Radio Talk Show Host Warren Ballentine, Black bankers, and civil rights representatives are teaming up to encourage an economic revolution by encouraging Blacks to do business with Black banks. Pictured front are: Hermnd E. Palmer Jr., vice president, Industrial Bank; Michael Grant, president, National Bankers Association; Kim D. Saunders, president/CEO, M&F Bank; Ballentine; and the Rev. Deforest B. Soaries, Jr., senior pastor, First Baptist Church of Somerset, N.J.; Back: Victor E. Cook, executive director, NBA; Joe D. Briggs, Counsel, NFL Players Association; Hilary Shelton, vice president, NAACP; and B. Doyle Mitchell, Jr., president and CEO, Industrial Bank.

By Hazel Trice Edney

WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) – In his last public message the day before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called on Black people in Memphis to support Black banks.

“We’ve got to strengthen Black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank,” he said in his “Mountaintop” speech at Mason Temple, April 3, 1968. Tri-State Bank, now 65 years old and still in operation, was among the institutions where civil rights demonstrations were planned during that time.

After encouraging people to also support Black insurance companies, Dr. King concluded in his speech, “These are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.”

Felled by an assassin’s bullet the next day, the “follow through” for which Dr. King asked never really happened. Fast forward, 43 years later, an organization of Black and other racial minority banks and a radio talk show host have now united to take up the mantle amidst an economy that is still causing disparate suffering to African-Americans.

Atlanta-based radio talk show host Warren Ballentine and the Washington, D.C.-based National Bankers Association believe reinvesting in Black-owned banks could inspire economic healing and strength in every aspect of the Black community. That’s why they have started “The People’s Economic Movement.”

“If we want to change all the drugs in our community, if we want to change all the violence, if we want to change the educational abilities that our next generation will have, it starts with having the capital available to teach the proper things to do to make a difference,” said Ballentine during a July 15 press conference at the NBA headquarters to announce the new movement.

A lawyer and bankruptcy attorney, Ballentine knows well human behavior as is relates to money.

“If we all come together and just open up accounts – not give your money away, but just open up accounts so that the Banks will have the position to be able to lend of the money to help the community – then people will have accountability because they have ownership and they’re tied into it. And once they have an ownership, they’re going to treat it so much differently than they’re treating it right now,” he said.

In a nutshell, the NBA and Ballentine will officially announce “The People’s Economic Movement,” on August 28, coinciding with the unveiling of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington. Ballentine will encourage people to open accounts in Black banks, which will in turn establish community programs to enrich their customers and neighborhoods.

NBA President Michael Grant sees the self-help movement as a catalyst to the stimulation of “much-needed economic development at our nation’s urban core.”

He said in a statement, “By depositing our money in minority banks, getting mortgages, small business loans or loans for college tuition from banks in our communities, consumers begin a process of harnessing the economic strength of the masses in a way that creates direct benefits to their communities which are still suffering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

Big banks have gotten a bad name during the economic downturn, largely due to their receiving bailout money while record numbers of people lost their homes due to predatory mortgage loans and unemployment. But, Black-owned banks are in a different category.

“Literally, the predatory lending, it wasn’t from the small community banks. That was from the big banks…The banks that we’re dealing with, the members of the NBA, were responsible and conservative and accurate in what they were doing as far as their lending practices in comparison to other banks,” Ballentine said.

Blacks have suffered most in the economic downtown, including unemployment rates that are consistently nearly twice the national average.

The “People’s Economic Movement” will bring hope, Grant said during the press conference. “This campaign is allowing us to give folks something to rally around that they can believe in…This is an opportunity for us. We’ve decided that the NBA can and should play a galvanizing role to pull together elements of our community to start making economic development and finance an issue of importance to our communities.”

Ballentine’s vision has already been put to the test.

Kim Saunders, president and CEO of the 103-year-old M&F Bank in Durham, was applauded by her colleagues at the press conference when she said her bank established more than 60 new accounts in one day as Ballentine used his radio show to encourage people to open accounts during a National Community Reinvestment Day. “In our Charlotte Branch, we had standing room only,” she recalled.

She said her bank has a strong relationship with faith-based communities, does hundreds of financial literacy workshops a year, has more than 1,000 new accounts, including 225 youth savings accounts and have garnered more than a million dollars in deposits.

Saunders is now on radio every Friday featuring customers talking about their M&F experience in learning about banking and establishing relationships that put them in homes and their own businesses.

Small banks teach people everything from how to write a check, balance a check book or pay their bills, Saunders said. “It’s been an amazing campaign…I think this is really what we are called to do.”

The “People’s Economic Movement” is also expected to benefit community development overall. There are approximately 38 Black-owned banks in America. Because of limited deposits, none of them has a lending capacity of more than $3.5 billion, but, in the past, they have pooled their resources in order to fund major projects.

The Rev. Deforest B. Soaries, Jr., senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Somerset, N.J., underscored the importance of the involvement of churches in the campaign.

“After you come to God, the second thing you do in our church is get out of debt and develop a budget and live within your means and pay yourself first,” Soaries said at the press conference. “This is not just the role of the church, but the responsibility of the church. My lifestyle depends on people putting money into the plate, which means that my responsibility is to help them with the money they don’t put in the plate.”

A long time civil rights and community advocate Soaries said people need an option to institutions that set up in neighborhoods to rob people of their money.

“The unbanked and under-banked are using check cashing joints, rent to own, money orders and pay day lenders,” he said.

He also quoted statistics that say one out of five African-Americans don’t have a bank account and another 33 percent have bank accounts but don’t use them. He calculated this to mean 54 percent of Black people in the U.S. are “unbanked or under-banked”.

The NBA – with African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American and Native-American owned banks in 29 cities across the nation – is uniquely positioned to partner with Ballentine to change these conditions, Grant says. Yet, Black banks receive little support from potential customers.

According to an NBA statement, “Economists have estimated that while the African-American community has over one trillion dollars in disposable income a year, it has been estimated that African-American owned banks manage less than 5 percent of the wealth in the communities that they serve.”

That’s about to change, said Grant, referring to the partnership between M&F and Ballentine: “We’ve got to take this model of success and build on it.”

(New America media)

By K. I. Hope

Synopsis: What we eat is harming our bodies and our budget. There aren’t any people profiting, only corporations

America is gaining weight and the most vulnerable populations are those with low levels of education and income, as well as those with black or Hispanic heritage. The most obese state in the country, Mississippi, also happens to be the poorest. And with the rates of obesity increasing in 16 states last year and declining in none, America’s diet is influencing policy, politics and programs.

Unfortunately, the system is working against people, instead of for them. An obesity study released this week through a joint effort by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reveals further evidence of a brewing crisis, not least in the area of food stamps.

According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization monthly Food Price Index for June 2011, world food prices increased by more than 39% June 2010. This comes at a time when more Americans than ever are participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the program for food stamps. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the program added 17 million people in the last four years.

What was once viewed as a social stigma is now an economic necessity for one in seven Americans.

With the influx of food stamp participants, it’s important to note a recent study by Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research that found food stamp recipients have a higher body mass index than non-recipients.

Research scientist Jay Zagorsky, co-author of the study, says the cost of healthy food is a significant barrier to Americans on food stamps. “It would be very difficult for a shopper to regularly buy healthy, nutritious food on that budget.”

Fast Food Stamps

Even as the rate of obesity is increasing in unprecedented amounts, junk food companies are lobbying to increase consumers’ ability to purchase fast food.

Yum! Brands, owner of fast food restaurants KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, is lobbying to make food stamps a form of payment in Kentucky, the sixth most obese state in the country. Only three other states – Arizona, California, and Michigan – currently allow food stamps as legal tender.

Allowing residents of Kentucky, which is also the fifth worst state for fruit and vegetable consumption, greater access to nutritionally-devoid products would be extremely detrimental to their health.

The main argument for allowing food stamps at fast food restaurants is that it provides equal access to food. However, the Centers for Disease Control offers grants to states to fight obesity and expand options for low-or-no income persons, which includes community gardens, new or improved grocery options and healthier independent stores like mom-and-pop cornershops. An increase in these options would eliminate the need for anyone to ingest fast food, regardless of income.

In addition, the debate is raising the issue of how to actually define “food” itself. In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is currently at odds with food manufacturers, who are outraged over his proposal to blacklist sugary drinks and pop from food stamp purchases.

A recent New York Times article, “Soft Drink Industry Fights Proposed Food Stamp Ban,” states that the non-profit Feeding America, an “antihunger” group, opposes Bloomberg’s plan. Feeding America is actually governed by a board of directors composed of executives from companies including Kraft, ConAgra, Mars, Inc., and General Mills – companies whose unhealthy products are composed mainly of the ingredients Bloomberg is determined to eliminate from eligibility for food stamps.

Federal Subsidies Help Unhealthy Ingredients

The flagship products of these corporations receive billions in federal subsidies to keep costs artificially low and the products on every shelf. Unhealthy food isn’t cheaper because it’s less nutrient-dense; it’s cheaper because the government subsidizes its production — and that’s something many Americans simply don’t know about.

The Environmental Working Group reports that the federal government subsidized $261.9 billion dollars between 1995-2010, with the majority of the money going to a select few producers of crops like corn, wheat and soybeans. Other major recipients include the meat and dairy industries. Fruits and vegetables, by comparison, receive 0.37% of subsidies, despite federal nutrition recommendations advocating that one-third of daily food intake be fruits and vegetables.

In 2010, the USDA spent $64.7 billion dollars on food stamps. The same year, the USDA also gave $15 billion dollars in farm subsidies, including $1.7 billion to corn crops, which manufacture the main ingredient in soda — one of the most unhealthy items on many Americans’ daily menus.

At a time when food prices are rising rapidly and health is declining, the federal government is giving money to continue producing products that contribute to illness and obesity, while simultaneously giving people the means to buy these products.

It is as if the government is making the drugs, giving them away, and then wondering why everyone is an addict.

Easy to ignore, the obesity epidemic is often reduced to ridicule in a congress divided over issues like war and unemployment. But this is a crucial juncture, when the convergence of government programs, spending and corporate lobbying is colliding in a way that will impact everyone in America.

What we eat is harming our bodies and our budget. There aren’t any people profiting, only corporations.

The College Fair, Career Fair and Expo Hall are free and open to the public.

“Each year dozens of companies and colleges are eager to share their opportunities to National Urban League Conference attendees,” said Marc H. Morial, National Urban League President and CEO.

The Career Fair not only will match job seekers with employment opportunities, but will feature workshops on topics such as rebooting a resume, applying online and using social media in a job search. Sponsors Chrysler Corporation, McDonalds Corporation, Adecco and Bernard Hodes Group have made it possible for job seekers to access information, assistance and opportunity with recruiters from dozens of corporations and local businesses.

The Project Ready College Fair, sponsored by Fed Ex, offers a “college ready” session for parents and additional public training opportunities for area nonprofit, afterschool, youth development organizations and school staff.

To learn more about the conference or to register, visit  www.nul.org/conference

WHO:              Representatives of premier corporations, government agencies, non-                         profit organizations and colleges and universities from around           the nation.

WHAT:             National Urban League Career Fair, College Fair and Expo Hall

WHEN:             July 28-30, 2011

WHERE:           Boston Convention and Exhibition Center

For more information: www.nul.org/conference

“Woman Thou Art Loosed: On The Seventh Day” begins principal photography with award-winning Actors Blair Underwood, Sharon Leal, Nicole Beharie and Screen Legend Pam Grier at the helm

A woman who attempted to shoot a Chicago Police officer point-blank in the chest multiple times as she fled capture in a 2007 foot chase was sentenced to 55 years in prison, according to the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Shandra Kidd, 22, of the 7700 block of South Phillips Ave., Chicago, was convicted of Attempted Murder of a Police Officer and Unlawful Possession of Weapon by a Felon in connection with the shooting incident, which occurred in May of 2007 on Chicago’s South Side.  Kidd was sentenced to a 55-year prison term in the Illinois Department of Corrections today by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Linehan.

“This is a fitting and a just sentence for anyone who would be so bold as to fire a gun at a police officer,” Alvarez said.  “We are grateful that this officer was uninjured in this incident and we will continue to prosecute violent crimes against police officers to the fullest extent of the law.”

According to prosecutors, Chicago Police officers were responding to a call of shots fired in the area of 78^th Street and Burnham Avenue when they stopped a vehicle that Kidd and two other individuals were in.  Kidd fled the scene on foot and was pursued by one of the officers.  When caught by the officer, Kidd turned and stuck a gun in the officer’s chest and began pulling the trigger.  A struggle ensued, and Kidd and the officer fell to the ground.  As Kidd got up, she again stuck the gun in the officer’s chest and pulled the trigger.  The officer returned fire, shooting Kidd in the buttocks.  When she attempted to shoot the officer Kidd was unaware that the cylinder of the gun had opened and the bullets had fallen out of the gun during the foot chase. 

State’s Attorney Alvarez thanked Assistant State’s Attorneys Shital Thakkar and Deb Lawler for their work on this case.

A call for submissions from TV and Feature Writers

 The Guy Hanks & Marvin Miller Screenwriting Program Sponsored by Drs. Bill & Camille Cosby

Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby

Los Angeles, CA (BlackNews.com) — Starting its eighteenth year, The Guy Hanks & Marvin Miller Screenwriting Program aka The Cosby Program, will be accepting applications from July 15th to September 15, 2011. This program was established by Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Unaffiliated with USC, the goal of the Hanks-Miller Program is to develop the pool of qualified African-American writers in the entertainment industry.

This program meets twice a week for 15-weeks beginning February 2012. It is designed to assist writers in completing a television or feature script, while giving them the opportunity to examine African-American history, culture and iconography. Tuition is free to those selected.

The program is not designed for beginning-level writers. They are seeking writers who have taken the initiative to study television or feature writing through workshops or classes; though a degree in cinematic writing or filmmaking is not required. In an industry that is extremely competitive, we have found our greatest success in assisting those who have a strong foundation in television or screen writing and have a body of work to show for their efforts. Writers selected for this program usually have no produced credits, but are on the brink of great success. They are able to use the product and the relationships they create in this unique workshop environment to advance their careers. The Hanks-Miller Program is credited with introducing more successful African-American writers into the entertainment industry than any other program of its type.

Doreene Hamilton, the program’s Executive Director states that “their alumni are highly respected and sought after. They are a primary recruiting source for the Disney Writing Fellowship, the Fox Diversity Program, the CBS Television Program, the Nickelodeon Writers’ Program and the Warner Brothers Comedy and Drama Writing Program. Our alumni are represented by top agencies including UTA, William Morris, ICM , APA and CAA, to name a few.”

Although obtaining employment is not the primary goal of the program, alumni have used relationships and scripts developed in the program to secure positions as television and feature writers, producers, directors and executives. Our writers have created, written and produced for top ten shows on televisions, as well as news and reality television shows. They have also completed countless freelance assignments. Our Feature writers have not only been produced, but have received honors through “Tribeca All Access,” “Hollywood Black Film Festival,” “Austin Film Festival” and “Fade In Magazine,” to name a few. They have also completed independent features and short films as well.

Their writers have been recognized by organizations including the NAACP; while the Program itself has been recognized by the California Governor’s office, a State Senator and the Los Angeles Mayor’s office.

All are invited you to apply or re-apply to our program. They are always seeking writers with talent and a drive for success.

For more information or to obtain an application visit their website at www.CosbyProgram.com or email them at: cosbyprogram@gmail.com

 Calls on Iowa to accept funding, allow continuation of construction plan

Rock Island, IL – While welcoming national and international visitors to the Rock Island Train Festival, Lt. Governor Sheila Simon encouraged Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to finalize his state’s rail plan and move forward with design and construction of a Chicago to Iowa City rail connection.

Progress on the Chicago to Moline portion of the line is moving slowly, as federal funding will not be released to Illinois until Iowa decides whether it will provide matching state funds for the Moline to Iowa City extension, Simon said.

“I want to see leaders in Illinois and Iowa working together to bring passenger rail from Chicago to Iowa City so we can create jobs, spur economic development and provide a fast, affordable connection between these vibrant communities,” Lt. Governor Simon said at the festival’s kick-off ceremonies.

In 2010, Governor Quinn announced a federal commitment of $230 million to the rail project to supplement $45 million in state capital funds. The federal portion was issued jointly to Iowa and Illinois and will not be released until both parties agree to the project implementation. If Iowa provides its state’s matching share, the project can begin. Should Iowa decline, Illinois will receive its portion of the federal funds and can proceed with plans for rail construction between Chicago and Moline.

Additional state and federal funding has been secured for construction of a new multimodal station in Moline. Early estimates show that with station and rail line, the state could stand to gain upwards of 1,100 construction jobs and 3,500 other direct and indirect jobs.

“Since 2007, the Quad Cities Chamber has led a broad-based Quad Cities Passenger Rail Coalition (QC Rail) to advocate for restored passenger rail service to Chicago,” said Tara Barney, Chief Executive Officer of the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. “Through QC Rail, over 10,000 Quad-Cities area residents, elected officials, businesses, labor groups and community organizations have expressed their support for passenger rail to local, state and federal officials.”

The Quad Cities have not had passenger rail service since the late 1970s. Under the proposed service, two daily round trips will transport passengers to and from the Quad Cities in just over three hours. As planned, train service would continue west to Iowa City, and, per the nine-state Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, eventually on to Omaha, Nebraska.