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June 11, 2013
May 29, 2013
May 19, 2013
HOPE Snippet: Operation HOPE Stands in Support of an Important and Moving Speech by President Obama at Morehouse College Today
Today in the pouring rain, 10,000 or more brave souls joined 400 plus proud Morehouse College graduates --- all crowded under ponchos, hats and even program books -- to hear their President "bring the message," to and for young black men of the future. And rain or no, the President did not disappoint.
And yes, I was one of those 10,000 being pounded by rain that seem to come on schedule. But no regrets here. Dr. King, my personal hero Ambassador Andrew Young, and countless others in the civil rights movement dealt with much, much worse, for much, much longer.
President Obama spoke directly to young black men who come at a critical time for America, as well a critical time of and for the traditional African-American experience in America.
Young men who, if pointed in the right direction and truly inspired to make a difference, could very well remake and reset the very future of Black America. A Black American community that is arguably at a historic tipping point nearly 50 years since Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
May 17, 2013
Huffington Post ~ Solving Poverty: Fighting Blight and Poverty with Credit Scores
John Hope Bryant
Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
In the 50 years since the civil rights movement and Dr. King's dream, one problem (racism) has been replaced or at least matched by another -- poverty. Urban poverty, rural poverty, and poverty that hits blacks, whites, browns and others alike. As I have said previously in the Huffington Post, poverty is the new racism. If you are poor, everything pretty much sucks.
The old model of racism was based on race and the color line. The new model of racism is rooted in class and poverty. The old racism was obvious in signs that read White Only, from the southern states in the U.S. to South Africa. The new racism is more obvious in Misery Row.
Whether it is a feature on a boulevard in an urban city or a rural town, or whether it is at the entrance of a military base, the Misery Row looks pretty much the same. Predatory check cashers, next to rent to own stores, payday lending stores, title lending stores, and liquor stores.
One group of financial predators takes advantage of your financial problems and misfortune, while another associated group benefits by helping you to forget you actually have any.
Read, comment and share the complete article here.May 12, 2013
A Mother's Day Tribute, and a Rose, for A Mother-Leader to us All
On April 27th, 2013, the King Center unveiled the Coretta Scott King commemorative rose, and I was honored and pleasantly surprised to return home from one of my many trips to find two of the beautiful roses at my home.
The roses were a gift from my friend and HOPE board member Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center (a post once held by her mother), and destined for a special planting location in my private park here in Atlanta, Georgia. But as I reflected on the Coretta Scott King commemorative Rose, I also began to reflect on the woman. The woman, as leader, mother, wife, keeper of the King legacy flame. I decided I had to write something in honor of her, on this special day.
Continue reading "A Mother's Day Tribute, and a Rose, for A Mother-Leader to us All" »
April 22, 2013
The HUFFINGTON POST ~ Solving Poverty: Atlanta in Black and Green, the Tale of Two Cities
As I noted in another 'Solving Poverty' piece for The Huffington Post, the new racism today is actually poverty.
Yes, it feels really bad if a racist calls you a highly offensive name, but it is completely un-dignifying when you cannot pay your rent, make your mortgage payment, or you find that your car has been repossessed by the lender while you were sleeping. You can walk away from the racist. And more so, when you know who you are, there is actually very little the racist can say or do to change the way you feel about yourself.
You cannot walk away from poverty.
The reality of poverty faces you as a parent every morning when your child looks up at you for lunch money, and as you reach into your pocket, finding only lent and marked up job wanted ads instead.
Or every time you stop for gasoline and have to stop the pump at $6, or you're at the grocery store, intent on collecting the ingredients for that special meal for your family, but finding that you are $20 short and have to put the healthiest choices back.
Poverty faces you in the unfortunately regular arguments you have with your spouse or mate (money is the number one cause for domestic abuse and divorce in America today), or the first time you have to address your teenage child, whose daydreaming about which four-year college they desperately wish to attend. And today, what I am describing is not a 'Black thing,' it's a 'green thing.'
Whether you are white, black, red, brown or yellow, today you just want to see some more green. U.S. currency, that is. We are all in this mess together.
Read, comment and share the complete article on the Huffington Post here.
April 20, 2013
Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell to Moderate HOPE Forum Discussion with U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry at HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Ebenezer in Atlanta
Other key leaders join for critical dialogue about financial services for underserved communities on 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail
ATLANTA, April 16, 2013-- Operation HOPE will host its latest HOPE Forum on Tuesday, April 16th at the HOPE Financial Dignity Center, housed at the Martin Luther King Sr. Community Resources Complex at Ebenezer, led by the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry, Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell and other key Atlanta and financial industry leaders. This discussion focused on how to develop financial services and effective new models to serve underserved, under-resourced and low-wealth communities in a new-era banking environment. To read the Comptroller's remarks, click here.
Curry assumed his role as administrator of national banks and chief officer of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in April 2012. He is responsible for the regulation and supervision of more than 2,000 financial institutions, managing over $10 trillion in assets, which represents more than 71 percent of the total commercial banking assets in the nation. The Comptroller also serves as a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and NeighborWorks® America.
Read the complete article here.
Solving Poverty: Dr. King, Wealth and Poverty, from Birmingham, Alabama to the Black Mecca of Atlanta
This past week marked the 50th anniversary of the Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his Birmingham Movement of 1963. Much is known about Dr. King's now famous Letter, but it is generally less known that the Birmingham Movement was rooted in economic justice and jobs.
And so, it was fitting that this week the organization I founded, Operation HOPE, marked the occasion by hosting a special HOPE Forum at our new HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Ebenezer in Atlanta, featuring U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry. Comptroller Curry regulates national banks with total assets of more than $12 trillion.
An authentic, thoughtful and caring leader with a direct impact on more than $12 trillion in banking assets, is precisely the sort of transformational leader we need to see more of in inner-city, rural and under-served communities in America. For me, it is all part of a growing movement and body of work, from civil rights justice, to civil rights empowerment for all.
But the visit to Atlanta and the HOPE Center Ebenezer, located within the larger Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex, across from the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, was not a celebration of the vast economic progress that has been made since Dr. King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail. There has been progress, no doubt. Quite a bit in fact, but grossly uneven in its impact; even amongst African-Americans. A room full of Black prosperity is to be celebrated, but it not absent the reality of Black poverty and the unbanked which could be found less than 2 blocks away.
Frankly, much of what Dr. King attempted to deal with and address through his Birmingham Movement work, could very well be applied to the economic conditions today in both Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.
April 17, 2013
April 14, 2013
50th Anniversary of the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013, not only is the date for the HOPE Forum discussion on the future of silver rights empowerment for all, at Dr. King and Daddy King's historic church, and the HOPE Financial Dignity Center Ebenezer now attached to it, it is also the very important 50th anniversary of Dr. King's famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
It is therefore very appropriate that one key Operation HOPE board member in the Southeast, Reverend Dr. Bernice A. King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., heads back to Birmingham, Alabama on this important day, in honor of her father's work and legacy. We encourage all men and women of good will to join her there in Birmingham, Alabama.
And a friend of that movement, Operation HOPE, also stays behind in Dr. King's homebase of Atlanta, Georgia, hosting the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry (regulating more than $12 trillion in banking assets across the nation), in a continuing discussion around silver rights empowermernt for all, and how we advance entrepreneurship, ownership, opportunity and capital flow into the very low-wealth communities that Dr. King and his aide Andrew Young (now Ambassador Andrew Young), were so very concerned about.
Support one anniversary event or the other, but in no case, should we decide to do nothing.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail was for me, arguably the best and important of Dr. King's writings. Possibly even more powerful than his better known I Have A Dream speech in Washington, D.C. That said, the work continues. The work to empower and uplift the least of these God's children, even continues on the 50th anniversary of this great work, and Dr. King's great sacrifice.
Let's go.
John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, for President Barack Obama. Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. Mr. Bryant is a thought leader represented by the Bright Sight Group for public speaking. Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE), a specialty finance company that is managed by an affiliate of Ares Management LLC, a global alternative asset manager with approximately $59 billion in committed capital under management as of December 31, 2012.
Bryant Highlighted In Books
Professor Dennis Kimbro: The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires
John Bryant: Banking on Our Future: A Program for Teaching You and Your Kids about Money
Guruprasad Madhavan, Barbara Oakley, David Green, David Koon, Penny Low: Practicing Sustainability
Bill George: Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
Robert McKinnon: Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise for a Better World
Matthew Bishop: The Road from Ruin: How to Revive Capitalism and Put America Back on Top
Recent Posts
- This Week in Newsweek & The Daily Beast: The Fight for Black Men, and John Hope Bryant's Interview Contribution
- This Week in Newsweek & The Daily Beast: The Fight for Black Men, and John Hope Bryant's (Video) Contribution
- Operation HOPE to host FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate tomorrow in Atlanta, Georgia
- Quote of the Day
- HOPE Snippet Archives: Global Dignity Co-Founders in Harlem, New York
- HOPE Snippet: Operation HOPE attends CGI America meeting in Chicago, Il.
- HOPE Snippet: Citi Foundation supports Operation HOPE, South Africa
- HOPE Snippet: Operation HOPE Hosts FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Introduces New National Policy Space
- John Hope Bryant Quote of the Day
- John Hope Bryant Quote of the Day
Huffington Post: Obama Speaks as Father-In-Chief at Morehouse College Commencement
By Ambassador Andrew J. Young, chairman, Andrew J. Young Foundation, and John Hope Bryant, chairman, Operation HOPE
It's hard to evaluate the impact of a commencement speech.
George Marshall (1944) announced the Marshall Plan at Harvard University and changed the world in 20 minutes.
Tom Mboya, as a 29 year-old young African (Kenyan) leader in 1959, at Howard University helped inspire the American sit-ins by his presence alone. Walter Young was in that graduating class from Howard University's dental school.
Jimmy Carter gave the Morehouse commencement as governor of Georgia, and said as he received his honorary degree in 1975, that he expected he would be the first Morehouse man as president (of the United States), but "I promise you I will not be the last."
Obama by his own appearance, as President of the United States, in front of 10,000 graduates, family and alumni on a rainy day in Georgia fulfilled that promise, but may have also inspired a new generation of leaders to return to, and to rebuild their own communities; and their own families too. The president did a good job connecting to this new generation of young people.
In today's complicated political and economic environment, nothing truly significant can happen in just one generation. Obama lit a fire for generations to come.
Read, share and comment on the complete article on the Huffington Post here.Posted at 06:02 PM in 21st Century African-American Agenda, 21st Century Mainstream Agenda, 21st century Middle Class agenda, Bryant as Testimony, Bryant Blogging for the People, Bryant International Agenda, Bryant on Ambassador Andrew Young, Bryant on Bi-Partisan Public Policy, Bryant on Civil Rights, Bryant on Current Affairs, Bryant on Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Bryant on Leadership, Bryant on Life, Bryant on Something to Think About, Bryant Opinion and Commentary, HOPE and Bryant Media, HOPE and Friends, HOPE and the Silver Rights Movement, John Hope Bryant Authored | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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