The PIN Magazine february 2016

February 2016 Vol. 03 | Issue 2

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH RENTING VS. OWNING FEATURING CONGRESSWOMAN

Maxine Waters

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EDITORIAL TEAM Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA Editor in Chief (800) 401-8994 Ext. 703 Alexandra Attinger Managing Editor (800) 401-8994 ext. 708 alexandra.attinger@thepowerisnow.com Goldy Ponce Arratia Graphic Artist and Design Manager (800) 401-8994 ext. 711 goldy.ponce@thepowerisnow.com Nicholas Clarkson Director of Technology (800) 401-8994 ext. 704 nicholas.clarkson@thepowerisnow.com Scocrates Ayala Online Radio & Media Manager (800) 401-8994 ext. 709 socrates.ayala@thepowerisnow.com Rachel Bacol Radio and Social Media Manager (800) 401-8994 ext. 707 rachel.bacol@thepowerisnow.com

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Issue...

BLACK HISTORY CELEBRATION

OUR COVER

In This

26 Congresswoman Maxine Waters

FROM 36-58

30 A Lasting Legacy 34 Insanity is Doing the Same

14 Savings Rates of AfricanAmericans

68 Renting vs. Owning

YOU TECHNOLOGY

Standards for High Balance Mortgages

REAL ESTATE

MORTGAGE

ECONOMICS

LEGAL

60 Fannie and Freddie Lower

Thing ... And Expecting Different Resulta

68 Technology Startup “Point” Helping to Unlock Home Equity

18 Real Estate Market Focus, Beaumont, CA 22 Real Estate Market Focus, Philadelphia

From the

Editor...

Esteemed readers, Black History Month has long been celebrated in this great nation to honor our past, examine our present, and work toward a better future for the entire African American community. While organizations such as 100 Black Men of America, Inc, NAACP, Orange County Chamber of Commerce, NAREB, and CAREB have worked tirelessly to better the plight of our race, recessions struck, discrimination persisted, and individuals were inspired. The lucky and hardworking rose to meet the challenges faced for African Americans in this country to find opportunities and make them their own.

Our community is in no shortage of challenges. From our low homeownership rate to our high incarceration rate, African Americans all over the nation are losing hope; however, now is the time to act now to solve your problems. Begin with reading this magazine cover to cover. After all, knowledge is power!

In this issue of The Power Is Now Magazine Congresswoman Maxine Waters is featured. Her advocacy for our community in California and the nation as a whole has allowed legislation to pass and change to happen, which can unfortunately be an oddity in Congress. She is a woman that has inspired countless in the U.S. with her drive and tenacity.

The 100 Black Men of America, Inc, and the Orange County Chamber of Commerce are also featured in this month’s issue of The Power Is Now Magazine, celebrating the history of two influential organizations that will only grow in the years to come. Creating opportunities and opening doors to bring hard workers out of poverty is essential, and I look forward to facilitating this with The Power Is Now Lending.

This country was built on the backs of the hardworking. I am proud to celebrate my heritage once more this month and continue to improve the state of real estate for African Americans. Now I will allow this collection within the magazine to do the talking. We will achieve the American Dream together one step at a time!

Eric Lawrence Frazier M.B.A

Editor-in-Chief

january 2016

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The Plight of African American Homeownership:

Startling Truths with Few Solutions

Those in the African American community are far More suitable rental housing is needed. too familiar with the struggles of homeownership.

A history of redlining and blockbusting has 2. Most of the new households that will only been compounded by the recent tightening form between 2010 and 2030 will be nonof credit. It seems like African Americans are white. always under incredible scrutiny, even when they are trying to contribute to their communities by investing in real estate and creating stable futures • From 2010 to 2020, an estimated 11.6 million new households will form. Of these, for their families.

77 percent of new households will be nonwhite (Hispanic, African American, Asian, While these struggles are real, they became American Indians and Alaska Natives, and even more apparent when the Urban Institute people of multiple or other races. issued a report this summer entitled “Headship and Homeownership: What Does the Future • From 2020 to 2030, 10.4 million net new households will form, 88 percent of which Hold?” The report was alarming to me as an will be non-white.

African American on many levels, but primarily • Because non-white groups have lower because of the prediction that African Americans homeownership rates than whites, these will continue to lag other ethnicities in rates of household formation projections are the main homeownership. driver of the Urban Institute’s homeownership forecasts.

Here are the five key points that the report makes regarding household growth and housing • One-third, or more of the thirteen million new renters, between 2010 and 2030 will be preferences over the next fifteen years: Hispanic. Only one-quarter will be white.

Almost one-quarter will be African American 1. The surge in rental housing is coming. Nearly and fifteen percent will be other racial or six in ten of the 22 million new households ethnic backgrounds. that will form between 2010 and 2030 will rent, creating enormous pressure on the rental housing market which is already constrained.

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3. The homeownership rate will decrease

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for all age groups, except those over the age of 75. Total owners will still

outnumber total renters throughout the 20year period, but the homeownership rate will decrease for all but the oldest age group.

4. The number of senior-headed households will increase dramatically. Head of

households with people aged 65 and older is projected to increase from 25.8 million in 2010 to 35.4 million in 2020, and then to 45.7 million in 2030. This should come as no surprise given the sheer size of the Baby Boomer generation, the majority of whom were homeowners.

5. African Americans will fall further behind all racial groups in homeownership. The report states: “For at least the next 15 years, whether the economy grows slowly or quickly, the homeownership rate for African Americans will decrease while the rate for Hispanics will increase.” The report goes on to state that more than fifty percent of the 9 million new owners between 2010 and 2030 will be Hispanic; only eleven percent will be African American. By 2030, the homeownership rate for African Americans will have fallen to forty percent, a drop of six percentage points from just three decades prior. During that same time, Hispanic homeownership will increase by two percentage points.

I took the five key points of the report out of order in order to save number five for last. Go back and re-read those statistics and try to wrap your head around them. I cannot.

To what can we attribute the divergence of homeownership rates between African Americans and Hispanics? The Urban Institute notes that

the Hispanic population is younger, and as the economy improves will be of the age range to form families and buy homes. The think-tank also acknowledges that African Americans were among the hardest hit by the financial crisis, and homeownership rates rapidly declined compared to those of their white or Hispanic counterparts.

African American households lost equity and have struggled to regain their financial footing.

What is happening to us? Why is it that no matter what the economy does, for the next fifteen years African Americans will continue to lose ground when it comes to homeownership? In those fifteen years, my granddaughter will be driving and I will be sixty-eight years old. Odds are that if I do not leave some wealth behind for her, she will be a renter just like the rest of her generation. She will face an incredible housing burden because of the rental market shortage. She and her classmates will be in a constant battle to find affordable housing and clawing their way to homeownership will be an ongoing fight.

If the Urban Institute’s predictions are true, how can we turn the tide?

We can start by making homeownership a part of everyday conversations. Too much of the news is focused on rioting, burning our cities, being beaten down in the streets by police, being imprisoned for minor offenses, or dealing with other cases of discrimination. As these stories dominate the headlines, people ignore the plight of African American homeownership. Housing is a pathway for most Americans, regardless of color, but especially for African Americans who struggle to build equity and increase earnings over time. Homeownership is a critical way for us to build wealth.

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Yet there is no affirmative action in housing, credit, income or education. African Americans are left to figure this problem out by themselves.

Voting power can only take them so far. Economic and market forces only matter to the extent that systemic racism, discrimination, and burdensome housing policies are addressed. Otherwise, they will prevent us from moving forward.

As a real estate professional and mortgage banking professional, what can I do? As a citizen of the United States and member of the African American community, what can I do? I am member of most of the black civic and religious institutions and a supporter of many solutions to issues that affect African Americans and people of color, but what can I do to specially address this issue?

At some point, we must stop the decline in African American homeownership and create new pathways to promote an increase. If we don’t, whose fault is it? Who is to blame? Is that the legacy we want to leave for our children? The ramifications of doing so is unfathomable.

Perhaps more importantly, what is the solution or answer to the problem?

not in today’s bureaucratic, self-serving political atmosphere. There is no modern day Moses who will descend from the mountain top with wisdom to guide you to the land of homeownership. You must rise up and take actions on your own behalf.

The power is now!

I too have had my share of problems. I have made my mistakes and I have suffered, but I have no one to blame but me: not the economy, not my industry, but me. It will be me that takes to me the promise land, because I am building it with my own hands and not operating in fear or believing those who say I cannot when I say I can. My problem our not your problem, and you should not make your problems mine. Not all of our problems are community problems, because the solutions to whatever issues or circumstances that are stopping us from be our best self and achieving our potential rest with each individual within the community. We must do individually and collectively what we must do to make our individual and collective American Dream a reality.

Keep hope alive! There is no need for the dream of African American homeownership to die.

We can explore new mortgage products, demand that banks lend to borrowers with lower credit sores, and even push for programs that allow for no down payments at all. I am not sure what the solution is, but what I do know for sure is that there is no single solution. The answers may not be found in any one of the aforementioned strategies, but we have to figure something out.

We need to begin chipping away at this now for the sake of future generations, for the sake of grandchildren like my own.

In the absence of systemic change, we have to rely upon ourselves to create our own destinies.

We must plant a stake in the ground and build Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA wealth by our own individual selves. Nobody will President and CEO do this for you. Nobody will save you, especially january 2016

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ECONOMICS

Savings Rates of African-Americans It is hard to save enough when you do not earn enough to save. Nothing could be further from the truth for a statement such as this than it is for African Americans. While AfricanAmerican buying power has indeed crossed the threshold of $1.1 trillion, as of 2015, with more blacks earning college degrees than commonly believed, and more black households reporting an income of $75,000 or more, there are still negative impacts of the recession ringing true for African Americans when it comes to savings, be it personal, for retirement, or just in terms of net worth.

To start with, numerous statistics have found that the average median household income for African Americans is about twenty percent less than the median household income held by the general population. A study released in 2013 by Prudential also found that this group tended to save less than other groups. Prudential

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found in their study that the median household savings for African Americans was equivalent to $40,000, which does include retirement savings as well. However, it is far lower in comparison to the average median household savings for the general population, which Prudential found to be $97,000.

It was found that forty-five percent of all adultaged African Americans participated in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. This is only 6 percent lower than the fifty-one percent rate of the general population. However, why is this?

One reason studies point to as to why African Americans tend to save less despite their household income rising is family responsibilities.

A staggering forty percent of black households are headed by single women – women with no partner or spouse. This is much higher than the

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ECONOMICS

twenty-six percent rate of female-only heads of household for the general population. Beyond this immediate obligation, Prudential found that thirty-three percent of black households financially support children and or grandchildren who are younger than eighteen years old. It is worth noting that nine percent of this group’s home are supporting parents or grandparents.

When it comes to the general population, studies find that only twenty-five percent support children, while four percent support parents or grandparents.

Debt has a major impact on savings, of course.

Here, African Americans are disadvantaged as well. In 2013, this group was found to have a median household debt of $18,000, which does not include mortgages. However, this is roughly fifty percent higher than the general population.

It is also worth noting that African Americans are also affected more deeply by retirement, considering the group, on average, retires at fifty-six years old. This is three years younger than the general population.

Since the recession, wealth inequality has widened along the racial and ethnic lines. In 2013, the median wealth of black households was found to be thirteen times smaller than that of white households. This is even greater than the rate in 2010, which is where whites had eight times the wealth as black households.

When looking at the Hispanic demographic, white households were found to be more than ten times as much in 2013. However, in 2010, the difference between whites and Hispanics was nine times a difference.

It is interesting to know that the current difference between blacks and whites is at the highest level it has been since 1989. In 1989, whites were found to have a household wealth that was seventeen times that of black households. With

regards to the difference between whites and Hispanics now, the current level has not been seen since 2001.

It is worth noting, however, that since the “Great Recession� stability in household wealth across the board has declined. Between 2007 and 2010, the average net worth of families in the United States decreased by almost forty percent.

Contributing factors to this can be seen as tightening credit, a declining real estate market, and less confidence in the stock market. Federal Reserve date finds, however, that the median wealth for white households increased by 2.4 percent between 2010 and 2013, which is starkly different when compared to the experiences of black and Hispanic household during the recovery period of the recession.

The Federal Reserve finds that between 2010 and 2013, the median income for minority households fell by nine percent. This is far, far less than the decrease of one percent for white households. In a nutshell, this makes it evident that minority households would have had quite the same opportunity to replenish savings as white households and or these groups had to use their savings for a longer period of time than whites.

There is good news in all this smoke, however.

Many blacks have been found to feel that they are better off now than they were just a few years ago, and certainly many feel they are better off than their parents. There are many factors in the savings rate for African Americans and other groups which are very deep and complex, such as home equity, stock market investments, and retirement savings plan. Nonetheless, African Americans continue to be at a disadvantage, but through the power of education and buying property can make the necessary moves to close these gaps.

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REAL ESTATE

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Real Estate Market Focus:

PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia real estate market has recovered from a lag in early 2014 as a result of a difficult winter deterring potential homebuyers. Philadelphia has, in the recent past, remained less exposed to the housing crash in comparison to other parts of the U.S. with reduced overbuilding as well as a smaller run-up in prices. Affordability, although it is an issue, has remained more stable as compared to other major east coast housing markets; although foreclosures remain a large issue within the city. A sale of existing homes slowed in early 2015 as the rate of mortgages is expected to rise in 2016, thanks to pent-up demand as well as job and income gains as well as increased access to mortgage credit. Further, home price growth has slowed down to low single digits in addition to maintaining that

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pace, consistent with growth in income; therefore, sustainability is achieved in the long run. Single-family home construction is expected to reduce modestly over the coming years as a result of weak population growth alongside rising mortgage rates.

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REAL ESTATE

Figure 1: Adapted from National Association of figures; however, industry experts estimate that the price may ease in future. The growth Realtors; Fiserv, Inc. in prices has largely been assisted in removing Philadelphia’s housing market has shown an Philadelphia from post-market recession price upward trend following years of turmoil fuelled drawbacks. Overall, it is clear that Philadelphia by the global economic crisis witnessed in 2008. has clearly lagged behind in terms of appreciation As it stands, Philadelphia’s housing market is rates recorded in other parts of the country. estimated to boast of more than 3,600 housing units for sale. Considering that the number of This makes Philadelphia less desirable to homes sold in Philadelphia has hit 11,500, the investors initially. After all, who wants to put inventory is encouraging. The increasing pace money into a unit that will not bring in more of home sales in Philadelphia has been largely value? While this is true, one cannot doubt the attributed to reduced interest rates alongside potential in Philadelphia real estate. This is the the strengthening U.S. economy. The favorable “City of Brotherly Love”, a city of culture and conditions have positively impacted the time history. Philadelphia, or Philly as it is called by that homes spend on the market before a buyer is the locals, was the birthplace of this proud nation found, which is a great sign for those wanting to that retains the character of the former capital as sell their homes in the city. In 2014, the average well as innovative new additions. days that a home spent in the market before being sold was seventy-eight days, which is five days Stunning attractions such as the Franklin Institute, an interactive museum dedicated to its founding less than in 2013. father, is a remarkable place of learning for all Affordability is also an issue that acts as a ages that brings the community to life. Families main driver in Philadelphia’s housing market. that have the opportunity to live within walking Although affordability in Philadelphia has been distance to this amazing attraction will be able relatively strong, today it is weaker than in 2014, to cultivate learning in their children and spark as opposed to interest rates. Thankfully interest excitement. Places like this will bring in tenants rates have not risen after the Federal Reserve or homebuyers looking for location, location, decided to abstain from making homeownership location.

Being in Philadelphia also allows you to become even less affordable. immersed in the culture of Rocky, cheesesteaks, In terms of the median home prices, Philadelphia’s or even the premium college opportunities housed performance was modest in comparison to the in the University of Penn, Temple University, rest of the nation. The median housing price was Drexel University, and more. There are so many estimated at $227,200 that is $15,000 compared rich opportunities in this bustling metropolis to the national median housing price (Realtytrac, that there seems to be no reason not to invest in 2015). Like other major markets in the U.S., Philadelphia. this was an appreciation compared to last year’s

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REAL ESTATE

A great way for investors to make money is to buy multiple unit properties within the city. This is because it is estimated that 7,184 homes in the Philadelphia are faced with foreclosure or have been subjected to some delinquency stage already. It has further been reported that the number of properties receiving foreclosure filing in Philadelphia was at 17% lower compared to the previous month but 16% higher compared to last year (Philadelphia Market Outlook 2015). The overwhelming majority of delinquent properties in Philadelphia are of the preforeclosure variety. Making up 47.9 percent of the current market, pre-foreclosures are

actually down from this time last year. Auction properties make up the second largest group of foreclosures at 39 percent, and bank owned foreclosures round it out at 13.1 percent (Realty Trac 2015).

This means that homeowners will be looking for rental opportunities once their homes are foreclosed on. This, however, is a slippery slope.

You must be extremely careful in whom you chose to allow as your tenant. Background checks and credit checks are vital. Do not allow anyone to sign the lease that cannot afford it.

In reality, sales volume of houses

in Philadelphia continued to remain strong over the last quarter of 2014 after remaining below average for a majority of the last five years. Just slightly more than 15,600 homes were transacted in the 4th quarter, a rise from 14,500 in the same period a year ago. The cooling off of prices contrasts with the heating up of home sales, which have typically moved in the same direction over time.

In the city recent increases in lower-priced sales are the cause of this outcome, as the housing recovery has continued to become more widespread across Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.

This does not appear to be the case in the suburbs; however, as recent sales of lower-priced homes have not exhibited a similar surge.

With a large African American and Hispanic population, this city is perfect for seizing the opportunity in housing reforms.

Bringing the homeownership rate of African Americans in particular up from below fifty percent will allow Philadelphia to bounce back from the recession and to move on.

References • Bureau of Census; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Bureau of Economic Analysis; National Association of Realtors; • National Association of Home Builders; FHFA; Moody’s Analytics; The PNC Financial Services Group • Philadelphia Market Outlook, 1st quarter, 2015. https://www.pnc.com/content/dam/pnc-com/pdf/ aboutpnc/EconomicReports/Regional%20Economic%20Reports/Philadelphia_2015Q1.pdf january 2016

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Our Cover

OUR COVER

Congresswoman Maxine Waters One of thirteen raised by a single mother in the St. Louis housing projects, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-California) knows about hard work. It was instilled in her at a young age. In the early 1950s, barely a teenager, she headed into the workforce, taking jobs in factories and segregated restaurants to help support her family.

The Congresswoman would eventually move from St. Louis to Los Angeles, where she attended California State University. By the time she earned her bachelor’s degree, she was a divorced mother of three raising her children on her own. The thought of entering politics seemed like a longshot back then. It was not until she began working with children in a Head Start program that motivated riots broke out in her district after she realized helping people was her life’s four police officers were acquitted in the calling. beating of an African American motorist.

“One of the leading freedom fighters in “It helped me see how I could help people, the United States Congress is none other and it steered me into politics,” she noted, than the extraordinarily dynamic Maxine “I just wanted to make life better for some Waters,” the LA Sentinel proclaimed. people. Everybody deserves a good quality “Congresswoman Waters does not bite life. There’s too great a divide between the her tongue.” Indeed, she has pushed back haves and the have-nots, and I believe I can against political brass time and time again do something to change that.” on behalf of the black community, and by her second term she was chosen to lead the It was these early life experiences that Congressional Black Caucus. molded Congresswoman Waters into the fearless politician that she is today. For the Congresswoman Waters focused many of her last four decades, she has proven a tireless efforts on increasing economic opportunity advocate for women, families and the for the black community. Housing has been African American community. one of her primary focal points, especially in recent years with the collapse of the U.S. She’s made urban issues her own, as early housing market in 2008. as her first term in Congress when racially-

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OUR COVER

While some of her colleagues were scrambling to save big banks, Congresswoman Waters fought to protect Americans from foreclosure and keep them in their homes. As Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, she authored the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which would provide grants to cities, states, and nonprofit organizations to buy delinquent properties and redevelop them in an effort to stabilize communities to prevent the spread of blight.

to require banks to work more closely with homeowners to modify their loans, and to provide housing counseling for those at most risk of default. These efforts have proven especially beneficial to the African American community given that it faced foreclosure rates higher than any other demographic coming out of the recession.

Despite these important efforts, for the last eight years the nation’s homeownership rate has continued to fall, down to 63.7% in early 2015 from a peak of nearly 70% in 2004. Facing few options, many homeowners lost their homes during the recession and now have credit scores too low to qualify for a mortgage. This flood of renters has reduced the national vacancy rate to its lowest point in nearly twenty years. In many metro markets like Los Angeles where Congresswoman Waters serves, almost half of all renters are considered “cost-burdened,” spending more than thirty percent of their income on housing alone.

“Often overlooked are the devastating impacts that foreclosure, blight and abandonment have on surrounding communities, both in economic and human terms,” Congresswoman Waters wrote in an opinion editorial for The Hill.

“Many people know foreclosures significantly drag down property values. However, associated neglect also weighs on municipalities as a whole.

They strain the resources of police and fire departments. They cause local governments to lose vital property tax revenue. And they serve as magnets for crime and other misdeeds—draining precious resources, while giving nothing back to This is why Congresswoman Waters has fought the community.” so hard to expand the Section 8 program. She introduced legislation that would reform, Through her efforts, the Congresswoman improve, and increase the number of people helped to secure almost $7 billion to fund the eligible, so that no tenant is ever at risk of Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which has homelessness. led to the creation of more than 59,000 units of affordable housing while demolishing 23,000 Yet as is so often reported in the media, the divide abandoned properties that were a drain on between the haves and the have nots – the same cities’ resources. Congresswoman Waters would divide that Congresswoman Waters set out to later go on to introduce the Project Rebuild address so many years ago – continues to grow.

Act of 2013, a follow-up to the Neighborhood As startling proof: The median wealth of white Stabilization Program. It would have provided American households is twenty times greater an additional fifteen billion to rehabilitate than the wealth of black American households. distressed properties, but the bill was ultimately stalled.

In 2015, the Congresswoman displayed another act of commitment to the black community by Congresswoman Waters knows that the best introducing the “Wealth Gap Resolution” that way to prevent blight is to prevent foreclosure has attracted more than fifty co-sponsors. altogether. As such, she’s been at the forefront of policy to reform how mortgages are serviced, january 2016

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OUR COVER

“Wealth is the difference between sending your children to college or not…It’s the difference between retiring with a comfortable next egg or relying on Social Security. And it’s the difference between starting your own business or working at a low-paying job,” Congresswoman Waters explains. “So when we talk about the wealth gap and economic equality, we’re not just talking about the numbers. We’re talking about pulling families out of poverty, keeping them out of poverty, and ensuring that their children and their grandchildren never fall back into poverty again.”

Congresswoman Waters has also joined the fight to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored entities that makes homeownership affordable to low- and moderate-income borrowers. Homeownership is one of the leading tools for wealth building.

The MReport, a publication of the mortgage banking industry, named Congresswoman Waters to its 2015 “Power Players” list for

her contributions to affordable housing and mortgage reform, calling her one of “the innovators shaping our industry.”

To be sure, not all of her efforts have been successful and others still hang in the balance (e.g. the “Wealth Gap Resolution”). But by all indications, there’s plenty of fight left in Congresswoman Waters. She continues to display the same work ethic and dedication today that she did when she was just 13 years old working in the St. Louis factories.

“If you believe in something, you must be prepared to fight. To argue. To persuade. To introduce legislation again and again and again,” she said back in November 1990.

“Too many Black politicians want to be in the mainstream…my power comes from the fact that I’m ready to talk about the Black people.” Close to forty years later, she is still doing just that.

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A Lasting

Legacy

LEGACY MONTH During the month of February, we think and talk a lot about legacy. It is the month we honor the legacy of African American individuals and organizations whose achievements and sacrifices lifted a people from slavery to freedom and from Civil Rights to the White House. At some point in our lives, we begin to ponder our legacy - what are we leaving behind that lets others know we were here. Next month we honor women, afterwards the contributions of the myriad of native and non-native peoples that have historically contributed to this great United States of America and the world!

I believe most people strive or thrive to leave some type of legacy within their family, community, or the world at large. Unfortunately, leave the mortal world feeling as if they have left nothing of significance because they use a very narrow measurement for legacy. Is it your name on a building, a street renamed after you, a large college endowment, or a high political office that classifies legacy?

Did Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, John F. Kennedy, or Rosa Parks concern their daily contributions with thoughts of their legacy or did they just offer actions that BECAME january 2016

legacies we remember and benefit from? The legacy of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities started in church basements. The legacy of the demise of Jim Crow started in a seat at the front of the bus. The legacy of doors of equal access started at lunch counters.

The legacy of the right to vote started with volunteering to ride buses and advocate in the deepest south. Blacklisted organizations such as SNCC, SCLC, and the NAACP provide a lasting legacy of organized, peaceful empowerment. The legacy of President Barak Obama will forever be remembered as “Yes We Can!� So, how are you defining, creating, and leaving legacy?

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YOU

THE POWER OF LEGACY The majority of you reading this magazine and connecting to the Power Is Now are working vehemently to help yourselves and others leave a worthy legacy. We are all benefitting from the worthwhile legacy nurtured by Real Estate entrepreneur, Eric Frazier and his associates.

Homes, land, commercial properties, financial wealth, are the physical legacies we work to leave the many who historically have had so little as well as others who continue their legacy quests.

Your financial goals and dreams are noteworthy and necessary. The time IS now or never!

However, let us add another vital and arguably more important legacy to leave behind and we do not have to physically die or exhaust ourselves to leave it! It is the same legacy the aforementioned individuals and groups have left and continue to share. A legacy that never dies!

It is a legacy that EVERY SINGLE individual on this planet can leave IF they are purposefilled and enabled to do so. It is a legacy that bequeaths self-knowledge, self-worth, civic responsibility, sisterly love, ethnic pride, respect for others and care for mother earth. You cannot leave this legacy in a bank or other material possessions. It is a legacy of great power with the ability to change the course of history! It is a legacy that in the right hands heals a nation - ask MLK, Jr, Mother Teresa. It is a legacy that in the wrong hands destroys world peace - ask Hitler, Pol Pot. Good, bad or ugly, all of us reading and connecting with “The Power Is Now” are consciously or unconsciously living and leaving this legacy daily. This legacy requires the same amount of intentionality as amassing wealth.

It requires daily focus, self-correction, and purposeful sharing. Unfortunately, too many are sharing a toxic legacy, which they individually or collectively received from the past, into the present that leads to a continual perpetuation of self-loathing, self-centeredness, and a lack of brotherly love.

WHAT IS THIS LASTING LEGACY? LANGUAGE LEGACY Have you ever thought that the only way we connect with legacy is through the recording of it? Whether in cave writings, oral histories, history books, ledgers, wills, recorded speeches, even the present-day social media craze; our shared legacies have been captured for future knowledge. This is how we continue to share and appreciate the world-renowned “I Have A Dream Speech” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or the heart-stirring “Shuttle Challenger Disaster Memorial” delivered by the late President Ronald Reagan or the soul-searching speech “The Perils of Indifference” by Holocaust survivor Eliezer (“Elie”) Wiesel or the call to our humanity speech “Adopting the Declaration of Human Rights” by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt or the sacrificial speech “Ending His 25 Day Fast” delivered Cesar Estrada Chavez…by these and countless others, we know who we are!

So I place before you the most important question concerning YOUR legacy, will your children know WHO they are because of the material legacies you have left (howbeit important and significant) or by the WORD implanted into their soul? Will they be able to thrive solely on assets you have left behind? When the challenges to their purpose, passion and life contributions

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YOU

arise, will your material legacy provide the tenacity they need to stay the course or will they be able to reach down deep within to bring forward that WORD of encouragement and wisdom that creates hope, peace, and fortitude in the midst of life’s difficulties.

It is not the material gifts that exist forever, but the legacies of purpose, selflessness, passion, and love. How are these characteristics shared?

YOUR WORDS! Your “daily word” is the most powerful legacy you family and community can inherit! Of course, let us layup material inheritance for our children and our children’s children, but more so share and leave words of love, wisdom and personal empowerment that lifts up family, community, and the world we live in.

To paraphrase an old proverb, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” Leave your family the inheritance that allows them to “fish for a lifetime”! First comes the thought, then the thought becomes a word, and then the word becomes a life! Wealth, poverty, love, thankfulness, healing, war, are ALL conditions of the human heart. Out of the heart come the thoughts, words, and deeds of humankind. The question is “HOW” do they get there.

january 2016

LANGUAGE INHERITANCE! In addition to the legacy of material wealth and enterprise, leave the one inheritance that truly helps to change, empower, and heal lives – WORDS that create a life and a world worth inheriting!

P.S. Perkins, Author Founder and CEO, Human Communication Institute, LLC www.hci-global.com

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by Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA CA BRE: 1980407 NMLS: 1435243

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INSANITY

is doing the same thing … and expecting different results.

by David Avrick President of Avrick Consulting Inc.

This comment, attributed to Albert Einstein in 1951, has been used by many others, and with good reason. It’s applicable to many things in everyday life. Let’s look at how it applies to real estate advertising.

They hardly ever sell beer; they sell sex, and fun and good times. Everyone wants those things, and this beer promised to deliver those benefits.

The real estate company that will prosper will understand WIFM and change their ads to present benefits, not just features.

Realtors spend a great deal of money advertising their listings. Newspapers and specialty Everyone wants something free. BOGO publications sell hundreds of thousands of pages (Buy One, Get One free) dominates television of real estate advertising. advertising. And many retailers use this approach successfully. But you never see a real But your ads look and feel exactly the same as estate company offering anything free. Yet, you all of your competitor’s ads. And while everyone have lots of things you can and should be able to keeps doing the same thing, they hope to have offer for free. different results.

You can provide free information about mortgage The two most important words in advertising are rates. You can provide a free market analysis.

YOU and FREE. But you never see either of You can provide free maps and tours. You can these words used in real estate marketing. provide a free guide to local public and private schools. There are hundreds of pamphlets People are not interested in you, or your company. available that you can offer, which are free or They are selfish and mostly interested in WIFM costs pennies.

(What’s In it For Me?). Real estate ads focus on FEATURES … such as lot size, square feet, When you combine YOU and FREE, your number of rooms, heating systems, etc. But no advertising will generate results and you’ll one wants features, everyone want BENEFITS. become the leader, not just a follower that keeps A deck is nothing but a lot of wood planks with doing the same thing, and hoping for different a railing, until you redefine it as enjoying the results. summer weather, barbeques, kiddie pools and socializing with friends and neighbors. A school two blocks away is just a measurement, until you define it as the option which lets children walk to and from school on their own.

A good example of WIFM is beer advertising. january 2016

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the AfricanAmerican Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.

Dr. King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia (the Albany Movement), and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing speech. There, he established his reputation as King, had been framed or acted in concert with one of the greatest orators in American history. government agents persisted for decades after the shooting.

On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for racial inequality through King was posthumously awarded the Presidential nonviolence. In 1965, he helped to organize the Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Selma to Montgomery marches, and the following Gold Medal. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was year he and SCLC took the movement north to established as a holiday in numerous cities and Chicago to work on segregated housing. In the states beginning in 1971, and as a U.S. federal final years of his life, King expanded his focus holiday in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. to include poverty and speak against the Vietnam have been renamed in his honor, and a county War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a in Washington State was also renamed for him.

1967 speech titled “Beyond Vietnam”.

The Martin Luther King Memorial statue on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was dedicated In 1968, King was planning a national occupation in 2011. of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_ followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations Luther_King,_Jr.

Barack Obama S he did not know it at the time, but on August 4, 1961, a woman in Honolulu, Hawaii gave birth to a boy that would go on to become the 44th president of the United States of America:

Barack Hussein Obama.

In the winter of 2008, the eloquent, charismatic, and affable Senator from Illinois would be swept into the White House behind the powerful campaign slogans of “Yes We Can” and “Change We Can Believe In.” Becoming the first black president of a nation with a poor historical record of how it has treated its black constituents, the Obama victory was a monumental event. Along with the race factor, Obama’s level of optimism and genuine concern for all Americans created a Joe Wilson (R), who yelled out “You lie!” as the state of euphoria among the American electorate president was talking. that had never been witnessed before.

Sadly, it did not last long.

“I think a good place to start would be for both Democrats and Republicans to say, ‘We are willing to experiment and invest on anything that works.”

In hindsight, the level of disrespect that President Obama has had to put up with during his time in office should have come as no surprise, given the level of disrespect candidate Obama had to put up with during his campaigns, both in 2008 and again in 2012. His past work as a community organizer in Chicago was ridiculed. His Christian faith was challenged with the charge that he was in fact a Muslim. His American citizenship was called into question by a clamoring parade of fools who came to be known as “birthers.” He was even interrupted in the middle of a health care speech to Congress by South Carolina Rep.

Still, even with the fierce opposition he has faced from members of Congress from the opposing party, Obama has managed to accomplish a significant amount. Among the legislations that bear his name are the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (which provided stimulus to keep the nation afloat during the Great Recession), and Race To The Top (which enticed states to revamp their education systems in order to compete for federal education funding). In addition, he repealed the military’s policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for homosexual members, expanded stem cell research, and ended the unpopular war in Iraq.

“When it comes to issues of security against terrorist threats as well as against infectious diseases, these threats know no borders.”

On the foreign policy front, however, his terms in office have been marked by some very unfavorable decisions. While his call to authorize the raid which led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden Laden provided a temporary boost to his approval rating, his over-zealous use of drone attacks to take out suspected terrorists (and, all too often, innocent village bystanders) has brought him much criticism from all corners of the political and social sphere. He also has taken heat for the National Security Agency’s overly prying surveillance of American citizens, as well as for the spying and phone tapping incidents of leaders of American allies such as Germany and France.

pposedly stood for. But Obama’s legacy should also be defined by his never-ending crusade for fairness. Fairness for blacks, fairness for whites . . . fairness for all. He is a champion of the people, and it will be his titanic level of compassion, and not his color, that will solidify his place among the annals of beloved American Presidents from ages past.

“There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America—there is the United States of America.”

Yet through it all, Obama has remained steadfast in his conviction that the promise of equality of opportunity for all remain part of the American conscious, both on paper and in practice. His speeches recognize that the modern world is different from decades past, and that those without certain technical skills will find it harder and harder to advance given the pace of technological growth. But time and time again, he comes back to the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, America should reward you with a better life for you and your family.

No doubt the history books will put his race front and center, highlighting the historic significance of America’s first black president. It makes sense, given that it was only 200 some-odd-years-ago that the purchase and sale of black human beings was still permitted, a practice that flew in the face of everything the United States of America su-

Source: Barack Obama. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:36, Jan 28, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/ barack-obama-12782369.

alex haley Born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley in Ithaca, I NY on August 11, 1921, Mr. Haley went on to become one of the most influential writers America has ever produced, African American or otherwise.

t

His formative childhood years were marked by an extreme admiration for his father, who was a World War I veteran, a graduate in Agricultural Studies from the prestigious Cornell University in upstate NY, and an eventual college professor at several southern universities. Alex realized early on the racial obstacles that his father had had to overcome to accomplish what he did both professionally and academically in his life, and these immense feelings of pride would play a large impact on his later literary work.

came in 1962, from a rather unexpect e d sourc e :

“I look at my books the way parents look at their children. The fact that one becomes more successful than the others doesn’t make me love the less successful one any less.”

He joined the United States Coast Guard as a mess attendant in 1939 at the age of 17. Between his time cooking in the galley and cleaning bed linens, he wrote love letters for his shipmates who wanted to send amorous cards back home.

With his portable typewriter that he brought onboard, he also began submitting short stories and articles to publishers back in the states. Though most were rejected, his spirits remained high. For he knew what his calling was in life, whether his submissions were being published or not: his calling was to be a writer.

Playboy magazine.

Say what you will about publications that revolve around the naked female body, but the staff at Playboy recognized that African-Americans were a very underexposed group of American society.

They assigned Haley to conduct an interview with legendary trumpet player Miles Davis, and after seeing how successful it was, contracted him to do a series of sit-downs with other prominent African-Americans. “The Playboy Interviews,” as they would come to be called, brought Haley face to face with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., Like all aspiring writers, Haley struggled as a fre- Quincy Jones, Martin Luther King Jr., and, as fate elancer soon after leaving the service to make ends would have it, Malcolm X. meet. He endured the early hardships, knowing, as most great writers do, that dues have to be paid before arriving at the big break.

While meeting with Malcolm X, Alex Haley approached the famed civil rights leader about the idea of writing a biography on his life. Two years later, The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told To Alex Haley was published, cementing forever the legacy of Malcolm X’s contributions to the black movement, and signaling the arrival of writing star Alex Haley.

human view of slavery”. Television network ABC even adapted Roots into a television miniseries that attracted a record-shattering 130 million viewers.

The gripping tale was extremely well received by all, garnering such high praise as the following review in The New York Times: “No other novelist or historian has provided such a shattering,

Source: Alex Haley. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:44, Jan 27, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/ alex-haley-39420.

For the African-American community in particular, Roots resonated in a very personal way.

Haley had made a connection with fellow black Americans, a connection that was rooted in their Still moved by the sacrifices his father had made silent desire to know their ancestors’ history as for his family many years ago, Alex set out on his well. next project just 14 days after the publication of Malcolm X’s biography.

Haley died as a highly decorated veteran, but his most lasting contributions to the world will be the “I asked myself, what right had I to be sitting words he left behind. During President Obama’s in a carpeted high-rise apartment writing about second inauguration, Republican Senator Lamar what it was like in the hold of a slave ship?”

Alexander took to the podium to introduce the returning President and Vice President with these It is often commented that the black experience words: in America has been characterized not just by a lack of rights, freedoms, and opportunities, but “Ladies and gentleman, the late Alex Haley, the also by a lack of identity. Given the complete dis- author of Roots, lived his life by these six words: regard of family ties exhibited by slave owners, find the good and praise it.” mothers, fathers, and children were often separated through slave auctions. This led to generation Given the unfairness and evil that Mr. Haley after generation of black children growing up wi- came across through both his personal life and his thout knowing that most basic question of family research, it is a testament to his character that the history: who came before me? true nature of the world did not jade him into fullblown pessimism. His spirit, like his works, and Alex Haley turned this pressing question into the like the nation that embraced him, was uplifting.

1976 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Roots, which did much to catapult the still African-American Haley died of a heart attack on February 10, 1992, subculture into the national conscious. During at the age of 70. May he rest in peace. his research phase, Haley even experienced the overseas voyage from Africa to America in the cargo hold of a ship, wearing nothing but his underwear.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS A round 1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland. From an early age, young Frederick (who later changed his last name to Douglass) displayed a passion for words and education that foreshadowed the literary heights to which he would soar to throughout his life. At around age 12, he learned the alphabet from the wife of his owner, Sophia Auld, though it was illegal for slaves to learn how to read and write at the time.

Even after Hugh Auld discontinued the lessons, Douglass continued his education on his own, learning from white children and others in his area.

As with many future leaders, the solitary time they spend reading and digesting ideas prove to be very significant components of their development. With Douglass it was no different.

Through reading newspapers and any other political writings that he could get his hands on, such as The Columbian Orator, his ideological else. After two failed attempts to escape, he opposition to slavery began to take form. finally managed on the third try to make it to NY in 1838. After sending for and marrying Anna “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it Murray, the free black woman from Baltimore is necessary to make a thoughtless one.” who had helped him get away, he and his wife settled in Massachusetts. It was there that Wanting to share his newfound knowledge with Frederick Douglass began to make the oratory his kinfolk, he began to teach other slaves how rounds that would recognize him as one of the to read at a weekly church service. Interest in most eloquent speakers that ever lived. his reading lessons on the New Testament grew so much that his gatherings would often attract “America is false to the past, false to the crowds of over 40 people, all knowing full well present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to that black literacy flew in the face of the law. Once the future.” local slave owners got wind of the congregation, they armed themselves with clubs and stones in His reputation as an abolitionist speaker really order to disperse Douglass and his students. took off after prominent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison published an article on Douglass But in Douglass, the human spirit’s desire to in The Liberator, Garrison’s weekly journal. Even be free in all forms manifested itself fiercely. in the free territories of the north and midwest, Through the printed word, his thoughts were now however, Douglass encountered racial opposition his own, yet his body still belonged to someone

to the topics of his lectures. In 1843, he was chased and beaten by an angry mob until being rescued by a local Quaker family.

After the publication of his still-cherished autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in 1845, Douglass became so well known that he had to flee to Europe to evade capture. He was, after all, still a fugitive, even if he was a best-selling author. Ironically, it was in England, the nation that America fought to free itself from, where Douglass finally raised enough money to buy his freedom back home. He returned to America in 1847, finally a free man.

“Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.”

amendment that extended voting rights to blacks, but not to women.

Infidelities or not, Mr. Douglass has earned his place in the textbooks of the world. His story is compelling because of his drive to liberate first his mind, then his body, and then the minds and bodies of others. It was a drive that stayed with him throughout his life, from childhood, all the way through to his discussions with Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, with whom he met to discuss the treatment of black soldiers and, eventually, black suffrage.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.”

Unfortunately, Frederick Douglass’ name will never grace the walls of the White House. While he could match any president in the speaking arena, he simply fell victim to being born too soon. His legacy, then, is not just about what he was, but about what he could have been. It is not a stretch to think that were it not for the bigotry still present in the American masses, Barack Obama would not have been the first black president when he was elected in 2008. That distinction would belong to a man who stared power in the face and demanded concessions. A man who lived a century and change before. A man by the name of Frederick Douglass.

Having experienced the cruelty of discrimination himself, Frederick Douglass was very sympathetic to any cause attempting to do away with injustice.

His publications, such as the abolitionist newspaper The North Star, and his speeches, reflected his ardent support of another hot-button topic of the times: women’s rights. So admired was he for his solidarity to the movement, that he was invited to attend the historic women’s rights convention of 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY. His verbal prowess served him well, as he wowed the convention with his statement that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man, knowing that women could not at the same time claim that He died on February 20, 1895, of a massive heart same right. attack, and is buried in Rochester, NY. May he rest in peace.

“The soul that is within me no man can degrade.”

For all his triumphs, he found himself mired in controversy at various points in his life. He was an unfaithful husband to the woman who had risked her own safety to help him escape.

And he disappointed many of his strongest fans when he supported the Fifteenth Amendment, an

Source: Frederick Douglass. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:50, Jan 29, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/ people/frederick-douglass-9278324.

GEORGE CARVER George Washington Carver was born to an enslaved Missouri couple sometime during the Civil War Years, most likely in 1864. A week after his birth, he and his family suffered an incredible hardship when he, his sister, and his mother were all kidnapped during a raid. After being sold in Kentucky, he was tracked down and returned to his previous owner, without his sister and mother.

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”

Given the times, he was not allowed to attend the local school, since it did not accept black children.

His owner’s wife, Susan Carver, taught him how to read and write, and it became evident early on that he possessed a profound interest in learning.

His desire was so great that he traveled over 10 miles to the closest black school to continue his studies. After graduating from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas, he was accepted at Highland College.

In the eyes of Highland’s administrators, his aptitude and thirst for knowledge were not enough to overlook his race. When they realized that he was black, he was denied entrance. But he was not deterred. Instead of attending classes, he took up a small plot of land to homestead, so that he could conduct biological experiments and compile geographical records.

wanted to know where it got its color, where it got its life—but there was no one to tell me.”

Realizing the opportunity he had, Carver took full advantage of the university’s resources, quickly making a name for himself as a top-notch botanist through his intensive work in plant pathology.

After earning his bachelor’s of science, he was requested to stay on as a graduate student. His time at Iowa State put him firmly on track to reach the success in the agricultural world that would During this time, he also began to nurture his come to define his life. interest in painting and drawing, using plants and animals as his subjects. His innate talent for Word of his collegiate accomplishments at Iowa sketching the natural world was undeniable, and State reached the ears of Booker T. Washington, he was encouraged to enroll in the botany program head of the famed Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, at Iowa State Agricultural College, eventually Alabama. becoming Iowa State’s first black student.

Seeking to build up Tuskegee’s agricultural department, Washington lured Carver to the “I wanted to know the name of every stone school with a large salary and two private rooms and flower and insect and bird and beast. I

on campus. Considering that at the time faculty members were expected to make do with at least one roommate, the offer George Carver received was a testament to his quality reputation.

Carver did not disappoint. His performance at Tuskegee was not driven solely by his interest in plants, but also by his deep desire to help out his fellow African-Americans, most of whom were stuck in economically unfavorable conditions in cotton-heavy regions of the South. He delved into the study of crop rotation and new cash crops that subsistence farmers could use to improve their well-being. To disseminate the knowledge he had accumulated, he pioneered the use of mobile classrooms that came to be known as “Jesup Wagons,” named after the wealthy financier Morris Ketchum Jesup, who donated large sums of money to the institution.

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”

George Carver was a very spiritual person, and his deep connection with God, and with nature, was evident throughout his life. He immensely enjoyed the work that he did, and the fruits of his labor paid off. Carver was instrumental in developing new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans, and pecans. Through the course of his research, he invented hundreds of new products, including plastics, paints, dyes, and even a kind of bio-gasoline.

His work made him so well known that he was asked to testify before Congress in support of a peanut tariff. President Theodore Roosevelt sought his advice on agricultural matters, as did Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. And in 1916, the British Royal Society of the Arts made him a member, a very rare honor at the time for an American of any color.

“When our thoughts—which bring actions—are filled with hate against anyone, Negro or white, we are in a living hell. That is as real as hell will ever be.”

Though his exploits in science earned him all around respect and admiration, his views on race relations often garnered some criticism from members of the black community. He toured the nation speaking about agricultural innovation and racial harmony, even being invited to some whiteonly colleges in the South. But his message was often too timid for many African-Americans who wanted a more radical call to action.

Still, his success in the agricultural world did much to show white America that African-Americans had much to offer in all sectors of society. His life became a testament to the transformative power of education, a power that when harnessed, can be used to improve the lives of people of all colors.

Carver’s mind was rivaled in sharpness only by the nobleness of his heart. He lived a frugal life, wanting to leave his savings and his artwork to posterity. With his estate, he set up the Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee, with the goal of supporting future agricultural research. The acknowledgement of his generosity lives on forever through the epitaph on his tombstone, which reads, “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.”

George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943, at the age of 78. He is buried next to Booker T. Washington on the sacred grounds of Tuskegee. May he rest in peace.

ellen johnson sirleaf Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born in Monrovia, Liberia, on October 29, 1938. She quickly gained a lifelong appreciation for education, an appreciation which developed in her hometown of Monrovia at the College of West Africa, but also at top American institutions of higher learning. Sirleaf received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Madison Business College in Madison, Wisconsin, a degree in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Master of Public Administration degree from Ivy League heavyweight Harvard University.

“The future belongs to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the resourcefulness, and we have the strength of our people to share the dream across Africa of clean water for all.”

Armed with sterling credentials, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf could have remained in the United States and carved out quite a tranquil life for herself in the wealthiest country on earth. Instead, she chose to return to Liberia to give back to her homeland, and to help see to it that all of its citizens prospered.

If only life had been so kind to her.

In 1980, then Liberian President William Tolbert was overthrown and killed by Sergeant Samuel Doe. Amid the uprising, Johnson Sirleaf was forced to flee, and found herself exiled in Nairobi, Kenya. Over the coming decades, she would leave her country once more, and also spend time in prison for speaking out against the controlling military regime.

She failed to secure the presidency in 1997, but finally, in 2005, Liberia’s “Iron Lady” became Africa’s first ever elected female head of state, and the world’s first black female president. To top off her resume, she was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, which she shared with Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”

“Women work harder. And women are more honest; they have less reasons to be corrupt.”

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s legacy, stemming from her unprecedented political success, will be based on the example she set for women everywhere. In a continent that still lags behind the rest of the world in terms of providing equal opportunities for women in terms of education

and employment, Johnson Sirleaf has shown aspiring girls everywhere that it can be done.

Her feats reflect the seismic gender shifts taking hold across the globe, as evidenced by rising college graduation rates and rising pay for females.

By and large, women seem to be outperforming their male counterparts in the classroom, in the workplace, and in the decision-making realm.

Her words ring true, then: women do work harder, and women are more honest. Johnson Sirleaf has shown the greatness that could be if more of them were to reach positions of power. Positions that male leaders all too often seem to be abuse.

Liberia’s struggle to break free from its corrupt, violent past has not been as smooth as Sirleaf had hoped. Education and employment levels for girls remain poor, and sadly, violent attacks against women continue to be all too common.

But Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will not back down.

She knows what she means to Liberians and women everywhere, and she will continue to push forward. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Rest assured that President Sirleaf will continue to help it bend until the day she dies.

Source: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 09:02, Jan 30, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/ people/ellen-johnson-sirleaf-201269.

gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas on June 7, 1917. Like many black families at the time that had grown tired of the secondclass treatment they received in the segregated South and Midwest, her parents joined the Great Migration North and settled in Chicago. For too many dream seekers, however, the experience of being maltreated was not something that their move North allowed them to escape.

Of the 3 high schools Brooks attended in Chicago, 2 were integrated. It was during her adolescent years where she acutely felt the sting of racial prejudice, and those feelings did much to form her literary work for the remainder of her life.

“I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.”

Most writers feel the calling early on in their lives.

Brooks felt it very early on. At 13, she published her first poem, and by age 16, she already had 75 poetic works to her name. Much of her material appeared in the Chicago Defender, an influential newspaper in the African-American community, which was an integral part of the push for improving quality of life for black people.

The trials and tribulations of the writing profession did not pass over her, as it took her some time to strike it big. To support herself, she had to take work as a secretary. Her interaction with prominent African Americans proved very helpful, especially her conversations with James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes, who encouraged her to read modern poetry by the likes of Ezra Pound and T. S. Elliot.

Soon enough, her talent would garner her a mass audience. Her 1945 collection A Street in Bronzeville thrust her into the national spotlight and earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. Then, five years later, Brooks would become the first African American to be crowned Pulitzer Prize winner, for her book Annie Allen.

“Poetry is life distilled.”

Brooks’ bio is filled with a long list of awards and recognition that few other poets have attained.

At the behest of President Kennedy, she read at a Library of Congress poetry festival in 1962.

In 1994, she was named the Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the highest possible award given by the federal government.

Her lasting legacy, though, will be her commitment brooks-9227599. to bring poetry to individuals of all walks of life.

Even through her fame, Brooks always made time for hosting the workshops and poetry circles for Chicago’s children that made her so loved.

Though originally from Kansas, she became a Chicagoan through and through. It was fitting, then, that her last moments in life were spent in the city that had given her so much, and had helped make her words come alive.

Gwendolyn Brooks lost her battle with cancer on December 3, 2000, at the age of 83. She died at her home in Chicago, Illinois. May she rest in peace, and may her spirit, like the literary gems she left behind, live on forever.

Source: Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks.

(2014). The Biography Channel website.

Retrieved 08:01, Jan 30, 2014, from http:// www.biography.com/people/gwendolyn-

oprah gail winfrey A woman who needs no introduction, Oprah Gail Winfrey came into this world on January 29, 1954, amidst the small farming community of Kosciusko, Mississippi. While we often tend to view rural farming communities as calm, tranquil places, Oprah’s adolescence proved that her surroundings were anything but—she was sexually abused by several male relatives and friends of her very own mother.

Luckily, she was able to relocate to Nashville to be with her father, and she entered Tennessee State University in 1971. Her draw to the television and broadcasting industry was immediate, and after college, she found 8 long years of success in Baltimore, hosting the popular TV chat show People Are Talking.

The major media markets could hold out no more. She was lured to Chicago, made the host of A.M. Chicago, and within a few months took the show’s ratings room from last to first. In 1986, Oprah launched the nationally syndicated Oprah Winfrey Show, and has dominated the daytime talk show scene ever since.

that it overlapped with a sad, sad time for the American talk show industry.

As most shows were taking cues from Jerry Springer on how to be as raunchy and debasing as possible, Oprah went in the opposite direction.

Her shows were meant to be uplifting, not humiliating. While other hosts put strained “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, family and romantic relationships on center stage but what you want is someone who will take the for audiences to gawk at, Oprah put her guests on center stage so that they could heal—and bus with you when the limo breaks down.” in the process, help her viewers heal as well.

It was apparent from the beginning that she What she offered was not embarrassment, but a had it. Displaying a unique package of charm, confirmation that look, we are all human. We all warm-hearted sincerity, and genuine concern suffer, just like you do. for those who she was speaking with, Oprah Winfrey developed a magnetic appeal among Perhaps most appealing about Oprah is her her audiences and viewers at home. What’s so willingness to put her own flaws on center remarkable about her meteoric rise to the top is stage as well. She waged a very public battle against her weight, and after losing 90 pounds,

competed in the 1995 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., inspiring plenty of overweight men and women nationwide to look themselves in the mirror and say, “I can do it too.”

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment.

Own it.”

Through ownership of her own network, the Oprah Winrey Network, Oprah has become one of the wealthiest women on the planet (if not the wealthiest). True to her compassionate nature, she has given away over $51 million to all sorts of causes, making her the greatest African-American philanthropist of all time.

In a time when pessimism on screen sold so well, Oprah will be remembered for bucking the trend.

Her message was and is forever one of optimism, of acknowledging the problem and tackling it head on, no matter how many attempts it takes to overcome. Regardless of race, devoted fans the world over cherish her dearly, as they know that in Oprah Winfrey, they will always have someone who genuinely cares.

Source: Oprah Winfrey. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:35, Jan 30, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/ oprah-winfrey-9534419.

Sojourner Truth Born in upstate New York around 1797, before the Empire state abolished the practice, Isabella Baumfree was the child of a slave couple of Ghanian and Guinean ancestry. In time, however, she legally took the name that has become synonymous with the abolitionist and women’s rights movements in America: Sojourner Truth.

Truth felt the hardships of slavery early on in her childhood. She was separated from her parents after the family’s owner died, sold at auction with a flock of sheep for $100, and then sold twice more in the coming years. The institution continued to tear apart her social ties when her new owner separated her from a lover she had taken.

“It is the mind that makes the body.”

Exhibiting the mental fortitude that would come to be her trademark, Truth escaped in late 1826 with her infant daughter, after her owner broke his word on a promise to set her free. But the chains of slavery continued to haunt her. Her son Peter had been sent to a slaveholder in the South before she had time to go back for him. To secure his return, she had to take the issue to court.

Luck (and fate) were on her side, and her victory marked one of the first times in American history that a black woman had successfully challenged a white man in a United States courthouse.

It was during the following years that she began to leave her mark on the abolitionist movement.

She spent time in a self-sustaining community in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she developed her ideas with well-known abolitionist luminaries such as William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass.

“Truth is powerful and it prevails.”

On June 1, 1843, she officially took the name of Sojourner Truth. How fitting, given that she would devote the rest of her life towards getting others to recognize the simple truth that we are all equal.

Rest assured that her words of steel will live on for generations to come, thanks to her popular memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, and transcripts of her speeches, especially her ubiquitous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech to the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in May of 1851.

Though she did live to see slavery come to an end, she did not have the joy of witnessing much

advance in the way of women’s rights. Another of the items on her agenda, property compensation for ex-slaves, also did not make it through Congress. But her conviction for these two failed propositions showed how deep her wisdom ran.

Women would eventually gain the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Constitutional Amendment in 1920. And the idea of “40 acres and a mule” to compensate former slaves would have done much to give freed blacks a leg up on the economic ladder. Current data showing blacks lagging in homeownership and overall wealth accumulation has roots in a truth that Sojourner Truth knew all too well centuries ago: they started with much, much less.

True to her spirit, Truth continued advocating for the causes she believed in until the day she died.

She passed away on November 26, 1883, at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. May the truth always prevail, and may she rest in peace.

Source: Sojourner Truth. (2014). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:13, Jan 30, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/ people/sojourner-truth-9511284.

muhammad ali Muhammad Ali , born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport’s history.

A controversial and polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is today widely regarded for the skills he displayed in the ring plus the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience. He is one of the most recognized sports figures of the past 100 years, crowned “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated and “Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC. Born Cassius Clay, he began training at 12 years old and at the age of 22 won the world heavyweight championship in 1964 from Sonny Liston in a stunning upset. Shortly after that bout, the appeals board gave no reason for the denial of Ali joined the Nation of Islam and changed his a conscientious objector exemption to petitioner, it was impossible to determine on which of the name. He converted to Sunni Islam in 1975. three grounds offered in the Justice Department’s In 1967, three years after winning the heavyweight letter that board had relied. Ali’s actions as a title, Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. conscientious objector to the war made him an military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition icon for the larger counterculture generation. to American involvement in the Vietnam War. The U.S. government declined to recognize him Ali remains the only three-time lineal World as a conscientious objector, however, because Ali Heavyweight Champion; he won the title in 1964, declared that he would fight in a war if directed to do 1974, and 1978. Between February 25, 1964 and so by Allah or his messenger (Elijah Muhammad). September 19, 1964 Muhammad Ali reigned as He was eventually arrested and found guilty on the Undisputed Heavyweight Boxing Champion. draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing title. He did not fight again for nearly four years— Nicknamed “The Greatest”, Ali was involved in losing a time of peak performance in an athlete’s several historic boxing matches. Notable among career. Ali’s appeal worked its way up to the U.S. these were the first Liston fight, three with rival Supreme Court, where in 1971 his conviction was Joe Frazier, and one with George Foreman, where overturned. The Supreme Court held that, since he regained titles he had been stripped of seven years earlier.

At a time when most fighters let their managers do the talking, Ali, inspired by professional wrestler “Gorgeous” George Wagner, thrived in — and indeed craved — the spotlight, where he was sometimes provocative, frequently outlandish and almost always entertaining. He controlled most press conferences and interviews, and spoke freely about issues unrelated to boxing.

He transformed the role and image of the African American athlete in America by his embrace of

racial pride and his willingness to antagonize the white establishment in doing so. In the words of writer Joyce Carol Oates, he was one of the few athletes in any sport to “define the terms of his public reputation.”

Source: For full biography on Wikipedia click here.

malcolm x Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz [...], was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

Malcolm X was effectively orphaned early in life. His father was killed when he was six and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was thirteen, after which he lived in a series of foster homes. In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison he became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952 quickly rose to become one of its most influential leaders. For a dozen years he was the public face of the controversial group; in keeping with the Nation’s teachings he espoused black supremacy, advocated the separation of black and white Americans and scoffed at the civil rights movement’s emphasis on integration.

Pan-Africanism, black self-determination, and black self-defense, he disavowed racism.

In February 1965, shortly after repudiating the Nation of Islam, he was assassinated by three of its members. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published shortly after his death, is considered one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.

By March 1964, Malcolm X had grown Source: For full biography on Wikipedia click disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leader here.

Elijah Muhammad. He ultimately repudiated the Nation and its teachings and embraced Sunni Islam. After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, including completing the Hajj, he returned to the United States to found Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of AfroAmerican Unity. While continuing to emphasize

rosa parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African-American Civil Rights activist, whom the United States Congress called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”.[1] Her birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, have both become Rosa Parks Day, commemorated in both California and Ohio.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. Others had taken similar steps, including Bayard Rustin in 1942,[2] Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit (Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who were arrested in Montgomery months before Parks.

NAACP organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, although eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts while the Browder v. Gayle case succeeded.[3][4]

the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers’ rights and racial equality. She acted as a private citizen “tired of giving in”. Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store, and received death threats for Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery years afterwards.

Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became Shortly after the boycott, she moved to Detroit, an international icon of resistance to racial where she briefly found similar work. From 1965 segregation. She organized and collaborated to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, to John Conyers, an African-American U.S. president of the local chapter of the NAACP; Representative. She was also active in the Black and Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in Power movement and the support of political town who gained national prominence in the civil prisoners in the US. rights movement.

At the time, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery Source: For full biography on Wikipedia click chapter of the NAACP. She had recently attended here.

W.E.b. du bois William Edward Burghardt “W. E. B.” Du Bois; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After graduating from Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University.

Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Du Bois rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite.

States military.

Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction in America challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. He wrote the first scientific treatise in the field of sociology; and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains insightful essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP’s journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life.

He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States’ Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

Racism was the main target of Du Bois’s polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several PanAfrican Congresses to fight for independence of African colonies from European powers. Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia.

After World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread bigotry in the United For full biography on Wikipedia click here.

LEGAL

s d r a d n ta S r e w o L ie d d e r F d Fannie an

s e g a g t r o M e c n a l a B h for Hig

I

n what seems like a very strange “déjà vu all over again” scenario, the all powerful ruling bodies of conforming home loans have quite possibly set the stage for another housing bubble. With the last housing crisis still fresh in the memories of shell shocked homeowners, and just as some common sense and order has returned to the mortgage industry, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac quietly announced new guidelines to loosen lending requirements for high balance loans, which include loan amounts of $417,001 to $625,500 (2015, Mortgage Bankers Association).

have at least five percent of their own money at stake if the total down payment is less than twenty percent. Under the change, the total down payment, as well as all closing costs can be come from a relative or a grant from other sources as outlined in the new guidelines.

The new guidelines, which went into effect over the weekend of December 12, 2015, will open the doors to many buyers who otherwise couldn’t qualify under the old guidelines, especially younger high earners who have yet to accumulate sufficient funds for a down payment (2015, Mortgage Bankers Association).

The original guidelines for high balance loans were stricter than those for conforming Fannie ? or Freddie loans, requiring a ten percent How Did We Get Here minimum down payment versus a five percent down payment. Second home financing required Fannie and Freddie a thirty-five percent down payment versus 10 are responsible all percent. The new guideline lowers the minimum for down payment from ten percent to five percent.

It also lowers the minimum down payment for second homes from thirty-five percent to ten percent (2015, Consumer Finance).

The second change lifts the requirement that borrowers

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conforming loans – how they are structured, loan requirements, documentation required, how income, asset and credit variables are assesses and the maximum loan amount. Following the devastating mortgage meltdown of 2008, Fannie and Freddie went under a microscope for their practices. The “anything goes” mortgage era seemingly came to an end. The newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), set the tone for more common sense lending requirements which included “prove it to me” lending practices under the Qualified Mortgage (QM) and Ability-to-Repay (ATR) standards.

This raised the bar for all borrowers regardless of the amount of the loan (2015, Mortgage Bankers Association).

well that Fannie Mae feels compelled to change them once again, and these are no small changes.

While there are positives – which include getting more and younger buyers off the sidelines – they may not outweigh the negatives of government induced demand for higher priced housing.

Realtors and mortgage lenders can expect a surge in sales activity at least until higher mortgage rates cool the demand.

The good news is, after a rough start, the new standards and practices have led to some significant improvements in the mortgage industry. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, credit availability is up substantially over the last five years and continues to increase while delinquency rates are decreasing. The Federal Reserve Bank reports that, for the third quarter of 2015, delinquency rates for single family homes have fallen by fifty percent since the first quarter of 2010 (2015, Consumer Finance).

The bad news is the new standards and practices have worked s o

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Of America:

A History of Change African Americans have never had it easy in this country. Slavery, discrimination, prejudice, high incarceration rates, low homeownership rates, low credit, and living paycheck to paycheck have held many in the African American community back from building wealth, success, achieving their dreams. The 100 Black Men of America, Inc, are here to change that.

In New York during the year 1963, African American men met in groups to envision ways of helping the African American community thrive. These visionaries were business and industry leaders such as David Dinkins, Robert Mangum, Dr. William Hayling, Nathaniel Goldston III, Livingston Wingate, Andrew Hatcher, and the ever famous Jackie Robinson.

These visionary men came together to form the 100 Black Men of America, Inc, an organization committed to cultivating the black community in the United States.

to the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of the American Dream. In the next ten years chapters erupted in Los Angeles, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, San Francisco/ Oakland Bay Area, Nassau/Suffolk, Alton, and Sacramento. Men across the country began to form 100 Black Men organizations to leverage their collective talents and resources.

The first of four three-hour meetings was held in Washington, D.C., and representatives from the Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, and St. Louis chapters rushed to participate. This meeting was to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a National Organization for 100 Black Men. This meeting was held during the annual weekend meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus. At the final meeting, the attending chapters decided that the name of the organization would be, “100 Black Men of America, Inc.� This is a day that is continued to be celebrated in the African American community for the start of such an influential and innovative organization.

As with any organization, the start is always the most difficult. Founding members rounded up like minded people to support the cause. Officers were also elected at this meeting. Dr. African Americans all over the nation began to William Hayling (Los Angeles) was deemed subscribe to the beliefs that they too are entitled the president. Moses Gray of Indianapolis was

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appointed the secretary. Oliver Lofton, Esq. of New Jersey was appointed vice-President.

Jesse C. Swanigan of St. Louis was appointed the treasurer. These men worked tirelessly as the first elected officers of 100 Black Men, Inc, caring for and inspiring the African American community for years to come. Through these elected officers 100 Black Men, Inc, bolted out of the starting gate.

of America, Inc, today through his expertise.

Since he was elected, Chairman Dotson has focused the organization on leadership and delivering innovative, relevant, and productive programs in each of the areas outlined in 1994.

Through Dotson’s leadership the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) was brought forward as an opportunity to African Americans.

This institute would be a valuable tool for the members of the 100 Black Men of America, Inc, to refine and better their leadership skills.

The Community Empowerment Project (CEP) also was started, which ensures that the city where the 100 convenes the annual, national conference will always receive a social and societal impact that is sustainable by the community.

This amazing organization came together on May 27, 1987, in Atlanta, Georgia for an unprecedented national conference. Noted speakers included the late Alex P. Haley and the late Honorable Maynard H. Jackson. At this national conference participants learned about how to thrive in the United States as an African American through these experienced speakers, gaining invaluable advice.

Today the organization is proud to have grown to over 116 chapters with more than As time passed the organization expanded. The 10,000 members. These members are striving first national office was opened after forty-three to build the best lives for the current and chapters joined 100 Black Men, Inc. Later, in future generations of African Americans. The 1994 the organization began a more aggressive successful youth organizations within 100 plan that targeted mentoring, education, Black Men of America, Inc. has more than health, wellness, and economic development 100,000 eager participants in its mentoring and as methods to improve the life and future of youth development programs to impact change.

African Americans.In the years following, the Collegiate 100 was formed to focus the next The message of 100 Black Men of America, Inc, generation on mentoring as outlined in this is to constantly better the situation of the African plan. The Collegiate 100 is a subgroup of the American community. With homeownership 100 Black Men of America, Inc, which brings rates lower than any other group in the United in college students to truly influence the fate of States, all African American non-profits rush African Americans. to give aide, knowledge, and inspiration. The Power Is Now celebrates the 100 Black Men of In 2004, Albert E. Dotson, Jr., Esq. was elected America, Inc, and look forward to seeing the the fourth President/Chairman of the Board prosperity brought by this organization. and continues to influence 100 Black Men

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Frazier Group Realty, Inc. As you venture into the World of Real Estate, we can help you put the pieces together and Naviagate you into Home Ownership

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OC Black Chamber of Commerce In 1984 the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce began changing the lives of African Americans in California and beyond. The mission was and continues to be to “advocate and promote black business and economic development within the public and private sectors, resulting in a sound economic base that supports the survival and self-determination of the African-American community (OC Black Chamber).” By saying these powerful words of commitment, the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce dedicates itself to speak up for African Americans throughout the nation. No problem will ever have a solution without advocacy, and this organization will be that advocate. The Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce’s mission also notes that growing businesses and spurring African American economic development for all African Americans is essential for the success of the group as a whole.

Commerce’s mission statement goes on to say that four goals will be erected to ensure that the organization is following the mission statement closely.

These goals are the following: 1. To create access to capital and procurement opportunities 2. To serve as a support vehicle for members by disseminating relevant information: 3. To strengthen the overall organization 4. To support and contribute to the general welfare and progress of the African American community through economic development.

One manner in which the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce has done this is through the Black Chamber Education Fund.

This fund is a scholarship for worthy African American applicants seeking higher education The Orange County Black Chamber of without drowning in unforgiving student loans.

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This education fund will provide guidance, educational programs, and scholarships to youth of Orange County and Southern California to truly assist the community on an individual level. Education is the start of success, and the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce is ready to see success shine through the future black business leaders, presidents, teachers, motivational speakers, and inspirational leaders across the nation. Countless lives have been enhanced and inspired by the scholarship opportunity that they would not have otherwise had.

The Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce also holds annual galas at Now in 2016, the Orange County Black Chamber Disneyland’s Grand Hotel in August. Readers of Commerce has a President and Executive interested in participating should buy their Director, Bobby McDonald, who is excited to tickets as soon as possible, because the gala has celebrate what will be thirty-two years of the been sold out every year in the past three years Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce due to the popularity of the gathering. Last being in operation. This organization continues year the theme was “The Power Of Community to grow and imbue prosperity in Orange County, Connections” to bring Orange County and California, and the nation as a whole. the surrounding areas of Southern California together to be a more influential whole.

True to their mission, the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce also has opportunities By supporting the Orange County Black for seeking employment for African Americans Chamber of Commerce you support African through the job finder on their website. After Americans throughout California and partnering with Jobing.com, the Orange throughout the nation. The influence of this County Black Chamber of Commerce brings group continues to spread and The Power the unemployed or underemployed together Is Now looks forward to the more powerful with employers to help African Americans African Americans built by this organization’s nationwide get back on their feet. assistance.

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MORTGAGE

RentingVs.Owning I speak to many people every day who say that they are not ready to buy a home and choose to rent instead. What is sadly ironic about their choice to rent (and it is a choice) is that renters do not realize that they are paying the property owner’s mortgage, and that there is no such thing as paying rent. Rent is income that property owners receive, and in many cases it equals or exceeds their mortgage payment.

This is a wonderful benefit of owning real estate. Property owners can rent or lease their property and have someone else pay their mortgage payment and more. So, if you are

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paying rent you are actually paying a mortgage that is not your own. Why would anyone do that intentionally? I believe that they would not do it intentionally. They would stop immediately and pay their own mortgage unless renting is a choice.

No one can escape paying a mortgage until the mortgage loan is paid off. So, the question that should be asked of all renters is why are you paying someone else’s mortgage and what are you doing about it if it is not on purpose?

Shouldn’t you have your own mortgage to pay?

Where is the wisdom in your choice? I can

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If you can afford to pay rent, you can afford to buy a home; especially with the Sapphire program, because it provides the down think of many things that most people need or would like to payment and more to buy a home. have in life, but they would never rent regardless of how low or affordable the payment us/j/5443077305 January 19, 2016 at 7:00 PM is. They would just buy their own instead of and get empowered to buy a home now. Please renting it. For example, why would anyone share this message and motivate the renters you rent a TV, couch, bed, or refrigerator? The only know to buy now before it is really too late. The reason would be if they are living far from home Power to Buy Is Now! Join the Buyer’s and temporarily and do not want the expense of Seller’s Club at www.neverrentagain.com and moving their possessions when they will only be get started today. To get preapproved for the gone for a short while.

Sapphire program complete your application online today atwww.applytobuynow.com However, when it comes to long term housing many think that it is okay to rent and it is not okay! I believe a change in mindset is required.

Rent represents the high cost of housing and prevents many from being able to save money to buy a home because of the high cost of rent. Unfortunately, the absence of financial literacy, homeowner role models, and good life and financial coaching are have led to this mindset. Talk to anyone in their late 50s, 60s or 70s, who is not a homeowner, and he or she will tell you what a big mistake the choice was not to buy a home. It was their mindset and not anything else that stopped them. If you make up your mind to buy, then you can buy.

The good news is that it is never too late to learn and to change your mindset. If you can afford to pay rent, you can afford to buy a home; especially with the Sapphire program, Thanks, because it provides the down payment Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA and more to buy a home. Join The President and CEO Power Is Now live at https://zoom.

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TECHNOLOGY

Technology Startup “Point” Helping to Unlock Home Equity For many Americans, owning a home is a great way to establish a solid financial future. Not only do most homes appreciate in value over time, but as homeowners pay down their mortgage they can tap their equity like they would a bank account for expenses. Refinancing or taking out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) can provide low-cost cash for home repairs, college tuition, medical expenses and other costly items.

Yet some homeowners have trouble refinancing and/or qualifying for a HELOC. Disruptions in employment, a low credit score or carrying a heavy debt load are many of the reasons why a bank might hold a person’s home equity hostage.

A Silicon Valley-based startup company is on a mission to disrupt traditional lending practices

january 2016

for the consumers the banking industry has failed.

Point Digital Finance, Inc. allows homeowners to sell a chunk of the equity in their homes to its investors in exchange for a lump sum payment.

It’s a novel concept. As is the case with most deals, the devil is in the details.

Here’s how it works: prospective Point customers provide basic information about their home and household finances. A quick prequalification process will determine whether Point’s investors are interested in pursuing a deal. Typically, Point will offer between 5% and 10% of the home’s appraised value; at a minimum, Point requires homeowners to retain 20% equity in their homes.

Once the terms are agreed upon, Point files a Deed of Trust and Memorandum of Option at

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TECHNOLOGY

the county register’s office. Upon recording, the California house to pay down a mound of lump sum is transferred to the homeowner, less debt that was growing at exorbitant interest Point’s 3% processing fee. rates. Wells Fargo, the bank that held her Deals are structured in 10-year terms.

Homeowners must repay Point during that 10year period, and can do so a number of ways: through sale proceeds or by buying back Point’s stake at any time at the then-market rate. Point requires repayment of the original equity investment, as well as a fraction of any appreciation the home has accrued since the signing of the agreement. If a homeowner defaults on their mortgage, Point can exercise limited power of attorney to take co-ownership of the property.

Point bills itself as the “anti-debt approach to homeownership”. It will work with homeowners who have credit scores as low as 600. Point simply adjusts the costs of its investment based on the creditworthiness of the homeowner and the equity they hold in the property. Point will take a larger percentage of price appreciation from those who it deems riskier customers.

Sarah Edelman, director of housing policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think-tank that promotes economic mobility, notes that Point’s investment strategy “may be appealing to get an upfront lump sum of cash” but warns that consumers “could end up with a more expensive product with harsher repayment terms than they would with a more conventional loan.” This is certainly true. However, there are occasions where homeowners desperately need to draw on their home equity but do not qualify for conventional loan products.

mortgage, would not allow her to refinance or take out a HELOC because her credit score was so low. “I have all this equity in my house but I couldn’t use it,” she told Bloomberg Business. Through Point, she was able to take out $40,000 in equity to pay down a high-interest car loan, personal loan and credit-card debt—expenses that were costing her nearly $2,000 each month. “I can breathe now because all my money isn’t going out the door,” she said.

Point also helped an Apple employee who makes more than $120,000 per year and owns a Mountain View home appraised for $1.38 million. Though she owes only $700,000 on the property, she was unable to obtain a traditional loan for the $85,000 she needed to do home renovations because her credit score clocked in at just 644. For this homeowner, Point was a viable alternative.

Credit markets have been tight since the recession. A number of policy changes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have encouraged banks to ease lending requirements in recent months but “the home-equity market is still very restrictive,” says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate, Inc. A person’s credit score is a primary determining factor as to whether they’ll be able to get a loan. “It starts getting tougher below 680. Below 620 is both really hard and really expensive.”

Point is proving just how nimble startups and As illustration: social worker Nicole technology platforms can be in an industry that Bennett wanted to use the equity in her is often slow to see regulatory change.

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Frazier, Eric, Lawrence is a CA Mortgage Brokerage Licensed by the State of CA BRE 01143484 and is not affiliated with any state or federal agency. Frazier, Eric Lawrence is also licensed by NMLS# 1273606 - www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Frazier, Eric, Lawrence is an equal housing lender. Our corporate office is located at: 3739 6th Street Riverside, CA 92501. Telephone and Fax: 800-261-1634 Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA is a Licensed Loan Originator NMLS# 461807. This is not a commitment to lend or extend credit. Restrictions may apply. Information and/or data is subject to change without notice. All loans are subject to credit approval. Not all loans or products are available in all states.