Black Business News - August 2015

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Publisher's Message

T

his is a call for creating black wealth. Despite a large section of the 14 million black households living in poverty, and the stories and successes of a few are told as if they represent those of millions, not thousands. Not all of us are professional athletes or mega R&B entertainers.

In the business communities, we are largely small to medium size companies attempting to make a better life for ourselves and our families.

Mass media is filled with presentations of black Americans being paid a king's ransom to entertain. As black celebrity has been shown to millions of people, millions of times, the story of real lives has also been lost, and with it the engine that thrust forward the demand for social justice by the Pubisher/Chief Executive Officer masses. The heartbeat of social action is to recognize your mistreatment, and demand better.

With each story about Kobe Bryant's $25 million a year contract, or Oprah's status as the sole African American billionaire, there is a veil of false calm created within the overall American economic psyche about the immense black wealth disparity. Young black men from ghettos across America that used to dream to make great changes in racial inequity now just dream to be a millionaire and be like Mike and dunk a ball or dance on Kobe Bryant a stage.

The California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) highlighted the importance of creating true economic wealth through business ownership as their mission of providing programs and services to advocate policies to improve business opportunities for blacks throughout California.

This was displayed during the 2015 Ron Brown Business & Economic Summit, August 27th through the 29th in Sacramento, California.

Also this year, they hosted the 2nd Annual Women's Business Symposium.

For additional information about the summit, please contact CBCC at 916463-0177 or via email at cbcc@ calbcc.org.

Earl “Skip” Cooper, II

Oprah

On the national level, U.S Congresswoman Maxine Waters held a Small Business Administration (SBA) Roundtable in Inglewood, California to discuss how we can increase the number of SBA guaranteed loans African

Black Business News Group P.O. Box 43159 Los Angeles, CA 90043 USA 323-291-7819 Fax: 323-298-5064

www.blackbusinessnews.net PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Earl “Skip” Cooper, II

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ENTREPRENEUR EDITOR Kim Anthony

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Linda Ware

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GRAPHIC DESIGN Sarah Harris Phallu Morgan

STORY EDITORS Wanda Flagg Jennifer Marie Hamilton

PHOTOGRAPHY Ian Foxx Sabir Narishima Osei

CONTENT ADMINISTRATOR La Sandra Stratton

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by Black Business News All Rights Reserved.

The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein. 

see Publisher's Message on page 7 3  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

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ABOUT THE BLACK BUSINESS NEWS GROUP… The mission of The Black Business News is to inspire and inform public and private sector industry representatives on the importance of smart small business growth. As a versatile source of socioeconomic development activity news, the publications of the Black Business News Group impart current local, national and international industry and social trends and news affecting small businesses across the United States of America (USA), providing guides to greater access to financial capital, management efficiencies, business education, mentorship opportunities and social media networks. The goals of the Black Business News Group include: •

promoting USA-based black-owned business enterprises to a world wide audience.

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offering business growth enhancing information on education, exhibitioning, international trading, technology, industry trends, and more.

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exploring major public and private sec-e tor contracting methods to educate black-owned and operated enterprises..

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providing an affirmative influence forr emerging entrepreneurs by sharing innovative design and creative cultural content that exposes them to the history of black enterprises and urges them participate in the USA’s future.

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advocating and promoting on behalf of black-owned businesses by promoting the need for expanding an economic foundation that supports an unfettered and self-sustained urban society with USA job creation and economic opportunibl business b i t i where blacks work, live and operate viable enterprises.

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Contents

Black Business News…August 2015 3

Publisher's Message

Government 8 14 18

President Obama in Kenya President Obama in Ethiopia USTDA Relaunches Program in Republic of Kenya 19 USTDA Commitments Support Increased Trade & Investment with Africa

2015 Special Olympics World Games 91 Kid's State Dinner 2015 92 Garrett A. Morgan, Inventor

Obituary/Memorials 38 94 98 99 100

Julian Bond, Civil Rights Leader Louis Stokes - Congressman Mel Farr, Auto Industy Leader Robert McNeely, Civic Leader Architect Harold Williams

International 105 108 110 111 112 115

World's First Malaria Vaccine gets go-ahead Cameroon Pilgramage 2015-2016 USTDA Provides Training Grant to Dangote Oil Refining Company USTDA Grant to Brazil Offers US Companies a Bid Opportunity NBA in Africa?

Americans Honored by French

38

20

US Flag Flies in Cuba

Editorials/Perspectives 24 Africa Open for Business after President Obama’s Visit 35 President Obama’s Letter to the Editor 36 Amend Constitution to Add a Right to Vote

Entertainment 28

BBN Show Biz Buzz

94

Business 43 47 58 72

Get Ready. New Credit Cards with Security Chip are Out Rideau Wine, African American owned Percentage of African-Americans in Management on Decline World Bank-IUCEA African Centers of Excellence (ACE II)

CommunityPublic Interest 90

First Lady Michelle Obama Kicks Off

Columns 51 BBN Biz Notes 82 Take a Look!

104 African Stock Exchanges 120 Shopping Gallery 138 Calendar 140 Books to Consider...

142 Resources

5 August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

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Publisher's Message American businesses receive.

Based on the latest reports, blacks receive less than 2% of all SBA loans, which is a far cry from 8-9% back in a decade or so ago.

"Straight Outta Compton." It is projected that by end of August, this rap drama should gross over $200 million on a budget of roughly $29 million.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters The Black Business News will continue to work with Congresswoman Waters, and the U.S. Black Caucus in addressing the need to increase capital to black businesses. In the meantime, please read the articles and notices on pages 22, 33 and 86 on building black wealth.

Congratulations to Universal Studios and Legendary, as well as producers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre for the highly successful movie

As a nation and as a people, we lost one of the giants in the fight for social, Horace political and economic Julian liberty ... Horace Julian Bond Bond.

Julian Bond, a lifelong civil and equal rights Coordinating Committee, to his champion died on Saturday, August founding role with the Southern 15, 2015. The Black Business News Poverty Law Center, to his would like to acknowledge this pioneering service in the Georgia champion of justice and equality legislature and his steady hand at whose leadership stemmed from the helm of the NAACP. Gone, but his days at the Student Nonviolent not forgotten. ď ƒ

Government

Obama in Kenya: Why the US is Investing $500 Million in African Women

By Beatrice Gitau

Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, the president announced a billion dollars in new investment for emerging entrepreneurs around the world, with half the money going to support women and young people.

"Women are powerhouse entrepreneurs," said President Obama (www.

President Obama and Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta onstage after delivering remarks at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at the United Nations compound in Nairobi.

P

resident Barack Obama has announced the expansion of entrepreneurial (www.state.gov/e/eb/cba/ centers entrepreneurship/gep/rls/230013. htm) in Africa that will benefit 1,600

women entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneurial centers are already open in Kenya and Zambia, and will open soon in Mali.

These community centers, offering resources, education, and training, are expected to create 7,194 new jobs and 630 certified female mentors by October 2016, according to the State Department.

Speaking on Saturday at the sixth annual Global

ges2015.org/pressreleases/2015/7/25/ remarks-by-presidentobama-at-the-globalentrepreneurship-summit). "The research shows that when women entrepreneurs succeed, they drive economic growth and invest more back into their families and communities."

Of the $1 billion total investment, $100 million will support Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women initiative (www.csmonitor.com/USA/ Society/2008/0731/p03s01-ussc.html),

"making more capital available to women-owned enterprises around the world," Obama said.

The President noted entrepreneurship has the potential to be a great equalizer. "One thing that entrepreneurs understand is, is that you don't have to look a certain way, or be of a certain faith, or have a certain last name in order to have a good idea," he said. "The challenge is – as so many of you know – it’s very often hard to take see Obama in Kenya on page 14

8  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

ď‚—Newspapers in Nairobi cover Obama's visit on July 24, ahead of his arrival. ď‚˜Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, left, watches as Obama signs a guest book after arriving at Kenyatta International Airport on Friday, in Nairobi.

President Obama, left, puts his arm on the shoulder of Kenya's President Kenyatta, right, as the two leave after speaking to the media at State House in Nairobi on Saturday.

Obama Family Photo

President Barack Obama delivers a speech at Safaricom Indoor Arena, Sunday, July 26, 2015, in Nairobi. On the final day of his visit in Kenya, Obama laid out his vision for Kenya's future, and broad themes of U.S.Kenya relations. © Evan Vucci

Members of the audience at the front of the crowd listen to President Barack Obama deliver a speech at the Safaricom Indoor Arena in the Kasarani area of Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, July 26, 2015. © Ben Curtis 11  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

President Barack Obama waves after delivering a speech at Safaricom Indoor Arena, Sunday. On the final day of his visit in Kenya, Obama laid out his vision for Kenya's future, and broad themes of U.S.-Kenya relations. Evan Vucci / AP

Mural honoring President Obama in Nairobi

12  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Obama greets the crowd after speaking at Safaricom Indoor Arena in Nairobi on Sunday.

Seven-year-old Barack Obama Okoth, named after U.S. President Barack Obama

Government

Barack Obama Makes First Visit to Ethiopia by Serving United States President

By David Smith

P

resident Barack Obama is meeting the Ethiopian prime minister during the first visit by a serving American president to the country, a US security ally and fast-growing economy.

Obama’s talks with Hailemariam Desalegn at the national palace in Addis Ababa were expected to focus on security and the threat of the Islamist militant group alShabaab in Somalia. The US president, who arrived from Kenya on Sunday, also wants to improve business ties with Africa.

He will also be joined by the leaders of Kenya and Uganda to discuss the crisis in South Sudan.

Ethiopia is home to the African Union (AU). President Obama will address the whole continent from the organisation’s Chinese-built headquarters in Addis Ababa. The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, current chair of the AU. Obama was welcomed on Monday morning at the palace by Desalegn, 13 Ethiopian delegates, and uniformed soldiers. The palace was built in 1955 to mark emperor Haile Selassie’s silver jubilee (he was deposed in 1973), and boasts huge rooms, chandeliers, polished parquet floors, marble floors, large tapestries and a herd of stuffed animals, including cheetahs and

Obama in Kenya

President Obama also said that in order to create successful entrepreneurs, governments also must create transparency, rule of law, and an environment that fights corruption.

A recent report by the World (http://web.worldbank.org/ Bank

from page 14

those first steps," like accessing capital or finding the right mentor.

"And it’s even harder for women and young people and communities that have often been marginalized and denied access to opportunities," he added.

NPR reports (www.npr.org/sections/ thetwo-way/2015/07/25/426152988/ obama-in-kenya-africa-is-on-themove) that Obama has made

investing in young African entrepreneurs a focal point of his foreign policy in the region.

"Entrepreneurship offers a positive alternative to the ideologies of violence and division that can all too often fill the void when young people don't see a future for themselves," the president said in his address.

WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXT GENDER/0,,contentMDK:2339263 8~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~ theSitePK:336868,00.htm) shows

that female-run enterprises are steadily growing all over the world, contributing to household incomes and growing national economies.

Africa leads (http://edition.cnn.

lions.

Ethiopia’s ruling party won every seat in the recent general election, and at least one opposition party has claimed its members were arrested before Obama’s visit on suspicion they would make trouble.

Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, said human rights would be a focal point of discussion.

“The Ethiopian government has made extraordinary progress in bringing greater development and opportunity to its citizens,” he said, “but there are very significant restrictions that are not consistent with the universal values that we stand up for, for instance the need for a free press.

“And we’ve seen too much intimidation, and even imprisonment of journalists, and the need for a viable space for civil society and political opposition in the country. see Obama in Ethiopia on page 16

Summit in Nairobi, Kenya is the first summit held in sub-Saharan Africa. Now in its sixth year, the annual summit brings together entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, business leaders, mentors, and high-level government officials.

"Entrepreneurship brings down barriers between communities and cultures," said Obama at the summit, "and builds bridges that help us take on common challenges together." 

com/2014/05/13/business/numbersshowing-africa-entrepreneurial-spirit)

www.csmonitor.com/World/ Global-News/2015/0725/Obamain-Kenya-Why-the-US-is-investing500-million-in-African-women

in this surging growth, as more subSaharan women push themselves out of the shadows to let their entrepreneurial talents shine.

The Global Entrepreneurship

www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ obama-africa-im-proud-be-firstkenyan-american-presidentn398571?cid=par-aff-schurzkytv_20150727

14  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn greets President Obama in Addis Ababa President Obama receives flowers upon arrival in Ethiopia President Obama speaks with farmer in Feed The Future program

15  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. | AP

P

resident Barack Obama on recently became the first American president to address the African Union in the institution’s 52-year history, a moment lauded for its historical significance.

Mr. Obama’s visit capped a fiveday African trip where he pledged

Obama in Ethiopia from page 16

So the president will be certainly raising issues related to human rights in Ethiopia, just as he did here in Kenya.”

On Obama’s first stop in Kenya, his father’s homeland, he urged Kenyans to deepen democracy, tackle corruption and end politics of exclusion based on gender or ethnicity. He also promised Kenya more security assistance.

“We are strongly committed to partnering with African countries to increase their capacity to address the immediate threats posed by terrorist organisations,” the White House said in a statement on

enhanced U.S. economic ties.

His statements reflected the way that burgeoning Chinese investment in Africa has changed the way major Western powers like the U.S. approach the continent.

The promise of rapid economic growth has dramatically increased many African economies’ leverage

with foreign powers. Mr. Obama spent as much time courting African governments as criticizing Ethiopia’s repression of opposition leaders and calling out Burundi’s president for ignoring constitutional term limits.

The president has made the case in Kenya and Ethiopia that

Monday.

Ethiopia contributes troops to an AU peacekeeping force battling al-Shabaab in Somalia. The group has launched several attacks in Kenya; diplomats say Ethiopia’s state security apparatus has spared it similar assaults.

Obama is seeking to expand business links with the continent, where China overtook the US as the biggest trade partner in 2009.

“Africa is on the move. Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world,” Obama told a conference in Nairobi on Saturday that sought to encourage African entrepreneurs and match them with investors.

Ethiopia, which endured communist purges in the 1970s and famine in the 1980s, has won

praise for pushing growth into double digits and for its range of development initiatives including rural health programmes.

But it has relied largely on stateled investment to drive growth, which economists say is squeezing out private business. It remains one of the world’s biggest recipients of aid and is still among Africa’s poorest nations per capita.

The government has often turned to China to help build new roads, railways and dams in its efforts to expand the industrial base in the largely agrarian economy. The new metro line that snakes through Addis Ababa was built by a Chinese firm.  www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/27/ barack-obama-first-visit-ethiopia-servingus-president

16  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

President Barack Obama smiles as he listens to Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, before Obama delivered a speech to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

AP Photo/ Mulugeta Ayene

African economies should embrace the U.S. over other world powers because America’s approach isn’t to simply give aid but also to build the continent’s capacity to flourish on its own.

“Now, the United States isn’t the only country that sees your growth as an opportunity,” Mr. Obama told an enthusiastic audience in a hall named after the late South African leader Nelson Mandela.

“But economic relationships can’t simply be about building other countries’ infrastructure with foreign labor or extracting Africa’s natural resources,” he said. “Real economic partnerships have to be a good deal for Africa—they have to create jobs and capacity for Africans.”

Mr. Obama used this trip to Africa to market America’s particular offering—one that is shorter on direct funding and more slanted toward encouraging private businesses to invest—such as the Obama administration’s trademark Power Africa program, which is designed to expand access to electricity on the continent, but has been slow to show concrete results.

Mr. Obama also called on African leaders to end widespread government corruption and advance

democracy and human rights as part of the continent’s drive toward economic growth. At the same time, he used China as an example of how he engages with countries that don’t share U.S. governing values.

On Tuesday, Mr. Obama received some of his most enthusiastic applause for sharp comments on democracy, particularly his calls for African leaders who cling to power without term limits.

“We all know what the ingredients of real democracy are. They include free and fair elections, freedom of speech and the press, freedom of assembly,” Mr. Obama said.

“Democracy is not just formal elections.”

Mr. Obama singled out Ethiopia as a burgeoning democracy that held elections without violence.

Mr. Obama’s decision to engage with leaders such as Mr. Desalegn rather than isolate them is fundamental to his approach to foreign policy and an acknowledgment that if he doesn’t another country will.

“These countries have options,” said a senior administration official traveling with the president. “It’s not as if they have nowhere to go. This is the world as it is, and engagement

is our best lever.”

Mr. Obama used a personal anecdote to argue why term limits can benefit a democracy.

“I actually think I’m a pretty good president. I think if I ran I could win,” Mr. Obama said, referring to a third term. “But I can’t.”

The trip was a personal journey for Mr. Obama as the first AfricanAmerican U.S. president whose father was born in Kenya. His familial ties to Africa and the story of his unlikely ascent to the presidency gave added weight to his words.

Mr. Obama, in Kenya and Ethiopia, focused on his two signature Africa initiatives: a program for African farmers, Feed the Future; and Power Africa. He noted on Tuesday his plans to host a U.S.Africa Business Forum next year focused on trade and investment.

“America’s approach to development—the central focus of our engagement with Africa—is focused on helping you build your own capacity to realize that vision,” Mr. Obama said.

He described engaging young Africans as the most urgent challenge facing the continent, given the growth in population and the spread of terrorist groups like Somalia-based al-Shabaab.

Security threats are among Mr. Obama’s most pressing challenges in engaging Africa. Mr. Obama said he will host a summit at the United Nations this fall aimed strengthening international support for peacekeeping, including in Africa.

“The choices made today will shape the trajectory of Africa for decades to come,” Mr. Obama said.

“As you build the Africa you believe in, you will have no better partner and friend than the United States of America.”  www.wsj.com/articles/obamabecomes-first-u-s-president-toaddress-african-union-1438090849

17  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Government

U.S. Trade and Development Agency Relaunches Program in Republic of Kenya

L

ast week, during President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya, the White House announced that the U.S. Trade and Development Agency reached an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Kenya to reopen its programs in the country. USTDA’s portfolio in Kenya will support the goals of a Memorandum of Understanding that the U.S. and Kenyan Governments signed to cooperate in developing Kenya’s infrastructure.

“We are very proud to be here today to relaunch a partnership with Kenya that will support this country’s ambitious plans to build modern, sustainable infrastructure,” said USTDA Director Leocadia I. Zak. “From enhancing ports and airports to generating new power, we stand ready to support the essential preparation required to help projects reach implementation and financing.”

USTDA supports key infrastructure development projects in Africa, and around the world, by

helping those projects move from concept to implementation utilizing the expertise and resources of the U.S. private sector. For more than 30 years, USTDA has played an important role in building rail lines, power plants, airports and undersea fiber optic cables across Africa.

Utilizing its customizable toolkit of project planning activities, technical assistance and reverse trade missions, the Agency will work with the Kenyan public and private sectors to ensure that Kenya’s Vision 2025 (www.slideshare.net/ inise_org/kenya-vision-2030) plan realizes its maximum impact and benefits all Kenyans.

With the conclusion of this agreement, USTDA will be able to support important joint initiatives such as Power Africa (www.whitehouse. gov/the-press-office/2013/06/30/ fact-sheet-power-africa), Trade Africa (www.whitehouse.gov/the-

press-office/2013/07/01/fact-sheettrade-africa) and other priority

infrastructure efforts in Kenya.

USTDA’s program helps to create infrastructure that is high quality and built to last, so that its partner countries can realize the full value of their investments.

Well-built infrastructure is a critical catalyst for a high-growth economy, as it increases efficiency and lowers costs for all who use it. Strong, sustainable infrastructure will attract business, facilitate trade and connect Kenya to the region and the world.  www.ustda.gov/news/pressreleases/2015/ SubSaharanAfrica/Kenya/PR_072715/PRUSTDA-Relaunches-Program-in-Republicof-Kenya_072715.asp

White House Announces New USTDA Commitments to Support Increased Trade & Investment with Africa

T

his week, during President Obama’s visits to Kenya and Ethiopia, the White House announced (www.whitehouse.gov/ the-press-office/2015/07/26/factsheet-deepening-us-africa-traderelationship) a number of new

initiatives to strengthen trade and investment ties between the United States and Africa. They included the U.S. Trade and Development Agency’s efforts to increase engagement between U.S. and African firms, in order to build the business connections necessary to support long-term sustainable economic development and to achieve the goals of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) (http://trade.gov/agoa).

USTDA announced that the Agency will host four reverse trade missions to connect African government and business leaders to U.S. manufacturers and services providers. These missions – which will highlight U.S. agricultural, transportation and healthcare products and services that can help Africans achieve their development goals – present excellent opportunities for U.S. businesses to establish or enhance relationships with prospective overseas

customers. USTDA will also provide a U.S.-based training for delegates from 16 African countries on using modernized meteorological technologies to increase weather service capabilities and fast track the implementation of early warning systems, climate information and meteorological data platforms.

The White House also highlighted

(www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2015/07/25/fact-sheet-powerafrica) USTDA’s support of the Power Africa ((www.whitehouse. gov/the-press-office/2013/06/30/factsheet-power-africa) initiative: The

Agency has provided over $17 million towards 29 projects that are expected to add over 660 MW to the continent’s power supply. This early project planning assistance is designed to leverage an anticipated $3.8 billion in private and public financing, or over $200 for every

$1 spent. USTDA plans to commit an additional $10 million in project planning assistance to help earlystage clean energy projects achieve financial close and implementation.

As part of this funding, USTDA will provide technical assistance to two South African development finance institutions to enhance their ability to provide financing for clean energy projects. USTDA will provide the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) with an assessment of existing and developing energy storage technologies and their market potential. The assessment would support the Government of South Africa’s adoption of policies and regulations to facilitate the use of – as well as IDC’s capacity to finance – energy storage technologies, which are critical to the expansion of renewable energy.

USTDA will also provide a technical advisor to the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) (www.dbsa.org) to facilitate the identification of clean energy projects in the region that are appropriate for DBSA financing.

The clean energy advisor would also provide training to DBSA staff related to project evaluation and facilitate communication between key project stakeholders to accelerate project development and financing.  www.ustda.gov/news/ pressreleases/2015/ SubSaharanAfrica/Ethiopia/ PR_072715/PR-White-HouseAnnounces-New-USTDACommitments-Support-IncreasedTrade-and-Investment-Africa_072715. asp

19  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Government

US Flag Flies Again Over New Embassy in Cuba

U

S Secretary of State John Kerry became the first Secretary of State to visit the island of Cuba since 1945, helping to raise the U.S. flag over the new embassy along the Cuban coastline.

Several hundred people – Cubans and Americans – gathered at 7 in the morning at the Malecon ocean drive, some 50 meters away from the embassy, and witnessed the reopening ceremony.

In a historic moment, the US raised its national flag at its new Embassy in Cuba after a gap of over five decades, marking the end of one of the last vestige of the

Cold War. While reiterating Cuba’s desire to normalize ties with the U.S. on the basis of respect and equality, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed his conviction that “beyond the differences between our governments, which will obviously not disappear, it is possible to build civilized and productive relations”.

The two countries formally restored diplomatic ties on July

20, 2015 when Minister Rodriguez attended the opening of the Cuban embassy in Washington.

The Obama administration has continued to take issue with Cuba’s human rights record and has said the resumption of relations will better allow it to make progress on the issue. www.ifreepress.com/us-flag-fliesagain-over-new-embassy-in-cuba

20  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

President Obama Orders Creation of Exascale Supercomputer

By Charlie Osborne

P

resident Obama is seeking the might of exascale computers to power the country's government departments in the future. In a new executive order, the president has issued demands for a new initiative which will focus exclusively on supercomputing research. Titled "Creating a national strategic computing initiative," the president's order outlines plans to create the world's first exascale computing system in order to establish the country's position in high-performance computing (HPC) research and development.

An exascale system would be capable of performing 1 million trillion floating-point operations per second -- otherwise converted as 1,000 petaflops or 1 exaflops -- which is far quicker than today's supercomputers.

However, such a system would need an architecture capable of combining thousands of high-power processors and CPUs, a complete overhaul of how today's computers operate, and would require a fortune in energy and building costs based

upon today's system usage rates.

As reported by IEEE Spectrum (https//spectrum.ieee.org), an exascale computer could be built, but current systems simply aren't tenable.

Despite this, HPC research has to start somewhere. The President's order has led to the launch of the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI), a "whole-ofgovernment effort designed to create a cohesive, multi-agency strategic vision and Federal investment strategy, executed in collaboration with industry and academia, to maximize the benefits of HPC for the United States."

The initiative will primarily be a partnership between the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), although the private sector will also be consulted.

The US president believes that increased demand for computing power and maintaining economic growth requires the high performance of next-generation computers. As a result, the new

federal strategy aims to propel research in this area forward through orders for the US to deploy and apply HPC technologies across the board, the fostering of growth for public-private collaborative research efforts and increased communication between different government departments, academic institutions and companies.

In addition, President Obama says the US must develop a "comprehensive technical and scientific approach" to extend HPC research into hardware, system software, development tools, and applications.

Ultimately, the NSCI is tasked with the development of an exascale computing system which can deliver approximately 100 times the performance of current 10 petaflop systems across a range of applications for government use.

The initiative is also expected to provide, "over the next 15 years, a viable path forward for future HPC systems even after the limits of current semiconductor technology are reached (the "post-Moore's Law era")," according to the order.

If exascale supercomputers become reality through the initiative, NASA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will benefit the most -and have the option to pitch in their own ideas, requirements and applications through the research process.

The NSCI group's council is required to submit a plan for the development of exascale computers within 90 days of the order being issued and check-in with updates annually.  www.zdnet.com/article/obamaorders-creation-of-exascalesupercomputer/?tag=nl.e232&s_cid=e232 &ttag=e232&ftag=TRE6a12a91

21  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

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Use Your Senses to Spot a Gas Leak To help keep your community safe and secure, use your senses of sight, hearing or smell to alert you to any of the following signs of a natural gas leak.

LOOK

WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT A GAS LEAK • Remain calm • Don’t light a match, candle or cigarette • Don’t turn electrical appliances or lights on or off or use any device that could cause a spark • Natural gas leaking from a plastic pipe can create static electricity which can ignite the gas • Immediately evacuate the area, and from a safe location, call 800-427-2200, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; or call 911

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• A damaged connection to a gas appliance • Dirt or water being blown in the air • Dead or dying vegetation (in an otherwise moist area) over or near gas pipeline areas • A fire or explosion near a pipeline • Exposed pipeline after an earthquake, fire, flood or other disaster

LISTEN • An unusual sound, such as a hissing, whistling or roaring sound near a gas line or appliance

SMELL • The distinctive odor* of natural gas *Some people may not be able to smell the odor because they have a diminished sense of smell, olfactory fatigue (normal, temporary inability to distinguish an odor after prolonged exposure to it) or because the odor is being masked or hidden by other odors that are present, such as cooking, damp, musty or chemical odors.

In addition, certain conditions in pipe and soil can cause odor fade – the loss of odorant so that it is not detectable by smell.

Editorial

Africa Open for Business after President Obama’s Visit

By Roger Caldwell

P

resident Barack Obama attended the sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, July 24-26.

The summit is an opportunity to bring global investors and venture capitalists from America and other countries together to learn and discuss what economic business activities are available in Africa.

Three of the world’s 10 fastestgrowing economies are in Africa, and those cities and countries are Nairobi, Kenya; Cape Town, South Africa; and Lagos, Nigeria.

Africa is waking up from a long

sleep, and this new generation understands the importance of technology.

Today, Nairobi is the site of African headquarters for such major companies as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. President Obama is the first sitting American president to visit Kenya, and he is committed to making the United States a partner in Africa’s growth.

“This promise includes initiatives like Power Africa, which is working with African governments and

private sector leaders to add more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner electricity to power 60 million homes and businesses,” said Maria Contreras-Sweet, lead ambassador for Global Entrepreneurs.

“The administration’s Young African Leaders Initiatives is helping to develop business skills while cultivating a network for young emerging African leaders.”

As for President Obama’s first

24  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

official trip to Kenya, he was greeted by adoring crowds throughout the country, and the nation considers him a local son. At the hotel he met and had dinner with three dozen family members because this is his father’s homeland.

“There are cousins and uncles and aunties that show up you didn’t know existed, but you’re always

happy to meet,” said the president.

This is the president’s fourth visit to the continent.

He also visited Ethiopia. In Kenya, President Obama discussed issues of corruption, counterterrorism and gay rights, with warm reflections of being in Africa. He also urged Kenya’s leaders to keep up efforts to combat corruption, calling it the biggest potential threat to Kenya’s economic growth.

President Obama gave an emotional speech inside a packed Nairobi gymnasium filled with nearly 5,000 cheering Kenyans.

“When it comes to the people of Kenya, especially the youth, I believe there is no limit to what you can achieve,” said President Obama. “You can build your future right here, right now.”

The sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit is extremely important to Africa’s future and sustainability.

Many of the orders of businesses on the continent are on hold because the American law-makers must approve financing for the Export-Import Bank. This infusion of funds is in jeopardy, and must be approved by the Republicans who think investing in Africa is a bad deal.

If the United States refuses to invest in Africa, other countries such as China and Russia will expand their investments in the continent. If the United States refuses to become a major player in the African emerging economy, we will lose billions of dollars in investments. The future of the world economy will be connected to Africa, and America must be engaged on the ground floor.

Building power plants takes time, and Power Africa officials are looking at secured deals that are closed rather than power plants already built. Power Africa says they have leveraged more than $18 billion in deals closed with private sector financing. It is obvious that many of these deals are not a result of U.S. efforts, and Africa is doing deals with countries around the world.

Doing business in Africa is a difficult task because the continent struggles with corruption, disease and poverty. But Africa is open for business, the opportunities are endless, and there are Africans becoming millionaires and billionaires every month. African Americans must look to Africa for business opportunities because now is the time to get on the ground floor.  www.stlamerican.com/business/ local_business/article_985108ac3bd0-11e5-9898-5f35663132f4.htm

25  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

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BBN Show Biz Buzz

plane, too.

SOFIA was created to observe infrared energy in the universe, which enables it to study everything from star births to black holes, including nebulae, solar systems, comets, and asteroids. During a recent flight near New Zealand, SOFIA was able to observe Pluto passing in front of a star. The reflecting telescope, housed in the aircraft's fuselage, is over 8 feet in diameter. 

By Linda Ware

Star Trek's original Uhura is going on a NASA mission

N

ichelle Nichols, aka the original Uhura from Star Trek, is going on a NASA mission. Uhura will be "among the first non-essential personnel to experience NASA's newest telescope: SOFIA." It isn't, however, a mission into space: SOFIA ("Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy") is built into a Boeing 747, which will take off from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California on September 15th. SOFIA is a second-generation airborne observatory and a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The first generation model originally flew in 1977 — and according to Nichols, she was a passenger on that

Straight Outta Compton Opens in August

S

ynopsis: In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, California, were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation.

Following the meteoric rise and fall of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton tells the astonishing story of how these young men revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood and ignited a cultural war. Starring: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell.

Check for details at: www.straightouttacompton.com and #straightouttacompton. 

President Barack Obama and Nichelle "Uhura" Nichols

see page 29

Supermodel & TV Personality Tyra Banks Launches Talk Show FabLife

T

yra Banks has achieved major success as a multitalented woman of excellence an entrepreneur with broad potential in various industries in the world of entertainment. and producer.

She has achieved success as a top fashion model gracing the cover of Essence, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and her own magazine name Tyra.

As a television host and personality, she has attracted success with television viewership that has afforded her national recognition. From her reality series, America’s Top Model to a her daytime program, The Tyra Banks Show, Tyra has proven that she is a savvy business woman with a keen eye for just the right moves to make when it comes to formatting television production.

Tyra has just announced that she is launching a brand new television show entitled FabLife. The theme of FabLife is reality based in its focus on the subject of social issues in society and addressing

29  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

BBN Show Biz Buzz these issues in society with a Hollywood twist. Emmywinning producer Shane Farley has been brought on board in the role of executive producer of the new series. Tyra’s panel of guests include Chrissy Teigen, Leah Ashley, Lauren Makk and Joe Zee. FabLife is set to make its national television debut in the fall season in September 2015. 

BET Experience set for 2016

A

nschutz Entertainment Group and BET recently announced the dates for the 2016 BET Experience.

The multiday festival built around the network’s annual award show will return to L.A. Live on June 2326. More than 150,000 attended the 2015 festival, a 36% increase over 2014, according to festival organizers. Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart, Kendrick Lamar and a partially reunited N.W.A. performed at Staples Center and nearby Club Nokia. 

Cheryl Boone Isaacs Re-elected Academy President

C

heryl Boone Isaacs was re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the organization’s Board of Governors.

Boone Isaacs is beginning her third term as president and her 23rd year as a governor representing the Public Relations Branch.

Boone Isaacs currently heads CBI Enterprises, Inc., where she consults on film marketing efforts.

Starting this September, she will be an adjunct professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She recently received an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Academy board members may serve up to three consecutive threeyear terms, while officers serve one-year terms, with a maximum of four consecutive years in any one office.  www.thechocolatevoice.com/ academy-re-elects-presidentcheryl-boone-isaacs

Julia Bullock, Rising Star

S

oprano Julia Bullock has been hailed as an “impressive, fast-rising soprano… poised for a significant career” (The New York Times). Equally at home with opera and concert repertoire, she has captivated audiences with her versatile artistry and commanding stage presence.

Ms. Bullock’s accolades include a 2015 Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, the 2015 Richard F. Gold Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, Lincoln Center’s 2015 Martin E. Segal Award, First Prize at the 2014 Naumburg International Vocal Competition, and First Prize at the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. She has performed recitals and educational outreach programs at the University of Florida Performing Arts, Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, the Levine School of Music, and Music for Youth, as well as recitals at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, San Francisco Performances, Rockefeller University, the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, and Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Ms. Bullock integrates her musical life with community activism. She has organized b e n e f i t concerts for the Shropshire M u s i c Foundation and International Playground,

30  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

BBN Show Biz Buzz

P

Sandra Bullock

two non-profits that serve waraffected children and adolescents through music education and performance programs in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Uganda, and St. Louis. She also participated in the Music and Medicine Benefit Concert for New York’s Weill Medical Center. www.juliabullock. net

www.wildaid.org/news/lupita-nyong’ooscar-winner-back-kenya-and-becomingglobal-elephant-ambassador

Bridging The Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race

BS SoCaL presented "Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race" on August 18 at 8pm, and on PBS stations nationally.

Thirty-five years before Barack Obama’s election as President, the question of race and the possibility of bridging racial barriers were put to the test in an overlooked story in American politics: Tom Bradley’s 1973 election as Mayor of Los Angeles, the first African American to be elected mayor in a major U.S. city with an overwhelmingly white majority. It was a remarkable political first in the history of race and politics in America.

Bridging The Divide tells the story of how Bradley’s coalition of African Americans, Jews, white liberals, Latinos and Asian Americans united a divided city, brought inclusion and access, and set the foundation for sustainable inter-racial coalitions that later encouraged the elections of minority candidates nationwide, most notably President Barack Obama. At the same time, the film examines the complexities and contradictions of Bradley’s career as a bridge builder. Bridging The Divide brings into sharp focus the ways that white and minority communities regard the police, law and order and police abuse, and shows how Tom Bradley, a former police officer and a black mayor, could not break the cycles of poverty and despair that would ultimately spark the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest, and mark the end of his era.

Bridging The Divide is the story of multi-ethnic Los Angeles finding its voice and identity in the face of discrimination and political disenfranchisement. And it is the story of the challenges of diversity facing cities and nations, and the decisions we all must make.  www.pbssocal.org/tv/nationalproductions/ tom-bradley/

31  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

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Start now and register for a How to Do Business with Metro Workshop. Metro staff will show you how to take advantage of the vast array of products, services and transportation related opportunities projected over the coming weeks, months and year. As an added bonus, Metro's procurement staff will host informal interviews with firms before the workshop, starting at 9:00 a.m.

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Editorial

President Obama’s Letter to the Editor www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/magazine/presidentobamas-letter-to-the-editor.html?_r=0

I

African-Americans the right to vote.

Yet more than 70 years ago, as she defiantly delivered the Preamble to our Constitution, Rosanell also reaffirmed its fundamental truth.

CREDIT: Instagram/@whitehouse

was inspired to read about unsung American heroes like Rosanell Eaton in Jim Rutenberg’s ‘‘A Dream Undone: Inside the 50-year campaign to

roll back the Voting Rights Act.’’ What makes our country great is (www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/ not that we are perfect, but that with magazine/voting-rights-act- time, courage and effort, we can become more perfect. What makes dream-undone.html) ‘‘We the People of the United America special is our capacity to States, in Order to form a more change.

Nearly three decades after perfect Union. ...’’ It’s a cruel irony that the words that set our democracy Rosanell testified to her unbroken in motion were used as part of the faith in this country, that faith was so-called literacy test designed to vindicated. The Voting Rights Act deny Rosanell and so many other put an end to literacy tests and other forms of discrimination, helping to

close the gap between our promise that all of us are created equal and our long history of denying some of us the right to vote. The impact was immediate, and profound — the percentage of African-Americans registered to vote skyrocketed in the years after the Voting Rights Act was passed.

But as Rutenberg chronicles, from the moment the ink was dry on the Voting Rights Act, there has been a concentrated effort to undermine this historic law and turn back the clock on its progress. His article puts the recent push to restrict Americans’ voting rights in its proper context.

These efforts are not a sign that we have moved past the shameful history that led to the Voting Rights Act. Too often, they are rooted in that history. They remind us that progress does not come easy, but that it must be vigorously defended and built upon for ourselves and future generations.

I am where I am today only because men and women like Rosanell Eaton refused to accept anything less than a full measure of equality. Their efforts made our country a better place. It is now up to us to continue those efforts.

Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act. Our state leaders and legislatures must make it easier — not harder — for more Americans to have their voices heard. Above all, we must exercise our right as citizens to vote, for the truth is that too often we disenfranchise ourselves.

Rosanell is now 94 years old.

She has not given up. She’s still marching. She’s still fighting to make real the promise of America.

She still believes that We the People have the awesome power to make our union more perfect. And if we join her, we, too, can reaffirm the fundamental truth of the words Rosanell recited.

President Barack Obama, Washington

35  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Editorial

Amend Constitution to Add a Right to Vote

O

n August 6, the Voting Rights Act, keystone of the civil rights movement, will mark its 50th anniversary. This was an act, passed in the wake of the “Bloody Sunday” demonstrations in Selma, designed to correct, as President Lyndon Johnson stated at the time, “a clear and simple wrong.”

“Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color,” he said. “This law will ensure them the right to vote.”

But now, 50 years later, it is not time to celebrate that achievement; it is time to demonstrate against the concerted campaign to undermine it.

In 2006, after extensive hearings, the Senate reauthorized the temporary parts of Voting Rights Act unanimously. It passed the House with only 33 votes against it. President George W. Bush reaffirmed his commitment to enforce it. But the campaign to reverse or undermine the voting rights of people of color never ends.

After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, guaranteed former slaves the right to vote and gave Congress the power to enforce that right on the states. Blacks voted in large numbers. Black candidates were elected to state legislatures and even to Congress. The white response was brutal. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized blacks trying to vote. Southern Democrats took back statehouses and city councils

and passed a range of measures to lock blacks out of voting: poll taxes, literacy tests, double primaries and at-large districts.

In 1965, the Voting Rights Act changed this. Black voter registration surged across the South. Under Section 4, the states that had a history of voter discrimination were put under special Section 5 scrutiny, with the Justice Department requiring pre-clearance of any laws affecting voting.

Yet, as Jim Rutenberg summarizes in “Overcome: A Dream Undone” in the New York Times Magazine, the campaign to undermine the act began before the ink was dry on its signing. Republicans launched their Southern Strategy, making themselves the party of white sanctuary. Then, to win elections, they set out to find ways to weaken the Voting Rights Act and constrict the right to vote.

The five person right-wing majority on the Supreme Court led the way.

In Shelby County, Ala v. Holder, Chief Justice John Roberts gutted the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, arguing — despite detailed congressional findings to the contrary — that discrimination in voting was no longer a problem.

That opened the floodgates.

Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country immediately passed laws to constrict the right to vote. They demanded official ID that African-Americans

lacked disproportionately, cut days for early voting, reduced voting on Sundays, ended same-day registration, invalidated students IDs for voting and more. They gerrymandered districts, revived at-large elections and other means to reduce the voting power of people of color. It is simply obscene that Republicans have devoted themselves to creating obstacles to voting to help them win elections.

The right to vote protects all other rights in a democracy. Yet the Constitution does not explicitly guarantee an individual right to vote to all Americans. The 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments only outlaw discrimination in voting on the basis of race, sex and age. All other aspects of voting are generally left to the states and localities.

While the 1965 Voting Rights Act was rightfully hailed as the most important law of the 20th century, the fundamental right to vote for all Americans is still an unfinished task.

Selma moved us forward, but Shelby has pushed us back. We’ve gone from protecting the right to vote to suppressing it. It took a grassroots voting rights movement to gain a Voting Rights Act. It will again take a grassroots voting rights movement to add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution on the road to a more complete democracy.  www.rainbowpush.org

36  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

e

NAACP's 860-mile Protest March, 'America's Journey for Justice' Begins in Selma

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rotest marches have been part of Selma's civil rights fabric since 1965. The Rev. Theresa Dear noted the magnitude of what lies ahead, but never doubted that the "40-day-and-40night" march will be successful.

Dear told the Montgomery Advertiser just before the march began at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, "We are doing something of biblical proportions."

Sponsored by the NAACP, "America's Journey for Justice" is scheduled to extend through eastern seaboard states before ending in Washington, D.C., on Sept.

15.

More than 200 supporters

took part in the first leg of a march that will be about 16 times the 54-mile distance covered by voting rights activists in 1965. http://www.naacp.org/news/ entry/naacp-announcesamericas-journey-for-justice

37  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Community/Public Interest-Obituary

Julian Bond, Charismatic Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 75

By Roy Reed, New York Times

J

ulian Bond, a charismatic figure of the 1960s civil rights movement, a lightning rod of the anti-Vietnam War campaign and a lifelong champion of equal rights, notably as chairman of the N.A.A.C.P., died on Saturday night in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. He was 75. The cause was complications of vascular disease.

Mr. Bond was one of the original leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He was the committee’s communications director for five years and deftly guided the national news media toward stories of violence and discrimination as the committee challenged legal segregation in the South’s public

facilities.

He gradually moved from the militancy of the student group to the leadership of the establishmentarian N.A.A.C.P. Along the way, Mr. Bond was a writer, poet, television commentator, lecturer and college teacher, and persistent opponent of the stubborn remnants of white supremacy.

He also served for 20 years in the Georgia General Assembly, mostly in conspicuous isolation from white colleagues who saw him as an interloper and a rabble-rouser.

Mr. Bond’s wit, cool personality and youthful face — he was often called dashing, handsome and urbane — became familiar to millions of television viewers in the 1960s and 1970s. On the strength of his

Mr. Bond in 1966, before making a speech in New York.Credit Associated Press

personality and quick intellect, he moved to the center of the civil rights action in Atlanta, the unofficial capital of the movement, at the height of the struggle for racial equality in the early Mr. Bond presented then S an award at the N.A.A.C.P. 1960s.

Moving be- Bond was made chairman yond dem- for the Advancement of Col onstrations, Kevin Winter/Getty Images Mr. Bond became a founder, with Morris Dees, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization in Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Bond was its president from 1971 to 1979 and remained on its board for the rest of his life.

He was nominated as a candidate for vice president at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where he was a co-chairman of a racially integrated challenge delegation from Georgia. He declined to pursue a serious candidacy because he was too young to meet the constitutional age requirement, but from that moment on he was a national figure.

When he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, along with seven other black members, furious white members Mr Jr.

38  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

enator Barack Obama with Image Awards in 2005. Mr. of the National Association lored People in 1998.

of the House refused to let him take his seat, accusing him of disloyalty. He was already well known because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s stand a g a i n s t the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. T h a t touched off a national drama that ended in 1966 when the Supreme Court, in a unanimous

r. Bond with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Associated Press

decision, ordered the State Assembly to seat him, saying it had denied him freedom of speech.

As a lawmaker, he sponsored bills to establish a sickle cell anemia testing program and to provide lowinterest home loans to low-income Georgians. He also helped create a majority-black congressional district in Atlanta.

He left the State Senate in 1986 after six terms to run for a seat in the United States House. He lost a bitter contest to his old friend John Lewis, a fellow founder of the student committee and its longtime chairman. The two men, for all their earlier closeness in the civil rights movement, represented opposite poles of African-American life in the South: Mr. Lewis was the son of a sharecropper; Mr. Bond was the son of a college president.

Horace Julian Bond was born on Jan. 14, 1940, in Nashville, to Horace Mann Bond and the former Julia Washington. The family moved to Pennsylvania five years later, when Mr. Bond’s father became the first African-American president of his alma mater, Lincoln University.

Julian Bond’s great-grandmoth-

er Jane Bond was the slave mistress of a Kentucky farmer. Julian’s grandfather James Bond, one of Jane Bond’s sons, was educated at Berea and Oberlin Colleges and became a clergyman. His son Horace Mann Bond expected his own son Julian to follow in his footsteps as an educator, but the young man was attracted instead to journalism and political activism.

At age 12, Julian was sent to the private Quaker-run George School near Philadelphia. It was there that he first encountered racial resentment when he began dating a white girl, incurring the disapproval of white students and the school authorities.

He moved back south at age 17 when his father became dean of education at Atlanta University.

At Morehouse College, he plunged into extracurricular activities but paid less attention to his studies.

The civil rights movement provided a good excuse to drop out of college in 1961. He returned in the early 1970s to complete his English degree.

Dozens of his friends went to jail Continued on page 40

Mr. Bond with John Lewis, now a Georgia congressman, in 1973

39  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

during his time with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, but he was arrested only once. In 1960, after word of student sit-ins at lunch counters in Greensboro, N.C., spread across the South, Mr. Bond and a few of his friends at Morehouse organized protests against segregated public facilities in Atlanta. He was arrested when he led a sit-in at the City Hall cafeteria.

During this period, he and some fellow black students had an early experience with racism in the Georgia House of Representatives. They visited there one day and sat in the whites-only visitors’ section. The Capitol police escorted them out.

Mr. Bond devoted most of the 1960s to the protest movement and activist politics, including campaigns to register black voters. Both he and Mr. Lewis left the student committee after its leadership was taken over by black power advocates who forced whites out of the organization.

He prospered on the lecture circuit the rest of his life. He became a regular commentator in print and on television, including as host of “America’s Black Forum,” then the oldest black-owned television program in syndication. His most unusual television appearance was in April 1977, when he hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

In later years, he taught at Harvard, Williams, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a distinguished scholar in residence at American University in Washington and a professor of history at the University of Virginia, where he was co-director of the oral history project Explorations in Black Leadership.

Mr. Bond published a book of essays titled “A Time to Speak, a Time to Act” in 1972. He wrote poetry, much of it reflecting the pained point of view of a repressed minority, and articles for publications as

Mr. Bond in 1976 with New York Democratic leaders — Representative Shirley Chisolm, Basil A. Paterson and H. Carl McCall — at a news conference in support of Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. Neal Boenzi New York Times varied as The Nation, Negro Digest and Playboy.

He was made chairman of the N.A.A.C.P. in 1998. He remained active in Democratic Party politics and was a strong critic of the administration of President George W. Bush.

In a statement on Sunday, President Obama called Mr. Bond “a hero and, I’m privileged to say, a friend.”

“Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life,” Mr. d helped h l d Obama said. “Julian Bond change this country for the better.

And what better way to be remembered than that.” 

www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/us/ julian-bond-former-naacp-chairman-and-civil-rights-leader-diesat-75.html?_r=0

Roy Reed covered the civil rights movement for The New York Times in the 1960s and 1970s.

Ashley Southall and Liam Stack contributed reporting.

www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/08/16/us/rememberingjulian-bond-a-champion-for-civilrights/s/20150817BOND-slideIWN9.html

40  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

Get Ready. New Credit Cards with Security Chip are Out

By Amrita Jayakumar

A

merican consumers are beginning to receive in the mail new credit cards that add a security chip to the traditional magnetic strip that processes their payments. The hope is the new cards cut down on credit card fraud but many small businesses do not appear ready for the change.

A deadline for phasing in secure, chip-enabled payment cards across the country kicks in on Oct. 1.

That’s when banks are supposed to finish distributing the new plastic to customers. Businesses will need to install new card readers to process the information on the chips. Those that do not have the new technology in place by then will be on the hook for any security lapses or fraudulent transactions, instead of paymentprocessing firms.

But four months before the deadline, more than 28% of small business owners who process payment cards are not even aware of the new technology or how it affects their business, according to a new survey by Manta, an online small business community site.

The survey polled 1,609 business owners and asked them whether or not they planned to adopt the new payment card technology by Oct. 1, with a margin of error of 2.44 percentage points.

Of those who did accept cards, the majority did not even know about the new payment technology, or why they needed to install it, the survey found. More than 16 percent of owners also said they had not

seen customers using the new chip cards.

The lack of awareness is “concerning,” said John Swanciger, Manta’s chief executive. Payment companies need to do more to educate small businesses about their liability, he said.

The findings echo a similar survey conducted by software firm Intuit last month, which polled 500 small businesses that employ up to a hundred employees. Forty-two percent of owners surveyed were not aware of the deadline.

Companies such as Intuit, Square and Capital One, which sell readers equipped to accept the new cards, have stepped up efforts to educate small business owners about the mandated shift in hopes of locking up new customers as they jostle for market share.

Square said it would give away 250,000 readers for free for a limited time. Intuit has stepped up its promotions, in part by funding its survey on awareness about the coming change. PayPal said it would bring its U.K.-based mobile reader, where chip-embedded cards are already in use, to the United States this fall. Retailers like Amazon are also getting into the mobile payments game.

A casual query of local businesses in downtown D.C. showed that few

had heard of the deadline and few had even noticed whether customers used chip-based cards.

Rachael Galoob Ortega, a lawyerturned-entrepreneur who runs Saffron Dance, a belly-dancing class with multiple locations in the Washington area, said she hadn’t heard of the October deadline until a reporter informed her.

Nearly all of her customers pay by card, said Ortega, who is professionally known as Saphira.

She quickly went on the Internet to begin reading up on the change.

“I’ve already signed up for the free Square reader,” she said.

For some small business owners, the cost of the new technology could be a potential burden, though prices have fallen sharply as competition has ramped up.

Ortega said businesses that rely on more sophisticated point-of-sale systems, with multiple locations, could be harder hit. She estimates that switching over to a new reader would only cost her a few hundred dollars. “The people who are going to struggle more are retailers who have invested a lot of money in a bulky piece of hardware,” she said.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/onsmall-business/wp/2015/07/24/a-biglegal-burden-awaits-small-businessesand-most-arent-aware-of-it/

43  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

45  July 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

Rainbow PUSH Coalition Commend Pinterest Diversity and Inclusion Announcement

By Butch Wing

R

ainbowPUSH and I commend Pinterest (www. pinterest.com) on its diversity and inclusion announcement today.

Pinterest is putting a huge stake in the ground by setting specific, measurable goals, targets and a 2016 timetable to achieve its diversity and inclusion goals.

We have said, "if you don't measure it, you don't mean it." Clearly, Pinterest means it.

Earlier this year, Intel committed to achieving full representation in its leadership and workforce by 2020, and tied compensation of their

executives to meeting these goals.

This year, several other tech companies including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, released their 2015 workforce data. Despite new initiatives tech companies are putting in to place, they have showed virtually no progress or movement. They are not any more “diverse” than they were last year.

Pinterest's approach stands in stark contrast combining aspiration with concrete measurable intention, and is one that other companies would do well to emulate.

RainbowPUSH looks forward to working with Pinterest to support them in the most effective and successful implementation of their program.  Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. President and Founder RainbowPUSH Coalition. www.rainbowpush.org

www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-Worlds-Fair/543396465697684

www.laworldsfair.org

Rideau Wine

From http://officialblackwallstreet.com/ F black-owned-wine-spirit-brands

R

ideau Vineyard was founded in 1997 by New Orleans native and Black Business Association member Iris Rideau. Located in Santa Ynez Valley, Rideau specializes in wines that highlight Rhône varietals. Although they remain dedicated to small production, you can purchase their white and red varietals, along with their food and wine gift sets online.

Price Range: $22.00 – $66.50 Purchase: Online

Welcome to Rideau Vineyard We invite you to visit our charming Tasting Room

and Winery for a singular wine tasting experience.

Surrounded by the vineyards planted in 1998, lush grounds, beautiful gardens, and majestic oak trees, our site has an immediately transportive quality imbued with the feeling of old world French Victorian New Orleans.

Iris and the whole staff at Rideau Vineyard welcomes you with warm Southern hospitality to enjoy our AwardWinning wines. Our Tasting Room is located at 1562 Alamo Pintado Road, Solvang, California 93463, in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. For more information, please call us at 805.688.0717.  www.rideauvineyard.com

47  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

Faison Wealth & Retirement Regina Faison Wealth Manager/Registered Principal 3070 Bristol Street Suite 500 949-200-8212 714-329-7184 regina@faisonwealth.com www.faisonwealth.com

Changing Jobs? Take Your 401(k) and Roll It If you've lost your job, or are changing jobs, you may be wondering what to do with your 401(k) plan account. It's important to understand your options.

What will I be entitled to?

If you leave your job (voluntarily or involuntarily), you'll be entitled to a distribution of your vested balance.

Your vested balance always includes your own contributions (pretax, after-tax, and Roth) and typically any investment earnings on those amounts.

It also includes employer contributions (and earnings) that have satisfied your plan's vesting schedule.

In general, you must be 100% vested in your employer's contributions after 3 years of service ("cliff vesting"), or you must vest gradually, 20% per year until you're fully vested after 6 years ("graded vesting"). Plans can have faster vesting schedules, and some even have 100% immediate vesting. You'll also be 100% vested once you've reached your plan's normal retirement age.

It's important for you to understand how your particular plan's vesting schedule works, because you'll forfeit any employer contributions that haven't vested by the time you leave your job. Your summary plan description (SPD) will spell out how the vesting schedule for your particular plan works. If you don't have one, ask your plan administrator for it. If you're on the cusp of vesting, it may make sense to wait a bit before leaving, if you have that luxury.

Don't spend it, roll it!

While this pool of dollars may look attractive, don't spend it unless you absolutely need to. If you take a distribution you'll be taxed, at ordinary income tax rates, on the entire value of your account except for any after-tax or Roth 401(k) contributions you've made. And, if you're not yet age 55, an additional 10% penalty may apply to the taxable portion of your payout. (Special rules may apply if you receive a lump-sum distribution and you were born before 1936, or if the lump-sum includes employer stock.)

If your vested balance is more than $5,000, you can

leave your money in your employer's plan until you reach normal retirement age. But your employer must also allow you to make a direct rollover to an IRA or to another employer's 401(k) plan. As the name suggests, in a direct rollover the money passes directly from your 401(k) plan account to the IRA or other plan. This is preferable to a "60-day rollover," where you get the check and then roll the money over yourself, because your employer has to withhold 20% of the taxable portion of a 60-day rollover. You can still roll over the entire amount of your distribution, but you'll need to come up with the 20% that's been withheld until you recapture that amount when you file your income tax return.

Should I roll over to my new employer's 401(k) plan or to an IRA? Assuming both options are available to you, there's no right or wrong answer to this question. There are strong arguments to be made on both sides. You need to weigh all of the factors, and make a decision based on your own needs and priorities. It's best to have a professional assist you with this, since the decision you make may have significant consequences--both now and in the future.

Reasons to roll over to an IRA: • You generally have more investment choices with an IRA than with an employer's 401(k) plan. You typically may freely move your money around to the various investments offered by your IRA trustee, and you may divide up your balance among as many of those investments as you want.

By contrast, employer-sponsored plans typically give you a limited menu of investments (usually mutual funds) from which to choose.

• You can freely allocate your IRA dollars among different IRA trustees/custodians. There's no limit on how many direct, trustee-to-trustee IRA transfers you can do in a year. This gives you flexibility to change trustees often if you are dissatisfied with investment performance or customer service. It can also allow you to have June 25, 2015 Page 1 of 2, see disclaimer on final page

48  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

In some cases, you have no choice--you need to use the funds. If so, try to minimize the tax impact. For example, if you have nontaxable after-tax contributions in your account, keep in mind that you can roll over just the taxable portion of your distribution and keep the nontaxable portion for yourself.

IRA accounts with more than one institution for added diversification. With an employer's plan, you can't move the funds to a different trustee unless you leave your job and roll over the funds.

• An IRA may give you more flexibility with distributions. Your distribution options in a 401(k) plan depend on the terms of that particular plan, and your options may be limited.

However, with an IRA, the timing and amount of distributions is generally at your discretion (until you reach age 70½ and must start taking required minimum distributions in the case of a traditional IRA).

• You can roll over (essentially "convert") your 401(k) plan distribution to a Roth IRA. You'll generally have to pay taxes on the amount you roll over (minus any after-tax contributions you've made), but any qualified distributions from the Roth IRA in the future will be tax free.

Reasons to roll over to your new employer's 401(k) plan: • Many employer-sponsored plans have loan provisions. If you roll over your retirement funds to a new employer's plan that permits loans, you may be able to borrow up to 50% of the amount you roll over if you need the money.

You can't borrow from an IRA--you can only access the money in an IRA by taking a distribution, which may be subject to income tax and penalties. (You can, however, give yourself a short-term loan from an IRA by taking a distribution, and then rolling the dollars back to an IRA within 60 days.)

• A rollover to your new employer's 401(k) plan may provide greater creditor protection than a rollover to an IRA. Most 401(k) plans receive unlimited protection from your creditors under federal law. Your creditors (with certain exceptions) cannot attach your plan funds to satisfy any of your debts and obligations, regardless of whether you've declared bankruptcy. In contrast, any amounts you roll over to a traditional or Roth IRA are generally protected under federal law only if you declare bankruptcy. Any creditor protection your IRA may receive in cases outside of bankruptcy will generally depend on the laws of your particular

state. If you are concerned about asset protection, be sure to seek the assistance of a qualified professional.

• You may be able to postpone required minimum distributions. For traditional IRAs, these distributions must begin by April 1 following the year you reach age 70½. However, if you work past that age and are still participating in your employer's 401(k) plan, you can delay your first distribution from that plan until April 1 following the year of your retirement. (You also must own no more than 5% of the company.)

• If your distribution includes Roth 401(k) contributions and earnings, you can roll those amounts over to either a Roth IRA or your new employer's Roth 401(k) plan (if it accepts rollovers). If you roll the funds over to a Roth IRA, the Roth IRA holding period will determine when you can begin receiving tax-free qualified distributions from the IRA. So if you're establishing a Roth IRA for the first time, your Roth 401(k) dollars will be subject to a brand new 5-year holding period. On the other hand, if you roll the dollars over to your new employer's Roth 401 (k) plan, your existing 5-year holding period will carry over to the new plan. This may enable you to receive tax-free qualified distributions sooner.

When evaluating whether to initiate a rollover always be sure to (1) ask about possible surrender charges that may be imposed by your employer plan, or new surrender charges that your IRA may impose, (2) compare investment fees and expenses charged by your IRA (and investment funds) with those charged by your employer plan (if any), and (3) understand any accumulated rights or guarantees that you may be giving up by transferring funds out of your employer plan.

What about outstanding plan loans?

In general, if you have an outstanding plan loan, you'll need to pay it back, or the outstanding balance will be taxed as if it had been distributed to you in cash. If you can't pay the loan back before you leave, you'll still have 60 days to roll over the amount that's been treated as a distribution to your IRA. Of course, you'll need to come up with the dollars from other sources.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES Regina L. Faison Senior Financial Advisor Faison Wealth & Retirement Services C/O Woodbury Financial Services 3070 Bristol Suite 500 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 Office Direct -949-200-8212 * Efax - 949-556-9806 * Regina cell - 714-329-7184 Customer Service Email- service@faisonwealth.com Ph# - 949-939-1194 Website - http://faisonwealth.com "Helping businesses and individuals achieve their life goals" Securities, and Investment Advisory Services offered through Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC and Registered Investment Advisor. Woodbury Financial Services P.O. Box 64284*St. Paul, MN 55164*-800-800-2638 Faison Wealth and Retirement Services and Woodbury Financial are not affiliated entities.

Page 2 of 2 Prepared by Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright 2015

49  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

Kauffman Founders School Twitter Chat | Finding Your Startup Community

J

oin Kauffman Founders School and the U.S. Small Business Administration on Twitter as we discuss how Millennial entrepreneurs can find — and harness the power of — their startup communities within their own respective cities.

The one-hour chat begins at 12:00 p.m. CDT. Questions will be tweeted out from @SBAgov and retweeted by @KauffmanFS. Participate in the chat by following @KauffmanFS, @SBAgov and the hashtag #MillennialTreps on Twitter.

See posts recapping previous months' chats and more on the Kauffman Founders School blog (www.entrepreneurship.org/FoundersSchool/Blog.aspx):

• July Chat Recap - www. entrepreneurship.org/FoundersSchool/Blog/2015/July/ Challenges-in-Finding-a-MentorCreating-a-Mutually-BeneficialRelationship-Surface-in-TwitterChat • June Chat Recap - www. entrepreneurship.org/FoundersSchool/Blog/2015/June/Pitfalls-

in-Hiring-Ways-to-Motivate-aTeam-Arise-in-Twitter-Chat.aspx • May Chat Recap - www. entrepreneurship.org/ Founders-School/Blog/2015/ May/Millennials-Twitter-ChatRaises-Questions-of-CredibilityPreparation-and-Hurdles-WhenIt-Comes-to-Financing-a-Venture • March Chat Recap - www. entrepreneurship.org/ Founders-School/Blog/2015/ March/Millennials-TwitterChat-Discusses-Relevance-ofBusiness-Plans-Whether-to-CoFound-or-Not.aspx • February Chat Recap - www. entrepreneurship.org/FoundersSchool/Blog/2015/February/ Twitter-Chat-Ignites-DiscussionAround-Obstacles-FacingMillennial-Entrepreneurs.aspx

50  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

BBN Biz Notes

By Black Business News Staff

President Obama Signs Bill to Increase SBA's 7(a) Lending Authority to $23.5 Billion

A

bill to increase the lending authority for the 7(a) loan program to $23.5 billion for FY 2015 was passed by Congress and signed by the president. As a

lt effective ff ti immediately, i di t l SBA is i result, again able to guarantee 7(a) loans this fiscal year. Requests in the existing queue will be funded first, followed by new loan guarantee

requests, which will be processed as usual.

SBA is evaluating the additional provisions of the new law and will be providing further guidance as necessary.

We appreciate the patience of our borrowers and lenders and look forward to continuing to serve the small business community through the 7(a) loan program.

Review the Los Angeles area Resource Guide for Small Business at: www.sba.gov/sites/ default/files/files/resourceguide_3099. pdf. Access all SBA information and services at: www.sba.gov. 

US 2016 Per-diem Rates Issued

T

he U.S General Services Administration (www.gsa. gov) has established the 2016 per-diem rates for the lower 48 Continental United States (CONUS), the maximum allowances for which federal employees are reimbursed for official travel expenses. The CONUS per diem rate for an area is actually three allowances: the lodging allowance, the meals allowance and the incidental expense allowance. The standard CONUS per diem rate is $140 ($89 lodging, $51 meals and incidental expenses). The FY2016 rates are NOT the default rates until October 1, 2015.  www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104877

51  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

RIO 2016 OLYMPIC OPPORTUNITIES Stay Current through the Olympic Newsletter: http://www.export.gov/brazil/games/eg_ br_080260.asp Current tenders can be found at: http://portaldesuprimentos.rio2016.com/en/ status/of/the/bids For information on the Games visit http://export.gov/ brazil/games/index. asp www.export.gov/ brazil/games/eg_ br_080260.asp

Verizon is joining forces with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and a number of other businesses and community organizations to help promote safe driving through

Sell Your Products & Services on

It Can Wait. http://itcanwait.com 52  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

SAVE THE DATE! Join the U.S. Commercial Service and the District Export Council of Southern California for Discover Global Markets: Pacific Rim Consumers, a dynamic 2-day conference focused on consumer markets throughout Asia and the Pacific region. Find out what consumers are buying, and how to sell to them!

Event Dates:

What to expect:

Location:

• • • • •

In-depth market intelligence targeting major consumer markets in the Pacific Rim Country and industry sessions led by industry specialists and executives Practical “how to” sessions on global branding, international marketing, fulfillment, distribution, and protecting your Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Financing for generating maximum revenue and profits “Meet the buyer” sessions and networking with senior business leaders

Private consultations with U.S. commercial diplomats: Opportunity to meet with in-country commercial diplomats and specialists to gain customized market entry advice for your company. Featuring 18+ markets, including: x • • • x x

Australia/New Zealand Burma Canada Central America Chile China

• • • • • •

Colombia Costa Rica Hong Kong Japan Malaysia Mexico

• • • • • •

October 29-30, 2015

Hilton Orange County/ Costa Mesa 3050 Bristol St. Costa Mesa, CA

For more information: Daniel Lew 213-200-7172 Daniel.Lew@trade.gov Jim Mayfield 949-660-8681 Jim.Mayfield@trade.gov

Panama Peru Singapore South Korea Taiwan Thailand

A few of our featured industries, plus a lot more!

9 9 9 9 9

Cosmetics, Beauty & Personal Care Consumer Brands Fashion, Apparel & Accessories Franchising Action Sports/Outdoor Lifestyle

9 9 9 9 9

Entertainment & Digital Media Nutritional Supplements Food, Beverages, Wine Recreational Vehicles, Automotive Travel & Tourism

www.export.gov/DiscoverGlobalMarkets/PacRimConsumers U.S. Department of Commerce

International Trade Administration

U.S. Commercial Service

56  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

BUSINESS FORUM SERIES

2015

PACIFIC RIM CONSUMERS Get valuable exposure among U.S. exporters of products and services at an international business forum organized by the U.S. Commercial Service (the export promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration) and the District Export Council of Southern California.

Become a Sponsor Now! Event Dates October 29–30, 2015 Location Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa 3050 Bristol Street Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (714) 540-7000

Conference Overview DISCOVER GLOBAL MARKETS: Pacific Rim Consumers participants will gain access to upto-date market intelligence about consumer markets throughout the Pacific Rim region.

For More Information Daniel Lew (213) 200-7172

The program will feature international business leaders, U.S. commercial diplomats, industry specialists, and seasoned export advisors from more than 20 Pacific Rim markets—from Seoul to Santiago!

daniel.lew@trade.gov Jim Mayfield (949) 660-8681

Benefits of Becoming a Sponsor

jim.mayfield@trade.gov

As a sponsor, your organization will receive valuable exposure prior to and during the event. The conference will be promoted heavily nationwide and your organization will be recognized according to your selected level of participation:

export.gov/discoverglobalmarkets

Diamond ($25,000)

Platinum ($15,000)

Gold ($10,000)

Silver ($5,000)

Bronze ($2,500)

Logo on Program Guide, E-mail Promotions, and Website

9

9

9

9

9

Special Recognition at Forums

9

9

9

9

9

List and Contact Information of All Forum Attendees (to be Distributed Immediately Following Event)

9

9

9

9

9

Premium

Premium

Premium

Standard

Standard

10

8

5

3

1

Full-page (color)

½-page (color)

¼-page (color)

¼-page (B&W)

⁄-page (B&W)

Sponsorship Benefits

Promotional Space at Forums Forum Tickets Advertisements in Forum Program Guides Optional Reserved Forum Table (luncheons)

9

9

Seats at Head Table (program/luncheon)

2

1

Digital Media Promotion

9

9

U.S. Commercial Service—Connecting you to global markets.

1407-01-19-06

57  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

Percentage of African-Americans in Management on Decline

by Judy Greenwald

A

fter rising during the 1970s through the 1990s, AfricanAmericans' participation rates in many job categories slowed or declined in the 2000s, says a report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The report, “American Experiences Versus American Expectations” illustrates changes to the United States workforce in the 50 years since the EEOC was created in 1965. It updates 1977 research, “Black Expectations Versus Black Experiences,” and reflects data through fiscal 2013.

The new report is based on a form, Employer Information Report EEO-1, all employers with 100 or more employees must file, with about 70,000 filing it in fiscal 2013, according to the report.

Observations from the American Experiences versus American Expectations report include the following: • In 1966, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans each made up less than 1% of senior-level positions. Since then, the participation rates for all three groups have increased by five to seven times.

• The participation rate of women in the Professionals category has skyrocketed from roughly 14% in 1966 to more than 53% in 2013.

• Women and minorities remain concentrated, or segregated, in lower paying positions. For example, in 2013:

• Hispanics composed 20.5% of Service Workers and 29.2% of Laborers, yet they were only 5.7% of Professionals and 7.4% of Officials and Managers.

• African-Americans composed 23.3% of Service Workers and 18.7% of Laborers, yet they were only 7.6% of Professionals and 6.8% of Officials and Managers.

“Despite notable progress in diversity and inclusion in the workplace over the past half century, this report highlights continued job segregation by race and gender, with women and people of color disproportionately occupying lower paying positions,” EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang, said in a statement.

According to the report, the rate of increases slowed for several categories since the 1990s, with the rate in officials and managers and professionals categories declining slightly in recent years.

For instance, the participation rates for African-American officials and managers, which was just 0.87% in 1966, reached a height of 6.94% in 2008 before slipping to 6.77% in 2013. Similarly, the rate for professionals, which was 1.32% in 1966, reached a height of 7.75% in 2008 and dipped to 7.6% in 2013.

Among other results, Hispanics

saw increased participation rates across all job categories from 1966 through 2013, while Asian Americans saw consistent increases in participation during the period.

However, except for those in the service workers category in 1984, American Indians or Alaska natives experienced less than 1% participation rate in each of the categories. Participation rate for women fluctuated by category in the same period.

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about EEOC is available at www. eeoc.gov.  www.businessinsurance. com/article/20150803/ NEWS06/150809986/eeoc-africanamericans-blacks-managementjobs?tags=|70|83|329|302

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59  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

www4.csudh.edu/watts/contact/index

Have you registered for the U.S.-Africa Business Summit?

November 2-5, 2015 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia www.summit.africacncl.org #AfricaBizSummit Why You Should Attend the Summit If you are looking to enter the African market or expand your business on the continent, you won't want to miss the the U.S.-Africa Summit. This November, more than 1,000 private sector and government representatives from Africa, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East will convene with the common goal of networking and expanding their knowledge on investment opportunities.

How will the 2015 Summit be different?

The 10th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit will be held in Africa for the first time since 2007. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, home of the African Union and growing international business hub, will provide the ideal setting for building new partnerships and expanding your business.

What is the best way to take advantage of the networking opportunities?

Daily beverage breaks, luncheons and two evening events are included with your registration fee. In addition, we will be launching an app in September which will allow you to find and schedule meetings with potential business partners and investors.

Gain Insight from the Experts We have invited experts in agribusiness, energy, finance, health, security, infrastructure, trade facilitation and capacity building, working in diverse African economies, to provide their pragmatic insight on what you need to achieve your business goals.

The Corporate Council on Africa 1100 17th Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 835-1115 Fax: (202 835-1117

61  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business - POWER AFRICA

Leveraging Partnerships to Increase Access to Power in Sub-Saharan Africa

On June 30, 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa, President Barack Obama announced Power Africa — an initiative to increase the number of people with access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. Utilizing the combined expertise of 12 U.S. Government agencies, Power Africa is unlocking the substantial wind, solar, hydropower, natural gas, biomass, and geothermal resources in the region to enhance energy security, decrease poverty, and advance economic growth.

Two out of three sub-Saharan Africans — approximately 600 million people — lack access to electricity affecting their access to quality health care and education, as well as obtaining fewer economic opportunities.

Power Africa is working with African governments, the private sector, and other partners in sub-Saharan Africa to add more than 30,000 megawatts (MW) of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity as well as increase electricity access by adding 60 million new home and business connections.

Since Power Africa’s launch in late June 2013, the initiative has helped financially close more than 3,000 MW worth of transactions, representing more than 30% of the initial 10,000 MW goal for new power generation.

These transactions have the potential to provide power for more than five million African homes, service providers, and businesses. Power Africa is currently considering projects expected to generate an additional 15,000 MW. The long-term objective is to double access to cleaner, reliable and efficient electricity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although Power Africa’s implementation varies country-by-country, as a whole, the initiative also works to advance energy sector reforms, identify barriers to investment, and work with partner countries and institutions to improve efficiency and capabilities of relevant government institutions.

Power Africa strives to increase regional, cross-border energy trading through power pools, while also focusing on enhancing energy resource management capabilities, allowing partner countries and regions of Africa to meet critical energy needs and achieve sustainable, long-term energy security.

Beyond the Grid Power Africa is also expanding mini-grid and off-grid solutions to increase access to underserved areas through “Beyond the Grid.” This sub-initiative utilizes Power Africa’s innovative transaction-focused model to galvanize collaboration, engage in critical actions to accelerate transactions, and drive systemic reforms in order to facilitate future investment for off-grid and small-scale renewable energy solutions.

The Power Africa initiative already supports over 25 small-scale energy projects, but Beyond the Grid will expand this significantly – facilitating over $1 billion in new private sector investments. With over 40 partners, Beyond the Grid also seeks to unlock investment and growth for off-grid and smallscale energy solutions for millions of households, businesses and public facilities in underserved areas in Africa.

Transaction Focused Notable transactions undertaken in the first year of the initiative include: Kenya Aeolus Wind — 60 MW: The Government of Kenya, project financiers, and Aeolus Kenya Ltd. have completed all agreements for the funding and construction of the Kinangop Wind Park. Power Africa is providing assistance for the implementation of a grid management support program to assist Kenya in managing the integration of intermittent renewable energy into the national grid.

Nigeria Power Privatization — 2,000+ MW: Fifteen companies have purchased the assets of ten electricity distribution and five power generation entities during the initial phase of privatizing the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. Power Africa is supporting these companies’ efforts to improve operations and maintenance, and to obtain additional investment capital, which is projected to result in a 2,000+ MW increase in power generation capacity by 2018.

Ethiopia Corbetti Geothermal — Up to 1,000 MW: The Government of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation entered into a project agreement with Reykjavik Geothermal to establish the Corbetti Geothermal Power Plant — the first independent power producer project in Ethiopia’s history. Power Africa is providing transactional and technical advice to move the Corbetti project toward financial close.

Tanzania Kiwira River Hydro Project — 10 MW: Through USAID’s Development Credit Authority, Power Africa has provided a partial loan guarantee to Stanbic Bank in Tanzania for the Kiwira River Hydro Project in the country’s agricultural corridor. This guarantee assisted the project sponsor, EA Power Limited in securing debt financing from Stanbic Bank, the first loan of its kind by the bank to an energy sector project in Tanzania.

66  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Highlighted Private Sector Partners General Electric Heirs Holdings Symbion Power Aldwych International Harith General Partners Husk Power Systems

A New Operating Model: Mobilizing Investments in Energy The level of funding needed to electrify the continent far outstrips the capacity of African governments and foreign donors. To address this challenge, the 12 U.S. Government agencies behind Power Africa have developed an innovative model that focuses on the transactions of private investors and policy dialogue with key stakeholders to focus and drive energy reforms. By leveraging U.S. strengths in energy technology, private sector engagement, and policy and regulatory reform, Power Africa is galvanizing collaboration, making quick-impact interventions, and driving systemic reforms to facilitate future private investment.

The Power Africa model is part of President Obama’s new approach to development, which builds local capacity and supports innovative ways to make traditional assistance programs more effective and sustainable.

United States Energy Association Aelous Kenya Ltd Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers American Capital Energy & Infrastructure Corporate Council on Africa Nedbank Capital Standard Bank Group The Abraaj Group

For the first five-year phase of Power Africa, the U.S. Government has committed more than $7 billion in financial support and loan guarantees. To date, Power Africa has leveraged more than $20 billion from the private sector for new on and off-grid projects in sub-Saharan Africa, meaning that every dollar the U.S. Government has committed to Power Africa has already leveraged more than three dollars in private sector investment commitments.

Power Africa is also working closely with development finance partners and other donors to enhance the availability of energy sector resources in Africa. To date, the African Development Bank, World Bank and the Swedish Government have collectively committed an additional $9 billion in support of Power Africa.

For more information on Power Africa visit: www.usaid.gov/powerafrica or email powerafrica@usaid.gov

NextGen Solar Denham Capital

The Power Africa Toolbox Technical assistance

Loan guarantees

Direct grants to African governments for energy projects

Advise on government budgeting and financial accountability

Grants to off-grid communities for access

Medium and long-term direct loans for U.S. investments in Africa

Feasibility, project preparation and technical assistance grants

Reverse trade missions and training

Risk mitigation insurance

Working capital loans for U.S. exporters

Advocacy of legal, regulatory and institutional reforms

African trade promotion programs

Loans to African purchasers of U.S. goods and services

Transaction advisory services

Power Africa, a U.S. Government interagency initiative:

67  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business - POWER AFRICA

PARTNERING WITH POWER AFRICA Initiative Built on Partnership Partnership is at the core of Power Africa. Large and small-scale solutions for bringing cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity to subSaharan Africa are all grounded in the new model of development that drives Power Africa, which links public and private sector goals and resources, and connects investors and entrepreneurs to business opportunities in Africa.

Power Africa has partnered with many of the leading U.S., African and international private sector companies engaged in the power sector in subSaharan Africa, including developers, equipment providers, advisors, energy service providers, financial institutions and investors. Power Africa partners share the U.S. Government’s vision for working together to reach the common goal of increasing access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa and are willing to commit their resources and expertise to make this vision a reality.

Benefits of Power Africa Partnership

What Our Partners are Saying: “The benefit of association is important and significant. Our business partners are taking us more seriously the fact that we are part of this initiative.”

- Gilman Kasiga, CEO, EA Power “It has been critical to our success that Power Africa provides access to several arms of the American government, streamlining the process for developers on the ground so that we do not have to approach multiple agencies independently, but have Power Africa at the center directing our advocacy across agencies.”

- Richard Herbert, CEO, Aeolus Kenya

Power Africa private sector partners receive a variety of benefits from aligning themselves with the initiative, including: 9 Streamlined and coordinated access to the 12 Power Africa agencies of the U.S. Government (USG), including through joint meetings with multiple USG agencies 9 Open lines of communication to Power Africa staff and transaction advisors on the ground in Power Africa focus countries 9 Opportunity to inform Power Africa’s policy reform, transaction advisory and technical assistance efforts aimed at addressing critical constraints to power sector development and investment 9 Review of the partner’s project pipeline to identify opportunities for potential support of Power Africa agencies (for a summary of the types of support available from USG agencies visit http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/partners/us-government-agencies) 9 Consideration for technical assistance under the Power Africa Transactions and Reforms Program managed

by USAID 9 Connections to other members of the Power Africa network, including other private sector partners, Power Africa partner governments and partner donors such as the World Bank and African Development Bank 9 Invitations to Power Africa-related events 9 Profile in a quarterly Power Africa newsletter 9 Recognition as partner on Power Africa website and in Power Africa publications 9 Positive public relations and enhanced profile that come with connection to the respected Power Africa brand

Expectations of Partners Partnering with Power Africa begins by providing a written commitment of support that outlines how the partner will advance Power Africa’s goals. Thereafter, it is expected that a partner will actively engage with the initiative, including through collaborating on specific projects, sharing information on project opportunities, identifying constraints to project development and investment, participating in constructive dialogue with governments to support necessary reforms, and providing periodic updates on its progress toward the goals set forth in its commitment.

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Limitations on Partnership While there are many benefits to becoming a Power Africa partner, partners will not receive any favorable treatment with respect to acquisition and assistance instruments that may be awarded by USG agencies and are not guaranteed support from USG agencies for the partner’s projects or business, whether in the form of financing, technical assistance, advocacy or otherwise.

Frequently Asked Questions 1. What do I have to do to become a Power Africa partner?

Power Africa is interested in continuing to add partners that are aligned with the mission of the initiative and will add significant value to the initiative’s efforts. As a first step, please express your interest in partnering through the Power Africa website here: http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/partner-power-africa. A member of the Power Africa team will reach out to you to further understand your interest in the initiative and explore how best Power Africa and your organization might collaborate. If there appears to be a strong fit, your organization may be invited to provide a letter of commitment expressing your support for Power Africa and setting forth the specific activities you intend to pursue in furtherance of Power Africa’s objectives (e.g., investing $___, developing ___ MWs, providing energy access to ___ people).

2. By becoming a Power Africa partner, do all of the partner’s transactions or projects become official “Power Africa transactions”?

No. All transactions or projects are reviewed independently and are selected based on their merit, alignment with Power Africa goals and priorities, and the requirements of relevant Power Africa agencies. Each agency has its own internal processes and criteria to review projects and decides independently whether and how to engage on partner projects.

3. How does my project become a Power Africa project?

See the answer to #2 above. While subject to the limitations set forth in #2 above, the Power Africa team, including our transaction advisors and embassy staff on the ground, can streamline your engagement with the Power Africa USG agencies and utilize the biweekly interagency Power Africa Working Group meeting to share new project opportunities with a broad audience.

4. I'm interested in finding companies to partner with. Is there a network of Power Africa partners I can access (in the U.S. and in-country)?

A key strength of the Power Africa initiative is the diverse and high quality group of Power Africa partners. We are frequently introducing partners and facilitating dialogue among our partners, which has resulted in significant collaboration opportunities and the development of strong working relationships within the network.

We are currently exploring additional approaches that could further expand collaboration and information sharing within the Power Africa network.

5. What kind(s) of support does Power Africa provide that my company might access and how?

In addition to the support listed in the “Benefits of Power Africa Partnership” section above, the USG has a variety of tools and resources available to assist Power Africa partners and their projects (see a summary at http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/partners/us-government-agencies).

6. Are there different criteria for companies that focus on smaller, rural, off- and/or mini-grid solutions since both the financial requirements and total MWs are generally significantly less than for large, on-grid projects?

Companies that focus on smaller scale, rural, off- and/or mini-grid solutions are important partners to Power Africa as they directly address energy access issues. We have a large number of such partners supporting our Beyond the Grid sub-initiative (see http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/beyond-the-grid) for more information).

Despite the differences in focus and scale, the process and considerations for becoming a Power Africa partner are the same for all potential partners (see the answer to #1 above).

For more information on Power Africa visit: www.usaid.gov/powerafrica

69  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

FOR

Friendship Day

ANY SPECIAL OCCASION

OR

Business / CALL FOR PROPOSALS

World Bank-IUCEA African Centers of Excellence (ACE II):

Call for Proposals From: The African Network (TAN) Inc., www.theafricannetwork.org

I

n collaboration with the Governments of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the World Bank Group (WBG) and Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) are jointly launching a Call for Proposals for Africa Centers of Excellence (ACEs) for Eastern and Southern Africa.

This is part of the preparation for a proposed investment project expecting to be reviewed by the WBG Board in the spring of 2016

to deliver relevant and quality education and applied research to address key development challenges facing the region. The WBG Board approved a similar project for Western and Central Africa (ACE I) in 2014. Under ACE I, nineteen ACEs were selected from seven participating countries in the region and their implementation is underway.

The ACE II Project has had broad

consultations in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. The key regional development priorities identified for this Project are in four cluster areas: (i) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); (ii) Agriculture; (iii) Health; and (iv) Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and Quality of Education, and Applied Statistics.

The Project will support the governments of the ten participating countries to collectively a d d r e s s challenges in these key development priority areas with interventions of: • selecting African Centers of Excellence (ACE) through a competitive and transparent

– Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (ACE II).

The main objective of this proposed project is to establish and strengthen specialization and collaboration among a network of higher education institutions in the Eastern and Southern Africa region 72  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

process from existing higher education institutions which have certain capacity in specialized areas with great potential to help address those defined challenges; • strengthening these specialized ACEs and enabling them to produce excellent training and applied research which can meet the needs of highly-skilled personnel and knowledge transfer in those challenge areas; • building networks among these institutions to promote regional collaboration and foster partnerships with other institutions and the industry in training and applied research to produce innovative solutions for real development impact; and • developing a culture of results-orientation and accountability in institutional management through a performance-based financing mechanism of the project. As a regional project, ACE II will be governed by its Regional Steering Committee (RSC) and facilitated by its Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU) – IUCEA. ACEs will be selected through

a competitive and transparent process. The submitted proposals will be evaluated by an Independent Evaluation Committee and the RSC will make the final selection decision.

Interested institutions should meet all the following eligibility criteria: • be from the participating countries; • offer Ph.D. program(s); and • have programs in at least one disciplinary area related to one of the regional development priorities indicated above.

Proposals are expected to encompass the following elements: • enhancing capacity to deliver regional high quality training to address challenge(s) in one of the regional development priorities; • enhancing capacity to deliver applied research to address the challenge(s); • building and strengthening regional and inter-regional academic collaboration to raise the quality of education, raise the capacity of network, and raise the capacity of the ACE; • building and using industry/ sector partnerships to enhance the impact of the ACE on development, and increase the relevance of these centers of

education and research; and • enhancing governance and management of the ACE, and the participating university to improve monitoring and evaluation.

All proposals must be submitted electronically to the RFU through the government ministry responsible for higher education in their respective countries. ACE II Proposal Submission Form, ACE II Evaluation Protocol, ACE II Project Description and Results Framework are available on the ACE II website: http://ace2.iucea.org.

The deadline for submission of proposals to the RFU by the respective governments is October 2nd, 2015.

Additional information may be obtained from: ACE II Regional Facilitation Unit Inter-University Council for East Africa Plot No. M833 Kigobe Road,Kyambogo P O Box 7110 Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 414 256 251/2 E-mail: ace2rfu@iucea.org.

The full descriptions and further information can be found at: http:// ace2.iucea.org. 

I

n support of OIC's Technology Bridge Program, Bank of the West has donated 500 Steelcase Ergonomic office chairs for lowincome families, students, churches and small businesses. The key is productivity at work or study along with physical comfort. Valued at $791.00 to $2,180.00 are now only $125.00 each as a part of OIC's fund raising efforts.

Effective July 13th, the Steelcase Ergonomic Chairs will be made available to the general public. OIC's hours are Monday through Friday, 8am to 4pm. For more information contact Ms. Clark at 323-754-3116.  73  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

74  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Carter for New Chapter Entertainment.

About BET Networks

O

n the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, BET Networks will premiere a new original BET News Special “KATRINA 10 YEARS LATER: THROUGH HELL IN HIGH WATER” that will follow a diverse group of people who survived Katrina and now, 10 years ago. The water has receded from this life-altering event, and what has emerged – are stories of resilience. The compelling stories of people who have fought against all odds to rebuild their lives and their communities. Hosted

by BET News Correspondent Jeff Johnson and featuring awardwinning actor Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme) "KATRINA 10 YEARS LATER: THROUGH HELL IN HIGH WATER" premieres on Wednesday, August 26 at 8 PM ET/PT. The one-hour BET News special will explore the devastating impact of Katrina and its effect on communities, schools and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. This special will feature firsthand accounts from survivors such as Robert Greene as he relives the horrifying events of the storm that resulted in the death of his mother and 2-year-old granddaughter. The special will also feature interviews with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Principal Doris Hicks of

MLK High School in New Orleans, artists PNC (Partners N Crime) at their recording studio in New Orleans and B Mike who has used art in New Orleans to transform a neighborhood left dilapidated by the storm and inspired his community.

BET.com will stream exclusive outtakes from the special and publish bonus companion content, including a video that explores the journey of a family displaced from their native New Orleans and forced to restart their lives in the DC Metro area. BET.com will also celebrate the beauty and resilience of the Crescent City through its music by dipping through a gumbo of sounds with artists like Lil Wayne, Jay Electronica, August Alsina, Big Freedia and others as they share their experiences and distinct perspectives about the storm and the aftermath. Additionally, BET.com will feature various photo flipbooks with scenes from the Hurricane, including a look at how the storm affected New Orleans. Join the conversation on social media by logging on to BET’s multiple social media platforms by using hashtag: #Katrina10Years; and following us @BETNews.

"KATRINA 10 YEARS LATER: THROUGH HELL IN HIGH WATER" is Executive Produced by Candi

BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), is the nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET. com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; CENTRIC, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience; BET Digital Networks - BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-ondemand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company with festivals and live events spanning the globe; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution. www.businesswire.com/news/ home/20150805006098/en/BETNetworks-Remembers-TragicEvent-Aftermath-Hurricane

75  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Business

Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC)

favorable rates through the federal government.

•And the national economy benefits as the small businesses financed by SBICs continue to create jobs and generate tax revenues.

Where can I learn more?

Visit the SBIC Program pages ( w w w. s b a . g o v / c o n t e n t / s b i c program-overview-0), including the FAQ, for more information about the SBIC Program. Still have questions? Email askSBIC@sba. gov. 

D

id you know that the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program has been helping high-growth small businesses get financing since 1958?

That's right – for more than 50 years, SBICs have facilitated the flow of long-term capital to America’s businesses. There are thousands of small business success stories, but here are a few you probably recognize: Costco, Apple and Staples – just to name a few.

funds (the SBICs) that finance small businesses.

How does it work?

What are the perks?

SBA doesn't finance businesses directly. For the SBIC program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) partners with private investors to capitalize professionally-managed investment

•Small businesses can receive equity capital, long-term loans and expert management assistance.

•Investment managers can add to their own private investment capital with funds borrowed at

F

O

U

N

D

MOBILE BLACK BUSINESS DIRECTORY

A

T

I

Download the App Add your Business Information Be found by new & old clients

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DO IT TODAY! http://aroundthewayapp.com

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http://trayvonmartinfoundation.org 76  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

REGISTER NOW! Contact: Ruth Artates, California Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation 1-916-463-0177 or cbcc@calbcc.org

Business

M

arketing can enable sales reps to be as educated as buyers are so that Sales knows exactly where the buyers are and can help them move forward in their journey toward a buy.

In short, Marketing can help sales

reps to better do their job and, in turn, it can actually have an impact on revenue generation.

Make a culture shift When computer animation came on the scene, it was initially met with

skepticism by traditional animators.

"Why mess with a good thing?" they said. "That isn't going to last." Over time, however, the ease of use and the value of computer animation gave it an edge of traditional animation, and now it's the industry

78  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

standard.

Before you can use marketing to generate revenue, you'll need to bring about a similar shift in culture.

Marketing needs to be seen as an equal partner to Sales. Easier said than done, however: You're fighting with decades of commonly held beliefs. Sales needs to be made aware of the dramatic shift in buyer aptitude, and Marketing needs to step in and do some of the heavy lifting.

You'll be better able to integrate your sales and marketing organizations if you do the following: Stop working in silos: Sales and Marketing fulfill unique roles, and you can't have one without the other. But there's no need for them to exist in separate organizational silos. You need to break down the barriers between the two to facilitate the free-flowing exchange of information between the two teams.

Get buy-in: More likely than

not, you will get pushback from Sales. The viewpoint that Sales and Marketing are distant cousins has long been ingrained in many a sales rep's mind, and they will probably be resistant to the idea.

You will need to convince Sales of the valuable information that Marketing can provide.

Demonstrate Marketing's value: Marketing is home to a wealth of information on the buyer that could benefit Sales. If you're having a hard time getting buy-in from Sales, unearth some of the data you've collected on buyers and prove just how valuable that information really is.

Educate sales reps What do you do when you're interested in a particular brand?

You probably visit that brand's Facebook page, for example. You likely ask people about said brand on message boards or read reviews about their products on sites like

Amazon. Needless to say, you don't just take a brand's claims at face value. Neither do your buyers.

Whether your sales reps are social media savvy or living-in-the90s Luddites, it's Marketing's job to educate them, to provide them with enough info so that they are at least as knowledgeable as the buyer. That way, when leads come in, Sales will be better equipped to guide buyers through their journey.

Educating your sales reps will be easier if you do the following: Listen: It's Marketing's job to gain insight on buyers, and the number of channels available to do so is increasing every day.

Marketing needs to be where the customers are (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, message boards) and monitoring their activity on a regular basis to collect quality data.

Mine your data: Sales won't benefit from Marketing if you feed them endless amounts of unsorted

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see Marketing page 80

Business

Quote of Note "Defending our freedom, though, is not just the job of our military alone.

We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here at home. That includes one of the most fundamental right of a democracy: the right to vote. When any American, no matter where they live or what their party, are denied that right because they can’t afford to wait for five or six or seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals.�

Barack Obama February 12, 2013

Marketing

from page 79

data. Provide them with a clear, easy-to-follow overview of buyer sentiment by sorting through the data and filtering the information that would help guide buyers on their journey.

Provide some guidance: Once you've gathered all the necessary data and filtered it down to the most relevant information, Marketing's job is to provide Sales with that information and help Sales

understand what it all means. For example, if a buyer voices frustration about a product on Twitter, Marketing would let sales reps know and help them be prepared to respond to those concerns, even if that means sales reps' logging on to Twitter themselves.

Take the proper steps, integrate both teams, and Marketing can h have a direct impact on revenue g generation. Complete synergy won't h happen overnight; however, by p providing valuable information and g getting sales reps up to speed with b buyers, reps will be better equipped tto guide buyers on their journey.

M Make that process smooth enough, a and Marketing will be seen as a key p player in revenue generation. ď ƒ

By Glenn Gow This article was inspired by my Moneyball for Marketing podcast featuring Karen Walker, senior VP of marketing at Cisco. www.marketingprofs.com/ articles/2015/28155/how-marketingcan-contribute-to-revenue-generationinfographic?adref=nlt073015

Business Technology:

Take a Look!

by LaSandra Stratton

C

heck out what these firms and organizations have to offer for your personal interests, personal wealth building, and business expansion opportunities.

www.ideapod.com

I

deapod is a place for inspiration and real human engagement about what matters to you.

At Ideapod, we celebrate ideas, thoughts and stories of all kinds, and we welcome all perspectives.

Ideapod allows participants to create posts which may feature

URLs, images, and videos to share and explore ideas with your work team, or with the world, in 1,000 characters or 40 second videos.

We understand that there is no substitute for real life human connection. So, Ideapod brings kindred spirits and people with shared passions together online, and in the real world.

Why? It's simple. By uniting people around ideas, we can change the world.

What we stand for • Ideas: When humans connect around ideas, we advance our evolution.

• Technology: Technology is the most powerful tool we have to connect globally around ideas.

• Authenticity: Social media can be authentic, constructive and mindopening, if we use it that way.

• Radical Openess: The more ideas we share, the better our ideas will become.

• Ideas From Margins: Ideas are organic. The inspiration for new ideas can come from unexpected places.

• Freedom Of Expression: We should feel free to speak difficult truths and tackle taboos that marginalize people.

• Curiosity & Compassion: When we engage with curiosity and compassion, people share ideas freely.

• Audacious Thinking: Dream big. No idea is too audacious.

• Your Ideas Matter: Your idea can spark a chain reaction that changes the world, or makes someone's day.

Also visit www.facebook.com/ ideapods for more insight.

www.wevideo.com

W

eVideo is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, cloudbased collaborative video creation platform. It is advanced when you need it and basic when you don’t. You may upload files to the cloud to start working on one computer and pick up where you left off on another. You control the look of your video including transitions, fast/slow motion, Green Screen, and more!

Sharing your videos is simple.

Post your family reunion video on

Facebook to preserve the memories for a lifetime. Tweet your product demo video to get more visibility for your business. It’s easy to share your finished video to social networks, embed on your website or download to your computer.

WeVideo offers ONE unified cloud-platform with: • interconnected Apps for iOS, Android, PC, MAC and Linux • an online editor supporting different editing modes catering to our user’s different expertise levels • a central hub for users to collaborate, organize and share their projects and media files • theme capabilities to style videos - including grading, transitions, titles, lower thirds and music • API’s so that third-parties can integrate the web-editor into their existing services • cloud connectors for the most widely used cloud storage services • multi-language support for both text input and captions • inline video help tutorials inside the web editor There are Free, Premium and Pro options.

Post-it® Plus App

T

he free Post-it® Plus App takes the momentum from your collaboration sessions and keeps it rolling.

Simply capture your notes,

82  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

organize and share with everyone.

That way your great ideas don’t stop when the meeting ends. It’s that easy.

Capture your notes: Use the app to capture the Post-it® Notes from your work session. Capture up to 50 square Post-it® Notes at a time.

Organize your thoughts: Arrange, refine and organize the notes on your app board — any way you see fit. Collect and combine ideas from across multiple captures. Create entirely new notes to add to your existing boards.

Share with everyone: Share your organized app board with your team. Then share to your favorite application - supports PowerPoint, Excel, Dropbox, PDF and more.

Work as a team: Anyone can arrange, add and build on great ideas.

Upgrade to Editor's Kit: Have access to more features in the fee-based version.

From new tools to vibrant colors, enjoy a more powerful app experience. www.post-it.com/wps/ portal/3M/en_US/ PostItNA/Home/ Ideas/Plus-App/?WT. mc_id=www.post-it. com/app

www.Kabbage. com Kabbage gives you the security of working capital whenever you need it. Draw against your line of credit, as often as once a day, for anything you need to grow your business.

Unlike traditional lenders, we approve small

business loans by looking at reallife data, not just a credit score. We approve businesses by looking at real-life data, not just a credit score, to provide funding in minutes*.

Link any or all of the online services you use to qualify instantly.

No paperwork or waiting in line.

Applying does not affect your credit score.

Kabbage has funded over $550 million to help businesses grow.

Kabbage is the industry leader in providing working capital online.

Kabbage helps small businesses get the funding they need to grow.

Kabbage is A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau and has provided more online small business loans than anyone in the industry!

www.mylifeorganized.net MyLifeOrganized (MLO) supports the creatation of new tasks and checklists easily. An elegant ToDo list view will help you to focus on the most important items and act immediately. Clean and simple drag-and-drop interface allows you to rearrange tasks within a plain list or organise them into a tree.

What if you want to break a task into subtasks and that task into more subtasks? MLO allows you to do this … INFINITELY! You can create flexible hierarchical lists and add dependencies between the tasks. Planning a business trip or your wedding has never been easier. MLO has gone further…

Once you have added due dates,

contexts and dependencies, MLO will automatically generate a smart list of action items that require your immediate attention.

Use an outline for planning and a plain list for doing. MLO dual view empowers you to use GTD® or any task management methodology which is most suitable for you.

• Location - Based Reminders: Get the right information in the right place. MLO is designed to send you smart reminders when you arrive to one of your locations. When you are at a mall, MLO can send you a notification

with a shopping list. Once you get home, a reminder with a list of actions will be there for you.

• Sync with Cloud: MLO syncs across all your devices and you always stay on top of your tasks.

With Cloud subscription the changes made on one of your devices will automatically appear on all others.

• Create New Tasks via Email: Create new tasks easily by sending an e-mail to your MLO inbox. You can then convert them into action items and place under the relevant project. This way you never lose important information even when on the go and don’t have instant access to the app.  Submitted by LaSandra Stratton, Chief Content Administrator of the Black Business News.

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Business

African Americans Showing Greater Financial Confidence

The

AFRICAN AMERICAN FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE 2015-16 Prudential Research

P

rudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU) recently revealed the results of its 20152016 African American Financial Experience study (www.prudential.

com/media/managed/aa/AAStudy. pdf?src=Newsroom&pg=AAFEStudy)

which found that African Americans demonstrate continued optimism and growing affluence. Yet, gaps in long-term retirement planning, including not taking advantage of financial and investment tools, may hinder the ability to build long-term

wealth. Maintaining one’s lifestyle in retirement and not becoming a financial burden to others emerged as two new financial priorities. This year’s study also examined two vital subsets of the African American community—caregivers and veterans—to identify information gaps, educational opportunities and future planning needs of a broader spectrum of African Americans.

“We are seeing a group that is financially confident, focused on service and open to receive

assistance from professionals who can help them move closer to financial security.”

“This study paints a picture of an increasingly financially savvy and affluent African American community,” said Mammen Verghis, vice president, Multicultural Marketing for Prudential. “We are seeing a group that is financially confident, focused on service and open to receive assistance from professionals who can help them move closer to financial security.”

Among those surveyed, most African Americans report a greater sense of advancement and optimism about their financial situations, compared to the general population. More than half of African Americans surveyed say they are better off than they were five years ago and that they feel better off than their parents were at their age.

There is also widespread optimism that financial gains will continue to build, with 58% of African Americans indicating that they expect the next generation of their family will have a better financial situation than their own, compared to only 46% of the general population who share that expectation.

This year’s African American Financial Experience study indicates most African Americans (52%) feel very well prepared to make smart financial decisions, while only 40% of the general population describes themselves that way. However, among African Americans who express high levels of confidence about their financial decision-making and money management skills, significantly more respondents describe themselves as savers rather than investors, indicating there is a need to increase knowledge of and access to investments.

Across the board, survey respondents most often cited having enough money to maintain

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their current lifestyle in retirement as a top financial priority. Among African Americans who are offered an employer-sponsored retirement plan, three quarters (74%) contribute to it. While this is a substantial majority, it is significantly lower than the 85% of general population employees who report contributing to their company plans. Additionally, surveyed African Americans were less likely to cite owning financial and insurance products, many of which could help create the retirement income they have prioritized.

Not becoming a financial burden to loved ones surfaced as a topthree priority for survey takers, an interesting priority given that one in five of all survey participants reported being a caregiver for a loved one. Nearly two-thirds of caregiver respondents in both groups say they provide some or all financial support to those they are caring for and a quarter provide all of the support for their loved ones. However, African American respondents report investing significantly more time in their caregiving commitments, spending on average 20.7 hours a week on care giving tasks compared to 14.6 hours among the general population.

Nearly four in ten African American veterans surveyed said they were exposed to a good education about financial topics once they transition into civilian life. Although 71% of African American veterans surveyed feel very well prepared to make financial decisions and have a positive outlook on their financial situation, only 38% use the Veteran Service organization as a financial resource, and family continues to rank as a top source of financial information. This signifies that additional opportunities exist for informing veterans about the use of financial education opportunities

and encouraging their participation.

“Each year we conduct this survey deepens our commitment to reaching diverse communities,” said Michele C. Green, vice president and chief diversity officer at Prudential. “We understand the importance of meeting the needs of diverse consumers in relevant and authentic ways. That means helping to bridge gaps of financial knowledge and increasing access to financial professionals, who can provide the advice needed to help individuals and families overcome saving and investing challenges, and to build wealth.”

Although African Americans still report lower engagement with financial professionals, their most common reasons for not seeking professional financial advice mirror those of the general population, and include a personal perception of insufficient assets, a preference to self-manage finances and perceived high fees associated with receiving professional support.

39% of African Americans surveyed reported having had contact with a financial professional, yet only a little over one in ten currently works with a financial professional.

By contrast, 26% of the general population works with a financial professional.

“Just as important, the research also identifies a community that is very interested in working with financial professionals and gives clear guidance on approaches that resonate best,” Verghis continued, noting that universal methods of outreach, like providing relevant financial information, are equally important to African Americans and the general population.

African Americans in the survey also reported that outreach efforts supported by civic and faith-based organizations are valuable methods of connecting with the community as well.

The 2015-2016 African American Financial Experience is Prudential’s third study measuring the financial trends and attitudes in the African American community, and is part of Prudential’s series of signature research examining financial trends in America’s multicultural communities.

The study, conducted by GfK, is based on a spring 2015 poll of 1,043 Americans who identify as African American or Black and 556 general population Americans on a broad range of financial topics. All participants are age 2570. Among the respondents, 149 identify themselves as veterans of the United States military, 214 are caregivers for another person (such as a spouse, parent, elderly or ill relative, special needs child, etc.), and 216 have a household income of $150,000 or more. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3% for African Americans and +/- 4% for the general population.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU), a financial services leader with more than $1 trillion of assets under management as of June 30, 2015, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management.

In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.news. prudential.com.  www.businesswire.com/news/ home/20150806005880/en/Prudentialstudy-shows-greater-financialconfidence-African

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Community/Public Interest

First Lady Michelle Obama Kicks Off 2015 Special Olympics World Games

By Kelly Miterko

H

ello, everyone! I want to start by thanking Tim for that hug, for his words of encouragement, and for that wonderful introduction. Let’s give Tim a round of applause. So proud of him.

Tonight, we’ve heard about the joy, the courage, the determination, and the acceptance that define these games and our Special Olympics athletes every single day.

And I’m here to talk about one final theme -– one that wraps all those

other ideas together, one that has always captured the spirit of these games –- and that is unity.

Now, over the past few years, my husband and I have seen Americans unite in so many ways across the country. We’ve seen folks coming together to give back to our military families.

We’ve seen congregations rallying around families in need.

We’ve seen communities rising above tragedies to heal the divisions that too often tear us apart.

And these games -- these games -- are a perfect reflection of that unity. They show us that we’re all in this together -- that we can lift up our friends and neighbors, and that we can bring out the best in each other to reach even higher heights.

We see it in the athletes -- the amazing athletes -- who give it their all, who lend a hand when somebody falls, who high-five and hug every one of their competitors.

We see it in the fans, in the families, the volunteers and coaches who

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are here to shower our athletes with love and support every step of the way. And we see it not just here in Los Angeles, but in the millions of people all around the world who are tuning in to cheer you all on.

And to all of our athletes, I just want you to know that all those people won’t just be cheering for

you, they’re going to be learning from you. They’re going to be inspired by you. And they’ll be reminded that at our core, we all want the same things –- a sense of pride in who we are, and a belief that we can reach our dreams no matter what challenges we face.

That’s what you all are doing

here. That’s your mission. You’re bringing us together. You’re filling us with so much hope. And you’re uniting us in a way that nothing else can.

So I want you all to know that my husband and I, we are so proud of all of you, so incredibly proud of you.

And we love you all from the bottom of our hearts. We love you so much.

You fill us with so much joy. And we cannot wait to see all that you’ll accomplish over these next few days, but, more importantly, in the years ahead.

And now, on behalf of my husband and an entire nation that is rooting for all of you, it is my great honor to say those magical words: Let the 2015 Special Olympics World Games begin!  www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2015/07/26/remarks-firstlady-2015-special-olympicsopening-ceremonies

Kid's State Dinner 2015

By Kelly Miterko

F

irst Lady Michelle Obama welcomed 55 talented young chefs to the White House for the fourth annual Kids’ “State Dinner.” It was just like any other state dinner, complete with beautiful décor and White House china, except the guests of honor were kids!

The President stopped by to “crash” the party just before lunch began. Although he couldn’t stay to eat, he had looked over the menu and asked the kids to save him some Barack-amole from the California Rainbow Taco with Mic-Kale Obama Slaw and

Barack-amole

(www.letsmove.gov/ blog/2015/07/07/california-rainbowtaco-mic-kale-obama-slaw-andbarack-amole), which was part of

the main course for lunch. The President also confirmed his

favorite vegetable: broccoli.  www.letsmove.gov/blog/2015/07/14/ top-five-moments-2015kids%E2%80%99-%E2%80%9Cstatedinner%E2%80%9D

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Community/Public Interest

Garrett A. Morgan, Inventor

From the Public Broadcasting System series "Who Made America"; The History Channel

Remembering an African American who helped "Make America" on the 101st Anniversary of the Electric Traffic Light.

T

he African American inventor of a life-saving device, mechanical traffic signals, and more, Garrett Agustus Morgan, had to fight for recognition.

Son of Freed Slaves Garrett Morgan's safety hood saved the lives of countless

profoundly.

Inventive Nature Though Morgan only had a sixth-grade education, he had a mechanical genius and an entrepreneurial bent. Finding work in a textile factory, he learned how the machines worked, and became the only Negro adjuster, fixing and improving mechanical problems.

In 1907 he opened his own repair shop, and soon launched a clothing business with his wife, an immigrant seamstress from Bavaria. It was an "era of difficulty" (www.pbs. org/wgbh/amex/ wilson/portrait/ wp_african. html) for African

Americans, but Morgan made money, becoming the first black man in Cleveland to own a car. He branched out into cosmetic p r o d u c t s , joined a new organization called the NAACP, and Garrett A. Morgan with Safety Hood soon was donating money firefighters and others. He was to Negro colleges. In 1920, he born in Kentucky during the started a newspaper for African Reconstruction era, in 1877. His Americans, The Cleveland Call, father was the mixed-race son of and opened an all-black country a slave and a Confederate colonel, club. In 1923, he patented a John Hunt Morgan. His mother, mechanical traffic signal that he half Indian and half black, was the sold to General Electric. It was daughter of a Baptist minister. His widely used, yet Morgan earned race would impact Morgan's career only $40,000 for the invention.

Three-Position Traffice Signal

Mechanical Traffice Signal Morgan was prosperous enough to have a car at a time when the streets were crowded with all manner of vehicles: Bicycles, horse-drawn delivery wagons, streetcars and pedestrians all shared downtown Cleveland’s narrow streets and clogged its intersections. There were manually operated traffic signals where major streets crossed one another, but they were not all that effective: Because they switched back and forth between Stop and Go with no interval in between, drivers had no time to react when the command changed. This led to many collisions between vehicles that both had the right of way when they entered

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the intersection. As the story goes, when Morgan witnessed an especially spectacular accident at an ostensibly regulated corner, he had an idea: If he designed an automated signal with an interim “warning” position—the ancestor of today’s yellow light—drivers would have time to clear the intersection before crossing traffic entered it.

The signal Morgan patented was a T-shaped pole with three settings.

At night, when traffic was light, it could be set at half-mast (like a blinking yellow light today), warning drivers to proceed carefully through the intersection.

back filtered smoke outward, while cooling the air inside. Morgan's safety hood won accolades and wide adoption in the North, where over 500 cities bought it, over time.

He sold the hoods to the U.S. Navy, and the Army used them in World War I. But sales in the segregated South proved challenging.

Morgan's hood got great press in 1916, when he used it to save workers in a collapsed tunnel under Lake Erie. But Cleveland's newspapers and city officials wrote Morgan -- who had ventured into

the tunnel first -- out of the story, lauding other men and ignoring Morgan's heroism. It would take years for the city to recognize his contributions.

Garrett Morgan died in 1963, vindicated as a hero of the Lake Erie rescue and restored to his place in history.  www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/ whomade/morgan_hi.htmlhttp:// diverseeducation.com/article/76329 www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ garrett-morgan-patents-three-positiontraffic-signal

The Safety Hood Morgan's biggest venture was his safety hood. As a young man, he had seen firefighters struggling to withstand the suffocating smoke they encountered in the line of duty.

In 1914 Morgan secured a patent for his device, a canvas hood with two tubes. Part of the device held on the

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Community/Public Interest-Obituary organization founded by his late brother that became so powerful, its ability to influence election outcomes s o m e t i m e s surpassed that of the Cuyahoga C o u n t y Democratic Party.

When Stokes and the caucus urged Democrats in his district to vote against a sitting Democratic president in the Ohio presidential primary in 1980, they did just that, supporting Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy over President Jimmy Carter by a margin of nearly 2-1.

Stokes never lost an election. Nor did he forget where he came from.

And he never strayed from his commitment to expand political and economic opportunities for minorities.

In an interview at his home just a month before his death and days after he learned of his terminal illness, Stokes emotionally reminisced on his storybook life.

"I was a very blessed guy," he began. "I've been blessed with the opportunity to participate in history, to rise to opportunities I never envisioned ... and to provide for people opportunities that, in many cases, they would have never had.

"We have been blessed as a family with a legacy we can always be proud of. Together with Carl, we made a name that stood for something.

Louis Stokes - the Congressman, Leading Lawyer and Towering Political Presence has Died

By Brent Larkin, Northeast Ohio Media Group

L

ouis Stokes, whose iconic career in public life assures him a place as one of the most revered, respected and powerful figures in Cleveland history, died Tuesday night. He was 90.

The older brother of former Mayor Carl B. Stokes had an aggressive form of cancer, diagnosed in late June.

A proud, personable and gracious man whose dress and manner exuded dignity, Stokes never wanted to be a politician, aspiring instead to become Cleveland's leading black lawyer.

But the reluctant officeholder who came to Congress in 1969 left it 30 years later as a towering political

figure both in Washington and at home.

Stokes' resume in the House included stints as chairman of the select committee that from 1976 to 1978 investigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., chairman of the House Ethics Committee, a member of the House Select committee that investigated the Iran-Contra affair, and the first black to chair the Intelligence Committee and serve on the influential House Appropriations Committee.

In Cleveland, Stokes' political muscle was the 21st Congressional District Caucus, a political

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Pictured with Carl Stokes, right, are Jesse Jackson, left, Arnold Pinkney, center, and Louis Stokes, foreground, in this October 28, 1971, Plain Dealer file photo.

"What greater honor could have come to two brothers who grew up in poverty here in Cleveland?"

Humble beginnings Lou Stokes was born Feb. 23, 1925, the first of two children born to Charles and Louise Stokes. Carl was born a little more than two years later.

Their father died when Lou was three, and Louise Stokes took an $8-a-day job as a domestic worker at homes in the eastern suburbs.

To help raise the young boys in their small apartment on East 69th Street, Louise's mother moved to

Cleveland from Georgia.

Stokes spoke often and with great emotion of his mother, and her repeated lectures on the importance of an education.

"One night, she was lying in bed ill and I went into her room and sat with her," Stokes recalled during an interview last year at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.

"I took her hands to give her some comfort. And when I felt those hard, cold hands from scrubbing floors in order to give me an education, I began to understand what she meant."

Stokes graduated from Central

High School in 1943. With World War II raging, he joined the Army and was assigned to a segregated unit that remained stateside, mainly in the South. Stokes recalled a layover his unit once had in Memphis where a group of German prisoners of war in a train station restaurant were treated better than the black soldiers.

After the war, Stokes attended Western Reserve University on the G.I. Bill. He worked for a time for the Veterans Administration and Treasury Department before graduating from Cleveland State

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see Stokes page 96

Stokes

from page 95

University's Cleveland Marshall College of Law in 1953.

Stokes opened up a small law office on St. Clair Avenue, and was later joined by his brother. Carl also became a lawyer and, in 1962, became the first black Democrat elected to the Ohio House.

Around this time, Stokes drew the attention of Norman Minor, considered one of the greatest

every way I could," Stokes recalled in 2014. "Carl loved politics. I didn't have that love.

I loved being a lawyer."

Making history On the night of Nov. 7, 1967, Stokes sat with Martin Luther King Jr. in the

Rockefeller Building just west of Public Square, and experienced what he described as "a pioneering political event for America" -- Carl Stokes' election as the nation's first black, big-city mayor.

In 1965 and again two years later, Carl Stokes, left, and his brother, Louis, grew up in Cleveland's King had made Outhwaite Homes public housing and became a mayor and numerous trips a congressman, respectively. Carl was 9 in this family photo; to Cleveland Louis was 11. (file photo) aimed at registering blacks to vote.

Carl lawyers in Ohio history and the greatest black lawyer Cleveland Stokes lost the 1965 mayoral primary by about 1,700 votes. Two ever produced.

"I tried to be like Norman Minor in years later, he beat Republican

Seth Taft by about 2,500 votes.

I've been blessed with the opportunity to participate in history, to rise to opportunities I never envisioned.

Lou Stokes said King was "tremendously helpful" to his brother in both those elections.

Less than a month after his brother's winning election, Stokes enjoyed his own first moment of fame, arguing a case before the U. S. Supreme Court.

The case involved John Terry, a Cleveland man suspected of preparing to rob a Euclid Avenue store downtown in 1963. Terry and two others were stopped on the sidewalk by a Cleveland policeman, who frisked Terry and found a gun.

The landmark case of Terry v.

Ohio upheld the arrest, but allowed police to stop and frisk suspects only when the officer has a "reasonable suspicion" the suspect is about to commit a crime, and may be armed

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colleagues, Stokes was always considered one of the body's most popular members.

When Tip O'Neill became speaker of the U.S. House in 1977, Stokes' career took off. O'Neill's respect for Stokes earned him prestigious and powerful committee assignments, which often translated into federal spending on projects important to Cleveland.

"We had a very special relationship," Stokes said of O'Neill during his July 14 interview. "He used to call me 'Louie, my pal.'

He gave me some very tough assignments."

The power broker

and dangerous.

At his brother's urging, a reluctant Lou Stokes put his law career on hold and became a candidate. In the Democratic primary, Stokes beat 13 opponents, including George Forbes, Leo Jackson and George White.

In January 1969, Stokes entered Congress along with Shirley Chisholm of New York and William "Bill" Clay of Missouri.

Their elections brought to nine the number of blacks in Congress.

Stokes immediately began to make his mark, becoming a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus a little more than a year after taking office.

Always served well by his personality, Stokes was a tall, hardworking man with a loud, infectious laugh. His gentle nature masked a steely commitment – and, at times, he was viewed as a bit too thinskinned. Nevertheless, among his

"If Congressman Stokes was with you, it gave you unquestioned credibility with the people he represented," said Tim Hagan.

"It made the difference between winning or losing an election.

Lou's endorsement was the most important endorsement a candidate sought."

There were a few stumbles, but none major. And they did little or nothing to tarnish Stokes' relationship with his constituents.

In 1993, Stokes reached the height of his power in Congress, joining the prestigious "College of Cardinals" when he became chair of the Appropriations subcommittee for the Veterans Administration and Housing and Urban Development.

It was a position that gave Stokes enormous say in how and where tens of billions in federal dollars were spent. The Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center on East 105th Street is one of several Cleveland buildings named in his honor.

But his enthusiasm for the job would soon wane. In 1994, Republicans took control of the House. Two years later, at age 71, Stokes had open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and a tumor removed from his vocal cords.

When, in April 1996, Carl Stokes died of cancer, Stokes lost his best friend.

The denouement By 1998, after 30 years in office, Stokes decided not to seek reelection.

On the day he announced his retirement, Plain Dealer columnist Elizabeth Auster wrote, "Stokes brought more than money home from Washington. He also brought laughter and inspiration and pride.

And sometimes those are harder to come by."

Then-Cleveland Mayor Michael White said of Stokes, "Someone will fill his seat, but I don't think anyone will ever fill his shoes."

It was always a foregone conclusion Stokes' job would pass to Stephanie Tubbs Jones, county prosecutor at the time. When Tubbs Jones died unexpectedly in 2008, Marcia Fudge became only the third person to hold the seat.

In retirement, Stokes became senior counsel at the Clevelandbased law firm of what was then Squire Sanders & Dempsey. He served on several corporate boards, including Forest City Enterprises.

When asked in the July interview about the lack of civility in Washington today, Stokes said he was sometimes embarrassed to be a former member of Congress.

"I have members of Congress whom I see, on both sides of the aisle, and they tell me, 'Louie, you wouldn't want to be here now.' It's a waste of your time and intellect to be involved there now and see how difficult it is to concentrate on doing what's best for people -- considering you were sent there to help people.

That's gone now."

Stokes retired from the law firm in 2012, and resigned from the Forest City board last year.  www.cleveland.com/metro/ index.ssf/2015/08/louis-stokescongressman.html

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Community/Public Interest-Obituary

Mel Farr, Detroit Lion Turned Auto Dealer, Dies at 70

By Bill Shea

M

el Farr, the former Detroit Lions running back who became owner of the nation’s largest black-owned dealership group, has died at the age of 70.

Two years after retiring from the NFL, Farr acquired a Ford dealership in suburban Detroit in 1975, and he eventually grew his automotive empire to a chain of 11 dealerships. The group had Ford, Toyota, Mazda, Suzuki, Volkswagen and Hyundai stores.

His post-football persona was “Mel Farr, Superstar” -- the pitch he used in local TV commercials for his dealerships.

His fortunes peaked in 1998 when Black Enterprise magazine named Mel Farr Automotive Group the nation's largest black-owned

company. The group had revenue of $568.4 million, Automotive News reported in 2002.

He was forced to sell dealerships and dismantle his business after defaulting on $50 million in debts owed to Ford Credit. Farr was unable grow his consumer finance operation and open more used-car superstores.

He created the subprime Triple M Financing Co. as part of his usedcar bid.

His long association with Ford Motor Co. was rooted in his playing career with the Lions, who have been owned by the Ford family since January 1964.

Farr, a Beaumont, Texas, native, worked for Ford during his offseasons with the Lions. He retired because of knee and shoulder

injuries after the 1973 season.

In 69 career NFL games, all with the Lions, Farr rushed for 3,072 yards and scored 26 touchdowns on the ground. He caught 146 passes for 1,374 yards and 10 scores.

Farr completed a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1971 at the University of Detroit Mercy.

A year earlier, he and teammate Lem Barney recorded background vocals on Marvin Gaye's hit "What's Going On" released in January 1971.

In November 1975, Farr invested $40,000 with John Cook, one of his former trainers at Ford Motor, to buy a failed Ford dealership in Oak Park, Mich., according to an online history of his company at FundingUniverse.com. That dealership became Cook-Farr Ford, and Farr bought out Cook in 1978 to create Mel Farr Ford.

During the energy crisis and auto downturn in the late 1970s that gutted the ranks of minority dealerships nationwide, Farr successfully lobbied President Jimmy Carter for low-interest federal loans to keep his dealership out of bankruptcy. He also received financial aid from Ford.

An advocate for minorities in auto sales, he co-founded the Minority Ford Lincoln Mercury Dealers Association, which today is the Southfield-based Ford Motor Minority Dealers Association.

Farr's other business interests included co-ownership for a time of a 7 Up distributorship, BFW Bottling Co., in Flint, MI.  www.autonews.com/ article/20150804/ RETAIL07/150809953/mel-farrdetroit-lion-turned-auto-dealerdies-at-70

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Community/Public Interest-Obituary

Robert McNeely, Civic Leader, Dies at 76

As a Union Bank executive, he fought for underserved communities

By Christine Huard

R

obert McNeely, a bank executive who headed up community development programs that invested in bettering low-income neighborhoods here and throughout California for more than two decades, died of pancreatic cancer. He was 76.

Mr. McNeely, who retired from Union Bank in 2009 as executive vice president and director of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Group, helped develop the bank’s community reinvestment strategy and oversaw a multibillion dollar budget for community redevelopment statewide. The programs he

managed infused money into some of San Diego’s most underserved communities to provide loans for homes and small businesses, and grants to community organizations.

He was committed to the community professionally and personally. He was part of a group of bankers who founded the Neighborhood National Bank. His work aided local groups that care for Latino foster children and provide tutoring to struggling students through grants. And he donated his own money to help the homeless.

Bob Brower, president of Point Loma Nazarene University, where Mr. McNeely was a member of the President’s Community Council, recalled Mr. McNeely as having an energy and optimism that drew people to him. He called him a deeply thoughtful and insightful man who invested himself in others.

“Bob was always looking for ways to involve people, and to help people with opportunities,” Brower said. “He always took leadership positions that would help build community through people. It seemed to be part of his DNA.” Mr. McNeely was a young bank

officer in LosAngeles when the Watts Riots erupted in 1965. Troubled that banks did not immediately lend money into the neighborhood to save businesses and rebuild the community, he said in a May 10, 2007, Union-Tribune story, he felt helpless in the situation. That would change in 1992 when the Rodney King riots hit the city. By that time, Mr. McNeely had become a key player in Union Bank’s community reinvestment plan and, along with executives from 26 banks, created the Community Financial Resource Center in South Central Los Angeles to provide financial aid and advice on rebuilding.

Mr. McNeely served as the center’s founding chairman. In 2003, the center established the Robert McNeely Trailblazer Award to annually honor an individual who demonstrates visionary work and strategic leadership in the field of economic development.

Rev. George Walker Smith, a longtime friend, said Mr. McNeely was the first black person in San Diego to gain such a high position in local banking, and that he used his influence to make changes that would open opportunities in the banking field for other black people.

“I don’t know another person who involved himself so unselfishly in aiding those who needed aid,” Smith said. “A lot of the change he brought with Union Bank was eventually adopted by other banks.

What was important was that he had the respect of the community because of his commitment.”

Mr. McNeely held positions in a number of local and national organizations, having served as regional vice president of the California Historical Society, a member of the President’s Diversity and Equity Community Advisory Council at San Diego State University, and chairman of

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see McNeely page 100

Community/Public Interest-Obituary

Architect Harold Williams Dies at 90

W

hen Compton hired architect Harold Williams to design a new City Hall in 1968, it was anything but a smooth sail.

almost exclusively white to being predominantly African American.

But Williams bird-dogged his clients because such jobs were rare for black architects like him and he

Harold Williams Over the next several years, the project went through three mayors, eight city managers and 10 council members. Each regime offered a different vision for a structure to serve a community that, in just a few decades, had gone from being

McNeely

from page 99

the United Negro College Fund of San Diego County.

In 2003, he was appointed to the board of the Center City Development Corp., where he served six years.

Robert Arthur McNeely was born June 3, 1939, in Los Angeles, the oldest of three sons to Arthur John McNeely and Celia Dye McNeely.

He worked for Bank of America from 1962 to 1968, taking leave to

was determined "to bring to that community quality architecture," he recalled in a 1993 oral history.

"Because I feel that all people deserve quality architecture."

Completed in 1976, the two-story Late Modern building remains the serve in the Army, where he was assigned to the Finance Corps for two years. He joined Gateway National Bank in 1968 and weathered through several sales and mergers that brought about Union Bank.

Mr. McNeely was named to the corporate responsibility post in 1988. After retiring, he remained a senior executive adviser to the bank.

Mr. McNeely was a 1971 graduate of the University of Washington Pacific Coast Banking School.

architect's most enduring legacy.

Williams died June 21 of acute respiratory distress syndrome. He was 90.

Harold Louis Williams was born Aug. 4, 1924, in Flemingsburg, Ky., and grew up in Cincinnati, where his father worked as a railroad station baggage handler. Both of his parents were musicians — his father played violin and his mother, piano — and operated a drama club for children.

Early on, Williams displayed artistic abilities, and his interest in architecture grew out of childhood experiences. His father introduced him to a man designing a church.

And the minister of the church the family attended, Mt. Zion Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, told him about Paul R. Williams, an African American architect (no relation) who was making a name for himself designing homes for celebrities in Los Angeles.

After graduating from high school in 1942, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Navy. He was denied the chance to become an aviator and a 1973 graduate of the School of Bank Marketing at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The family has suggested donations in his memory to the Sally Ride Pancreatic Cancer Initiative (Fund 4191) through the UC San Diego Foundation, 9500 Gilman Drive, No. 9040, La Jolla, CA, 92093.  www.sandiegouniontribune. com/news/2015/aug/11/robertmcneely-union-bank-communitydevelopment

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because he was black, said his wife, Betty. Instead, he served as a radio operator on a submarine chaser in the Pacific.

In 1944, while on leave in Los Angeles, he met Paul Williams, and the two struck up a friendship that influenced the younger man's decision to practice architecture.

After graduating from Miami University in Ohio, where he was the architecture school's only black student, he became a draftsman at a Cleveland architecture firm.

He also met Betty Smith, whom he married in 1954.

The next year, they moved to Los Angeles, where Williams went to work for his mentor at Paul R. Williams & Associates, serving as a draftsman on homes for Frank Sinatra and other prestigious clients. In 1958, he became the ninth African American architect to be licensed in California.

Eager to create buildings that served the public, Williams formed a firm with two other architects and began designing schools and housing developments. But his most significant commission was

Compton City Hall and Civic Center, which included a high-rise county court building.

The project featured a soaring memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on which Williams collaborated with sculptor Gerald Gladstone. The circular work, composed of white panels rising up at varying angles, evokes a mountain, to reflect King's statement that he had "been to the mountaintop."

The City Hall building itself is clad largely in floor-to-ceiling glass and dominated by massive vertical concrete fins that span the length of the structure and act as sun shades.

The main entrances are capped by concrete canopies that, according to a Los Angeles Conservancy description, "provide a real sense of occasion to entering the government facility."

The building represented a new civic identity for the vastly changed community.

"Williams poured his soul into the design," said Robert Chattel, a preservation architect whose firm completed an award-winning

window-replacement project at the building. "It should long stand as testament to an important period in Compton's history and the remarkable contributions of Williams to beautify the city."

As part of that project, Chattel's firm identified Compton City Hall as being eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a finding that resulted in its automatic listing in the California Register of Historical Resources.

Williams, who went on to establish his own firm, also designed the South Central Los Angeles Multiservice and Child Development Center, the State Office Building in Van Nuys and the King Drew Medical Magnet High School.

After the 1965 Watts riots, Williams served as chairman of the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts, engaging neighbors to help preserve the landmark; he also spearheaded construction of the Watts Towers Art Center. In 1994, he was named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He was a founder of the National Organization of Minority Architects.

"Getting African American architects opportunities was one of his missions," his wife said.

With his white hair and stylish attire (often a black-and-white houndstooth sport coat over a white turtleneck), Williams became "a role model in how to carry yourself professionally and not let people roll over you," said Roland Wiley, a Los Angeles architect.

"Harold was to me the most vocal of his generation about the lack of opportunities for black architects," Wiley said.  http://touch.latimes. com/#section/-1/article/p2p84087635/

101  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

African Stock Exchanges • Bolsa de Valores of Cape Verde - www.bvc.cv (in Portuguese) • Bond Exchange of South Africa - www.bondexchange. co.za • Botswana Stock Exchange www.bse.co.bw • Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres - UEMOA (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) - www.brvm.org • Casablanca Stock Exchange (Morocco) - www.casablancabourse.com/bourseweb/index. aspx • Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (Tanzania) - www. dse.co.tz • Douala Stock Exchange (Cameroon) - www.douala-stockexchange.com/index_us.php • The Egyptian Exchange - www.

• • •

•

•

• • •

egx.com.eg/English/homepage. aspx Ethiopia Commodity Exchange - www.ecx.com.et Ghana Stock Exchange - www. gse.com.gh Johannesburg Stock Exchange (South Africa) - www. jse.co.za/Home.aspx Khartoum Stock Exchange (Sudan, in Arabic) - www.kse. com.sd Libyan Stock Market - www. lsm.ly/_layouts/membership/ login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fEnglis h%2fPages%2fdefault.aspx Lusaka Stock Exchange (Zambia) - www.luse.co.zm Nairobi Stock Exchange (Kenya) - www.luse.co.zm Malawi Stock Exchange - www. mse.co.mw

• Mozambique Stock Exchange (in Portuguese) - www. bolsadevalores.co.mz • Namibian Stock Exchange www.nsx.com.na • Nigerian Stock Exchange www.nse.com.ng/Pages/default. aspx • Stock Exchange of Mauritius www.stockexchangeofmauritius. com • Swaziland Stock Exchange www.ssx.org.sz • Tunisia Stock Exchange - www. bvmt.com.tn • Uganda Securities Exchange www.use.or.ug Read the lastest issue of The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke/media-center/ecommunique/exchange-magazine/ category/50-free-version.html

104  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

World's First Malaria Vaccine gets go-ahead from EU Regulators

By Kate Kelland (Editing by Alison Williams)

T

he world's first malaria vaccine got a green light from European drugs regulators who recommended it should be licensed for use in babies in Africa at risk of the mosquitoborne disease.

The shot, called RTS,S or Mosquirix and developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, would be the first licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease and could help prevent millions of cases of malaria in countries that use it.

Recommendations for a drug license made by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

Mosquirix, also part-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will also now be assessed by the World Health Organization, which has promised to give its guidance on when and where it should be used before the end of this year.

Malaria killed an estimated 584,000 people in 2013, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 80% of malaria deaths are in children under the age of five.

Andrew Witty, GSK's chief executive, said EMA's positive recommendation was a further important step toward making the world's first malaria vaccine available for young children.

"While RTS,S on its own is not the complete answer to malaria, its

An Anopheles funestus mosquito takes a blood meal from a human host. © AP Photo/CDC, University of Notre Dame, James Gathany

use alongside those interventions currently available such as bed nets and insecticides would provide a very meaningful contribution to controlling the impact of malaria on children in those African communities that need it the most," he said in a statement.

Global health experts have long hoped scientists would be able to develop an effective malaria vaccine, and researchers at GSK have been working on RTS,S for 30 years.

Hopes that this shot would be the final answer to wiping out malaria were dampened when trial data released in 2011 and 2012 showed it only reduced episodes of malaria in babies aged 6-12 weeks by 27%, and by around 46% in children aged 5-17 months.

EMA's recommendation is that the shot should nevertheless be licensed for use in babies in the full age range covered in the trials -from 6 weeks to 17 months.

Some malaria specialists have expressed concern that the complexities and potential costs of deploying this first vaccine when it only provides partial protection make it less attractive and more risky.

However Joe Cohen, a GSK scientist who has led the development of Mosquirix since 1987, said on Friday he has no doubt the vaccine could significantly reduce the toll of sickness and death caused by the malaria among African children.

"I have absolutely no reservations in terms of rolling this vaccine out," he told Reuters. "Why? Because the efficacy, when translated into cases averted and deaths averted, is just tremendous. It will have an enormously significant public health impact."  www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ worlds-first-malaria-vaccine-getsgo-ahead-from-eu-regulators/arAAdqAQR?ocid=mailsignout

105  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

Download the Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce App from the

Apple App Store or

Google Play Store Search: "Zambia USA Chamber"

Find links to the chamber website and facebook page, and embassies; access business resources; receive breaking news; view relevant video presentations; communicate via Twitter, smartphone and e-mail.

www.zambiausachamber.org

106  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Welcome to the Diaspora Investment Opportunities Conference "Exploring Investment and Trade Opportunities for Emerging Economies" September 2-5, 2015 Participate in exhibits and business seminars to learn how the Pan African Diaspora can become full investment partners in economic development in Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean and the U.S. to create businesses and jobs in urban and rural communities.

GLOBAL DIASPORA CONFERENCE Galen Center, University of Southern California

Sept 2, 2015: The first day of the conference will feature speakers, exhibits and business seminars that present current programs to assist the International Pan African Diaspora in investing in the economic development of emerging economies in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Latin America and urban communities in the United States.

"Pan African Entrepreneurship: Developing Village Economies in Urban and Rural Settings" California State University Dominguez Hills

Sept 3, 2014: Day two will feature Social Enterprise Programs that provide investment opportunities for local economic development in rural and urban communities.

Presentations will focus on development and investment for local community based community service programs, small businesses, cooperative enterprises, and entrepreneurship.

"Pan African Business & investment Opportunity Showcase" Carson Community Center

Sept 4-5, 2015: The last two days of the conference will feature an African Marketplace Trade Pavilion with industry sector presentations, business round-tables and seminars.

Delegates from the United States, Africa and the Pan African Diaspora are invited to present international business and investment opportunities. Targeted industry sectors include agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications, tourism, education, water and power, health care and transportation. *Visit our conference website www.panafricanglobaltradeconference.com for additional information such as current speaker and schedule updates.

You may also contact the Conference Secretariat for additional information and/or if you're interested in participating as a speaker, a sponsor or an exhibitor at +1-424204-2703 or +1-626-381-9696.

International

CAMEROON PILGRIMAGE 2015-2016 ROOTS AND RECONNECTION AND VALEURS D’AFRIQUE Organized by Dr. Lisa Aubrey, Arizona State University, USA / University of Yaounde I, Cameroon Alain Kenfack, Valeurs d'Afrique, CEO, Villages d'Afrique, Publisher DATES: Saturday, December 26, 2015 to Saturday, January 9, 2016 ESTIMATED COST: $5,000.00 (less if you buy your ticket early) WHAT DOES COST COVER? $5,000.00 covers international round trip air ticket with overnight stop in Paris, local transport in Cameroon, gift bags on arrival; lodging in Cameroon, food up to a daily maximum, water, local organizing fees, entrance fees to events including Pilgrimage to Bimbia, cultural activity fees, photographer's fees and production, group gifts to Cameroonian hosts (you may also supplement the gift if you choose).

WHAT DOES COST NOT COVER? Does not cover passport, and visa to Cameroon, immuizations, personal travel not scheduled with the group, alcohol with meals or parties, non-group transport, shopping for personal gifts, personal phone calls, texts, and other communications costs, personal non-group activities.

SOME MAJOR FEATURES OF THIS TRIP AND RELATED ACTIVITIES. • Stop in Paris for tour Pagnes and Boubou celebration and gala with the African diaspora in Paris to meet, greet, and reconnect https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pagnes-et-Boubous/300864786594474?fref=ts • New Year's celebration in Cameroon • Bana tribute to Ancestor and Panafricanist Annie Kadji who worked with me to organize stops in Bana on Diaspora pilgrimages • Pilgrimage to the Bimbia Slave Trade Site in Cameroon, which is the first to be located and recognized in the country, and which was declared a national historic and heritage site by the Cameroon government in May 2013. It is related to the almost 200 slave ships that I have located and traced to their disembarkations in the Diaspora, including the USA. We will engage in cultural, education and reconnection activitites in Yaounde, Dschang and Limbe.

GENERAL GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS • All airline tickets are to bought indivually for designaed flight dates to Cameroon. Please informa when your ticket is purchased and send your itinerary to: rootsreconnection@gmail.com and contact@valeursdafrique. org • $3,000 (as part of the overall $5,000) Cameroon group travel fee to be sent in specified installments by specified dates for covering all inclusive costs (remember the $2,000 balance is an estimate for your international air ticket) • Non-refundable deposit of $15.00 to be paid as trip commitment fee by August 1, 2015. This will be applied to your group funds to defray group costs.

• Humanitarian educational school supplies and scholarship project to be implemented as part of pilgramage.

Your second suitcase should be filled with school supplies to be donated to the project. (in turn, this will clear your second suitcase for things you purchase in Cameroon). You may also make a scholarship donation if you choose. For reference visit: www.facebook.com/MelleMel and www. valeursdafrique.org.

Volunteers in our travel group will be needed to assist with the project. For familiarization, please go to http:// exposingbimbia.blogspot.fr/p/related-diaspora-projects.html.

• Passports should be secured as soon as possible at http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english.html.

Each US citizen traveling to Cameroon must send in his/her documents to the Cameroon Embassy in Washington, DC by November 1, 2015 for a visa.

• Immunizations, anti-malarials, and corresponding Yellow Card, should be secured by the appropriate medical professionals in time for travel You cannot enter Cameroon with a Yellow Card.

• Medial form to be sent out must be filled in its entirety. This is mandatory.

108  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

DEADLINES • August 15, 2015---Deadline for payment of non-refundble commitment fee of $150.00.

• September 1, 2015---Deadline for purchase of airline ticket on designated flights/dates through the travel agent of your choice.

• October 1, 2015---Deadline for payment of 1st installment of $1,000.00 • November 1, 2015---Deadline for payment of 2nd installment of $1,000.00.

• December 1, 2015----Deadline for payment of 3rd installment of $850.00 for US travelers.

Please pay by only money orders or certified checks or bank deposits, and keep receipts for your records.

Please pay to: Lisa Aubrey, 1058 Steven Wiltz Road, St. Martinville,

LA USA 70582; If your preference is to make a direct deposit into my Chase bank account, please let me know and we will make this possible.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES • There will be mandetory telemeetings to prepared for the pilgrimage. There will be approximately 3 group telemeetings between September 15, 2015 and December 1, 2015. Participation is a must and there will be email and Facebook correspondence • Cameroon is a Cash economy.

You will not be able to make purchases in Cameroon with credit or debit cards. ATMS are rare and not always dependable.

Bring cash!

• The Cameeroon currency is called the CFA. For personal purchases, you will exchange currency for CFA in Cameroon (not in US or Europe). The larger the bill you exchange, the better the rate. Please do not bring one dollar bills. Please also try to bring newer bills and crisp bills.

Most times older and tattered bills are not accepted.

• Group in-country pilgrimate cost of $3,000.00 is based on double occupancy in moderate hotels and guesthouses. Single room occupancy is available, if requested, at a higher rate. this will cost more. lisa_aubrey@hotmail.com www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bdU4PlgnTTI

REGISTER NOW Contact: Ruth Artates California Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation 1-916-463-0177 cbcc@calbcc.org OR VISIT http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/ register/event?oeidk=a07eaxw2slo608dfd12 &llr=yi9tkndab

109  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

USTDA PROVIDES TRAINING GRANT TO DANGOTE OIL REFINING COMPANY

T

he U.S. Trade and Development Agency (www. ustda.gov) signed a training grant with Dangote Oil Refining Company Ltd. (www.dangote. com) to develop the critical human capacity resources necessary to successfully operate and maintain a greenfield petroleum refinery located in Lekki, Nigeria.

USTDA’s grant will fund a multi-year program to train more than 100 Company staff on refinery fundamentals.

“USTDA is pleased to support the Dangote Oil Refining Company’s efforts to increase Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity,” said USTDA Deputy Director Enoh Titilayo Ebong, who signed the grant agreement along with Mr. Aliko Dangote, Chairman and CEO, Dangote Group.

“This program builds upon USTDA’s long history of support for vital infrastructure development in Nigeria.”

“Just over a year ago we decided to address the paradox of Nigeria being one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of crude oil but also one of the world’s leading importers of refined petroleum products with our decision to invest in a 500,000 bpd refinery project,” stated Mr. Dangote. “For a high tech capital intensive project like this investment, getting the right human capital to run the plant is considered to be possibly the most critical success factor and the

USTDA grant will go a long way in helping us address this.”

The training is being provided, as part of a wholeof-U.S.-government advocacy campaign, in support of UOP LLC’s (Des Plaines, Ill.) agreement, through its affiliate UOP Limited (www.uop.com), for the provision of technology licensing and engineering services to the Dangote Oil Refining Company for the development of the Lekki refinery. The new refinery will process crude oil to produce high-quality fuels that meet Euro V specifications for reduced emissions. This agreement is a major step forward in reducing dependence on imported fuels and petrochemicals in Nigeria, which the Oil & Gas Journal estimates has the secondlargest amount of proven oil reserves in Africa.

UOP will conduct the training program in Nigeria to maximize the number of trainees, as the scope is focused on refining processes and engineering, as well as on health, safety and environmental skills.  www.ustda.gov/news/pressreleases/2015/ SubSaharanAfrica/Nigeria/PR_073015/PR-USTDAProvides-Training-Grant-to-Dangote-Oil-RefiningCompany_073015.asp

110  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

USTDA GRANT TO BRAZIL OFFERS US COMPANIES A BID OPPORTUNITY

T

he U.S. Trade and Development Agency awarded a grant to the Associação Nacional dos Transportadores de Passageiros sobre Trilhos (National Association of Passenger Rail, or ANPTrilhos).

The grant will provide technical assistance to develop a roadmap and implementation plan for public and private passenger rail operators to integrate real-time video monitoring technologies into Brazil's passenger rail systems.

"We are pleased to support our colleagues from ANPTrilhos as they plan future investments in upgrading their rail infrastructure, recognizing the tremendous potential that the sector holds for Brazil both in terms of connectivity and economic growth," said USTDA Regional Director Nathan Younge.

"We're proud to sponsor project development efforts that introduce U.S. rail industry technologies and solutions providers to Brazil's dynamic growth in the sector."

The Deputy Chief of Mission to Brazil, Andrew Bowen, and ANPTrilhos Foreign Affairs Advisor, Fernanda Pinheiro, witnessed the signing of the grant at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia by USTDA Regional Director Younge and ANPTrilhos Superintendent Roberta Marchesi.

The technical assistance will identify technologies and define standards and protocols - for the effective deployment of real-time video monitoring solutions.

In addition, this assistance will develop a plan for the acquisition and implementation of core and complementary systems to increase security and overall operational efficiency for the control and management of various passenger rail trains throughout Brazil.

The opportunity to conduct the USTDA-funded

The opportunity to conduct the USTDA-funded technical assistance will be competed on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website. A link to the FBO announcement will be posted to USTDA's website at www.ustda. gov. Interested U.S. firms should submit proposals according to the instructions in the FBO announcement.

technical assistance will be competed on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website. A link to the FBO announcement will be posted to USTDA's website at www.ustda.gov. Interested U.S. firms should submit proposals according to the instructions in the FBO announcement.  www.ustda.gov/news/pressreleases/2015/LAC/Brazil/ PR_080315/PR-USTDA-Promotes-Modernization-ofRail-Information-Technology-in-Brazil_080315.asp

111  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

NBA in Africa? 'Stay Tuned' for RegularSeason Game

By GERALD IMRAY

T

he NBA is in Africa for an exhibition, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expects more important games to come. ''Stay tuned,'' Silver said Thursday as 20 NBA stars, including Chris Paul and Luol Deng, prepare to play at a small arena in downtown Johannesburg - the first NBA game of any kind in Africa. ''This is an experiment of sorts.''

Although he didn't give an exact time frame, Silver said a pre-season game and then a regular-season game on the continent was the logical progression for the NBA, which is on a ''fast track'' to build a brand in soccer-crazy Africa. ''Part of why I'm here is to continue to investigate new facilities,'' Silver said. ''We would want a larger, more modern arena for a regular or pre-season game here.

And it's also to test the response here. These things just take time, but I'm very confident that in the not-toodistant future we will be playing, to begin with, a preseason game on the continent of Africa.''

Having already explored possibilities in China and Europe, Africa's next for the NBA, which has brought some big names - coaches as well as players - to Johannesburg for Saturday's exhibition game at Ellis Park Arena.

There's Paul, an eight-time All Star, who will captain Team World. Deng, a two-time All Star, will lead a Team Africa. Pau and Marc Gasol have also made the trip, as has San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and coach of the year Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks. Also on the rosters are Al-Farouq Aminu and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who both have parents from Nigeria.

This game's the next step in the league's links to Africa that began with the first-round draft of Hakeem Olajuwon by the Houston Rockets in 1984, Silver said.

Olajuwon, who is from Nigeria and is part of this trip to South Africa as an NBA ambassador, went on to become a two-time NBA champion and 12-time All Star.

The NBA's presence in Africa, and particularly

112  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

southern Africa, is still comparatively small. On Saturday, the stars will play at an old, 4,000-seat arena, tiny for NBA standards. But it's sold out and it's a start, Silver told a small group of reporters at his hotel. ''What I'd like to see is a group of some of our very best players showcasing the game, demonstrating how fun and exciting the game is,'' Silver said. ''The players are bringing their talents direct to Johannesburg as opposed to people getting it off media.''

The low profile of the NBA in South Africa can also work in players' favor for now, with some of the NBA's top names walking around their hotel lobby in suburban Johannesburg unnoticed by locals.

Some of them will use the offseason trip to go on a safari and visit the foundation of late South African president Nelson Mandela, Silver said, among other excursions. There will also be visits to museums, and coaching clinics in poorer neighborhoods around Johannesburg. Even Silver, who got married recently, said he was taking the opportunity for a honeymoon after the game. He and his wife will go to the Seychelles, off the east coast of Africa.

Silver said there was a large amount of ''symbolism'' to the NBA's visit to Africa and its first game on the continent, comparing it in some ways to President Barack Obama's recent trips to Kenya and Ethiopia. ''(It's) so much more than just a game,'' Silver said.

Adding to the symbolism, the Team World versus Team Africa exhibition will take place at the same stadium complex where the late Mandela famously wore a South African rugby jersey to a game in 1995 to help unite the country as it emerged from apartheid, the story

told in Clint Eastwood's ''Invictus'' movie.

The NBA players were aware of that connection, Silver said, after they attended talks this week by

members of the league's Africa office.  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nbaafrica-stay-tuned-regular-seasongame-115023947--nba.htm

113  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

2015 CFA’s Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series September 14-18, 2015

State Department Town Hall Meeting September 15, 2015 9am-1pm Dear Colleagues, You are formally invited to the CFA’s 2015 Town Hall Meeting, “Strategies for Strengthening Africa Health Infrastructure”, at the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, September 15th, 9am to 1pm.

The CFA Town Hall Meeting, in partnership with the Bureau of African Affairs, is the signature event of this year’s Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series beginning September 14th to September 18th.

Featured speakers include: • Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield; Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State • Ronald V. Dellums (Keynote Address); U.S. Congress; Mayor of Oakland • Barbara Lee; U.S. Congresswoman, California (Invited) • Dikembe Mutombo; NBA Legend & Humanitarian; Chairman & President, Dikembe Mutombo Foundation • Dr. Julius Garvey; respected vascular surgeon and son of renowned Pan-Africanist leader, Marcus Garvey • African Ministers of Health (Invited), and more Registration Information: Registration Deadline: September 3, 2015 Register via Eventbrite at: www.eventbrite.com/edit?eid=18178548528

114  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

Americans Honored by French Government

By Sylvie Corbet

From left : French President, Francois Hollande, U.S. National Guardsman from Roseburg, Oregon, Alek Skarlatos, U.S. Ambassador to France Jane D. Hartley, U.S. Airman Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento University in California pose at the Elysee Palace, Monday Aug.24, 2015 in Paris, France. Hollande pinned the Legion of Honor medal on U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and their years-long friend Anthony Sadler, who subdued the gunman as he moved through the train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

T

hree Americans and a Briton who tackled an attacker loaded with guns and ammunition prevented carnage on the high-speed train carrying 500 passengers to Paris, France’s president said as he presented the men with the Legion of Honor and praised them as an example of the need for action when faced with terrorism.

President Francois Hollande said the two Americans who first tackled the gunman were soldiers, “but on Friday you were simply passengers. You behaved as soldiers but also as responsible men.”

Hollande then pinned the Legion of Honor medal on U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and

their longtime friend Anthony Sadler, who subdued the gunman as he moved through the train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest. British businessman, Chris Norman, who also jumped into the fray, also received the medal.

The men showed “that faced with terror, we have the power to resist.

You also gave a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope,” Hollande said.

Norman, speaking in French after receiving the medal, said it was less a question of heroism than survival.

"I hope this doesn’t happen to you, but I ask you to really think: OK, what will I do if this happens?

Am I going to simply stand still or am I going to try to be active if the situation presents itself?” he said.

The Americans, casual in vacation-style polo shirts and khakis against the backdrop of the highly formal presidential palace, appeared slightly overwhelmed as they received France’s highest honor.

His arm in a sling and his eye bruised, Stone, 23, has said he was coming out of a deep sleep when the gunman appeared.

Skarlatos, a 22-year-old National Guardsman recently back from Afghanistan, “Stone just hit me on the shoulder and said ‘Let’s go.'”

With those words, Hollande said, a “veritable carnage” was avoided.

“Since Friday, the entire world admires your courage, your sangfroid, your spirit of solidarity.

This is what allowed you to with bare hands — your bare hands — subdue an armed man. This must be an example for all, and a source of inspiration,” Hollande said.  http://thegrio.com/2015/08/24/ americans-briton-who-thwartedattack-get-frances-top-honor

115  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

International

Returning to Africa?

African Repatriation is an invaluable online resource for any African national who is thinking about returning to Africa.

Our industry articles and specialist editorials provide the latest sector information. Why not find out for yourself and become a part of our growing community today? www.africanrepatriation. com

Career Opportunities in Africa Search and apply online for the latest vacancies in Africa with African Talent. We provide candidates and employers with the tools and resources needed in today’s competitive job market. For employers, we offer numerous options to feature your jobs in Africa and for candidates, reviewing the most recent job vacancies in Africa is a fast, easy process.

Uploading your CV is simple and takes just a few moments. www.africantalent.com 116  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Thursday Blues at Uncle Darrow‛s High Noon-2pm Every Thursday

Come by for lunch and relax to blues & jazz from our house band!

2560 S. Lincoln Blvd.

Marina del Rey North East corner of Washington & Lincoln

“LA Times Magazine favorite cajun food”

310-306-4862

www.uncledarrows.com 117  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

konya

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International

One Africa:

Tell the US Government that North Africa is Africa Too!

J

oin with and support the United Africa Organization’s campaign to petition the U.S. Department of State to include the whole African continent under its Bureau of African Affairs.

Why? The State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, led by Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson, currently excludes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara from its agenda.

Instead, the aforementioned countries are grouped with the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, together with Iran, Iraq, Israel and others.

This artificial distinction between North Africa and the rest of Africa

negatively impacts US foreign policy relations throughout the entire continent of Africa.

We unequivocally reject the argument that North African countries are outside the scope of African affairs.

North Africa is geographically and historically part of the African continent, and all fifty-three (53) independent African states, including North African countries, are represented in the African Union (AU).

It would be far more productive for the State Department to engage with the entire continent of Africa, including North Africa, under its Bureau of African Affairs.

We are one Africa, from the Cape to Cairo, indivisible and bound together!

Therefore, no square inch of African

land should be excluded from African affairs.

Sign The Petition!!!

Go to www.change.org/petitions/ one-africa-tell-us-state-departmentthat-north-africa-is-part-of-africa and sign the online petition to support this important proposition. Next tell everyone you know to sign. 

www.uniteafricans.org

Shopping Gallery

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In the meantime visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/CulturalInteriors-West/140688362658236

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123  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

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On behalf of the Black Business Association (BBA), we applaud Kevin Ramsey and his sister Traci Watson with the opening of Krispy Kruchy Chicken in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Los Angeles.

Krispy Krunchy Chicken is a cajun-style chicken (bone-in and tenders), served fresh, never frozen and fried in zero trans fat oil. Their menu also includes signature dishes of Traditional Wings; Krispy Wings; Cajun Sweet & Sour Wings; Cajun Tenders; Red Beans and Rice; Jambalaya; Boudin Bites (Cajun rice balls); Krispy Shrimp and Honey Butter Biscuits.

For additional information, please call Krispy Kruchy at www.krispykrunchy.com.

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126  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Find us at: https://nubianskin.com

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Open 7 days a week • 11am - 11pm

The Economic Turn Around in the USA is in Our Hands •Buy Products Made or Assembled in the USA •Hire One New Employee •Eat an Extra Meal Out Each Week •Start/Grow a Business to Generate Wealth & Jobs

Buy Black  Save Black  Invest Black 131  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Eso Won Books African American Books 4327 Degnan Boulevard Leimert Park, Los Angeles

Give the Gift of Books and Music G Come see our unsurpassed collection of books, music, videos, children’s books, and games!

1-323-294-0324

www.esowonbookstore.com  //esowon.booksense.com for Calendar of Events

134  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

New Location Leimert Park Village 3347 W. 43rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90008 1-323-299-6383 www.zambezibazaar.com shop@ zambezibazaar.com

135  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Calendar August 13th-15th 2015 African Global Economic and Development Summit Taking place on the campus of the University of California (USC), This 3rd annual conference connects the US entreprenuer and business communities to the opportunities and growth potential of the African Continent. For particiation information visit www.agedsummit.com.

Trade Winds Africa Conference Set for Johannesburg, South Africa is a two-tier event. Particpants may elect the conference only option or the conference plus trade stops option.

The Trade Stops offered in conjunction with the conference are: Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and extended time in South Africa.

For detailed particiation information go to www.trade.gov/DBIA/ tradewinds-africa/index.asp.

29th 2015 Africa Showcase South Africa Airways hosts exhibits in 4 US cities - Los Angeles, 9/30, Dallas, 10/1, Boston, 10/5, Toronto, 10/7. For details go to www.onshowsolutions.co.za.

October 15th

27th-29th The 20th Anniversary Ron Brown Business & Economic Summit and 2nd Women's Symposium A key program of the Califfornia Black Chamber of Commerce and Foundation. To register contact: Ruth Artates, California Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation at 1-916-463-0177 or cbcc@calbcc.org.

September 12th-17th

12th Annual Procurement Exchange Summit Taking place at the LA Hotel Downtown, the Summit offers opportunities for matchmaking, learning through workshops and attending the awards luncheon. One-On-One networking sessions with financial institution representatives and technical service providers will provide attendees with financial services information that will help them secure a business loan. For particiation information visit www.bbala.org.

More than 1,000 private sector and government representatives from Africa, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East will convene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the common goal of networking and expanding their knowledge on investment opportunities. For particiation information visit The Corporate Council on Africa website at www.summit.africacncl.org or #AfricaBizSummit.

February 2016 26th BBA Annual Awards Dinner Taking place at the LA Hotel Downtown, the awards dinner will highlight the achievements of African American entrepreneurs and the government agencies and corporate entities that provide positive supports for African American businesses. For particiation information visit www.bbala.org.

November 2nd-5th US-Africa Business Summit 2015

March 26th BBA Salute to Black Women Taking place at the LA Hotel Downtown, the business conference, vendor faire and awards luncheon will be presented using the theme "Working to Form a More Perfect Union." For particiation information visit www.bbala.org. 

138  August 2015  Black Business News  www.blackbbusinessnews.net  1-323-291-7819

Books to Consider

Books to Consider...

A Time to Speak, A Time to Act: The Movement in Politics

by Julian Bond

A

n exhortation to political involvement within the decrepit electoral system by the Georgia state

legislator and former SNCC a c t i v i s t who stole the show in the '68 Democratic Convention by becoming the first black man to receive Vice Presidential mention.

Bond writes the balanced, sagacious prose of the wouldbe junior statesman casting about for a national constituency. A reformist who senses the limits of reformism, Bond sees the Nixon Administration (""the bland leading the bland"") endeavoring to strangle the ""second Reconstruction"" of the 1960's. What he is looking for is an ""escape from the circle of politics that always escalates to protest, culminates in rebellion, and results in repression."" The diagnosis is astute enough but the solutions suggested are partial, problematic and equivocal. He plumps strongly for community control -including black-run rackets, prostitution and numbers if they must exist in the ghettos -- and heralds the need for a nationwide organization ""Negroes and Practical Politics, Inc."" (NAPPI) to channel information, political expertise and funds to prospective black candidates. At

present there are some 1800 black officials in the U.S. and Bond wants to double and triple their numbers but he shies away from any discussion of how unity is to be achieved among the highly fragmented leadership and black power ideologues from LeRoi Jones to Carl Stokes. Once or twice he raises the specter of violence and black guerrilla warfare in the cities but without any real conviction -- it may be morally justified, but it won't work. Despite the firm recognition that ""representative democracy has yet to work for us"" Bond can endorse no other way: ""I find it increasingly satisfying. It is a pleasure to be a politician."" In the end this is no more than a temperate and somewhat forlorn plea to ""the young people"" to return to the electoral mire at the grassroots level and combat the mounting apathy that threatens to envelop the '70's -- following the example of Julian Bond..  www.amazon.com/Time-Speak-Act/dp/0671213458

Negroland: A Memoir

by Margo Jefferson

A

t once incendiary and icy, mischievous and provocative, celebratory and elegiac—here is a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American A culture through the prism of the author’s rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned with distancing itself from whites and the black generality while w tirelessly measuring itself against both.

Born in uppercrust black Chicago—her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation’s oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite— M a r g o

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Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored a r i s t o c r a c y, the colored elite, the bluevein society.

Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, “a small region of Negro Margo Jefferson A m e r i c a w h e r e residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty.”

Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments—the civil rights movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of postracial America—Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions. Aware as it is of heart-wrenching despair and depression, this book is a triumphant paean to the grace of perseverance.  www.amazon.com/Negroland-A-Memoir-MargoJefferson/dp/0307378454

Promises of Power: A Political Autobiography

by Carl B. Stokes

C

arl Stokes grew up poor and black in Cleveland, not the most auspicious way to begin life. He not only survived the street -- ""I mastered every aspect of it"" -- but got himself an education via the G.I. Bill. At 23 he became a state liquor enforcement agent, a rough job but he was a rough kid. In 1957, six years later, he got himself a law degree, setting up shop with his brother. You see, this young man Stokes was a gogetter, and his next move -- the political arena -- seemed

as natural as the great American upward-mobile drive itself. Stokes thrived on it: "". . . as one who took to politics as a duck does to water, I quickly developed a sure eye and an ability to sense the other man's bottom line""; his life was his preparation.

The rest concerns his campaigns -the State Louis and Carl Stokes Assembly and then the pinnacle, the Cleveland mayoralty -- the first such black breakthrough in America. It was not easy, governing a city with a large white majority; he talks about his successes and failures and absolute debacles in the modulated voice of a former politician (he's now a TV newscaster in New York City) who knows full well both the promises and disappointments of power. What ultimately defeated Carl Stokes was not the voters but disenchantment; by 1970, he says he realized that th bl th cities iti were beyond b the problems off the amelioration -- ""our dreams were tabled,"" a far cry from the initial Stokes belief that ""people, acting together, are power.

They don't just have power. They are power."" Carl Stokes has learned the lessons of Realpolitik Americanstyle, which is what his life and this instructive book is about..  www.amazon.com/Promises-Power-A-Political-Autobiography/ dp/0671216023

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Resources Media/Information Africa Interactive Multimedia Press/Content Agency in Africa www.africa-interactive.com Africa World Press Books www.africaworldpressbooks.com African Trade Magazine www.africantrademagazine.com African Vibes Magazine www.africanvibes.com The Africapitalist www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/ africapitalisminstitute/africapitalist-magazine The African World www.theafricanworld.tv Africast TV www.africast.tv Afritorial www.afritorial.com www.facebook.com/Afritorial AllAfrica http://allafrica.com Black Wall Street Times http://bwstimes.com Black Business News Group www.blackbusinessnews.net BlackPast.org www.blackpost.org Black Press USA www.blackpressusa.com BridesNoir www.bridesnoir.com The Chocolate Voice www.thechocolatevoice.com CuisineNoir www.cuisinenoirmag.com DiasporaVoice www.blogtalkradio.com/diasporavoice Publish Africa http://wow.gm/publishafrica Rock Me Africa //rockmeafrica.com YouTube Educational Channels http://teacherswithapps.com/197-educational-youtube-channels-know

Organizations

http://africaleadership.org The African Union www.au.int/en Black Business Association www.bbala.org CauseCast www.causecast.com www.causecastfornonprofits.com Pan African Film Festival www.paff.org United African Organization http://uniteafricans.org Zambia-USA Chamber of Commerce www.zambiausachamber.org

Investment/Development Africa Reports www.africareports.com African Development Bank www.afdb.org African Export-Import Bank //afreximbank.com/afrexim/en AfrigadgetTV www.afrigadget.com Disrupt Africa http://disrupt-africa.com/ The Exchange Magazine www.nse.co.ke Silicon Harlem http://event.siliconharlem.net Ventures www.ventures-africa.com

U.S. Government Commerce Department www.doc.gov International Trade Administration http://trade.gov Minority Business Development Agency www.mbda.gov Power Africa www.usaid.gov/powerafrica Small Business Administration www.sba.gov State Department www.dos.gov Trade Africa www.usaid.gov/ tradeafrica White House www.whitehouse.gov

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