In the Spotlight: Art Sanctuary – One of Philadelphia’s Cultural Manufacturers

Make It In America: An American Initiative By the Honorable Steny H. Hoyer

For ten years, I had the honor of serving alongside Rep. Augustus Hawkins in Congress, and I had a chance to witness firsthand his commitment to advancing the growth of opportunities for working families and those struggling to achieve the American Dream. Throughout his long career in public service, he fought with a quiet but powerful determination to shape policies that help more of our people make it in America.

For the past three years, I have led an effort by House Democrats to create jobs and grow the kind of opportunities Rep. Hawkins worked so hard to expand. Our plan, which we call “Make It In America,” places a strong emphasis on attracting manufacturing jobs back to our shores and making sure our graduates are well prepared to succeed in those jobs. Traditionally, manufacturing careers have been gateways to the middle class, enabling workers and their families to afford higher education, attain homeownership, access quality health coverage, and retire with peace of mind.

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Honorable Steny H. Hoyer US House of Representatives, Democratic Whip 5

th congressional district of

Maryland

Derrick Figures Education and Community Development Policy Advocate

Alma Derrick Director Deloitte Consulting LLP

Wiliam E. Spriggs, Ph.D Chief Economist AFL-CIO Garrick T. Davis Augustus Hawkins Foundation Board Member

Honarable Jason M. Fields Former Wisconsin State Representative Vice President, Business Development Spring Water Asset Management Corporation

Stacy Brown Columnist with the Washington Informer

May/June 2013 Volume 1 Issue 4 The Silent Warrior ISSN: 2326-182X

In this issue: CChhaaiirr’’ss CCoorrnneerr Making Sure Everyone Has a Shot to Make It In America

The viewpoints in this issue cover the spectrum of opinion: candid, thoughtful and in some cases, provocative – good things all. In short, we want to inspire and remind folks how we really built our country’s foundation and what we need to do now if we intend to maintain our track record for trailblazing to compete in the world market. This may seem a bit off the education and workforce track for some, however we understand that a trained and experienced workforce is perpetually in need of actual ‘work’ and that those that provide this work – small

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In the spirit of innovation and American ingenuity, this edition we focused on all things that embrace the theme, “Make It In America”.

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Art Sanctuary Whether celebrating famed photographer Erin Cosby’s exhibit “Beauty” highlighting the images of women and children from around the world, hosting the 29

th Annual

Celebration of Black Writing Festival, introducing the fabulous musical works of saxophonist, composer and arranger Odean Pope to Philly’s next generation of musicians at a Jon Coltrane concert or honoring poet, playwright and author Ntozake Shange, recording artist and one half of the legendary songwriting and production team and musical duo Ashford & Simpson Valerie Simpson and veteran journalist Annette John-Hall during its Lifetime Achievement Awards Ceremony, Art Sanctuary as given breath to artistic expression for those who use their creative talents to ‘Make It In America’.

Founded by esteemed,

best-selling author,

educator and activist Lorene Cary in 1998 and located in

North Philadelphia,

Art Sanctuary Odean Pope and a young fan

is an African American arts and letters 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that uses the power of African America visual, literary and performing arts through events, promotion and education to transform individuals, unite cultural and ethnically diverse people, and enrich, and draw inspiration from the inner city of Philadelphia. Recognizing ‘art’ as an industry, the organization invites established and aspiring artists to help create excellent lectures, performances, and educational programs, enriching the community and stimulating an appreciation for the economics of Art.

Johnetta Cole and Valerie Gay

Some15-years after bringing Cary’s cultural vision to life, more than 10,000 diverse participants enjoy Art Sanctuary’s unique programs of excellent African-American arts and letters in inner-city Philadelphia. A thriving oasis of expression by artists of every genre,

Johnetta Cole describes the Art Sanctuary as “sacred” to Philly’s artistic community. In addition to regular monthly programming, Art Sanctuary annually hosts the Celebration of Black Writing festival, during which writers discuss their work with up to 1,500–2,000 students, and another 2,000–3,000 people participate in panels, workshops, a teachers’ symposium, Family Pavilion, main stage, and much more.

Erinn Cosby and Valerie Gay

Lorene Cary’s literary achievements are many. Her published works include her latest novel, If Sons, Then Heirs; best-selling memoir Black Ice, an American Library Association Notable Book for 1991 taught in several colleges and high schools; The Price of a Child a 1995 novel chosen as the first One Book, One Philadelphia selection; Pride, a contemporary novel, and FREE! Great Escapes on the Underground Railroad, a collection of true-life stories for young readers, scheduled for reprint fall 2011 by Temple University Press. Cary’s essays have appeared in publications including Newsweek, Time, Essence, and O Magazine. In December 2010, the public opening of The President’s House on Independence Mall in Philadelphia introduced visitors to five videos, shot from Cary’s original scripts, depicting the lives of nine enslaved Africans in the household of President George Washington as well as the free black men and women who helped two of them run to freedom. In 2003, Cary was recognized by the city of Philadelphia for her arts activism, her writing, and for serving as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania receiving the Philadelphia Award, the city’s highest civic honor. One of Art Sanctuary’s popular trans-generational programs is Hip H’opera. This collaborative program between Art Sanctuary and the Opera Company of Philadelphia is a three-phase project taking teaching artists and workshops to more than 100 students and their teachers in seven area schools. Students learn the history and aesthetics of hip-hop and opera, genres that use the human voice to tell profound stories, and then, using poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, these students capture their own urban stories.

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Librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, named one of America’s Top Young Innovators by Smithsonian Magazine and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain known internationally for his collaborations with Philip Glass, Cassandra Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Savion Glover and Lady Gaga are the creative team behind artistic operatic .

The initial pieces, which premiered in 2008, were work shopped with young librettists, and then performed, first as poetry by the teens, then in musical form by opera singers, a string quartet, a pianist, and intergenerational chorus. Hip-H’opera sold out two local performances.

In 2013, professionals plan to craft the students’ new work into an opera for a new fall 2014 production. Students will have an opportunity to work with a librettist, dramaturge, producer, composer, and choreographer while mounting the final production. They will also be involved in such technical areas as set design and costuming. The program is expected to become a national model for bridging genres and bringing new energy to inner-city music study.

Art Sanctuary has also partnered with more than 20 public and charters schools in Philadelphia providing similar artistic collaborative opportunities to expand the range and reach of inner-city future artists. Art Sanctuary is lead by Executive Director Valerie Gay. Like Cary, Gay is no stranger to Philadelphia’s art world. The former assistant dean of Institutional Advancement for the College of Education at Temple University and a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Gay was named one of Philadelphia’s “101 Connector Leaders”, and serves on Board of Directors for both the Marian Anderson Award and the Blues Babe Foundation, is a Trustee for the Concerto Project of New York, and is a 2006 Leadership Philadelphia alumna. Previous civic engagement includes serving as Chair of the Board of Directors for Women’s Way of Philadelphia, Trustee of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, and a member of the Advisory Council for the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia, and member of the Education Committee for the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

Gay offers an organic perspective of Art Sanctuary’s contribution to the Make It In America concept. “We look at every community, in our country to see the beauty and creativity and potential contributions that those citizens can make to the betterment of us all, and we expose to them the beauty and provide for them opportunity, they often exceed our expectations”.

An American Initiative continued from Page 1 Investment in a strong manufacturing base will help us secure the jobs of tomorrow and enable more Americans to enter a growing middle class. Already our manufacturing sector has seen promising gains, with thousands of jobs created over the past few years after decades of decline. A rise in wages overseas and a decline in energy costs here at home have contributed toward making our country an attractive place for manufacturers to locate their operations. Plus, our workers are still the world’s most productive. The Make It In America plan is designed to build on these gains. Since first launching our plan in 2010, we’ve achieved a number of important successes. Working across the aisle, we reauthorized the Export-Import Bank in order to help American businesses compete on a level playing field overseas. Congress also passed landmark patent reform that promotes innovation and the commercialization of new products. Both of these will encourage private sector hiring. To ensure that those in our workforce can compete for new jobs, we enacted the America COMPETES Act, which invests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – or “STEM” – education initiatives. However, heightened partisanship in Congress prevented the bulk of Make It In America legislation from reaching the House floor.

Recognizing that the only way jobs legislation will make it through Congress and onto the President’s desk is through bipartisan consensus, I joined with other House Democrats in early April to unveil four key Make It In America priorities for the 113th Congress that will have the greatest chance of success. Not only success in securing wide support across the aisle, but also in achieving our goals of stronger job growth and a more competitive economy. I

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MAKE A DONATION TO THE AUGUSTUS F. HAWKINS FOUNDATION donate@augustusfhawkinsfoundation.org

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An American Initiative continued from Page 3

Recognizing that the only way jobs legislation will make it through Congress and onto the President’s desk is through bipartisan consensus, I joined with other House Democrats in early April to unveil four key Make It In America priorities for the 113th Congress that will have the greatest chance of success. Not only success in securing wide support across the aisle, but also in achieving our goals of stronger job growth and a more competitive economy. First, much like other nations have successfully done, we must adopt and pursue a national manufacturing strategy to leverage our strengths. We ought to make sure federal agencies are working together in a coordinated fashion to help our manufacturers compete and succeed. Next, we must do more to help American businesses increase exports and access new markets for their products. Promoting U.S. exports will help our businesses expand and hire, growing our economy and leading to more opportunities for workers and their families. President Obama’s 2010 goal of doubling exports within five years is an ambitious one – but we’re making solid progress toward meeting it. Congress needs to do more to give manufacturers the tools and assistance they need to move their goods to market more efficiently and to compete on a level playing field.

America remains the world’s leading innovation economy, but that will change unless Congress takes action to encourage manufacturers to innovate here and bring jobs back home. When production moves overseas, often innovation and research follow, and we must take steps to draw both back to our shores. Through targeted tax credits and support for research, we can create an environment where manufacturers want to establish their operations here in our communities, bringing new jobs and new opportunities with them. The fourth component of our plan centers on training and securing a strong workforce for the twenty-first century. Congress must take steps now to invest in programs that will help us compete over the long-term by preparing students for the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future. When we have a prepared workforce, we will attract more high-wage jobs to our shores. A key part of that effort is expanding job training programs, especially those that teach advanced manufacturing skills for in-demand jobs. This was a central goal of Rep. Hawkins’s work in

Congress, and it remains a top priority under Democrats’ Make It In America plan today. Democratic House Members have introduced a number of bills in each of these four areas. Some already have Republican cosponsors, and we are working to secure Republican support for the rest. I am hopeful that Congress can come together over the coming weeks and months to take action on Make It In America legislation. Doing so will do much not only to advance causes to which Rep. Hawkins dedicated his career, but also to lay the groundwork for a more secure future filled with opportunities for all Americans. Congressman Steny H. Hoyer is the Democratic Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives. He represents the 5

th congressional district of Maryland.

Chair’s Corner continued from Page 1 businesses, corporations, nonprofit organizations and government, all have a central role in fueling real employment for America’s people.

Equally relevant, our economic shake-ups have sparked by necessity, a renewed age of entrepreneurship. For many, a job has become an apprenticeship for business ownership.

Accordingly, we equally appreciate the essential balance that no growing business can in fact "grow" without a competent and supported workforce to ensure some level of perpetual success. As with each generation, our individual, inherent role as citizens is to turn our personal American Dream into the Great American Story. That begs the question, how do we define success? And how do we as individuals and as complex segments of society apply it to the times we live in? Most in this great democracy strive to achieve the American Dream. But what does that dream look like today and who within our multi-racial, multi-generational borders really has a fair shot at fulfilling it? Nostalgia about everything from homeownership, a steady, living-wage job, boot-strapping' entrepreneurial ship, sending one's kids to college and a secure retirement in what were once thought of the 'golden years’ has given way to foreclosures and under water mortgages, stagnate unemployment, restrictive access to credit, rising tuition and fluctuating 401Ks and increasing instability for the future of Social Security and Medicare. These certainly aren't the dreams of our parents and grandparents.

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Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us “there is nothing new

under the sun”

From our families, our culture, our economic standing, our education and our social exposure, the road to achievement is as diverse as the human fabric that is America. And as the economy struggles to re-shape itself into something that we can trust once again (as if that were possible), casting off 20th century norms and evolving in some directions that defy reason for some of us, we are constantly challenged to excel, and overcome and somehow 'Make It In America'. While we claim to embrace America’s diversity as a part of our greatness, too many in the diversity pool seem to draw the short straw. Access to credit is still a challenge for MBEs and pay equity for women is a top legislative priority. It is also evident that we don’t always put our money where our mouth is. We place education on the top of our priority list but Head Start like so many programs has never been fully funded. Additionally, the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers for Excellence, a public law signed by President George Bush in 2008 to increase the pool of minority teachers in Minority Serving Institutions has not even had a pilot program. As troubling, we have nurtured some perverted corporate vehicles that generate exorbitant profits while depriving American workers from living-wage jobs by exploiting our nation’s prison population in what might be described as modern-day slave labor, allowing privatized prisons to capitalize on a disproportionate number of incarcerated African-Americans and Latino under the guise of what some describe as re-entry training programs. This is a real example of negative corporate production when we have to question what America actually “makes”. (*See Stacy Brown’s Private Prisons Equal Big Business – courtesy of the Washington Informer on page 16) Ironically, the full implementation of any one of the aforementioned programs, policies or legislative mandates would be a significant step forward for the 'collective' America moving us that much closer to forging fundamental success for the country's future. Moreover, as great a nation as we are, we are rapidly developing an attitude of complacency. Resting on our 20th century laurels, 21

st century Americans are neither

guaranteed job security, opportunity for advancement or access to various collaborative programs (called entitlements by some) as were the case for many of our parents and grandparents. As important, when we talk about today’s workforce, it is increasingly necessary to reiterate the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, ensuring full employment and equal opportunity for everyone. We must continue to make the case that there are no segments of our society that should be treated as a short-lived, disposable commodity with a temporary shelf life.

There is an emerging ‘new’ normal for our current generation. Whether white, brown or black, man or woman, 20-something or 70-something, Republican or Democratic, it is essential that we quickly 'get with the global program', re-evaluate our view and reshape our approach to nation building (there's a phrase we don't hear much about anymore). We should embrace our homegrown human capital collective and appreciate that other countries are hungrier in their quest for economic growth and stability than we seem to be of late and as such, are much more willing to do what is necessary to capitalize on their collective constituency. The recent purchase of American corporate icon, Smithfield Foods by China to help bolster China’s economy is a prime example of our letting our precious U.S. assets slip through our fingers into foreign pockets. We would be wise to take a sage cue from the title of inspirational thought leader, executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith’s book, “What Got You Here Won't Get You There”. For those that rail against the idea that government has a foundational role to play or for those who express concern about excessive entitlement programs, the same concern did exist when the GI bill was in play but it sure seems to stir the pot these days with Pell Grants. We should all remember that the safety of the food we consume

everyday, the secure and consistent transport of corporate products to retailers, our

access to international trade opportunities and the education of multiple generations of our workforce are all overseen by that

entity that we frequently talk about shrinking. Ironically while we debate

the pros and cons of downsizing government, our population is steadily increasing and diversifying as is our demand for much more public support and infrastructure at every level of government. Appreciating that government isn’t a ‘catch-all’ for everything, we do require a functional government with the realistic capacity and flexibility to successfully sustain our wide-ranging and growing population. Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us “there is nothing new under the sun”, so again taking a page of inspiration from our own history books – provided we actually read our history books - tells us that in times of financial crisis, our government has always ‘right-sided’ our economy when America runs off-track and the track record for this intervention as consistently proven to be an integral part of America’s success.

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Back to the question of success, what’s needed now? A delivery system of resources to not just educate the next generation but to retool a talented, experienced but technologically dated workforce that is living longer and launching second and third careers is needed. This generation is competing with technological talent from other shores and for access to capital for entrepreneurs who are willing and able to harness their skills in order to spark innovation that keeps America ahead of the curve as a world leader. American businesses are the leaders in innovation. But innovation lends itself to its production environment. When that environment is off our shores, we weaken our stronghold on what is new, forward-thinking, provocative and fresh. But when we give people, communities and businesses the resources needed to do their best, it will be all but impossible ‘not’ to Make It in America.

Lisa R. Ransom

Community Empowerment For A Global Economy By Derrick Figures Imagine living in a community thirsty for growth and development but lacking the empowerment it needs to make the change members in that community want to see. Imagine being a child who has big dreams of becoming extremely successful but lacks the guidance and tools to help you to reach your fullest potential. Imagine a family with parents who both are in between jobs and seeking a stronger skill set to make them more competitive and better able to help support their growing family. Recently I have been assisting with a long-term project that focuses on these issues with a keen eye towards one community in West Virginia. The team I work with is taking a holistic approach to dealing with these issues through a series of sub-projects. The sub-projects will eventually provide services such as modernized learning centers including schools and centers for workforce training and development, modernized recreational and fitness facilities and a modernized library amongst other projects. In addition to the projects, the team is also developing leaders within the community to sustain the projects once they are up and running. Needless to say, the overall project benefits from a great deal of public and private funding but the example is clear that when interested parties fully engage themselves and partner with the communities they want to serve a lot can

move. I think this lesson sometimes is lost in translation between Washington, D.C. and Main street America. Over the next several months I’ll highlight initiatives across the country that focus on three issues:

Community Empowerment: The goal is to discover

projects that help communities empower themselves

through activism and advocacy.

Schools and Programs that help guide children

to brighter futures: There are “education reform”

advocates that do not start with busting unions and

firing teachers so we would like to explore programs

that actually are successful without sacrificing good

teachers who simply are not afforded the resources

to build brighter futures for school children.

Workforce Development: Workforce is always

touted but never actually dealt with but in some

communities across the country action is being taken

to actually upgrade local workforces. We’ll share

some stories where these actions and policies are

taking shape.

I am hopeful that many of the highlights we cited in this column will serve as a platform for replication so that communities are able to forge their own paths. Derrick Figures is an education and community development policy advocate.

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Sharpening America's Innovation Edge By Alma Derricks

The internet as we know it and the unprecedented wave of innovation, exploration, and economic growth it spawned is twenty years old. In the aftermath of a bruising economic crisis, this single milestone affirms that a “new normal” has been established in the global marketplace. As a generation of digital natives comes of age, and the “new normal” is simply “normal”, we have a unique

opportunity to reignite the innovation flame. We can repair the innovation rift that continues to plague our largest and most influential organizations. Individuals and organizations alike tend to become more conservative and risk averse over time. With more at risk, inevitably lagging systems and processes, and a tendency to revert to business as usual, it’s been said that new ideas aren’t launched in American companies as much as they escape. Ironically, while the internet has sparked an array of innovative new business, markets, and channels, the digital gold rush of the early 90s also drained mainstream corporations of their most innovative thinkers – the ones who consistently asked “Why not?” and “What’s next?” – leaving companies largely in the hands of their most risk averse employees. While the internet bust in the early 2000s should have created an opportunity to rebalance organizations, early internet pioneers were not warmly welcomed back to their previous roles in corporate America. Snubbed and rebuffed, this eclectic mix of geniuses, dreamers, charlatans, virtuosos, and troublemakers took their out-of-the-box thinking with them. In doing so, they laid the groundwork for “Internet 2.0” while traditional organizations largely denied or struggled to adapt to the accelerating pace of change. Today, most companies simply lack the healthy tension between “what is” and “what could be” that rabble-rousers used to bring to every task, project, or team meeting. But there is hope. As the internet has been maturing and evolving over the past two decades, as new generation of “digital natives” who scarcely remember a world without the internet, cell phones, or laptop computers are coming of age and poised to become a majority of the U.S.

workforce by 2020. Spanning middle school to early adulthood, the Millennials are at once the most educated, uninhibited, shrewd, and empowered generation that has emerged in a century. They are not content to play by the old rules. As witnesses to spiraling divorce rates, the terrorists’ attacks of September 11, the housing crisis, and the recession, Millennials generally do not have any illusions about earning more money than their parents, yet they are enthusiastic about their ability to change the world for the better. Not just in a wistful, starry-eyed sense, but in real, tangible, hand-on ways that hold the promise of a future filled with a dizzying array of innovations large and small. The are challenging the mythology and norms of the workplace and, in doing so, will redefine value in the economy of the mid 21st century. Media-savvy and largely impervious to marketing spin, Millennials are an interconnected community that demands transparency, authenticity, and a meaningful value proposition from their organizations, leaders, and retailers. It's a tough room that stretches the meaning of “the customer is king” in ways that will surely bankrupt some organizations while serving as the life’s blood of an array of new and forwardlooking enterprises confident and intrepid enough to embrace change.

Alma Derricks is a Director in Deloitte Consulting LLP's Strategy practice and leader of the global “State of the Media Democracy” customer insights study. She specializes in customer, media, and marketing strategy and has managed new product launches and strategic branding, content, and go-to-market engagements for leading broadcasting, live entertainment, video game, telecommunications, consumer products, retail and hospitality clients.

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Some people think we have entered the “post” manufacturing era, in the sense that we now demand services—like smart phone service, and hi-speed internet services—more than old fashioned goods. And, so, they believe, we don’t need to worry about what happens to manufacturing or “making it in America.”

Well, in real terms, American consumers have increased their demand for furniture and other home durable goods by more than 125 percent since 1995—right through the rise of the dot coms. While demand is growing, output in the U.S. is falling. Real gross output of furniture and related products in the U.S. has fallen by 21 percent over that period; while employment in that sector has fallen by over 250,000 workers—roughly the entire population of the Wilmington, NC metropolitan area. Obviously, the increased demand for goods was met by rising imports, since the US produced less, and fewer Americans had jobs making the kind of things we see around our homes. The problem is simple. If increased household income leads to increased demand for goods, but those goods are imported, then every increase in income will come with a giant leakage—out of the economy and out of the country—to buy the things that fill our homes. This, in part, explains why the housing bubble helped construction employment, but did not help employment in other housing related manufacturing sectors—like furniture, textiles and appliances. “Making it in America “ is a simple realization that there must be some rationale behind U.S. economic policy. There is a deeper issue at hand as well. Researchers at the Upjohn Institute have been looking carefully at the latest patterns in US manufacturing and have detected a bias in our accounting of manufacturing production. Because a rising share of intermediate goods in “American” made products are really imports from low-wage countries, they show we have been overstating American output. The bias caused by over valuing the American content in manufacturing can, in part, explain the anomaly of rising output but sluggish US employment growth. The Upjohn researchers find that when they correct for the bias in the data for undervaluing the amount of imported intermediate goods in manufacturing

the expected relationship between output and employment returns. The shorthand of this is that we can expect a slow recovery of jobs if “economic recovery” means more offshoring and less American based production. “Making it in America” means we need a focus that will bring America’s economic house in order. Companies are more profitable from low-wage offshoring, inaccuracies in data lead us to believe output is increasing, but the bread and butter realities on Main Street and Martin Luther King Avenue is that Americans are not being pulled forward with good paying jobs. This is a part of the story behind several disturbing trends—apparent growth in productivity but stagnant wage growth, that in turns leads to either rising debt from consumers to maintain demand for all that productivity or falling demand and lower employment from unsold inventory. But, the other parts of the story are that the weak bargaining position American workers are placed in means lower union membership and less voice from workers in how to divide the growth in productivity. And the globalization of operations has also meant the globalization of tax avoidance strategies. So, our “leading” companies like Apple Computer, pay virtually no taxes, and make their major products in China. “Making it in America” is a call to restore a virtuous cycle of rising productivity and rising wages; to put the American economy first by putting American workers first. William E. Spriggs, Ph.D. is the Chief Economist for the AFL-CIO, a professor of Economics at Howard University and former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Labor

Make It In America – An Economist’s View: Putting American Workers First By Bill Spriggs

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Homer B. Roberts was the first African-American Car Dealer in the USA. A graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College, a World War I veteran who achieved the rank of lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps with a background in electrical engineering,

Roberts supervised the establishing of communications during numerous heavy battles. In 1919 Roberts moved to his first office at 1509 E. 18th Street, 2nd Floor in Kansas City and later that year his first ad appeared in the Kansas City Sun listing seven used cars in the ad ranging from $300 to $960 for an almost new 1919 6-Cylinder Nash Touring Car. Brokering deals exclusively for African-American buyers, Roberts sold over 60 cars before the end of the year. According to the historic records of the Homer Roberts Foundation, Roberts hired two salesmen, offered insurance to buyers, and eventually founded Roberts Motors, the first African-American-owned car dealership in the United States. On August 16, 1919, Mr. Roberts put an ad in the Kansas City Sun to promote his new role as an Automobile Broker. The ad featured a Chevrolet said, "Pick--Any Car, Any Place, Get the money from me. Our 16 years practical experience with Motor cars enables us to give valuable advice about your intended purchase". His first ad proved successful enough that on September 27, 1919 Homer Roberts place another ad in the Sun, mentioning he had ‘sold 60 pleasure cars in the less than 90 days’. He not only sold automobiles, he offered insurance to his clients and increased his sales staff by two, Robert L. Sweeney and Chauncey Davis. Roberts’ niche was simple, he listed the names of everyone he sold a car to in the paper. He basically said, "Ask them", "Class and Distinction almost describes our Cars and Customers". On June 20th, 1920, the Roberts Company placed an ad in the Kansas City Sun, listing 33-vehicles, all different makes with 6-vehicles being current day 1920 models. The terms were 1-3 down, 12 Months to pay the balance. It is not known how Roberts was able to obtain the vehicles or finance them. Toward the end of 1920 the Roberts Company was selling Brand New Fords. Sunday, May 15th, 1921, was the formal opening of The Roberts Company Automobile Brokers Showroom. The goal was to display a different Brand New Car Model every week. Roberts placed a huge ad in the Kansas City

Sun and listed a partial list of many of his previous customers to attract new sales. 1922 was another huge year for the Roberts Company. If you were Black and wanted a car, 85% of the time you bought it from Homer Roberts. With a flair for communications and public relations, Roberts was the first African American in Kansas City to sell Radios for the home. It is believed that by the end of 1922, The Roberts Company had a Ford franchise. In March of 1923 The Roberts Company moved its operations to 1826-28-30 Vine Street in the historic 18

th

and Vine community of Kansas City, Missouri. Selling cars while under construction, the new building could hold 60 cars. The new facility when completed would offer accessories, tires, repairs, painting, batteries, upholstering, and a filling station. On Sunday July 29th, 1923 was the formal opening of the new Roberts Company Motor Mart. Over 3000 people attended the event. Later in the year the Roberts Company was selling brand new Oldsmobile automobiles, a General Motors Product. For most of 1924 the Roberts Company was an Oldsmobile dealer and sold hundreds of Oldsmobile 6s. Roberts’ success helped him land a Ford franchise that grew to include a 60-car showroom, an auto repair and body shop, a parts store and a filling station. He eventually added Hupmobile and Rickenbacker to the lineup. . The Hupmobile as a classy car, the Rickenbacker was a fast car. By the end of 1925, Roberts’ dealership ranked third in the U.S. for sales of Rickenbacker. Growing at such a fast pace, in 1926 The Roberts Company added more sales rooms and a new franchise to thei operation, ofthe Whippet. The new sales rooms were on 19th Street, between Paseo and Vine St. By the end of 1927, this would later be known as the Roberts Building, consisting of a drug store, barber and beauty shop, a shoe store, dress store, and other professional offices. In 1928 Homer Roberts was selling brand new Chevrolets. During February of 1929, the Roberts-Campbell Motor Mart of Chicago broke all previous Hupmobile sales records. They sold $38,800 worth of cars there first month in business. At the beginning of 1929 Homer Roberts partnered in with Thomas "Piney" Brown, of Panama Taxi and Kenneth Campbell, husband of Sarah Rector, “the Richest Colored Girl in the World” at the time. The exact date of their partnership is unknown but

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An American Trailblazer – Homer B. Roberts WWI Veteran, Innovator, Entrepreneur, Employer - America’s First African American Car Dealer

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Homer B. Roberts continued from Page 9

Roberts-Campbell Motor Mart was based in Kansas City before expanding operations to Chicago. Sarah Rector who moved to Kansas City in 1919 was probably one of Homer Roberts first customers. He eventually opened another dealership in Chicago that claimed the largest number of Hupmobile sales in the nation in 1929.

The Great Depression, however, marked the end of Roberts’ business success. In 1941, at the age of 56, he rejoined the military and spent four years in the Army during World War II. After his discharge, he returned to Chicago where he worked in media and public relations until his death in 1952.

The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph E. Stiglitz

*Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (June 11, 2012); Language: English, ISBN-10: 9780393088694; ISBN-13: 978-0393088694; ASIN: 0393088693 *Publisher: Taurus (December 3, 2012) Language: Spanish, ISBN-10: 6071121302; ISBN-13: 978-6071121301

A forceful argument against America's vicious circle of growing inequality by the Nobel Prize–winning economist.

America currently has the most inequality, and the least equality of opportunity, among the advanced countries. While market forces play a role in this stark picture, politics has shaped those market forces. In this best-selling book, Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz exposes the efforts of well-heeled interests to compound their wealth in ways that have stifled true, dynamic capitalism. Along the way he examines the effect of inequality on our economy, our democracy, and our system of justice. Stiglitz explains how inequality affects and is affected by every aspect of national policy, and with characteristic insight he offers a vision for a more just and prosperous future, supported by a concrete program to achieve that vision. **Joseph E. Stiglitz is a professor of economics at Columbia University and the recipient of a John Bates Clark Medal and a Nobel Prize. He is also the former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. His books include Globalization and Its Discontents, The Three Trillion Dollar War, and Making Globalization Work. He lives in New York City.

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Danny Joseph Bakewell, Sr. is President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and President and CEO of the Bakewell Company. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana and a graduate of St. Augustine High School, Bakewell attended college in Arizona then headed west to Los Angeles at the height of the turbulent sixties. It was during the Civil Rights Era that Bakewell started down

the path towards Activism. Bakewell began his community activist career as the Director of New Careers at UCLA, combining academic programs with social consciousness. Dissatisfied that his talents and energies were underutilized at U.C.L.A., he became involved along with co-founder, the late Walter Bremond with the Black Congress, which in 1968 became known as the Brotherhood Crusade, an organization dedicated to empowering and uplifting the their community. For more than three decades, Bakewell served as president and CEO of the Brotherhood Crusade. Under his leadership, the organization grew considerably is now a nationally recognized civil rights advocate organization providing more than sixty million dollars to community programs and services throughout Southern California. Whether funding the first Shelter for Battered Women in East L.A., the Marcus Garvey School or the Challengers Boys & Girls Club or voter registration drives, Bakewell and the Brotherhood Crusade lead the way.

Danny Bakewell, Dorothy Leavell,

Sheila Jackson-Lee and Maxine Waters In 1974 Bakewell co-founded of National Black United Fund (NBUF), pioneering a national philanthropic vehicle for communities that were either ignored or undeserved by United Way and other such institutions, creating has twenty-two NBUF affiliates nationwide. The Los Angeles

Times describes Bakewell’s commitment to bring diverse groups of people together in promoting self-help, dignity and respect for African Americans as "one of the most dynamic leaders in America today". After the civil unrest of the Rodney King riots of 1992, the rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles set off a frenzy within the city for construction jobs. Danny Bakewell held the line for communities of color to ensure that African Americans were not left out of job loop. He coined the slogan, "IF WE DON'T WORK, NOBODY WORK!". "I want, not just for myself, but for all to enjoy the fruits that this country has to offer", says Bakewell. Not one to shy away from provocative social and racial issues, Bakewell led a coalition of community leaders to take on United Paramount Network, forcing the cancellation of a primetime sitcom, "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer", a show considered disrespectful to the memory of African American slaves. In addition to his community activism, Bakewell is a minority corporate media owner. His most recent media acquisition is the purchase of WBOK Radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana, adding to the Bakewell family’s expanding media holdings, which includes the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper, the oldest and the largest Black-owned newspaper on the West Coast and the recently named nation’s Number One Black Newspaper. As Chairman of the Bakewell Company, one of the largest African-American owned development companies in the United States, Bakewell brokers and heads multi-million dollar revitalization efforts in the cities of Los Angeles, Compton, Pasadena, and other California communities. In his 50 plus year career, Danny J. Bakewell, Sr. has become one of the most influential business leaders and social activists in our nation, blazing trails for others to travel.

American Trailblazer - Danny Bakewell Sr. President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and President and CEO of the Bakewell Company

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What It Means To Be Made In America

By Garrick T. Davis Thomas Paine is among the most frequently quoted figures of the American Revolutionary era. The pro-independence author of ‘Common Sense’ showed an uncanny knack for offering words that expressed exactly who we are as a nation. On what makes us unique as a people, Paine is credited with stating, “Our citizenship in the United States is our national

character. Our great title is Americans.” As a nation, we take deep pride in the cultural and technological advances the United States has brought to the world. The American Century has proven in many ways to be the Global Century. Our unique brand of economic and political freedoms, while far from perfect, have given rise to a new measure of sustainable prosperity that is the world we have come to know today. Of all the countless creations and awe-inspiring inventions America has generated in the post-Second World War era alone, none has left a greater mark upon the world’s collective psyche than that which is most readily recognized by our admirers and foes alike. Our people. Exactly what it means to be ‘Made in America’ is far more than a characteristic of economic or geographical fact. It is a statement. A declaration to the world, and one that is heard loud and clear. When a crate of goods leaves the port of Baltimore, or New Orleans, or Long Beach, it ceases to be a small business product. Or the product of a Fortune 500 company. Or even a minority-owned business product. What arrives on the shores of the country of destination is an American product. That title alone means quality. It means dependability. It means that product was crafted by free people compensated for their toil. It means the best product money can be.

The statement Made in America says as much about the people who have produced the good or service in question, as it does about the item itself.

Consider this. Ours is a nation of roughly 315 million1

people producing some $15 trillion in good and services in 2012 alone

2. We’ve been able to accomplish these

astounding numbers in a wavering economy with some 12 million workers unemployed

3 over the course of the past

year. A number of the world’s competing economies have more skilled workers than we have people. In his 2007 book ‘The Flight of the Creative Class’ author Richard Florida points out that United States is still far and away the world’s leader in innovation and productivity as demonstrated by practically any meaningful statistical measure: new patents, aggregate Gross Domestic Product (GDP), energy consumption, and more. We’ve clearly been able to compete with an increasingly productive and resourceful world despite our social and economic challenges. Yet, there are deeply troubling concerns. In March 2012, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations sounded the national alarm. Their report ‘US Education Reform and National Security’ concluded that a lack of adequate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) preparation in America’s K-12 public schools has placed the country in a state of significant peril. "Educational failure puts the United States' future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk," warned the report’s task force chaired by Joel I. Klein, former head of New York City public schools, and Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state. Simply put, we can no longer continue to be the Americans the world has come to admire, respect and even envy, while leaving broad sectors of our population on the economic sidelines. The necessity for serious-minded education reform and teacher preparation is not merely a matter of race, a matter of socio-economic equality, or even a moralistic ideal. These categorizations are far too narrow in scope. In some ways, they miss the point. This is an existential challenge - one which will slowly but surely erode our ability to be the People that we are, if left unchecked. Addressing this crisis is not a matter of choice. The human spirit and our capacity to encourage its highest level of achievement is America’s oldest original export. All other inventions and innovations have been made possible by this most precious of natural resources. To expand our wealth and prosperity to every community,

1 "U.S. POPClock Projection". U.S. Census Bureau. (figure

updated automatically). 2 "Gross Domestic Product, 1 Decimal (GDP)". Federal

Reserve Bank of St. Louis. April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 5,

2013. 3 "Employment Situation Summary". United States Department

of Labor. May 3, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.

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family and individual in our nation – much less the world, we must build more sustainable American lives – one at a time. The necessities of our time demand as much. In paying respect to the brave men and women of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill is famously quoted as saying, “never has so much been owed by so many, to so few.” The same can be said of our nation’s educators. Let’s hope we never have to apply the same quote to a shrinking and out-gunned American workforce of the future.

Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation board member Garrick T. Davis is a former White House policy analyst and a Latin American fellow with the American Council of Young Political Leaders. Garrick holds a bachelor of Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a master of public administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Re-Made in the USA: How We Can Restore Jobs, Retool Manufacturing, and Compete With the World (Hardcover, 234 pages) by Todd Lipscomb Publisher: Wiley Publishing Release date: April 12, 2011 ISBN-10: 0470929928 ISBN-13: 978-0470929926 Todd Lipscomb is founder and president of the successful company MadeinUSAForever.com. He spent nearly fifteen years in the tech industry, including executive roles overseeing Asia finance and worldwide operating expenditures of over $180 million per quarter with Western Digital Corporation. His experience watching Asian countries take American manufacturing jobs convinced him to move back to the United States and start MadeinUSAForever.com, which sells only high-quality American-made goods. This book is a business-based rallying cry to reclaim the US economy. There is a nagging feeling that the U.S. is slipping as a nation and our people are powerless to do anything to fix it. Issues such as jobs, product quality and safety, wages, the economy, and our status as the world's leading superpower are all tied together with our massive trade deficit. Re-Made in the USA addresses these issues using the author's firsthand observations and analysis, and offers a practical plan for how we can get our economy and global status back.

track

reading this book, you'll finish feeling empowered

international business America's future does not have to be on the decline. In inspiring terms, Re-Made in the USA lays out the choice Americans have between doing nothing and doing what we do best; rolling up our sleeves and working hard to fix the problem. Written and Printed in USA.

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Will We Meet the Challenge to Make it in America?

By Honorable Jason M. Fields

More than a year ago, the Obama Administration announced a $40 million dollar multi-agency competition, The Make it in America Challenge, to encourage foreign and domestic businesses to build and/or expand their operations in the U.S. Companies would be encouraged to bring jobs

back from overseas and make additional investments in the U.S. This competition is being funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP); U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA); and the Delta Regional Authority (DRA). While I applaud this initiative and the trend toward in-sourcing, I believe it is imperative that policymakers address the question of access to capital for so-called emerging business, many of which are minority-owned. For the record, I served as an Investment Advisor, Investment Banking Associate; I have also been a former Stockbroker, Personal Banker, Branch Manager of a credit union and Wisconsin State Representative. I have come to understand that the term emerging business is often implied to mean a business that is 51 percent owned by an African-American, Latino, Native-American, Woman, or Disabled Veteran. Unfortunately, I can testify to the fact that the number one issue when it comes to growing a business by any member of the group mentioned above is a lack of access to capital.

It is called Crowdfunding. This is a new fundraising mechanism for women, and minority entrepreneurs. Crowdfunding affords entrepreneurs the ability to use their social networks and online marketing vehicles to collect small amounts of money from large pools of investors. Crowdfunding has its origins in the concept of crowdsourcing, which is the broader concept of a person or company reaching a targeted financial goal by receiving and leveraging small contributions from many sources, often through online social media. Crowdfunding is the application of this concept to the collection of funds through small contributions from many parties in order to finance a particular project or venture. Crowdfunding is used in support of a wide variety of business, civic and nonprofit activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, motion picture promotion-free software development, inventions development, scientific research, and civic projects. The Benefits of Crowdfunding Crowdfunding campaigns provide businesses and nonprofits with a number of non-financial benefits, beyond the strict financial gains to include:

1. Profile and Branding – a project can raise a company’s profile and provide a boost to their reputation.

2. – project initiators can show there is an audience and market for their project. In the case of an unsuccessful campaign, it provides good market feedback.

3. Audience Engagement – crowd funding creates a form where project initiators can engage with their audiences. Audience can engage in the production process by following progress through updates from the creators and sharing feedback via comment features on the project’s crowdfunding page.

4. Feedback – offering pre-release access to content or the opportunity to beta-test content to project backers as a part of the funding incentives provides the project initiators with instant access to good market testing feedback.

Supporters of the crowdfunding approach contend that the Concept permits new, innovative ideas which may not fit the general pattern required by conventional financiers to break through and attract cash through the ‘wisdom of the crowd’. Should a business concept achieve financial “traction” through the crowdfunding approach, not only can the enterprise secure seed funding to begin its project, but it may also secure evidence of backing from potential customers and benefit from word of mouth promotion in order to reach the fundraising goal.

Crowdfunding also offers an opportunity for an exponential increase in available venture capital. Those

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Source: National Small Business Association

As we can see from the chart the lack of access to capital makes it virtually impossible for a business to grow or expand its operations. There is however hope—all is not lost! There are initiatives developing in Washington, D.C. with the passage of the Jumpstart

Our Business Startups Act of JOBS Act in April 2012.

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that advices this fundraising practice also cite that a benefit for companies receiving crowdfunding support is that they retain control of their operations, as voting rights are not conveyed along with ownership when crowdfunding.

Potential risks and barriers for the Crowdfunding originator

Crowdfunding also comes with a number of potential risks or barriers.

1. Funding limitations – Crowdfunding caps an amount an issuer can raise to $1 million in any 12-month period’ Crowdfunding caps the amount a person can invest in all Crowdfundings over a 12-month period at 10 percent of annual income or net worth (incomes of $100,000 or more) or the greater of $2,000 or 5 percent of annual income or net worth (incomes of less than $100,000)

2. Reputation – failure to meet campaign goals or to generate interest result in a public failure. Reaching financial goals and successfully gathering substantial public support but being unable to deliver on a project for some reason can severely negatively impact ones reputation.

3. IP protection – many Interative Digital Media developers and contant producers are reluctant to publicly announce the details of a project before production due to concerns about idea theft and protecting their IP from plagiarism.

4. Donor exhaustion – there is a risk that if the same network of supporters is reached out to multiple times, that network will eventually cease to supply necessary support.

5. Public fear of abuse – concern among supporters that without a regulatory framework, the likelihood of a scam of abuse of funds is high. The concern may become a barrier to public engagement.

Crowdfunding draws a crowd, investors and other interested observers who follow the progress, or lack of progress, of a project. Sometimes it proves easier to raise the money for a project than to make the project a success. Managing communications with a large number of possibly disappointed investors and supporters can be a substantial and potentially diverting challenge.

Most importantly, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to finalize procedural rules around the issue of Crowdfunding although the deadline for completing these rules was December 31, 2012. Recent amendments in the Senate indicate a much heavier lift in regulatory procedure than initially anticipated.

Source: National Small Business Association While not a financial panacea, this new unconventional method for increasing the access to capital for emerging businesses may offer positive beneficial options to help businesses large, small and start-up rise to the challenge and “Make it in America!”

James M. Fields is a former Wisconsin State Representative, and the Vice of President-Business Development, Spring Water Asset Management Corporation. **For more information about crowdfunding, visit:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_crowd_funding

_services

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Private Prisons Equal Big Business By Stacy M. Brown

High Incarceration Rates Boosts Income for Operators and Government Officials. While newly appointed Federal Communications Commission Acting Chair Mignon Clyburn and members of the Congressional Black Caucus continue their fight to reduce the costs for inmates to make telephone calls, a battle against privately run prisons is heating up. Officials at various civil rights and watchdog organizations claim that private prison operators are using their political clout to help increase the prison population and to deny the release of many who are eligible for parole. "For profit companies exercise their political influence to protect their market share," said Tracy Velazquez, the former executive director of the Justice Policy Institute in Northwest Washington, D.C. "We need to take a hard look at what the cost of this influence is, both to taxpayers and to the community as a whole, in terms of the polices being lobbied for and the outcomes for people put in private prisons," she said. Meanwhile, Clyburn and Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), have continued their push to reduce exorbitant telephone call rates that inmates face when calling home. In most prisons a $3.95 connection fee is required for all calls and inmates pay an additional 89 cents per minute. However, in private prisons, the calls can be as much as $5 per minute, a fee required of the 2,000 prisoners at the Stewart Prison in Lumpkin, Ga. That high fee helps Correction Corp. of America (CCA), the prison's private operator, rake in between $30 million and $50 million a year, according to the Northwest Washington, D.C.-based government watchdog, Think Progress. Private prison operators have cumulatively reported profits of almost $200 million annually, according to a 2013 March edition of Bloomberg Businessweek. The operators, like CCA, average between 42 and 66 percent commissions, which result in millions of dollars in revenue for the corporations, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported in a 2012 filing. "This is [the telephone rates] something that I've been advocating for years," said Clyburn, 51. "It's important that families have that contact with their incarcerated loved ones." Fudge, who heads the CBC, said it's imperative that the costs are reduced. "If (inmates) can communicate with their families, the odds are much better that they will not be repeat offenders," said Fudge, 60, who asked the FCC to eliminate the per-call charges and establish a reasonable and permanent cap on telephone rates in all

prisons. The financial windfall that privately managed prison operators reap from telephone calls is only a small fraction of their overall income, which reaches into the billions. The country has three types of lock-up facilities; local or county jail, state and federal prison. However, instead of operating specific prisons, many local, state and federal authorities have opted to contract with various private corporations to manage the facilities. Since 2003, the number of private prisons has grown from five to 100 nationwide while prisoners in those facilities have increased from 2,000 to about 130,000. The two largest private prison operators – CCA and The Geo Group (GEO) – report revenues approaching $3 billion annually, according to financial documents posted on the New York Stock Exchange, where they are publicly traded. CCA is currently trading on the Big Board at $38.90 a share while stocks for GEO are listed at $38.81. "The emergence of CCA as a leading prison profiteer is a result of a thoughtful promulgation of laws and policies on a federal and state level," said Seema Sadanandan, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of the Nation's Capital in Northwest Washington, D.C. Sadanandan, 31,

organized a rally on May 7 at the Central Detention Facility on 19th Street in Southeast Washington, D.C., to protest the way CCA operates that jail and its other prison facilities. "Through tactics like pushing for minimum occupancy guarantees in its prisons, CCA has both contributed to and benefited from the explosion in incarceration," Sadanandan said. Private prison operators are also making a fortune off of prisoners,

who are primarily immigrants and African Americans. About half of all immigrants detained by federal officials are held in facilities run by private companies, at an average cost per inmate of approximately $200 a night. Many prisoners are paid about $2 a day for labor. Ten years ago, more than 3,300 immigrants were sent to private prisons under two 10-year contracts the Federal Bureau of Prisons signed with CCA worth $760 million. Now, more than 23,000 immigrants are housed in private prisons in the U.S. The incarceration rate for African Americans is about 3,074 per 100,000 residents, which is more than six times as high as the national average. CCA raked in $162 million in net income in 2011, in large part because of federal contracts. The Geo Group saw its net income rise from $16.9 million in 2000 to $78.6 million in 2011. Two years ago, The Geo Group finalized a merger with Cornell Companies, Inc., that was valued by Wall Street at $730 million. CCA pays its chief executive officer more than $3.2 million a year while The Geo Group's top executive earns $3.4 million annually. "Companies that house prisoners for profit have a perverse incentive to increase the prison population ...

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there is no motivation to rehabilitate prisoners," said Lisa Wade, a cultural critic and associate professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. State-run prisons are much more likely than privately-run prisons to offer programs to help prisoners, including psychological interventions, drug and alcohol counselling, and course work toward a college degree, said Wade, 38. "What is good for private prisons, in other words, is what is bad for individuals, their families, their communities, and our country," she said. A 2011 report by the Justice Policy Institute in Northwest Washington, D.C., disclosed that private prison operators allegedly paid judges to sentence juveniles with minor offenses to disproportionately longer terms in their correctional facilities. Two Pennsylvania judges were sentenced to prison in 2011 for illegally sending teenagers to jail in a scam that came to be known as, "Kids for Cash." Over a five year period, at least 5,000 teenagers appeared before Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and the county's Senior Judge Michael Conahan.

The judges illegally sentenced many of them to prison in exchange for nearly $3 million in

kickbacks, prosecutors said. Ciavarella, 58, ultimately was

sentenced to 28 years in federal prison. Conahan, 56, received more than 17 years. Prosecutors said the judges created the potential for an increased number of young offenders to be sent to juvenile detention facilities. "Somebody is going to make more money by holding more kids, there is a pretty good predictable profit motive," said criminal justice consultant Judith Greene, who heads a nonprofit group called Justice Strategies in New York. In a 2010 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, CCA officials stated that, "The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices." Private prison operators, who spend a total of $45 million annually on lobbying lawmakers for tougher and longer sentences, should be carefully scrutinized by the government, ACLU officials said. "Privatizing prisons may undermine cost effective sentencing reforms and increase recidivism rates," said ACLU policy director, Shakyra Diaz. "Despite these well-documented concerns, private prison companies continue to promote policies that put money in their pockets and people behind bars," Diaz said **This article was reprinted courtesy of Stacy M. Brown and the Washington Informer Newspaper. http://washingtoninformer.com/index.php/us/item/13764-

private-prisons-equal-big-business

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Make It In America, Updated Edition: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy by Andrew Liveris Publisher: Wiley Publishing Release date: January 4, 2011 ISBN-10: 0470930225 ISBN-13: 978-0470930229 America used to define itself by the things it built. We designed and produced the world's most important innovations, and in doing so, created a vibrant manufacturing sector that built the middle class. We manufactured our way to the top and became the undisputed economic leader among all nations. But over the last several decades, and especially in the last ten years, the sector that was America's great pride has eroded, costing millions of jobs and putting our long-term prosperity at risk. Now, as we struggle to recover from the worst recession in generations, our only chance to turn things around is to revive the American manufacturing sector—and to revolutionize it. In MAKE IT IN AMERICA: The Case for Reinventing the Economy, Andrew Liveris — Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company—offers a thoughtful and passionate argument that America’s future economic growth and prosperity depends on the strength of its manufacturing sector. The book

Explains how a manufacturing sector creates economic value at a scale unmatched by any other, and how central the sector is to creating jobs both inside and outside the factory.

Explores how other nations are building their manufacturing sectors to stay competitive in the global economy, and describes how America has failed to keep up.

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Editor in Chief ……...….………. Lisa. R. Ransom Senior Editor…………………….….Lisa P. Kinard Managing Director………………LáVita Simpson Webmaster……………………………..Rose Allen Editorial Board: George W. Brown, Reg Weaver, Terry M. Riley, Garrick T. Davis and Lisa R. Ransom Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation Board of Directors Chairwoman and CEO..................Lisa R. Ransom Vice Chairman…………….George W. Brown, Esq. Treasurer.............................Garrick T. Davis, MPA Secretary....................................Craig Mehall, Esq. Brandon Dudley, Esq. Ernest “Ernie” Green Deborah Harris-Sims, Ph.D. NCC, LPC Gregory L. Jefferson, Sr., Esq. Lisa P. Kinard, Esq. Irelene P. Ricks, Ph.D. Reg Weaver Design: MyGreenApple Layout: Perceptive Web Creations Photography Credit: Art Sanctuary; National Institute of Standards and Technology; Historicvehicle.org; Thomson Reuters; Savvy Sugar; National Small Business Association; atlantic.com; Politic365 and National Newspaper Publishers Association; dribble.com; Pittsburgh Barack Obama Academy of International Studies

Reprint Credit: Stacy M. Brown and the Washington

Informer Newspaper; Homer B. Roberts Foundation; Huffington Post

Special thanks to Edith Bartley for her assistance with this edition. *Add us to your address book You are receiving this email because of your affiliation with a member of our Board of Directors, your association with the late Congressman Augustus F. Hawkins and/or your interest in education and workforce development issues. The Silent Warrior Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation Washington, DC 20005 www.augustusfhawkinsfoundation.org newsletter@augustusfhawkinsfoundation.org This document contains proprietary information and may not be copied, repurposed or distributed without permission from the Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation. ISSN: 2326-182X Copyright © 2013 by Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation All Rights Reserved