that accomplished. But what is talked a lot less about is the actual opera operationalization of it, and what that looks like to stand up state health exchanges, and different states to actually entice somebody coming from, you know, a psychiatry program at top medical school, that choose to put on a uniform and go to a base at, you know, an Air Force base or an army base, and provide clinical care for those who are returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And all of these were provisions of the bill. But actually implementing those things, was a very tall order. And so I got an opportunity to really kind of roll up my sleeves and work on a lot of that work. And that was incredibly formative work.   Michael Hingson  51:22 So it was a real challenge, of course, to get the Affordable Care Act passed. I remember in 2009, I was speaking at a an event for a companies whose hospital boards and leaders of the staffs of the hospitals in the network, were getting together and I went to, to speak, and talk about some of my experiences and talk about disabilities and so on. The person right before me, was a medical expert. He was, it was a person who talked about the whole concept of how we needed to change our whole idea and environment of medical care, and what we really needed to do as a country and so on. And he had been involved in every president's investigation of how to change the medical synth system. Ever since I think he went this was 2009, I think he went back to Nixon, Oh, wow. He, he said it all came down to the same thing. And he said The best example is, he was doing this as part of the team for Bill Clinton. And they talked about what needed to be done, how to change the medical system, and everybody bought into it, and so on, until it got down to specifics of saying what it was going to cost. And that they needed to deal with some of the provisions that eventually went into the Affordable Care Act. And he said, As soon as the politicians got a hold of it, and said, This is a horrible thing, you're gonna cause too much controversy, the President's would all run. And that's why no one ever got anything accomplished. And he also said that Obama was probably going to get something passed. And he actually predicted almost to a tee, if you will, what was going to pass. And that's exactly what passed and what didn't pass. And he said, later, we'll actually start to worry about the cost of, of medical coverage in this country, but they're not really willing to face that issue yet. And he predicted we would be able to do something by 2015. Well, that hasn't really happened yet, either. And now we're maybe making a little bit of a dent. But it was very fascinating to listen to him predict, based on so many years of expertise, what was going to happen.   Bradley Akubuiro  53:46 Yeah, I mean, that's incredible. And I will say, a lot of times the policy takes a backseat to the politics on these things. And it takes so much, you know, Will and kind of moral fortitude to get in there and drive these things, particularly when there's interests on the other side of it. But you know, I'm with you. We're not quite where I think you predicted we'd be in 2015. But driving towards it now. And hopefully we'll make more progress.   Michael Hingson  54:16 Yeah, we're slowly getting there. So what did you do after Booz Allen Hamilton?   Bradley Akubuiro  54:21 Yeah, so the things that I really love the most about that work during that time that the the change in a lot of that kind of management strategy was the change communications aspects of it. And so I knew that I wanted to get more fully into communications. And so the next few jobs for me, were discretely corporate communications, if you will. And so I got an opportunity to follow a mentor to a company called Pratt and Whitney jet engine company, you know, builds jet engines from from fighter jets to, you know, the big commercial airplanes that we fly in, and love that experience. It's moved to kind of the corporate side of that company to United Technologies in time and worked on a number of different mergers and acquisitions, including the spin offs of Otis, the big Elevator Company to carry air conditioning both of these which spun off into fortune 200 publicly traded companies their own, to ultimately what became you know, the merger with Raytheon. Raytheon? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It most recently produced Raytheon technologies. And so a really, really fascinating set of experiences for me there. And then   Michael Hingson  55:35 you along the way, also, I guess, we're part of the formation of bully pulpit international with the Obama Biden administration.   Bradley Akubuiro  55:44 You know, I wasn't part of the founding, this all kind of happened in parallel with folks who I have a ton of respect for who I now work with bully pulpit, interact was formed in 2009, with a number of folks who came out of that Obama campaign, and then White House. And it started in the kind of digital marketing, digital persuasion space, and all of the kind of, you know, really amazing tactics and strategies that they learned on that campaign, particularly, as social media was starting to become more popularized and more mass adopted, they said, how do we start to apply some of that stuff, as you think about not only other campaigns, but to foundations and advocacy groups into corporations? And you know, you flash forward 1213 years now, and this is a fully operational 250 person agency, where we're focused on, you know, how do you help organizations of all types, you know, really express their values and find their voices on these really key important issues. But also, how do leaders make really tough decisions on things like, you know, Roe v. Wade, and what that means for their employee base, and what they're going to do policy wise, and how they're going to communicate around that afterwards? On through gun reform, and what folks do if you know, you are operating, and buffalo or in Texas, when you know, some of the massacres that happened earlier this year happen. And this has been, you know, really fascinating. And I came over here after being chief spokesperson for Boeing. And it's been really fun to reunite with some old friends and folks who have been doing this kind of work for a really long time now.   Michael Hingson  57:37 So Boeing, so when did you leave Boeing   Bradley Akubuiro  57:41 left Boeing, a year, just shy of a year and a half go   Michael Hingson  57:45 around during the whole 737 Max thing?   Bradley Akubuiro  57:49 Well, you know, interestingly, you bring this up, I was brought over to Boeing, in response to the 737. Max, you know, I was asked to come over and to really think about what does a world class Media Relations organization look like? That is going to be transparent, accountable, and 24/7? Around the globe? And more than anything, after you've had, you know, two accidents on the scale that they had, you know, how do we really become more human and how we interact with all of our stakeholders, internal and external on a lot of this stuff? And that was a really, really, really challenging, but rewarding process to be part of and to help lead?   Michael Hingson  58:33 How do you advise people? Or what do you advise people in those kinds of situations, you had a major crisis? And clearly, there's an issue? What do you what do you tell corporate executives to do? And how hard was it to get them to do it?   Bradley Akubuiro  58:49 Yeah. So on the first part of that question, it really comes down to being human, you got to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you're trying to communicate with, and to, if you are a person who lost a loved one, on a plane that went down outside of, you know, Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia, if you if you were, you know, one of the people who lost your, your spouse or your kid, you know, the last thing you want to hear from a company is, you know, we did things right, from an engineering standpoint, what you want to hear from that company, is, we are so sorry that this happened. And we're going to do absolutely everything in our power to ensure it can never happen again. And here are the steps we're taking and here's what we're going to do to try to make things right and you can never completely make things right. In that circumstance. You can at least be understanding.   Michael Hingson  59:48 I remember 1982 When we had the Tylenol cyanide incident, you know about that. Yeah. And if For us, and what was the most impressive thing about that was within two days, the president of company was out in front of it. And as you said, being human, that's a corporate lesson that more people really should learn.   Bradley Akubuiro  1:00:18 Yeah, it's a difficult thing to do. Because I think, and this isn't just lawyers, but it's easy to blame it on lawyers, the natural reaction is to immediately think, well, what's my liability going to be? What are people going to think if they think that I actually did make this mistake? And how do I cover it up? And how do I try to diffuse responsibility? And that is exactly the opposite of what you should do. And this isn't just good communications. This is good leadership.   Michael Hingson  1:00:44 Good leadership. Yeah,   Bradley Akubuiro  1:00:45 that's right. And we need more people to really understand that to your point.   Michael Hingson  1:00:50 Well, and with with Boeing, it sounds like if I recall, all of the stuff that least that we saw on the news, which may or may not have been totally accurate, there were some issues. And it took a while to deal with some of that to get people to, to face what occurred that necessarily things weren't going exactly the way they really should have in terms of what people were communicating and what people knew and didn't know.   Bradley Akubuiro  1:01:15 Yeah, well, then you ask the question, how difficult was it to get the senior executives to get on board with the new approach. And what I would say is, and this goes back to some of we were talking about earlier, the top down kind of approach to this, and what's happening and the most senior role matters the most. And the CEO who came in this was after the former CEO was was like, you know, the chief legal officer, the head of that business, and a number of different executives, you keep going on, had exited the company, the new CEO, who came in they've Calhoun, currently is still the CEO, they're brought in this new wave, this refreshing new approach and culture, and was all about how do we ensure that we are being accountable, and that we're being transparent, because that is what matters in this circumstance. And so with that license to operate, it was a lot easier to come in and convince folks Well, this is how we should approach this from a media perspective, from a communications staff perspective, and across the board, with our customers with regulators, cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because everybody was on board that this is what we needed to do. And frankly, it's the only way to not only repair our reputation, because this is 100 year old company has been at the first of so many different things historically, from an aviation standpoint, and helped truly invent modern flight. So how do you create a reputation that people expect coming out of that, but also to respect again, those who trusted the company, because when you step on a fly, you know, you know, as Michael, when you stop on a flight, you don't want to think about whether it's gonna make it to the other side or not. You want to trust that it's gonna make it to the other side and focus on what you got to do when you get there and everything else in your life. And people had for a brief period of time lost that faith. And that is what we were really trying to restore.   Michael Hingson  1:03:15 Do you think you were pretty successful at getting faith and confidence restored,   Bradley Akubuiro  1:03:20 I think we've made a good start at bone still remains a client. And I would say that the work that is ongoing is going to take time, because it takes five seconds to lose your reputation. It takes a long time to rebuild it and to regain trust. And I think the company is committed to what it needs to do to do that. But it is a journey.   Michael Hingson  1:03:44 What do you advise people today you do a lot of consulting, and you're in

Scoop B x Reverend Jesse Jackson talks all things basketball, playing against Marvin Gaye, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Jackie Robinson, Kanye West and so much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perhaps I, Autumn Simmons, is very quirky, but I am NOT a swinger. However, I presume there are many "Hot Dog Swingers," who are presidents, ministers and pastors. Who would you do? Who would I do? Which Sausage party warlock took over my quirky golden pussy?!? More stories about Ike Turner, James Brown and Eddie Griffin regarding Tina Turner and Tammi Terrell. Just so you know, Reverend Jesse Jackson, was always at everybody's funeral, including Tammi Terrell , Elijah Muhammad and Teddy Pendergrass. The only celeb funeral I ever attended was Philly's Teddy Pendergrass. And of course more about situationships that have NEVER happened. Listen now to Ok, it's weird shit!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autumn-simmons/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/autumn-simmons/support

Do you feel like you're not being heard? Like your efforts to create change falling on deaf ears? If you're ready to learn how to be an effective advocate for civil rights, then this episode is for you. You'll learn about the Rainbow Push Intergenerational Training Program though it occurred over half a century ago, the civil rights movement is still relevant today. "The church gives to the people, not to the administration." - Bishop Tavis Grant Bishop Tavis Grant is the acting national director of Rainbow Push. He has been involved with the civil rights movement for over 50 years and has seen the evolution of the most iconic figure of his lifetime, Reverend Jesse Jackson. This is Bishop Tavis Grant's story... I was recently appointed to the acting position of national director of Rainbow Push, an organization founded by Reverend Jesse Jackson. I stated that civil rights are a continuum of an ever-evolving movement. I also brought up how the owner of the Phoenix Suns and the Mercury WNBA team was fined and suspended for using racial slurs. I believe that the civil rights movement and civil rights were fought for the right to coexist, not to be accepted. And that we have sacrificed a lot of civil rights gains for the euphoria of being accepted. We then began talking about the black church and how it is understaffed, underfunded, and has antiquated resources. I stated that the church gives to the people, not to the administration. In this episode, you will learn the following: 1. What is the legacy of Reverend Jesse Jackson? 2. How did the Black church respond to reality TV shows that mocked them? 3. What are Bishop Tavis Grant's thoughts on America's political future? Other episodes you'll enjoy: https://apple.co/3C8UNiK - Sasha Dalton https://apple.co/3SbZcaa - Pemon Rami Connect with me: Instagram: iamhermenehartman Facebook: hermenehartman Twitter: Hermene NdigoWebsite: https://ndigo.com/ Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ndigo-studio-podcast/id1493840851

Jerry Austin is probably best known as the campaign manager for Reverend Jesse Jackson's '88 Presidential Campaign that won 11 contests and led in delegates deep into the calendar...and he also served as manager, media consultant, advisor to names like Paul Wellstone, Carol Moselely Braun, Sherrod Brown, Paul Tsongas and many more. In this conversation, Jerry talks the '88 Jackson race and high points and lessons learned from decades working with some of the biggest names in American politics. Plus Jerry previews his book series TRUE TALES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL...pulling together the best campaign war stories from a bipartisan coterie of top political consultants. IN THIS EPISODEJerry grows up in a union household in the South Bronx…Protesting the Vietnam War leads Jerry to a political career…Jerry's early connection to rising star and future Ohio Governor Dick Celeste…A deep dive on Jerry's time managing the 1988 presidential campaign of Reverend Jesse Jackson…Jerry tells some great Willie Brown stories…The first two moves he took to make Jesse Jackson a credible national candidate in 1988…Wisconsin becomes a “make or break” state for Jackson in the '88 primaries…How closely was Reverend Jackson considered for the VP nomination n 1988…Jerry's thoughts on how Jackson '88 blazed the trail for both Clinton '92 and Obama '08…Jerry's involvement at the start of the career of now Senator Sherrod Brown…Jerry's integral role in the underdog upset win of Paul Wellstone in 1990…The story of Paul Wellstone and Ted Kennedy in a heated argument on the Senate floor…Jerry helps engineer the groundbreaking Senate win of Carol Moseley Braun in 1992…Jerry talks the rise and fall of former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker…Jerry's brought in to help on Paul Tsongas '92 Presidential…Jerry is an official observer during the “Pinochet plebiscite” in Chile…Jerry talks the origin of his book series “True Tales from the Campaign Trail” and one of his favorite stories…AND Art Agnos, Salvador Allende, David Axelrod, bagels and coffees, Robert Bork, Rudy Boschwitz, Boston People, Charlie Brown, Ted Brown, Virgil Brown, Cadillacs, Tony Celebrezze, Steve Cobble, the Dallas Cowboys, Alan Dixon, Bob Dole, Pete Domenici, duck hunting, Michael Dukakis, Susan Estrich, exit polls, Louis Farrakhan, gentile women, Al Gore, Al Hofeld, Tom Hsieh, Hunter College, Jerry Jones, Celinda Lake, Vito Marcantonio, matching funds, McDonalds' executives, Meridian MS, Howard Metzenbaum, George Mitchell, Walter Mondale, Dee Dee Myers, Barack Obama, pander bears, pariahs, Augusto Pinochet, pipe dreams, scrums, the Secret Service, Hank Sheinkopf, the Tampa Airport, Clarence Thomas, Tulsa, the UN, the US Communist Party, VW bugs, voice votes, Maxine Waters & more!

Episode 149 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Respect", and the journey of Aretha Franklin from teenage gospel singer to the Queen of Soul. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifteen-minute bonus episode available, on "I'm Just a Mops" by the Mops. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Also, people may be interested in a Facebook discussion group for the podcast, run by a friend of mine (I'm not on FB myself) which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/293630102611672/ Errata I say "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby to a Dixie Melody" instead of "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". Also I say Spooner Oldham co-wrote "Do Right Woman". I meant Chips Moman. Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. I also relied heavily on I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You by Matt Dobkin. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Rick Hall's The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame contains his side of the story. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. And the I Never Loved a Man album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start this episode,  I have to say that there are some things people may want to be aware of before listening to this. This episode has to deal, at least in passing, with subjects including child sexual abuse, intimate partner abuse, racism, and misogyny. I will of course try to deal with those subjects as tactfully as possible, but those of you who may be upset by those topics may want to check the episode transcript before or instead of listening. Those of you who leave comments or send me messages saying "why can't you just talk about the music instead of all this woke virtue-signalling?" may also want to skip this episode. You can go ahead and skip all the future ones as well, I won't mind. And one more thing to say before I get into the meat of the episode -- this episode puts me in a more difficult position than most other episodes of the podcast have. When I've talked about awful things that have happened in the course of this podcast previously, I have either been talking about perpetrators -- people like Phil Spector or Jerry Lee Lewis who did truly reprehensible things -- or about victims who have talked very publicly about the abuse they've suffered, people like Ronnie Spector or Tina Turner, who said very clearly "this is what happened to me and I want it on the public record". In the case of Aretha Franklin, she has been portrayed as a victim *by others*, and there are things that have been said about her life and her relationships which suggest that she suffered in some very terrible ways. But she herself apparently never saw herself as a victim, and didn't want some aspects of her private life talking about. At the start of David Ritz's biography of her, which is one of my main sources here, he recounts a conversation he had with her: "When I mentioned the possibility of my writing an independent biography, she said, “As long as I can approve it before it's published.” “Then it wouldn't be independent,” I said. “Why should it be independent?” “So I can tell the story from my point of view.” “But it's not your story, it's mine.” “You're an important historical figure, Aretha. Others will inevitably come along to tell your story. That's the blessing and burden of being a public figure.” “More burden than blessing,” she said." Now, Aretha Franklin is sadly dead, but I think that she still deserves the basic respect of being allowed privacy. So I will talk here about public matters, things she acknowledged in her own autobiography, and things that she and the people around her did in public situations like recording studios and concert venues. But there are aspects to the story of Aretha Franklin as that story is commonly told, which may well be true, but are of mostly prurient interest, don't add much to the story of how the music came to be made, and which she herself didn't want people talking about. So there will be things people might expect me to talk about in this episode, incidents where people in her life, usually men, treated her badly, that I'm going to leave out. That information is out there if people want to look for it, but I don't see myself as under any obligation to share it. That's not me making excuses for people who did inexcusable things, that's me showing some respect to one of the towering artistic figures of the latter half of the twentieth century. Because, of course, respect is what this is all about: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Respect"] One name that's come up a few times in this podcast, but who we haven't really talked about that much, is Bobby "Blue" Bland. We mentioned him as the single biggest influence on the style of Van Morrison, but Bland was an important figure in the Memphis music scene of the early fifties, which we talked about in several early episodes. He was one of the Beale Streeters, the loose aggregation of musicians that also included B.B. King and Johnny Ace, he worked with Ike Turner, and was one of the key links between blues and soul in the fifties and early sixties, with records like "Turn on Your Love Light": [Excerpt: Bobby "Blue" Bland, "Turn on Your Love Light"] But while Bland was influenced by many musicians we've talked about, his biggest influence wasn't a singer at all. It was a preacher he saw give a sermon in the early 1940s. As he said decades later: "Wasn't his words that got me—I couldn't tell you what he talked on that day, couldn't tell you what any of it meant, but it was the way he talked. He talked like he was singing. He talked music. The thing that really got me, though, was this squall-like sound he made to emphasize a certain word. He'd catch the word in his mouth, let it roll around and squeeze it with his tongue. When it popped on out, it exploded, and the ladies started waving and shouting. I liked all that. I started popping and shouting too. That next week I asked Mama when we were going back to Memphis to church. “‘Since when you so keen on church?' Mama asked. “‘I like that preacher,' I said. “‘Reverend Franklin?' she asked. “‘Well, if he's the one who sings when he preaches, that's the one I like.'" Bland was impressed by C.L. Franklin, and so were other Memphis musicians. Long after Franklin had moved to Detroit, they remembered him, and Bland and B.B. King would go to Franklin's church to see him preach whenever they were in the city. And Bland studied Franklin's records. He said later "I liked whatever was on the radio, especially those first things Nat Cole did with his trio. Naturally I liked the blues singers like Roy Brown, the jump singers like Louis Jordan, and the ballad singers like Billy Eckstine, but, brother, the man who really shaped me was Reverend Franklin." Bland would study Franklin's records, and would take the style that Franklin used in recorded sermons like "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest": [Excerpt: C.L. Franklin, "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest"] And you can definitely hear that preaching style on records like Bland's "I Pity the Fool": [Excerpt: Bobby "Blue" Bland, "I Pity the Fool"] But of course, that wasn't the only influence the Reverend C.L. Franklin had on the course of soul music. C.L. Franklin had grown up poor, on a Mississippi farm, and had not even finished grade school because he was needed to work behind the mule, ploughing the farm for his stepfather. But he had a fierce intelligence and became an autodidact, travelling regularly to the nearest library, thirty miles away, on a horse-drawn wagon, and reading everything he could get his hands on. At the age of sixteen he received what he believed to be a message from God, and decided to become an itinerant preacher. He would travel between many small country churches and build up audiences there -- and he would also study everyone else preaching there, analysing their sermons, seeing if he could anticipate their line of argument and get ahead of them, figuring out the structure. But unlike many people in the conservative Black Baptist churches of the time, he never saw the spiritual and secular worlds as incompatible. He saw blues music and Black church sermons as both being part of the same thing -- a Black culture and folklore that was worthy of respect in both its spiritual and secular aspects. He soon built up a small circuit of local churches where he would preach occasionally, but wasn't the main pastor at any of them. He got married aged twenty, though that marriage didn't last, and he seems to have been ambitious for a greater respectability. When that marriage failed, in June 1936, he married Barbara Siggers, a very intelligent, cultured, young single mother who had attended Booker T Washington High School, the best Black school in Memphis, and he adopted her son Vaughn. While he was mostly still doing churches in Mississippi, he took on one in Memphis as well, in an extremely poor area, but it gave him a foot in the door to the biggest Black city in the US. Barbara would later be called "one of the really great gospel singers" by no less than Mahalia Jackson. We don't have any recordings of Barbara singing, but Mahalia Jackson certainly knew what she was talking about when it came to great gospel singers: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"] Rev. Franklin was hugely personally ambitious, and he also wanted to get out of rural Mississippi, where the Klan were very active at this time, especially after his daughter Erma was born in 1938. They moved to Memphis in 1939, where he got a full-time position at New Salem Baptist Church, where for the first time he was able to earn a steady living from just one church and not have to tour round multiple churches. He soon became so popular that if you wanted to get a seat for the service at noon, you had to turn up for the 8AM Sunday School or you'd be forced to stand. He also enrolled for college courses at LeMoyne College. He didn't get a degree, but spent three years as a part-time student studying theology, literature, and sociology, and soon developed a liberal theology that was very different from the conservative fundamentalism he'd grown up in, though still very much part of the Baptist church. Where he'd grown up with a literalism that said the Bible was literally true, he started to accept things like evolution, and to see much of the Bible as metaphor. Now, we talked in the last episode about how impossible it is to get an accurate picture of the lives of religious leaders, because their life stories are told by those who admire them, and that's very much the case for C.L. Franklin. Franklin was a man who had many, many, admirable qualities -- he was fiercely intelligent, well-read, a superb public speaker, a man who was by all accounts genuinely compassionate towards those in need, and he became one of the leaders of the civil rights movement and inspired tens of thousands, maybe even millions, of people, directly and indirectly, to change the world for the better. He also raised several children who loved and admired him and were protective of his memory. And as such, there is an inevitable bias in the sources on Franklin's life. And so there's a tendency to soften the very worst things he did, some of which were very, very bad. For example in Nick Salvatore's biography of him, he talks about Franklin, in 1940, fathering a daughter with someone who is described as "a teenager" and "quite young". No details of her age other than that are given, and a few paragraphs later the age of a girl who was then sixteen *is* given, talking about having known the girl in question, and so the impression is given that the girl he impregnated was also probably in her late teens. Which would still be bad, but a man in his early twenties fathering a child with a girl in her late teens is something that can perhaps be forgiven as being a different time. But while the girl in question may have been a teenager when she gave birth, she was *twelve years old* when she became pregnant, by C.L. Franklin, the pastor of her church, who was in a position of power over her in multiple ways. Twelve years old. And this is not the only awful thing that Franklin did -- he was also known to regularly beat up women he was having affairs with, in public. I mention this now because everything else I say about him in this episode is filtered through sources who saw these things as forgivable character flaws in an otherwise admirable human being, and I can't correct for those biases because I don't know the truth. So it's going to sound like he was a truly great man. But bear those facts in mind. Barbara stayed with Franklin for the present, after discovering what he had done, but their marriage was a difficult one, and they split up and reconciled a handful of times. They had three more children together -- Cecil, Aretha, and Carolyn -- and remained together as Franklin moved on first to a church in Buffalo, New York, and then to New Bethel Church, in Detroit, on Hastings Street, a street which was the centre of Black nightlife in the city, as immortalised in John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun": [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillen"] Before moving to Detroit, Franklin had already started to get more political, as his congregation in Buffalo had largely been union members, and being free from the worst excesses of segregation allowed him to talk more openly about civil rights, but that only accelerated when he moved to Detroit, which had been torn apart just a couple of years earlier by police violence against Black protestors. Franklin had started building a reputation when in Memphis using radio broadcasts, and by the time he moved to Detroit he was able to command a very high salary, and not only that, his family were given a mansion by the church, in a rich part of town far away from most of his congregation. Smokey Robinson, who was Cecil Franklin's best friend and a frequent visitor to the mansion through most of his childhood, described it later, saying "Once inside, I'm awestruck -- oil paintings, velvet tapestries, silk curtains, mahogany cabinets filled with ornate objects of silver and gold. Man, I've never seen nothing like that before!" He made a lot of money, but he also increased church attendance so much that he earned that money. He had already been broadcasting on the radio, but when he started his Sunday night broadcasts in Detroit, he came up with a trick of having his sermons run long, so the show would end before the climax. People listening decided that they would have to start turning up in person to hear the end of the sermons, and soon he became so popular that the church would be so full that crowds would have to form on the street outside to listen. Other churches rescheduled their services so they wouldn't clash with Franklin's, and most of the other Black Baptist ministers in the city would go along to watch him preach. In 1948 though, a couple of years after moving to Detroit, Barbara finally left her husband. She took Vaughn with her and moved back to Buffalo, leaving the four biological children she'd had with C.L. with their father.  But it's important to note that she didn't leave her children -- they would visit her on a regular basis, and stay with her over school holidays. Aretha later said "Despite the fact that it has been written innumerable times, it is an absolute lie that my mother abandoned us. In no way, shape, form, or fashion did our mother desert us." Barbara's place in the home was filled by many women -- C.L. Franklin's mother moved up from Mississippi to help him take care of the children, the ladies from the church would often help out, and even stars like Mahalia Jackson would turn up and cook meals for the children. There were also the women with whom Franklin carried on affairs, including Anna Gordy, Ruth Brown, and Dinah Washington, the most important female jazz and blues singer of the fifties, who had major R&B hits with records like her version of "Cold Cold Heart": [Excerpt: Dinah Washington, "Cold Cold Heart"] Although my own favourite record of hers is "Big Long Slidin' Thing", which she made with arranger Quincy Jones: [Excerpt: Dinah Washington, "Big Long Slidin' Thing"] It's about a trombone. Get your minds out of the gutter. Washington was one of the biggest vocal influences on young Aretha, but the single biggest influence was Clara Ward, another of C.L. Franklin's many girlfriends. Ward was the longest-lasting of these, and there seems to have been a lot of hope on both her part and Aretha's that she and Rev. Franklin would marry, though Franklin always made it very clear that monogamy wouldn't suit him. Ward was one of the three major female gospel singers of the middle part of the century, and possibly even more technically impressive as a vocalist than the other two, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson. Where Jackson was an austere performer, who refused to perform in secular contexts at all for most of her life, and took herself and her music very seriously, and Tharpe was a raunchier, funnier, more down-to-earth performer who was happy to play for blues audiences and even to play secular music on occasion, Ward was a *glamorous* performer, who wore sequined dresses and piled her hair high on her head. Ward had become a singer in 1931 when her mother had what she later talked about as a religious epiphany, and decided she wasn't going to be a labourer any more, she was going to devote her life to gospel music. Ward's mother had formed a vocal group with her two daughters, and Clara quickly became the star and her mother's meal ticket -- and her mother was very possessive of that ticket, to the extent that Ward, who was a bisexual woman who mostly preferred men, had more relationships with women, because her mother wouldn't let her be alone with the men she was attracted to. But Ward did manage to keep a relationship going with C.L. Franklin, and Aretha Franklin talked about the moment she decided to become a singer, when she saw Ward singing "Peace in the Valley" at a funeral: [Excerpt: Clara Ward, "Peace in the Valley"] As well as looking towards Ward as a vocal influence, Aretha was also influenced by her as a person -- she became a mother figure to Aretha, who would talk later about watching Ward eat, and noting her taking little delicate bites, and getting an idea of what it meant to be ladylike from her. After Ward's death in 1973, a notebook was found in which she had written her opinions of other singers. For Aretha she wrote “My baby Aretha, she doesn't know how good she is. Doubts self. Some day—to the moon. I love that girl.” Ward's influence became especially important to Aretha and her siblings after their mother died of a heart attack a few years after leaving her husband, when Aretha was ten, and Aretha, already a very introverted child, became even more so. Everyone who knew Aretha said that her later diva-ish reputation came out of a deep sense of insecurity and introversion -- that she was a desperately private, closed-off, person who would rarely express her emotions at all, and who would look away from you rather than make eye contact. The only time she let herself express emotions was when she performed music. And music was hugely important in the Franklin household. Most preachers in the Black church at that time were a bit dismissive of gospel music, because they thought the music took away from their prestige -- they saw it as a necessary evil, and resented it taking up space when their congregations could have been listening to them. But Rev. Franklin was himself a rather good singer, and even made a few gospel records himself in 1950, recording for Joe Von Battle, who owned a record shop on Hastings Street and also put out records by blues singers: [Excerpt: C.L. Franklin, "I Am Climbing Higher Mountains" ] The church's musical director was James Cleveland, one of the most important gospel artists of the fifties and sixties, who sang with groups like the Caravans: [Excerpt: The Caravans, "What Kind of Man is This?" ] Cleveland, who had started out in the choir run by Thomas Dorsey, the writer of “Take My Hand Precious Lord” and “Peace in the Valley”, moved in with the Franklin family for a while, and he gave the girls tips on playing the piano -- much later he would play piano on Aretha's album Amazing Grace, and she said of him “He showed me some real nice chords, and I liked his deep, deep sound”. Other than Clara Ward, he was probably the single biggest musical influence on Aretha. And all the touring gospel musicians would make appearances at New Bethel Church, not least of them Sam Cooke, who first appeared there with the Highway QCs and would continue to do so after joining the Soul Stirrers: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, "Touch the Hem of his Garment"] Young Aretha and her older sister Erma both had massive crushes on Cooke, and there were rumours that he had an affair with one or both of them when they were in their teens, though both denied it. Aretha later said "When I first saw him, all I could do was sigh... Sam was love on first hearing, love at first sight." But it wasn't just gospel music that filled the house. One of the major ways that C.L. Franklin's liberalism showed was in his love of secular music, especially jazz and blues, which he regarded as just as important in Black cultural life as gospel music. We already talked about Dinah Washington being a regular visitor to the house, but every major Black entertainer would visit the Franklin residence when they were in Detroit. Both Aretha and Cecil Franklin vividly remembered visits from Art Tatum, who would sit at the piano and play for the family and their guests: [Excerpt: Art Tatum, "Tiger Rag"] Tatum was such a spectacular pianist that there's now a musicological term, the tatum, named after him, for the smallest possible discernible rhythmic interval between two notes. Young Aretha was thrilled by his technique, and by that of Oscar Peterson, who also regularly came to the Franklin home, sometimes along with Ella Fitzgerald. Nat "King" Cole was another regular visitor. The Franklin children all absorbed the music these people -- the most important musicians of the time -- were playing in their home, and young Aretha in particular became an astonishing singer and also an accomplished pianist. Smokey Robinson later said: “The other thing that knocked us out about Aretha was her piano playing. There was a grand piano in the Franklin living room, and we all liked to mess around. We'd pick out little melodies with one finger. But when Aretha sat down, even as a seven-year-old, she started playing chords—big chords. Later I'd recognize them as complex church chords, the kind used to accompany the preacher and the solo singer. At the time, though, all I could do was view Aretha as a wonder child. Mind you, this was Detroit, where musical talent ran strong and free. Everyone was singing and harmonizing; everyone was playing piano and guitar. Aretha came out of this world, but she also came out of another far-off magical world none of us really understood. She came from a distant musical planet where children are born with their gifts fully formed.” C.L. Franklin became more involved in the music business still when Joe Von Battle started releasing records of his sermons, which had become steadily more politically aware: [Excerpt: C.L. Franklin, "Dry Bones in the Valley"] Franklin was not a Marxist -- he was a liberal, but like many liberals was willing to stand with Marxists where they had shared interests, even when it was dangerous. For example in 1954, at the height of McCarthyism, he had James and Grace Lee Boggs, two Marxist revolutionaries, come to the pulpit and talk about their support for the anti-colonial revolution in Kenya, and they sold four hundred copies of their pamphlet after their talk, because he saw that the struggle of Black Africans to get out from white colonial rule was the same struggle as that of Black Americans. And Franklin's powerful sermons started getting broadcast on the radio in areas further out from Detroit, as Chess Records picked up the distribution for them and people started playing the records on other stations. People like future Congressman John Lewis and the Reverend Jesse Jackson would later talk about listening to C.L. Franklin's records on the radio and being inspired -- a whole generation of Black Civil Rights leaders took their cues from him, and as the 1950s and 60s went on he became closer and closer to Martin Luther King in particular. But C.L. Franklin was always as much an ambitious showman as an activist, and he started putting together gospel tours, consisting mostly of music but with himself giving a sermon as the headline act. And he became very, very wealthy from these tours. On one trip in the south, his car broke down, and he couldn't find a mechanic willing to work on it. A group of white men started mocking him with racist terms, trying to provoke him, as he was dressed well and driving a nice car (albeit one that had broken down). Rather than arguing with them, he walked to a car dealership, and bought a new car with the cash that he had on him. By 1956 he was getting around $4000 per appearance, roughly equivalent to $43,000 today, and he was making a *lot* of appearances. He also sold half a million records that year. Various gospel singers, including the Clara Ward Singers, would perform on the tours he organised, and one of those performers was Franklin's middle daughter Aretha. Aretha had become pregnant when she was twelve, and after giving birth to the child she dropped out of school, but her grandmother did most of the child-rearing for her, while she accompanied her father on tour. Aretha's first recordings, made when she was just fourteen, show what an astonishing talent she already was at that young age. She would grow as an artist, of course, as she aged and gained experience, but those early gospel records already show an astounding maturity and ability. It's jaw-dropping to listen to these records of a fourteen-year-old, and immediately recognise them as a fully-formed Aretha Franklin. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood"] Smokey Robinson's assessment that she was born with her gifts fully formed doesn't seem like an exaggeration when you hear that. For the latter half of the fifties, Aretha toured with her father, performing on the gospel circuit and becoming known there. But the Franklin sisters were starting to get ideas about moving into secular music. This was largely because their family friend Sam Cooke had done just that, with "You Send Me": [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "You Send Me"] Aretha and Erma still worshipped Cooke, and Aretha would later talk about getting dressed up just to watch Cooke appear on the TV. Their brother Cecil later said "I remember the night Sam came to sing at the Flame Show Bar in Detroit. Erma and Ree said they weren't going because they were so heartbroken that Sam had recently married. I didn't believe them. And I knew I was right when they started getting dressed about noon for the nine o'clock show. Because they were underage, they put on a ton of makeup to look older. It didn't matter 'cause Berry Gordy's sisters, Anna and Gwen, worked the photo concession down there, taking pictures of the party people. Anna was tight with Daddy and was sure to let my sisters in. She did, and they came home with stars in their eyes.” Moving from gospel to secular music still had a stigma against it in the gospel world, but Rev. Franklin had never seen secular music as sinful, and he encouraged his daughters in their ambitions. Erma was the first to go secular, forming a girl group, the Cleo-Patrettes, at the suggestion of the Four Tops, who were family friends, and recording a single for Joe Von Battle's J-V-B label, "No Other Love": [Excerpt: The Cleo-Patrettes, "No Other Love"] But the group didn't go any further, as Rev. Franklin insisted that his eldest daughter had to finish school and go to university before she could become a professional singer. Erma missed other opportunities for different reasons, though -- Berry Gordy, at this time still a jobbing songwriter, offered her a song he'd written with his sister and Roquel Davis, but Erma thought of herself as a jazz singer and didn't want to do R&B, and so "All I Could Do Was Cry" was given to Etta James instead, who had a top forty pop hit with it: [Excerpt: Etta James, "All I Could Do Was Cry"] While Erma's move into secular music was slowed by her father wanting her to have an education, there was no such pressure on Aretha, as she had already dropped out. But Aretha had a different problem -- she was very insecure, and said that church audiences "weren't critics, but worshippers", but she was worried that nightclub audiences in particular were just the kind of people who would just be looking for flaws, rather than wanting to support the performer as church audiences did. But eventually she got up the nerve to make the move. There was the possibility of her getting signed to Motown -- her brother was still best friends with Smokey Robinson, while the Gordy family were close to her father -- but Rev. Franklin had his eye on bigger things. He wanted her to be signed to Columbia, which in 1960 was the most prestigious of all the major labels. As Aretha's brother Cecil later said "He wanted Ree on Columbia, the label that recorded Mahalia Jackson, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Percy Faith, and Doris Day. Daddy said that Columbia was the biggest and best record company in the world. Leonard Bernstein recorded for Columbia." They went out to New York to see Phil Moore, a legendary vocal coach and arranger who had helped make Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge into stars, but Moore actually refused to take her on as a client, saying "She does not require my services. Her style has already been developed. Her style is in place. It is a unique style that, in my professional opinion, requires no alteration. It simply requires the right material. Her stage presentation is not of immediate concern. All that will come later. The immediate concern is the material that will suit her best. And the reason that concern will not be easily addressed is because I can't imagine any material that will not suit her." That last would become a problem for the next few years, but the immediate issue was to get someone at Columbia to listen to her, and Moore could help with that -- he was friends with John Hammond. Hammond is a name that's come up several times in the podcast already -- we mentioned him in the very earliest episodes, and also in episode ninety-eight, where we looked at his signing of Bob Dylan. But Hammond was a legend in the music business. He had produced sessions for Bessie Smith, had discovered Count Basie and Billie Holiday, had convinced Benny Goodman to hire Charlie Christian and Lionel Hampton, had signed Pete Seeger and the Weavers to Columbia, had organised the Spirituals to Swing concerts which we talked about in the first few episodes of this podcast, and was about to put out the first album of Robert Johnson's recordings. Of all the executives at Columbia, he was the one who had the greatest eye for talent, and the greatest understanding of Black musical culture. Moore suggested that the Franklins get Major Holley to produce a demo recording that he could get Hammond to listen to. Major Holley was a family friend, and a jazz bassist who had played with Oscar Peterson and Coleman Hawkins among others, and he put together a set of songs for Aretha that would emphasise the jazz side of her abilities, pitching her as a Dinah Washington style bluesy jazz singer. The highlight of the demo was a version of "Today I Sing the Blues", a song that had originally been recorded by Helen Humes, the singer who we last heard of recording “Be Baba Leba” with Bill Doggett: [Excerpt: Helen Humes, "Today I Sing the Blues"] That original version had been produced by Hammond, but the song had also recently been covered by Aretha's idol, Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "Today I Sing the Blues"] Hammond was hugely impressed by the demo, and signed Aretha straight away, and got to work producing her first album. But he and Rev. Franklin had different ideas about what Aretha should do. Hammond wanted to make a fairly raw-sounding bluesy jazz album, the kind of recording he had produced with Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday, but Rev. Franklin wanted his daughter to make music that would cross over to the white pop market -- he was aiming for the same kind of audience that Nat "King" Cole or Harry Belafonte had, and he wanted her recording standards like "Over the Rainbow". This showed a lack of understanding on Rev. Franklin's part of how such crossovers actually worked at this point. As Etta James later said, "If you wanna have Black hits, you gotta understand the Black streets, you gotta work those streets and work those DJs to get airplay on Black stations... Or looking at it another way, in those days you had to get the Black audience to love the hell outta you and then hope the love would cross over to the white side. Columbia didn't know nothing 'bout crossing over.” But Hammond knew they had to make a record quickly, because Sam Cooke had been working on RCA Records, trying to get them to sign Aretha, and Rev. Franklin wanted an album out so they could start booking club dates for her, and was saying that if they didn't get one done quickly he'd take up that offer, and so they came up with a compromise set of songs which satisfied nobody, but did produce two R&B top ten hits, "Won't Be Long" and Aretha's version of "Today I Sing the Blues": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Today I Sing the Blues"] This is not to say that Aretha herself saw this as a compromise -- she later said "I have never compromised my material. Even then, I knew a good song from a bad one. And if Hammond, one of the legends of the business, didn't know how to produce a record, who does? No, the fault was with promotion." And this is something important to bear in mind as we talk about her Columbia records. Many, *many* people have presented those records as Aretha being told what to do by producers who didn't understand her art and were making her record songs that didn't fit her style. That's not what's happening with the Columbia records. Everyone actually involved said that Aretha was very involved in the choices made -- and there are some genuinely great tracks on those albums. The problem is that they're *unfocused*. Aretha was only eighteen when she signed to the label, and she loved all sorts of music -- blues, jazz, soul, standards, gospel, middle-of-the-road pop music -- and wanted to sing all those kinds of music. And she *could* sing all those kinds of music, and sing them well. But it meant the records weren't coherent. You didn't know what you were getting, and there was no artistic personality that dominated them, it was just what Aretha felt like recording. Around this time, Aretha started to think that maybe her father didn't know what he was talking about when it came to popular music success, even though she idolised him in most areas, and she turned to another figure, who would soon become both her husband and manager. Ted White. Her sister Erma, who was at that time touring with Lloyd Price, had introduced them, but in fact Aretha had first seen White years earlier, in her own house -- he had been Dinah Washington's boyfriend in the fifties, and her first sight of him had been carrying a drunk Washington out of the house after a party. In interviews with David Ritz, who wrote biographies of many major soul stars including both Aretha Franklin and Etta James, James had a lot to say about White, saying “Ted White was famous even before he got with Aretha. My boyfriend at the time, Harvey Fuqua, used to talk about him. Ted was supposed to be the slickest pimp in Detroit. When I learned that Aretha married him, I wasn't surprised. A lot of the big-time singers who we idolized as girls—like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan—had pimps for boyfriends and managers. That was standard operating procedure. My own mother had made a living turning tricks. When we were getting started, that way of life was part of the music business. It was in our genes. Part of the lure of pimps was that they got us paid." She compared White to Ike Turner, saying "Ike made Tina, no doubt about it. He developed her talent. He showed her what it meant to be a performer. He got her famous. Of course, Ted White was not a performer, but he was savvy about the world. When Harvey Fuqua introduced me to him—this was the fifties, before he was with Aretha—I saw him as a super-hip extra-smooth cat. I liked him. He knew music. He knew songwriters who were writing hit songs. He had manners. Later, when I ran into him and Aretha—this was the sixties—I saw that she wasn't as shy as she used to be." White was a pimp, but he was also someone with music business experience -- he owned an unsuccessful publishing company, and also ran a chain of jukeboxes. He was also thirty, while Aretha was only eighteen. But White didn't like the people in Aretha's life at the time -- he didn't get on well with her father, and he also clashed with John Hammond. And Aretha was also annoyed at Hammond, because her sister Erma had signed to Epic, a Columbia subsidiary, and was releasing her own singles: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Hello Again"] Aretha was certain that Hammond had signed Erma, even though Hammond had nothing to do with Epic Records, and Erma had actually been recommended by Lloyd Price. And Aretha, while for much of her career she would support her sister, was also terrified that her sister might have a big hit before her and leave Aretha in her shadow. Hammond was still the credited producer on Aretha's second album, The Electrifying Aretha Franklin, but his lack of say in the sessions can be shown in the choice of lead-off single. "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody" was originally recorded by Al Jolson in 1918: [Excerpt: Al Jolson, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody"] Rev. Franklin pushed for the song, as he was a fan of Jolson -- Jolson, oddly, had a large Black fanbase, despite his having been a blackface performer, because he had *also* been a strong advocate of Black musicians like Cab Calloway, and the level of racism in the media of the twenties through forties was so astonishingly high that even a blackface performer could seem comparatively OK. Aretha's performance was good, but it was hardly the kind of thing that audiences were clamouring for in 1961: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody"] That single came out the month after _Down Beat_ magazine gave Aretha the "new-star female vocalist award", and it oddly made the pop top forty, her first record to do so, and the B-side made the R&B top ten, but for the next few years both chart success and critical acclaim eluded her. None of her next nine singles would make higher than number eighty-six on the Hot One Hundred, and none would make the R&B charts at all. After that transitional second album, she was paired with producer Bob Mersey, who was precisely the kind of white pop producer that one would expect for someone who hoped for crossover success. Mersey was the producer for many of Columbia's biggest stars at the time -- people like Barbra Streisand, Andy Williams, Julie Andrews, Patti Page, and Mel Tormé -- and it was that kind of audience that Aretha wanted to go for at this point. To give an example of the kind of thing that Mersey was doing, just the month before he started work on his first collaboration with Aretha, _The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin_, his production of Andy Williams singing "Moon River" was released: [Excerpt: Andy Williams, "Moon River"] This was the kind of audience Aretha was going for when it came to record sales – the person she compared herself to most frequently at this point was Barbra Streisand – though in live performances she was playing with a small jazz group in jazz venues, and going for the same kind of jazz-soul crossover audience as Dinah Washington or Ray Charles. The strategy seems to have been to get something like the success of her idol Sam Cooke, who could play to soul audiences but also play the Copacabana, but the problem was that Cooke had built an audience before doing that -- she hadn't. But even though she hadn't built up an audience, musicians were starting to pay attention. Ted White, who was still in touch with Dinah Washington, later said “Women are very catty. They'll see a girl who's dressed very well and they'll say, Yeah, but look at those shoes, or look at that hairdo. Aretha was the only singer I've ever known that Dinah had no negative comments about. She just stood with her mouth open when she heard Aretha sing.” The great jazz vocalist Carmen McRea went to see Aretha at the Village Vanguard in New York around this time, having heard the comparisons to Dinah Washington, and met her afterwards. She later said "Given how emotionally she sang, I expected her to have a supercharged emotional personality like Dinah. Instead, she was the shyest thing I've ever met. Would hardly look me in the eye. Didn't say more than two words. I mean, this bitch gave bashful a new meaning. Anyway, I didn't give her any advice because she didn't ask for any, but I knew goddamn well that, no matter how good she was—and she was absolutely wonderful—she'd have to make up her mind whether she wanted to be Della Reese, Dinah Washington, or Sarah Vaughan. I also had a feeling she wouldn't have minded being Leslie Uggams or Diahann Carroll. I remember thinking that if she didn't figure out who she was—and quick—she was gonna get lost in the weeds of the music biz." So musicians were listening to Aretha, even if everyone else wasn't. The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin, for example, was full of old standards like "Try a Little Tenderness": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Try a Little Tenderness"] That performance inspired Otis Redding to cut his own version of that song a few years later: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness"] And it might also have inspired Aretha's friend and idol Sam Cooke to include the song in his own lounge sets. The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin also included Aretha's first original composition, but in general it wasn't a very well-received album. In 1963, the first cracks started to develop in Aretha's relationship with Ted White. According to her siblings, part of the strain was because Aretha's increasing commitment to the civil rights movement was costing her professional opportunities. Her brother Cecil later said "Ted White had complete sway over her when it came to what engagements to accept and what songs to sing. But if Daddy called and said, ‘Ree, I want you to sing for Dr. King,' she'd drop everything and do just that. I don't think Ted had objections to her support of Dr. King's cause, and he realized it would raise her visibility. But I do remember the time that there was a conflict between a big club gig and doing a benefit for Dr. King. Ted said, ‘Take the club gig. We need the money.' But Ree said, ‘Dr. King needs me more.' She defied her husband. Maybe that was the start of their marital trouble. Their thing was always troubled because it was based on each of them using the other. Whatever the case, my sister proved to be a strong soldier in the civil rights fight. That made me proud of her and it kept her relationship with Daddy from collapsing entirely." In part her increasing activism was because of her father's own increase in activity. The benefit that Cecil is talking about there is probably one in Chicago organised by Mahalia Jackson, where Aretha headlined on a bill that also included Jackson, Eartha Kitt, and the comedian Dick Gregory. That was less than a month before her father organised the Detroit Walk to Freedom, a trial run for the more famous March on Washington a few weeks later. The Detroit Walk to Freedom was run by the Detroit Council for Human Rights, which was formed by Rev. Franklin and Rev. Albert Cleage, a much more radical Black nationalist who often differed with Franklin's more moderate integrationist stance. They both worked together to organise the Walk to Freedom, but Franklin's stance predominated, as several white liberal politicians, like the Mayor of Detroit, Jerome Cavanagh, were included in the largely-Black March. It drew crowds of 125,000 people, and Dr. King called it "one of the most wonderful things that has happened in America", and it was the largest civil rights demonstration in American history up to that point. King's speech in Detroit was recorded and released on Motown Records: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech”] He later returned to the same ideas in his more famous speech in Washington. During that civil rights spring and summer of 1963, Aretha also recorded what many think of as the best of her Columbia albums, a collection of jazz standards  called Laughing on the Outside, which included songs like "Solitude", "Ol' Man River" and "I Wanna Be Around": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Wanna Be Around"] The opening track, "Skylark", was Etta James' favourite ever Aretha Franklin performance, and is regarded by many as the definitive take on the song: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Skylark"] Etta James later talked about discussing the track with the great jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of Aretha's early influences, who had recorded her own version of the song: "Sarah said, ‘Have you heard of this Aretha Franklin girl?' I said, ‘You heard her do “Skylark,” didn't you?' Sarah said, ‘Yes, I did, and I'm never singing that song again.” But while the album got noticed by other musicians, it didn't get much attention from the wider public. Mersey decided that a change in direction was needed, and they needed to get in someone with more of a jazz background to work with Aretha. He brought in pianist and arranger Bobby Scott, who had previously worked with people like Lester Young, and Scott said of their first meeting “My first memory of Aretha is that she wouldn't look at me when I spoke. She withdrew from the encounter in a way that intrigued me. At first I thought she was just shy—and she was—but I also felt her reading me...For all her deference to my experience and her reluctance to speak up, when she did look me in the eye, she did so with a quiet intensity before saying, ‘I like all your ideas, Mr. Scott, but please remember I do want hits.'” They started recording together, but the sides they cut wouldn't be released for a few years. Instead, Aretha and Mersey went in yet another direction. Dinah Washington died suddenly in December 1963, and given that Aretha was already being compared to Washington by almost everyone, and that Washington had been a huge influence on her, as well as having been close to both her father and her husband/manager, it made sense to go into the studio and quickly cut a tribute album, with Aretha singing Washington's hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Cold Cold Heart"] Unfortunately, while Washington had been wildly popular, and one of the most important figures in jazz and R&B in the forties and fifties, her style was out of date. The tribute album, titled Unforgettable, came out in February 1964, the same month that Beatlemania hit the US. Dinah Washington was the past, and trying to position Aretha as "the new Dinah Washington" would doom her to obscurity. John Hammond later said "I remember thinking that if Aretha never does another album she will be remembered for this one. No, the problem was timing. Dinah had died, and, outside the black community, interest in her had waned dramatically. Popular music was in a radical and revolutionary moment, and that moment had nothing to do with Dinah Washington, great as she was and will always be.” At this point, Columbia brought in Clyde Otis, an independent producer and songwriter who had worked with artists like Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and indeed had written one of the songs on Unforgettable, but had also worked with people like Brook Benton, who had a much more R&B audience. For example, he'd written "Baby, You Got What It Takes" for Benton and Washington to do as a duet: [Excerpt: Brook Benton and Dinah Washington, "Baby, You Got What it Takes"] In 1962, when he was working at Mercury Records before going independent, Otis had produced thirty-three of the fifty-one singles the label put out that year that had charted. Columbia had decided that they were going to position Aretha firmly in the R&B market, and assigned Otis to do just that. At first, though, Otis had no more luck with getting Aretha to sing R&B than anyone else had. He later said "Aretha, though, couldn't be deterred from her determination to beat Barbra Streisand at Barbra's own game. I kept saying, ‘Ree, you can outsing Streisand any day of the week. That's not the point. The point is to find a hit.' But that summer she just wanted straight-up ballads. She insisted that she do ‘People,' Streisand's smash. Aretha sang the hell out of it, but no one's gonna beat Barbra at her own game." But after several months of this, eventually Aretha and White came round to the idea of making an R&B record. Otis produced an album of contemporary R&B, with covers of music from the more sophisticated end of the soul market, songs like "My Guy", "Every Little Bit Hurts", and "Walk on By", along with a few new originals brought in by Otis. The title track, "Runnin' Out of Fools", became her biggest hit in three years, making number fifty-seven on the pop charts and number thirty on the R&B charts: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Runnin' Out of Fools"] After that album, they recorded another album with Otis producing, a live-in-the-studio jazz album, but again nobody involved could agree on a style for her. By this time it was obvious that she was unhappy with Columbia and would be leaving the label soon, and they wanted to get as much material in the can as they could, so they could continue releasing material after she left. But her working relationship with Otis was deteriorating -- Otis and Ted White did not get on, Aretha and White were having their own problems, and Aretha had started just not showing up for some sessions, with nobody knowing where she was. Columbia passed her on to yet another producer, this time Bob Johnston, who had just had a hit with Patti Page, "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte": [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"] Johnston was just about to hit an incredible hot streak as a producer. At the same time as his sessions with Aretha, he was also producing Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, and just after the sessions finished he'd go on to produce Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence album. In the next few years he would produce a run of classic Dylan albums like Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, and New Morning, Simon & Garfunkel's follow up Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, Leonard Cohen's first three albums, and Johnny Cash's comeback with the Live at Folsom Prison album and its follow up At San Quentin. He also produced records for Marty Robbins, Flatt & Scruggs, the Byrds, and Burl Ives during that time period. But you may notice that while that's as great a run of records as any producer was putting out at the time, it has little to do with the kind of music that Aretha Franklin was making then, or would become famous with. Johnston produced a string-heavy session in which Aretha once again tried to sing old standards by people like Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern. She then just didn't turn up for some more sessions, until one final session in August, when she recorded songs like "Swanee" and "You Made Me Love You". For more than a year, she didn't go into a studio. She also missed many gigs and disappeared from her family's life for periods of time. Columbia kept putting out records of things she'd already recorded, but none of them had any success at all. Many of the records she'd made for Columbia had been genuinely great -- there's a popular perception that she was being held back by a record company that forced her to sing material she didn't like, but in fact she *loved* old standards, and jazz tunes, and contemporary pop at least as much as any other kind of music. Truly great musicians tend to have extremely eclectic tastes, and Aretha Franklin was a truly great musician if anyone was. Her Columbia albums are as good as any albums in those genres put out in that time period, and she remained proud of them for the rest of her life. But that very eclecticism had meant that she hadn't established a strong identity as a performer -- everyone who heard her records knew she was a great singer, but nobody knew what "an Aretha Franklin record" really meant -- and she hadn't had a single real hit, which was the thing she wanted more than anything. All that changed when in the early hours of the morning, Jerry Wexler was at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals recording a Wilson Pickett track -- from the timeline, it was probably the session for "Mustang Sally", which coincidentally was published by Ted White's publishing company, as Sir Mack Rice, the writer, was a neighbour of White and Franklin, and to which Aretha had made an uncredited songwriting contribution: [Excerpt: Wilson Pickett, "Mustang Sally"] Whatever the session, it wasn't going well. Percy Sledge, another Atlantic artist who recorded at Muscle Shoals, had turned up and had started winding Pickett up, telling him he sounded just like James Brown. Pickett *hated* Brown -- it seems like almost every male soul singer of the sixties hated James Brown -- and went to physically attack Sledge. Wexler got between the two men to protect his investments in them -- both were the kind of men who could easily cause some serious damage to anyone they hit -- and Pickett threw him to one side and charged at Sledge. At that moment the phone went, and Wexler yelled at the two of them to calm down so he could talk on the phone. The call was telling him that Aretha Franklin was interested in recording for Atlantic. Rev. Louise Bishop, later a Democratic politician in Pennsylvania, was at this time a broadcaster, presenting a radio gospel programme, and she knew Aretha. She'd been to see her perform, and had been astonished by Aretha's performance of a recent Otis Redding single, "Respect": [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Respect"] Redding will, by the way, be getting his own episode in a few months' time, which is why I've not covered the making of that record here. Bishop thought that Aretha did the song even better than Redding -- something Bishop hadn't thought possible. When she got talking to Aretha after the show, she discovered that her contract with Columbia was up, and Aretha didn't really know what she was going to do -- maybe she'd start her own label or something. She hadn't been into the studio in more than a year, but she did have some songs she'd been working on. Bishop was good friends with Jerry Wexler, and she knew that he was a big fan of Aretha's, and had been saying for a while that when her contract was up he'd like to sign her. Bishop offered to make the connection, and then went back home and phoned Wexler's wife, waking her up -- it was one in the morning by this point, but Bishop was accustomed to phoning Wexler late at night when it was something important. Wexler's wife then phoned him in Muscle Shoals, and he phoned Bishop back and made the arrangements to meet up. Initially, Wexler wasn't thinking about producing Aretha himself -- this was still the period when he and the Ertegun brothers were thinking of selling Atlantic and getting out of the music business, and so while he signed her to the label he was originally going to hand her over to Jim Stewart at Stax to record, as he had with Sam and Dave. But in a baffling turn of events, Jim Stewart didn't actually want to record her, and so Wexler determined that he had better do it himself. And he didn't want to do it with slick New York musicians -- he wanted to bring out the gospel sound in her voice, and he thought the best way to do that was with musicians from what Charles Hughes refers to as "the country-soul triangle" of Nashville, Memphis, and Muscle Shoals. So he booked a week's worth of sessions at FAME studios, and got in FAME's regular rhythm section, plus a couple of musicians from American Recordings in Memphis -- Chips Moman and Spooner Oldham. Oldham's friend and songwriting partner Dan Penn came along as well -- he wasn't officially part of the session, but he was a fan of Aretha's and wasn't going to miss this. Penn had been the first person that Rick Hall, the owner of FAME, had called when Wexler had booked the studio, because Hall hadn't actually heard of Aretha Franklin up to that point, but didn't want to let Wexler know that. Penn had assured him that Aretha was one of the all-time great talents, and that she just needed the right production to become massive. As Hall put it in his autobiography, "Dan tended in those days to hate anything he didn't write, so I figured if he felt that strongly about her, then she was probably going to be a big star." Charlie Chalmers, a horn player who regularly played with these musicians, was tasked with putting together a horn section. The first song they recorded that day was one that the musicians weren't that impressed with at first. "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)" was written by a songwriter named Ronnie Shannon, who had driven from Georgia to Detroit hoping to sell his songs to Motown. He'd popped into a barber's shop where Ted White was having his hair cut to ask for directions to Motown, and White had signed him to his own publishing company and got him to write songs for Aretha. On hearing the demo, the musicians thought that the song was mediocre and a bit shapeless: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) (demo)"] But everyone there was agreed that Aretha herself was spectacular. She didn't speak much to the musicians, just went to the piano and sat down and started playing, and Jerry Wexler later compared her playing to Thelonius Monk (who was indeed one of the jazz musicians who had influenced her). While Spooner Oldham had been booked to play piano, it was quickly decided to switch him to electric piano and organ, leaving the acoustic piano for Aretha to play, and she would play piano on all the sessions Wexler produced for her in future. Although while Wexler is the credited producer (and on this initial session Rick Hall at FAME is a credited co-producer), everyone involved, including Wexler, said that the musicians were taking their cues from Aretha rather than anyone else. She would outline the arrangements at the piano, and everyone else would fit in with what she was doing, coming up with head arrangements directed by her. But Wexler played a vital role in mediating between her and the musicians and engineering staff, all of whom he knew and she didn't. As Rick Hall said "After her brief introduction by Wexler, she said very little to me or anyone else in the studio other than Jerry or her husband for the rest of the day. I don't think Aretha and I ever made eye contact after our introduction, simply because we were both so totally focused on our music and consumed by what we were doing." The musicians started working on "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)", and at first found it difficult to get the groove, but then Oldham came up with an electric piano lick which everyone involved thought of as the key that unlocked the song for them: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)"] After that, they took a break. Most of them were pleased with the track, though Rick Hall wasn't especially happy. But then Rick Hall wasn't especially happy about anything at that point. He'd always used mono for his recordings until then, but had been basically forced to install at least a two-track system by Tom Dowd, Atlantic's chief engineer, and was resentful of this imposition. During the break, Dan Penn went off to finish a song he and Spooner Oldham had been writing, which he hoped Aretha would record at the session: [Excerpt: Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man"] They had the basic structure of the song down, but hadn't quite finished the middle eight, and both Jerry Wexler and Aretha Franklin chipped in uncredited lyrical contributions -- Aretha's line was "as long as we're together baby, you'd better show some respect to me". Penn, Oldham, Chips Moman, Roger Hawkins, and Tommy Cogbill started cutting a backing track for the song, with Penn singing lead initially with the idea that Aretha would overdub her vocal. But while they were doing this, things had been going wrong with the other participants. All the FAME and American rhythm section players were white, as were Wexler, Hall, and Dowd, and Wexler had been very aware of this, and of the fact that they were recording in Alabama, where Aretha and her husband might not feel totally safe, so he'd specifically requested that the horn section at least contain some Black musicians. But Charlie Chalmers hadn't been able to get any of the Black musicians he would normally call when putting together a horn section, and had ended up with an all-white horn section as well, including one player, a trumpet player called Ken Laxton, who had a reputation as a good player but had never worked with any of the other musicians there -- he was an outsider in a group of people who regularly worked together and had a pre-existing relationship. As the two outsiders, Laxton and Ted White had, at first, bonded, and indeed had started drinking vodka together, passing a bottle between themselves, in a way that Rick Hall would normally not allow in a session -- at the time, the county the studio was in was still a dry county. But as Wexler said, “A redneck patronizing a Black man is a dangerous camaraderie,” and White and Laxton soon had a major falling out. Everyone involved tells a different story about what it was that caused them to start rowing, though it seems to have been to do with Laxton not showing the proper respect for Aretha, or even actually sexually assaulting her -- Dan Penn later said “I always heard he patted her on the butt or somethin', and what would have been wrong with that anyway?”, which says an awful lot about the attitudes of these white Southern men who thought of themselves as very progressive, and were -- for white Southern men in early 1967. Either way, White got very, very annoyed, and insisted that Laxton get fired from the session, which he was, but that still didn't satisfy White, and he stormed off to the motel, drunk and angry. The rest of them finished cutting a basic track for "Do Right Woman", but nobody was very happy with it. Oldham said later “She liked the song but hadn't had time to practice it or settle into it I remember there was Roger playing the drums and Cogbill playing the bass. And I'm on these little simplistic chords on organ, just holding chords so the song would be understood. And that was sort of where it was left. Dan had to sing the vocal, because she didn't know the song, in the wrong key for him. That's what they left with—Dan singing the wrong-key vocal and this little simplistic organ and a bass and a drum. We had a whole week to do everything—we had plenty of time—so there was no hurry to do anything in particular.” Penn was less optimistic, saying "But as I rem

Marcus DelGadoLaying the Foundation; Impacting LivesMarcus DelGado is a senior project resource analyst at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory supporting deep space network communications projects.  As a leader, Marcus is poised to discover, create, and deliver solutions that will change the world and inspire future generations. With a dynamic background in the aerospace industry, Marcus has engaged in various avionics projects including experiences with cockpit avionics, new airplane development, and project management activity for Air Force One.  He displays an unparalleled work ethic, and his admiration for aerospace has fueled him to innovate in this space. From the time of his first science project in grade school, Marcus has always been passionate about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.  He is a first-generation college student with a Bachelor of General Studies in math, an executive MBA from Arizona State University (ASU), and the proud recipient of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity academic scholarship. Marcus also has a deep commitment to civic leadership that is inspired by a quote from Reverend Jesse Jackson, “Never look down on anyone unless you are helping them up.” Marcus is a multiple recipient of the Omega Man of the Year award and was recently acknowledged as a community honoree during the University of Washington BSU Legacy Soiree for his investment in the Black community.  He is a proud board member of a non-profit organization called “The Service Board”. On the board, Marcus oversees the mentorship of teens to conquer personal and cultural challenges through outdoor adventure, environmental and social justice, and public service. Marcus made a powerful contribution during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic by organizing events called the “Community Builders Dinner” to support locally Black-owned restaurants. In addition to his strong acts of service, Marcus holds the distinction of being named the City of Phoenix Man of the Year, featured for motivational speaking and health care advocacy in publications like Desert Living, ASU W.P. Carey Magazine magazine, and recognized by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) as one of the “Sexy” 50 Engineers in STEM. In his spare time, Marcus enjoys traveling, cooking, photography, working out, playing basketball, and snowboarding across the globe.   Guest: Marcus DelgadoLinkedIn: Marcus DelgadoInstagram @ Marcus.del95 Host: Shereka JacksonFacebook: Shereka D Jackson Instagram: Shereka Jackson Website: Shereka JacksonLinkedIn: Shereka Jackson

This week, we go back in time with the makers of the documentary Punch 9 for Harold Washington. The film examines the incomparable former Mayor of Chicago's time in office. Pulled from Congress, Washington became Chicago's first Black Mayor in 1983 thanks to a multiracial coalition of progressives who campaigned hard on his behalf. He took over after one-termer Jane Byrne and after decades under Richard J. Daley's leadership. The film includes archival footage and candid interviews with a cavalcade of notable Chicagoans: the Reverend Jesse Jackson, late civil rights historian Timuel Black, late educator Conrad Worrill, the Chicago Sun-Times' Laura Washington, plus contemporaries like Chuy Garcia, Luis Gutierrez and David Orr – as well as staff, supporters, and opponents, like former 33rd Ward Ald. Dick Mell. Mell was one of the leaders of the Vrdolyak 29, the mostly white City Council members who opposed Washington at every turn, kicking off the infamous Council Wars. If you need a reminder, Washington beat both Byrne and Richard M. Daley in the 1983 primary, then faced Republican Bernard Epton in the general. The film explores the racial animus Washington was up against as a candidate – when Epton used the slogan “before it's too late…” – and then as mayor, alongside the segregation and discrimination Chicagoans of color experienced. It also explores the kind of city Washington wanted to build before his sudden death in his office in 1987. Work on the film kicked off in 2015 and it debuted for select public audiences this past fall. Director Joe Winston and producer Sonya Jackson talk about how Washington paved the way for candidates of color, what parts of his legacy endure – and what is still left unfulfilled.

It was the shot heard round the world.Martin Luther King, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4 in 1968 by James Earl Ray, a crazed racist. Dr. King had begun to emerge as the face, and more importantly the voice for America and even the world over for racial equality. King was an eloquent spokesman, learned academically, Christian in belief and determined to make a difference. He would never know the difference he would make.The assassin's bullet, deadly and accurate, was the beginning in many ways of a new awareness of racial inequalities primarily black and white, but really more than that. It was perhaps the beginning of a new consciousness, a new awareness of differences, diversity where all right-thinking men and women, of good faith, colorblind and Constitutional would begin to learn a new respect for each other and learn how to build different and better relationships. They would learn that the color of one's skin mattered not, but only the content of one's character, as Dr. Martin Luther King so eloquently said.The King assassination triggered a new Constitutional awareness of equality. All men and women says this precious document and of course words framed in our Declaration of Independence, are created equal, and each, EACH ONE has the Constitutionally guaranteed right to:LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESSWe the American people have heard those words over and again, perhaps too many times for them to be the living, life-guiding words they were meant to be. Equality between black and white existed on paper only. That was the problem. Frederick Douglass, the former slave in America eloquently stated the real problem:“THERE IS NO NEGRO PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM IS WHETHER OR NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE LOYALTY ENOUGH, HONOR ENOUGH, PATRIOTISM ENOUGH, TO LIVE UP TO THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION.”What we the American people had lost or perhaps never had was a loyalty, a faithfulness to our very own Constitution and Declaration of Independence. We had forsaken Constitutional commands and gone our own way, accepting slavery, injustice and inequality. We had lost our honor, our dignity as human beings and we saw too many people of color as UNEQUAL.We had lost our desire to LIVE UP to our very own Constitution and that disloyalty, dishonor, lack of patriotism and courage to live up to our Constitution was the real problem, the real cause of:RACISMIn fact, we the people had become unspiritual. We had failed to recognize that equality was divinely inspired, required and built as a fundamental precept into our Constitutional rights. The right of equality, and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness was divine, inalienable, unconditional and it was un-American, un-Christian not to understand and LIVE UP to that great command. We had lost our way. Martin Luther King attempted to point us back, encouraged us to GET BACK to our roots, the fundamentals of America and begin anew to:LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELFWe made progress as a people. We abolished slavery. We began to learn how to live together, work together, forge bonds with one another although the progress was slow, and often painful. So slow, in fact, that it birthed the message of Martin Luther King in 1968. We listened to this eloquent champion of civil rights, equality and we respected not only his oratory, but the core and substance of his message. And, more progress was made even after his assassination. His ways were peaceful but many arose who chose violence as the answer, antidote to anger. We saw the rise of the Black Panthers and other aggressive, militant entities determined to get even and not necessarily get equality. But there were, in the day of Martin Luther King calm, still voices working, hoping, enduring and believing, like the NAACP and perhaps like the church itself. Martin Luther King was pastor, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Churches, black and white adopted his message and proclaimed the Constitutional truth of equality. We listened, inched forward, painful progress but real, nonetheless. Churches became mixed, neither black nor white but for all persons regardless of color. Men and women, previously distant, became one in the love of Jesus Christ. That love grew relationships and destroyed the barriers of misunderstanding. It was the dawn of a new day where race relations were BORN AGAIN.Something better was on the way.Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a disciple of Martin Luther King, took over. He soon, however, many thought, lost the King vision of peaceful resistance and progress stalled. Suspicion and untrust ruled when there should have been new understandings. Other leaders, black and white did perhaps some good but it seemed as though the fundamental, underlying animosities continued to exist. It took action by individuals, by right-thinking private entities, by men and women one-on-one to begin to forge new relationships, new understandings, constantly chipping away at racism. It seemed a never-ending battle. Whether cultural, economic or educational, the great divide was always there. It undoubtedly exists today.Many Americans feel that the leadership of the last decade, BLACK AND WHITE, did not do enough to heal, create new understandings. Economic disparities continue to exist. Black youth for example, especially males found real employment almost impossible. Education, whether public or private seemed in many ways to forsake its real responsibilities. Cultures divided and segregated. And the leaders of the past decade, whether political, educational, spiritual or economic failed to further breakdown the great racial divide. It seems as though we continue to live in a day and age tense, separated if not segregated, with lingering suspicions and untrust. We seemingly have not learned that mankind is not about:THE COLOR OF SKINButTHE CONTENT OF ONE'S CHARACTERAll races and ethnicities unfortunately have prejudice. That prejudice can be expressed against other races and even in some cases, among and within one's very own race. We can in our very own country see misunderstandings between Irish and Italian, North and South, educated and uneducated. Prejudice is everywhere, EVERYWHERE and it is hard to distinguish between:PREJUDICE AND PREFERENCEWe seem to be more concerned with diversity, differences in people rather than to foster the one common bond we should all have:WE ARE ALL AMERICANSFirst and foremost: AMERICANS.We should be a people caught up in our Constitution, concerned with its preservation, living out as Frederick Douglass has so well said our Constitutional beliefs, chief of which is that:ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!And religious prejudice goes on. Misunderstandings abound between Christian and Jew. Islam considers all others INFIDELS. Roman Catholics continue deep divides with Protestants. Denominations hunker down but independent churches and religious practice grow. There seems further splintering, divide, even isolation. We seem to grow farther apart from unity, oneness and true Americanism. There is still a long racial road to travel. For in more than one-half century since Martin Luther King, racial understanding and equality still has a long road to travel.Racial prejudice, even hatred, exists among all races. Many African Americans are prejudiced against whites. Racism can be a two-way street. It is wrong either way. Hear the words of a right-thinking African American woman living in the great State of Florida Ilene Yocum who spoke out courageously regarding the tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri and the killing of Michael Brown. Ms. Yocum said the following:“I AM EMBARRASSED BY THE SO-CALLED BLACK LEADERS INCLUDING OUR PRESIDENT FOR NOT TAKING THE HIGH ROAD ON THIS. INSTEAD, THEY PAMPER THE RIOTERS AND IGNORE THE RIGHTS OF THE OFFICER TO PROTECT HIMSELF. I TRULY BELIEVE THAT HAD THIS BEEN A BLACK POLICE OFFICER NONE OF THIS (THE MICHAEL BROWN SHOOTING) WOULD BE HAPPENING. OUR COUNTRY HAS COME A LONG WAY IN RACE RELATIONS BUT BY STOKING THE FIRE, WHO ARE THE REAL RACISTS? YES, RACISM OCCURS IN ALL RACES.”And indeed it does, Ms. Yocum, indeed it does. How interesting that this very right-thinking black lady and mother saw racism in the acts and the heart of even President Barack Hussein Obama himself. If racism does in fact exist at that level, how difficult it is for we the people to unite in love and peace.Ms. Yocum further believes that much of the problem of racism has to do with parents, and in fact the lack of parental teaching. She eloquently says:“AS PARENTS WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN RIGHT FROM WRONG. IN ORDER TO RECEIVE RESPECT, RESPECT MUST BE GIVEN, NOT ONLY TO OTHERS BUT TO ONESELF AND ESPECIALLY TO OUR LAWS AND AUTHORITY.”Courageous and convicting words, and as right as they can be. If parents do not teach, then the law means nothing. Riots, violence, chaos and disrespect reign and there is little hope for racial understanding, racial equality. Perhaps Ilene Yocum is a disciple of Martin Luther King, a 21st century voice for the real message in which he believed. We need more women like her. And finally, wonderful words for all Americans from Ilene Yocum:“WE ARE ALL AMERICANS AND MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE. WE SHOULD BE PROUD TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WORK FOR THEM, AND OUR FREEDOMS ARE PROTECTED BY OUR LAWS AND THOSE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CHOOSE TO SERVE.”Brilliant, right on, special words of wisdom.We are or should be all of us Americans and Americans first even as we are members of the human race. Rather than dishonor or complain, we should all be proud to live in this great country. We should recognize that there are abundant opportunities no matter the economy available for all, all men and women regardless of the color of skin who want to work, really want to work, so well said, Ms. Yocum.And, we should be proud of and honor those brave men and women who choose to serve and protect us according to the laws of this great country. If we did that, all of that as Ms. Yocum so eloquently stated, racism would end in short order. We would live out the dream of Martin Luther King and of all men and women of goodwill who really want peace and love between the races. The end of racism can not come from political leaders, or educators, or from the world of economics. It can only come from men and women of goodwill, inspired by faith, truly believing in and living in the ways of the God who created these inalienable rights, reaching out, communicating, understanding and learning how to appreciate the different skin colors God created.A babe was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. The angels who announced his birth asked us to glorify God and to proclaim the Godly message from this birth to all mankind:PEACE ON EARTH AND GOODWILL TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN!If men and women really want peace, and the end of racial hatred and prejudice, take a fresh look at the Babe of Bethlehem. HE can show you the way to:LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF!Regardless of race or color.

When you come from a hard-working family, your ambitions are expected to be high. Though many obstacles and struggles will present themselves, you have to remember that where there is determination, there is hope. We must keep persevering and strategically fighting, and in the words of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, 'Keep hope alive.'"Our guest today, J. Derek Penn, author of Diary of a Black Man on Wall St., uses his personal experiences to break down for people of all colors the systemic inequality he has witnessed and why continuing that conversation can lead to the deep rooted change necessary to shatter the ceiling.Penn's story of determination is peppered with his own racial struggles and triumphs, from his elementary and middle school years in Youngstown, Ohio, to his acceptance at Duke University, where he excelled in athletics as one of the university's standout players, to his tryout for the NFL, to his acceptance into Duke's Fuqua School of Business, and his eventual 34-year success on Wall Street.

11.02.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: It's election day, and there are a few races across the U.S. we have our eye on: The Virginia Governor's races, the mayoral races in New York, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Rochester. As well as Minneapolis' push to create a Department of Public Safety and a new public health approach to safety. Reverend William Barber returns with his weekly segments. Today, it's all about voting as activists continue to demand the swift passage of For the People Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the Freedom to Vote Act. We'll have an update on Reverend Jesse Jackson's condition after being hospitalized for a fall on Howard's campus. Critical Race Theory - Where is all of this resistance coming from? One journalist thinks she knows and is here to tell us about what she is calling "The Radical Capitalist Behind the Critical Race Theory Furor." President Biden announces his vision to tackle the climate crisis. We'll take a look at his plan to reduce methane emissions by 30-percent by the year 2030. An Alabama judge is no longer on the bench after asking a black man if he was a drug dealer when one of his staffers purchased a new car. And to commemorate the new black wall street, the largest black-owned bank, OneUnited, debuts its Greenwood Debit Card. The owner of the bank will tell us how this card is rooted in his family's legacy. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful!

Today is not a good day for men of the cloth one has been injured and the other one has injured somebody not a good day for them --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/j-w54/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/j-w54/support

It was the shot heard round the world.Martin Luther King, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4 in 1968 by James Earl Ray, a crazed racist.  Dr. King had begun to emerge as the face, and more importantly the voice for America and even the world over for racial equality.  King was an eloquent spokesman, learned academically, Christian in belief and determined to make a difference.  He would never know the difference he would make.The assassin's bullet, deadly and accurate, was the beginning in many ways of a new awareness of racial inequalities primarily black and white, but really more than that.  It was perhaps the beginning of a new consciousness, a new awareness of differences, diversity where all right-thinking men and women, of good faith, colorblind and Constitutional would begin to learn a new respect for each other and learn how to build different and better relationships.  They would learn that the color of one's skin mattered not, but only the content of one's character, as Dr. Martin Luther King so eloquently said.The King assassination triggered a new Constitutional awareness of equality.  All men and women says this precious document and of course words framed in our Declaration of Independence, are created equal, and each, EACH ONE has the Constitutionally guaranteed right to:LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESSWe the American people have heard those words over and again, perhaps too many times for them to be the living, life-guiding words they were meant to be.  Equality between black and white existed on paper only.That was the problem.  Frederick Douglass, the former slave in America eloquently stated the real problem:“THERE IS NO NEGRO PROBLEM.  THE PROBLEM IS WHETHER OR NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE LOYALTY ENOUGH, HONOR ENOUGH, PATRIOTISM ENOUGH, TO LIVE UP TO THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION.”What we the American people had lost or perhaps never had was a loyalty, a faithfulness to our very own Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  We had forsaken Constitutional commands and gone our own way, accepting slavery, injustice and inequality.  We had lost our honor, our dignity as human beings and we saw too many people of color as UNEQUAL.We had lost our desire to LIVE UP to our very own Constitution and that disloyalty, dishonor, lack of patriotism and courage to live up to our Constitution was the real problem, the real cause of:RACISMIn fact, we the people had become unspiritual.  We had failed to recognize that equality was divinely inspired, required and built as a fundamental precept into our Constitutional rights.  The right of equality, and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness was divine, inalienable, unconditional and it was un-American, un-Christian not to understand and LIVE UP to that great command.  We had lost our way.  Martin Luther King attempted to point us back, encouraged us to GET BACK to our roots, the fundamentals of America and begin anew to:LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELFWe made progress as a people.  We abolished slavery.  We began to learn how to live together, work together, forge bonds with one another although the progress was slow, and often painful.  So slow, in fact, that it birthed the message of Martin Luther King in 1968.  We listened to this eloquent champion of civil rights, equality and we respected not only his oratory, but the core and substance of his message.  And, more progress was made even after his assassination.His ways were peaceful but many arose who chose violence as the answer, antidote to anger.  We saw the rise of the Black Panthers and other aggressive, militant entities determined to get even and not necessarily get equality.But there were, in the day of Martin Luther King calm, still voices working, hoping, enduring and believing, like the NAACP and perhaps like the church itself.  Martin Luther King was pastor, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.Churches, black and white adopted his message and proclaimed the Constitutional truth of equality.  We listened, inched forward, painful progress but real, nonetheless.  Churches became mixed, neither black nor white but for all persons regardless of color.Men and women, previously distant, became one in the love of Jesus Christ.  That love grew relationships and destroyed the barriers of misunderstanding.  It was the dawn of a new day where race relations were BORN AGAIN.Something better was on the way.Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a disciple of Martin Luther King, took over.He soon, however, many thought, lost the King vision of peaceful resistance and progress stalled.Suspicion and untrust ruled when there should have been new understandings.  Other leaders, black and white did perhaps some good but it seemed as though the fundamental, underlying animosities continued to exist.  It took action by individuals, by right-thinking private entities, by men and women one-on-one to begin to forge new relationships, new understandings, constantly chipping away at racism.  It seemed a never-ending battle.  Whether cultural, economic or educational, the great divide was always there.It undoubtedly exists today.Many Americans feel that the leadership of the last decade, BLACK AND WHITE, did not do enough to heal, create new understandings.  Economic disparities continue to exist.  Black youth for example, especially males found real employment almost impossible.  Education, whether public or private seemed in many ways to forsake its real responsibilities.  Cultures divided and segregated.  And the leaders of the past decade, whether political, educational, spiritual or economic failed to further breakdown the great racial divide.  It seems as though we continue to live in a day and age tense, separated if not segregated, with lingering suspicions and untrust.  We seemingly have not learned that mankind is not about:THE COLOR OF SKINButTHE CONTENT OF ONE'S CHARACTERAll races and ethnicities unfortunately have prejudice.  That prejudice can be expressed against other races and even in some cases, among and within one's very own race.  We can in our very own country see misunderstandings between Irish and Italian, North and South, educated and uneducated.  Prejudice is everywhere, EVERYWHERE and it is hard to distinguish between:PREJUDICE AND PREFERENCEWe seem to be more concerned with diversity, differences in people rather than to foster the one common bond we should all have:WE ARE ALL AMERICANSFirst and foremost: AMERICANS.We should be a people caught up in our Constitution, concerned with its preservation, living out as Frederick Douglass has so well said our Constitutional beliefs, chief of which is that:ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!And religious prejudice goes on.  Misunderstandings abound between Christian and Jew.  Islam considers all others INFIDELS.  Roman Catholics continue deep divides with Protestants.  Denominations hunker down but independent churches and religious practice grow.  There seems further splintering, divide, even isolation.  We seem to grow farther apart from unity, oneness and true Americanism.There is still a long racial road to travel.  For in more than one-half century since Martin Luther King, racial understanding and equality still has a long road to travel.Racial prejudice, even hatred, exists among all races.  Many African Americans are prejudiced against whites.  Racism can be a two-way street.  It is wrong either way.  Hear the words of a right-thinking African American woman living in the great State of Florida Ilene Yocum who spoke out courageously regarding the tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri and the killing of Michael Brown.  Ms. Yocum said the following:“I AM EMBARRASSED BY THE SO-CALLED BLACK LEADERS INCLUDING OUR PRESIDENT FOR NOT TAKING THE HIGH ROAD ON THIS.  INSTEAD, THEY PAMPER THE RIOTERS AND IGNORE THE RIGHTS OF THE OFFICER TO PROTECT HIMSELF.  I TRULY BELIEVE THAT HAD THIS BEEN A BLACK POLICE OFFICER NONE OF THIS (THE MICHAEL BROWN SHOOTING) WOULD BE HAPPENING.  OUR COUNTRY HAS COME A LONG WAY IN RACE RELATIONS BUT BY STOKING THE FIRE, WHO ARE THE REAL RACISTS?  YES, RACISM OCCURS IN ALL RACES.”And indeed it does, Ms. Yocum, indeed it does.  How interesting that this very right-thinking black lady and mother saw racism in the acts and the heart of even President Barack Hussein Obama himself.  If racism does in fact exist at that level, how difficult it is for we the people to unite in love and peace.Ms. Yocum further believes that much of the problem of racism has to do with parents, and in fact the lack of parental teaching.  She eloquently says:“AS PARENTS WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN RIGHT FROM WRONG.  IN ORDER TO RECEIVE RESPECT, RESPECT MUST BE GIVEN, NOT ONLY TO OTHERS BUT TO ONESELF AND ESPECIALLY TO OUR LAWS AND AUTHORITY.”Courageous and convicting words, and as right as they can be.  If parents do not teach, then the law means nothing.  Riots, violence, chaos and disrespect reign and there is little hope for racial understanding, racial equality.  Perhaps Ilene Yocum is a disciple of Martin Luther King, a 21st century voice for the real message in which he believed.  We need more women like her. And finally, wonderful words for all Americans from Ilene Yocum:“WE ARE ALL AMERICANS AND MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE.  WE SHOULD BE PROUD TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WORK FOR THEM, AND OUR FREEDOMS ARE PROTECTED BY OUR LAWS AND THOSE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CHOOSE TO SERVE.”Brilliant, right on, special words of wisdom.We are or should be all of us Americans and Americans first even as we are members of the human race. Rather than dishonor or complain, we should all be proud to live in this great country.  We should recognize that there are abundant opportunities no matter the economy available for all, all men and women regardless of the color of skin who want to work, really want to work, so well said, Ms. Yocum.And, we should be proud of and honor those brave men and women who choose to serve and protect us according to the laws of this great country.  If we did that, all of that as Ms. Yocum so eloquently stated, racism would end in short order.  We would live out the dream of Martin Luther King and of all men and women of goodwill who really want peace and love between the races.  The end of racism can not come from political leaders, or educators, or from the world of economics.  It can only come from men and women of goodwill, inspired by faith, truly believing in and living in the ways of the God who created these inalienable rights, reaching out, communicating, understanding and learning how to appreciate the different skin colors God created.A babe was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.  The angels who announced his birth asked us to glorify God and to proclaim the Godly message from this birth to all mankind:PEACE ON EARTH AND GOODWILL TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN!If men and women really want peace, and the end of racial hatred and prejudice, take a fresh look at the Babe of Bethlehem.  HE can show you the way to:LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF!Regardless of race or color.

Over three decades, Caraway has played a major behind-the-scenes role in shaping national politics. She kicked off her career supporting local campaigns, then got a big break working as Chief of Staff for Reverend Jesse Jackson's second presidential bid. Caraway's impact has been felt from the operations of national political conventions to hosting intimate dinners between Black female leaders and every major candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nominees since 1994. Caraway tells the story and offers a blueprint to Black women in the NAACP Image Award-winning book she co-authored, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics.    "The Leaders' Table" is a podcast by Leadership for Educational Equity.  Go to http://EducationalEquity.org/LeadersTable for an episode transcript and complete show notes.

As tensions boil between Black communities and the police, David Frost interviews key people making the headlines: Reverend Jesse Jackson, Huey P. Newton, and more. The conversations cover everything from police brutality to political assassinations, ending with a fiery debate over whether the FBI and police are actively targeting Black activists. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The name Jesse Jackson evokes a range of reactions in the United States of America, but his cultural impact is undeniable. Over his decades in the public eye, his words and actions have made an indelible impression on the national consciousness. From controversial spiritual leader to one-time presidential candidate, the iconoclast´s unvarnished perspective on these volatile moments in history is the focus of today´s compelling conversation. TIMESTAMPS 2:07 The Longest Struggle After spearheading the fight for equality for decades, the Reverend Jesse Jackson has practically become synonymous with race relations in America. Commonly viewed as an incendiary presence, the roots of his passion have been laid bare in the wake of ongoing nationwide demonstrations. Detailing his long view of the fight for equality, he opens with a relevant quote from Dr. King: ¨the arc of the Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.¨   3:46 Pouring Concrete One of the most visible characteristics of the modern BLM movement is its lack of centralized leadership. Jackson sees this as a mark of a work in progress, pointing to the natural formation of hierarchies in practically any organization. Leaders naturally emerge with time. He also emphasizes the importance of collective engagement within movements designed the challenge existing systems. A sustainable approach is paramount, and the long-term viability of a leaderless civil rights movement is yet to be seen.   9:48 Exploiting the Moment There can be little doubt that the urgency of today´s issues have created a moment ripe for radical change. The Reverend enthusiastically advocates for optimizing our opportunities to make a mark on the future: exploiting the moment. As the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s shows, the will of the people decides the shape of society. This perspective follows a fundamental tenet of Political Science: ¨Never let a good crisis go to waste.¨   11:04 Debunking Distractions One of the more controversial elements of the ongoing demonstrations in cities across the US is the collateral damage that can result. Detractors often use damage to property to delegitimize these forms of protest. For these reasons, agents provocateur have repeatedly attempted to hijack these social justice movements by doing undue damage to residential property. Jackson goes into detail on the history of protest sabotage, as well as the demographics that make painting these demonstrations with a broad brush problematic. 14:53 More On Leadership The Reverend sharply criticizes national leadership, specifically the President, for its role in inciting violence. Pointing to the administration´s unsatisfactory response to the murder of a police brutality protestor at Charlottesville, he condemns what he sees as passive encouragement of dangerous ideology. Left unchecked, these belief systems can tear society apart at every seam and radicalize otherwise seemingly normal American citizens.   20:21 Beyond Rhetoric A particularly effective aspect of Jackson´s platform is is ability to influence legislation. His most recent contribution, a bill proposing to redefine racism as a public health crisis, could have far-reaching implications. According to the veteran activist, the time has come for American society to undergo a meticulous self-examination. He believes that reviewing the roots of systemic racism will quickly uncover the myriad structural issues faced by minorities in America. In turn, targeted solutions such as this legislation can be devised.   28:33 A Unique Opportunity While The Reverend´s approach has had tangible effects for Angelenos, he recognizes that LA is an environment all its own. Los Angeles County has one of the largest public service workforces of any local municipality, as well as one of the nation´s largest budgets. For Jackson, this puts the leadership of Los Angeles in a singular position to redirect resources to its most disadvantaged residents. By addressing inequalities in areas such as housing, policing, and education, LA can build a model that can be replicated elsewhere.   48:16 Evolution of the Democratic Party Jesse Jackson famously ran for President as an independent on multiple occasions, capturing a diverse coalition numbering over 6 million in 1988. At the time he was considered a radical for his stances on matters such as healthcare and criminal justice. Since then, the party has moved left appreciably. Here, the former candidate speaks on seeing his passionately held ideas pass into the political mainstream in a critical election. Connect with Jesse Jackson: Website- https://rainbowpush.org/ Blog- https://rainbowpush.org/blog/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/RevJJackson

In this podcast Amadon DellErba discusses anarchy vs. spiritual hierarchy. In response to the corruption we see in politics and governments today many youth embrace anarchy, but does it work? Recognizing the need for change, in 2011 and 2012 Amadon and the Global Change Media team attended many of the Occupy protests happening around the US with Gabriel of Urantia's Spiritualution movement. Amadon shares the story of a protest in Phoenix that went from an angry run-in with an anarchist cell who thought they were cops to marching with and interviewing Reverend Jesse Jackson. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/getrealordietrying/message

This episode of iBttb pod was recorded during one of my morning GRATITUDE walks. In 2012, I was blessed with a memorable learning opportunity to meet and serve Reverend Jesse Jackson, when he came to my alma mater, Cheyney University to serve as the keynote speaker at commencement.  That encounter with "Rev" helped to shape how I engage others in my everyday life.  Check out Episode 021: The Strength to Love  Be sure to connect with Coach Adams & itsBIGGERthantheball www.itsBIGGERthantheball.com info@itsBIGGERthantheball.com Social Media https://facebook.com/itsbiggerthantheball https://instagram.com/coachka20 https://twitter.com/coachka20 https://youtube.com/itsbiggerthantheball

It was the shot heard round the world.Martin Luther King, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4 in 1968 by James Earl Ray, a crazed racist. Dr. King had begun to emerge as the face, and more importantly the voice for America and even the world over for racial equality. King was an eloquent spokesman, learned academically, Christian in belief and determined to make a difference. He would never know the difference he would make.The assassin's bullet, deadly and accurate, was the beginning in many ways of a new awareness of racial inequalities primarily black and white, but really more than that. It was perhaps the beginning of a new consciousness, a new awareness of differences, diversity where all right-thinking men and women, of good faith, colorblind and Constitutional would begin to learn a new respect for each other and learn how to build different and better relationships. They would learn that the color of one's skin mattered not, but only the content of one's character, as Dr. Martin Luther King so eloquently said.The King assassination triggered a new Constitutional awareness of equality. All men and women says this precious document and of course words framed in our Declaration of Independence, are created equal, and each, EACH ONE has the Constitutionally guaranteed right to:LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESSWe the American people have heard those words over and again, perhaps too many times for them to be the living, life-guiding words they were meant to be. Equality between black and white existed on paper only. That was the problem. Frederick Douglass, the former slave in America eloquently stated the real problem:“THERE IS NO NEGRO PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM IS WHETHER OR NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE LOYALTY ENOUGH, HONOR ENOUGH, PATRIOTISM ENOUGH, TO LIVE UP TO THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION.”What we the American people had lost or perhaps never had was a loyalty, a faithfulness to our very own Constitution and Declaration of Independence. We had forsaken Constitutional commands and gone our own way, accepting slavery, injustice and inequality. We had lost our honor, our dignity as human beings and we saw too many people of color as UNEQUAL.We had lost our desire to LIVE UP to our very own Constitution and that disloyalty, dishonor, lack of patriotism and courage to live up to our Constitution was the real problem, the real cause of:RACISMIn fact, we the people had become unspiritual. We had failed to recognize that equality was divinely inspired, required and built as a fundamental precept into our Constitutional rights. The right of equality, and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness was divine, inalienable, unconditional and it was un-American, un-Christian not to understand and LIVE UP to that great command. We had lost our way. Martin Luther King attempted to point us back, encouraged us to GET BACK to our roots, the fundamentals of America and begin anew to:LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELFWe made progress as a people. We abolished slavery. We began to learn how to live together, work together, forge bonds with one another although the progress was slow, and often painful. So slow, in fact, that it birthed the message of Martin Luther King in 1968. We listened to this eloquent champion of civil rights, equality and we respected not only his oratory, but the core and substance of his message. And, more progress was made even after his assassination. His ways were peaceful but many arose who chose violence as the answer, antidote to anger. We saw the rise of the Black Panthers and other aggressive, militant entities determined to get even and not necessarily get equality. But there were, in the day of Martin Luther King calm, still voices working, hoping, enduring and believing, like the NAACP and perhaps like the church itself. Martin Luther King was pastor, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Churches, black and white adopted his message and proclaimed the Constitutional truth of equality. We listened, inched forward, painful progress but real, nonetheless. Churches became mixed, neither black nor white but for all persons regardless of color. Men and women, previously distant, became one in the love of Jesus Christ. That love grew relationships and destroyed the barriers of misunderstanding. It was the dawn of a new day where race relations were BORN AGAIN.Something better was on the way.Jesse Jackson, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a disciple of Martin Luther King, took over. He soon, however, many thought, lost the King vision of peaceful resistance and progress stalled. Suspicion and untrust ruled when there should have been new understandings. Other leaders, black and white did perhaps some good but it seemed as though the fundamental, underlying animosities continued to exist. It took action by individuals, by right-thinking private entities, by men and women one-on-one to begin to forge new relationships, new understandings, constantly chipping away at racism. It seemed a never-ending battle. Whether cultural, economic or educational, the great divide was always there. It undoubtedly exists today.Many Americans feel that the leadership of the last decade, BLACK AND WHITE, did not do enough to heal, create new understandings. Economic disparities continue to exist. Black youth for example, especially males found real employment almost impossible. Education, whether public or private seemed in many ways to forsake its real responsibilities. Cultures divided and segregated. And the leaders of the past decade, whether political, educational, spiritual or economic failed to further breakdown the great racial divide. It seems as though we continue to live in a day and age tense, separated if not segregated, with lingering suspicions and untrust. We seemingly have not learned that mankind is not about:THE COLOR OF SKINButTHE CONTENT OF ONE'S CHARACTERAll races and ethnicities unfortunately have prejudice. That prejudice can be expressed against other races and even in some cases, among and within one's very own race. We can in our very own country see misunderstandings between Irish and Italian, North and South, educated and uneducated. Prejudice is everywhere, EVERYWHERE and it is hard to distinguish between:PREJUDICE AND PREFERENCEWe seem to be more concerned with diversity, differences in people rather than to foster the one common bond we should all have:WE ARE ALL AMERICANSFirst and foremost: AMERICANS.We should be a people caught up in our Constitution, concerned with its preservation, living out as Frederick Douglass has so well said our Constitutional beliefs, chief of which is that:ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!And religious prejudice goes on. Misunderstandings abound between Christian and Jew. Islam considers all others INFIDELS. Roman Catholics continue deep divides with Protestants. Denominations hunker down but independent churches and religious practice grow. There seems further splintering, divide, even isolation. We seem to grow farther apart from unity, oneness and true Americanism. There is still a long racial road to travel. For in more than one-half century since Martin Luther King, racial understanding and equality still has a long road to travel.Racial prejudice, even hatred, exists among all races. Many African Americans are prejudiced against whites. Racism can be a two-way street. It is wrong either way. Hear the words of a right-thinking African American woman living in the great State of Florida Ilene Yocum who spoke out courageously regarding the tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri and the killing of Michael Brown. Ms. Yocum said the following:“I AM EMBARRASSED BY THE SO-CALLED BLACK LEADERS INCLUDING OUR PRESIDENT FOR NOT TAKING THE HIGH ROAD ON THIS. INSTEAD, THEY PAMPER THE RIOTERS AND IGNORE THE RIGHTS OF THE OFFICER TO PROTECT HIMSELF. I TRULY BELIEVE THAT HAD THIS BEEN A BLACK POLICE OFFICER NONE OF THIS (THE MICHAEL BROWN SHOOTING) WOULD BE HAPPENING. OUR COUNTRY HAS COME A LONG WAY IN RACE RELATIONS BUT BY STOKING THE FIRE, WHO ARE THE REAL RACISTS? YES, RACISM OCCURS IN ALL RACES.”And indeed it does, Ms. Yocum, indeed it does. How interesting that this very right-thinking black lady and mother saw racism in the acts and the heart of even President Barack Hussein Obama himself. If racism does in fact exist at that level, how difficult it is for we the people to unite in love and peace.Ms. Yocum further believes that much of the problem of racism has to do with parents, and in fact the lack of parental teaching. She eloquently says:“AS PARENTS WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN RIGHT FROM WRONG. IN ORDER TO RECEIVE RESPECT, RESPECT MUST BE GIVEN, NOT ONLY TO OTHERS BUT TO ONESELF AND ESPECIALLY TO OUR LAWS AND AUTHORITY.”Courageous and convicting words, and as right as they can be. If parents do not teach, then the law means nothing. Riots, violence, chaos and disrespect reign and there is little hope for racial understanding, racial equality. Perhaps Ilene Yocum is a disciple of Martin Luther King, a 21st century voice for the real message in which he believed. We need more women like her.And finally, wonderful words for all Americans from Ilene Yocum:“WE ARE ALL AMERICANS AND MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN RACE. WE SHOULD BE PROUD TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WORK FOR THEM, AND OUR FREEDOMS ARE PROTECTED BY OUR LAWS AND THOSE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CHOOSE TO SERVE.”Brilliant, right on, special words of wisdom.We are or should be all of us Americans and Americans first even as we are members of the human race.Rather than dishonor or complain, we should all be proud to live in this great country. We should recognize that there are abundant opportunities no matter the economy available for all, all men and women regardless of the color of skin who want to work, really want to work, so well said, Ms. Yocum.And, we should be proud of and honor those brave men and women who choose to serve and protect us according to the laws of this great country. If we did that, all of that as Ms. Yocum so eloquently stated, racism would end in short order. We would live out the dream of Martin Luther King and of all men and women of goodwill who really want peace and love between the races. The end of racism can not come from political leaders, or educators, or from the world of economics. It can only come from men and women of goodwill, inspired by faith, truly believing in and living in the ways of the God who created these inalienable rights, reaching out, communicating, understanding and learning how to appreciate the different skin colors God created.A babe was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. The angels who announced his birth asked us to glorify God and to proclaim the Godly message from this birth to all mankind:PEACE ON EARTH AND GOODWILL TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN!If men and women really want peace, and the end of racial hatred and prejudice, take a fresh look at the Babe of Bethlehem. HE can show you the way to:LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF!Regardless of race or color.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson was with Aretha Franklin in her final days. He talks to Stephen and JoAnne about that time and Aretha's legacy.

My first guest on the Tami Jackson Show* tonight will be True Tamplin. True Tamplin is an entrepreneur and author of the #1 Amazon Bestseller Raising an Executive: Igniting Your Son's Inner Executive To Outperform His Peers and Continue Your Legacy. At age 13, True's father Ken Tamplin was offered to be the lead singer for Journey. Despite desperately needing the money, the 5-year touring contract was too great a sacrifice. He turned the offer down, and now True has checked every box an executive would want for his son: giving his grad speech, covering The Daily Pilot, garnering a full-ride to his school of choice, maintaining Suma Cum Laude 4.0 GPA, marrying the girl of his dreams, running a successful Analytics and Online Marketing company, and writing an Amazon #1 Bestseller, all by the age of 22. True is utterly convinced that none of his early successes would have come had his father accepted the Journey contract. Now True's story has become his plea to fight for executives to spend more time with their sons. True has gone on to become a CEO coach and creating the Raising An Executive mentorship program for their sons to one day outdo their fathers. Listen in as I have a conversation with this amazing young man! ******************* My second guest will be Robert Patillo. A graduate of Clark Atlanta University and Chicago-Kent College of Law, Attorney Robert Hillard Patillo, II is a lifelong civil and human rights activist. He is entirely dedicated to serving the poor and underprivileged. As an activist, Patillo has led workers on organization campaigns to petition for better wages, worked to integrate segregated organizations, and assisted discriminated workers against celebrity Chef Paula Deen while working with Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.. An experienced political strategist, has Patillo worked for over a 15 year on political campaigns on the local, state and national level. Patillo is currently a talk radio host on CBS Radio/ENTERCOM Radio and is a highly sought after political commentator and national speaker. Patillo has been featured in articles in the New York Times, Huffington Post and Politico Magazine to name a few is a frequent guest on cable news networks including Fox News, CNN, News One Now, One America News Network and Russia Today. All of his efforts are in order to force change on the local and national level. A leader in every facet of the word, Robert Patillo is the answer the world has been waiting on. Patillo currently is the chief attorney at The Patillo Law Group, LLC “A Christian Centered Law Practice” focusing on civil rights law. This will be another fascinating conversation with a very accomplished young lawyer who's doing some good! Follow True Tamplin on Instagram at @truetamplin, Robert Patillo on Twitter at @RobertPatillo, and me on Twitter at @tamij AND tweet your questions/comments during the show. *Sponsored by Camera Security Now, your premier source for surveillance and access control systems for business nationwide; by ROBAR® Companies, a True Custom firearms and firearms finishing shop located in Phoenix, AZ, and found online at RobarGuns.com; and by Dispatches, your site for the BEST conservative resources to fight and win the information war.

Bill's guests are Reverend Jesse Jackson, Frank Bruni, Paul Begala, Nayyera Haq, and Matt Welch. (Originally aired 8/25/17)