Beyoncé, flowers, fan, Tyler Fabregas — (Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood)

by Selena Hill

October 7, 2026

Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation Awards $50K Grant To Nonprofit Building Tomorrow’s Changemakers

The grant will help In a Perfect World expand youth leadership and education programs.

BeyGOOD Foundation is putting dollars behind the next generation of leaders. The organization, which was founded by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, awarded a $50,000 grant to In a Perfect World, a nonprofit focused on youth education, creativity, social consciousness, and leadership. The grant arrives as community organizations continue working to expand educational and enrichment opportunities for young people.

Founded and led by Manuela Testolini, In a Perfect World works with young people through programs designed to develop leadership skills and encourage civic engagement. Its initiatives include Youth Ambassadors and REACH, which supports schools and educational resources. According to the nonprofit, its work has supported 35 school projects across eight countries, more than 500 high-poverty classrooms and 20,000 hours of youth-led service. The organization says its programs have reached 50,000 lives globally.

“On behalf of Mrs. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Ms. Tina Knowles, we are just grateful for you to be in this ecosystem now because, again, we see the good work you’re doing, and we know that you will continue to do it without a doubt,” said Allana J. Barefield, BeyGOOD’s digital editorial content manager, in a video shared on Instagram.

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For Testolini, the partnership represents an opportunity to take the organization’s youth programming to more communities.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is taking young leaders from the United States to Central America to build schools for indigenous communities there, to build with them,” Testolini said. She added, “They’re young leaders here, but how do they take what they’re doing across borders? How do they help other young people find their voice and have their place in the world?”

The $50,000 grant is expected to help In a Perfect World expand its programming to more young people. “This very generous grant is going to allow us to expand programming to hundreds more kids who need our support,” Testolini said. “Between all of the cuts to education, cuts to after-school programming, creative programming, we are so needed right now, and this could not come at a better time.”

The investment also underscores BeyGOOD’s focus on partnerships with organizations working directly in communities.

Since its launch in 2013, BeyGOOD has identified education, entrepreneurship, and community response as three core pillars of its mission. The foundation says its broader goal is to advance economic equity and help people access opportunities to create and thrive. The foundation says its community-response efforts include supporting grassroots organizations and investing in long-term resilience alongside community leaders.

Amazon, District of Columbia, settlement — Amazon is implementing a rigorous RTO vetting process for disabled employees requesting reasonable accommodation.

by Selena Hill

October 6, 2026

Amazon To Pay $8.25 Million After Lawsuit Over Prime Deliveries in Black D.C. Neighborhoods

The settlement will provide refunds to about 69,000 customers in Wards 7 and 8.

Amazon will pay $8.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the District of Columbia over delivery practices affecting customers in two majority-Black neighborhoods.

The settlement calls for $7.25 million in refunds to roughly 69,000 D.C. customers and a $1 million penalty paid to the District, according to D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office. Amazon will also change its business practices under the agreement.

The dispute centered on ZIP codes 20019 and 20020, which cover portions of Wards 7 and 8 east of the Anacostia River. The lawsuit alleged Amazon excluded those ZIP codes from its in-house delivery network beginning in 2022 while continuing to charge residents the standard Prime membership price.

Customers in the affected ZIP codes had placed approximately 4.5 million Amazon orders since 2020, reports AfroTech. Prime membership currently costs $14.99 per month or $139 annually. The District alleged customers were not adequately informed that Amazon had shifted deliveries in the area to third-party carriers, including UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, contributing to longer delivery times.

Amazon has denied that the changes were discriminatory or deceptive and attributed the operational shift to safety concerns involving delivery drivers.

“There have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement explaining that the company made changes to “put the safety of delivery drivers first.” She added, “The safety of our customers and the drivers delivering to them has always guided our operational decisions — full stop,” reports AfroTech. She added that drivers faced “specific, documented safety threats” in the affected ZIP codes and said Amazon adjusted operations to protect them while continuing deliveries through other carriers. “However, claims that our practices, at any point, were deceptive are false,” Nantel said.

Amazon also said the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing. The company said conditions have improved and that packages in the affected communities are again being delivered through Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners and Amazon Flex delivery partners. Meanwhile, for affected Prime customers, the agreement puts millions of dollars back in consumers’ hands while requiring Amazon to alter practices tied to its delivery operations.

Paramount, Skydance, George Cheeks, Warner Bros. Discovery — Photo by Wally Gobetz/flickr

by Sidnee Michelle

October 6, 2026

George Cheeks To Oversee Massive TV Empire Under Skydance

Cheeks will also oversee more than 50 cable networks in the U.S. and internationally.

George Cheeks is set to oversee one of the entertainment industry’s largest television portfolios as he takes on an expanded leadership role at Paramount Skydance following its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cheeks will serve as co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance TV, according to a leadership structure announced Oct. 5 by Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison and incoming co-CEO Ynon Kreiz. The appointment will put Cheeks at the helm of a sprawling television operation combining major assets from Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

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His portfolio will include Warner Bros. Television Studios, CBS Studios, and Paramount Television Studios, along with the CBS Television Network, 27 local television stations, and Skydance’s global sports operations. Cheeks will also oversee more than 50 cable networks in the U.S. and internationally, including BET, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TNT, TBS, Discovery, HGTV, and Food Network.

The expanded role marks another major step in Cheeks’ career. He joined Paramount in 2020 as president and CEO of CBS and later served as co-CEO of Paramount Global before becoming chair of TV Media at Paramount.

During his tenure, Cheeks helped steer CBS as its programming expanded across broadcast and streaming platforms. Before joining CBS, he held several senior leadership positions at NBCUniversal, including co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios.

Cheeks will join an executive team overseeing an extensive collection of television and streaming assets. Casey Bloys is slated to serve as co-chair and chief content officer of Skydance’s direct-to-consumer business, overseeing original programming for HBO Max and Paramount+. JB Perrette will serve as co-chair and chief business officer across Skydance TV and its direct-to-consumer operation.

The appointments are contingent on Paramount completing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The transaction is expected to close Oct. 6, after which the combined company is expected to operate under the Skydance name.

by Black Enterprise

October 6, 2026

‘Black Capital’ London Debut Connects Black Enterprises Directly With Investors

The high-profile summit aims to transform under-capitalized markets.

On Oct. 20, 2026, the United Kingdom’s financial and creative landscapes will converge at Elder Yard, Norton Folgate, for the inaugural launch of Black Capital. Founded by John Muleba, former creative strategist at Burberry, Alexander McQueen, and Louis Vuitton, the landmark platform bridges a persistent market disconnect by bringing founders, creative talent, investors, financial institutions, and government representatives into a single room. Strategically aligned with major autumn fixtures like Frieze London and the FT Africa Summit, the high-profile summit aims to transform under-capitalized markets into thriving engines of economic growth.

According to a press release provided to BLACK ENTERPRISE, the initiative addresses an urgent funding gap. While Black-led growth enterprises and the creative economy contribute billions annually to the UK economy, historical allocation remains disproportionately low. Black founders have traditionally secured less than 1% of UK venture capital. By showcasing scalable businesses, valuable intellectual property, and influential consumer brands, Black Capital establishes a direct, curated pipeline for growth enterprises seeking institutional backing.

“There was always a feeling that Black talent had to wait its turn and that opportunities for growth were scarce,” Muleba, founder of Black Capital, said. “For too long, the question has been who gets chosen to receive capital. I designed the concept of Black Capital to ask a different question: What happens if we bring the capital to us? We already have the ability and ambition to build companies of scale. Access was the only thing standing in the way.”

Why are investors targeting Black growth enterprises and the creative economy?

The economic rationale for participation is compelling. According to data from the British Business Bank, CREME, and NatWest, ethnic-minority-led businesses already contribute an estimated 25 billion pounds annually to the UK economy, with an untapped potential of 100 billion pounds. Furthermore, 71% of these enterprises intend to scale significantly, and 52% are actively willing to utilize external finance.

Simultaneously, the broader UK creative industries contribute 124 billion pounds in Gross Value Added (GVA) and support 2.4 million jobs. Although 74% of surveyed creator-economy organizations report robust sales growth, 48% cite access to finance as a primary barrier to expansion, with investment-ready creative firms requiring an average of 1.3 million pounds in funding.

“I believe in what Black Capital is building,” Karen Blackett CBE, founding trustee of The Black Equity Organisation said via a press release. “Connecting Black creative talent and Black growth enterprises directly with investors is how we move from representation to real ownership, and that’s transformative.”

Industry leaders emphasize that this challenge represents an underdeveloped asset class rather than a mere representation gap. Blackett notes that connecting Black growth enterprises directly with investors moves the ecosystem from superficial representation to genuine, transformative ownership.

Designed as an evidence-led program featuring keynote interviews—such as “Building Black Behemoths”—alongside specialized panels on media, fashion, art, and a dedicated focus on closing the funding gap for Black women, Black Capital moves past cyclical dialogue. By offering structured access to funding, the platform provides institutional investors with differentiated deal flow while granting Black founders the face-to-face capital connections necessary to scale sustainable operations.

Paramount Pictures, Channing Dungey, Skydance — Photo credit: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

by Selena Hill

October 6, 2026

Channing Dungey Is Set To Take the Reins Of MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, And More In Skydance Shake-Up

The veteran Black TV executive is poised to oversee an expanded cable portfolio as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery combine under Skydance.

Channing Dungey is about to have an even bigger seat at the table.

The veteran television executive is poised to oversee Paramount’s cable networks, including MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central, as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery prepare to combine under the Skydance banner. The deal is scheduled to close Oct. 6.

Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks, would add Paramount’s cable portfolio to the collection of brands she already oversees at Warner Bros. Discovery. According to Deadline, the Paramount group includes the “core four” of MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and BET, along with VH1, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop TV, and Logo TV. Her existing Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio includes TBS, TNT, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, OWN, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim.

The expanded role puts Dungey at the center of a major corporate restructuring in Hollywood, with George Cheeks, Paramount’s chair of TV media, positioned above her. Cheeks is expected to oversee the merged company’s television studios and linear networks, including CBS, while Dungey handles the day-to-day operation of the cable brands.

The move also represents another significant chapter in Dungey’s extraordinary career. She became the first Black executive to lead a major U.S. broadcast network’s entertainment division when she was named president of ABC Entertainment in 2016. She later joined Netflix before taking over Warner Bros. Television in 2021.

Her current studio operation has considerable reach. Variety reports that Warner Bros. Television produces more than 80 original series across more than 20 platforms, with credits including Abbott Elementary, Ted Lasso, Shrinking, The Voice and The Pitt. The division has secured 13 new series orders and 13 renewals this year, while The Pitt earned six Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series.

The broader merger is creating one of Hollywood’s largest entertainment companies, bringing together brands spanning Warner Bros., Paramount, HBO, CBS, CNN, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, and more. The new company will be called Skydance, the name of David Ellison’s original production company.

Fannie Lou Hamer, mobile tour, digital upgrade — Photo credit: public domain

by Ida Harris

October 6, 2026

Fannie Lou Hamer Was ‘Sick And Tired’ Of Racism, And Sick And Dying Of Breast Cancer

Hamer was born on Oct. 6, 1917 and died March 14, 1977 at age 59

On Oct. 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She died March 14, 1977, at age 59, after aggressively fighting breast cancer. Starkly different from 2025, where advanced technology is used to successfully treat breast cancer and the current five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 91%, according to the American Cancer Society, survival in the 1970s was bleak.

The rate of survival was an abysmal 55% to 68% for women diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and a mere 16% to 19% for advanced metastatic cancer. Hamer, a freedom fighter for Black rights, fought fiercely against white supremacy and failing health.

Hamer is heralded as one of the famed Mississippi activists coming out of Mississippi and the civil rights movement. The civil rights leader had a down-home, grassroots approach to fighting for equality in the Deep South and was very vocal about voting rights for African Americans. A woman of little means but great determination, Hamer mobilized hundreds of Black Mississippians to register to vote at a time when Jim Crow had the region in a chokehold. Hamer was harassed, threatened, jailed, and severely assaulted in her attempt to fight racism. She was even the target of an assassination attempt on Sept. 10, 1962, after racists fired 16 shots into a room where she slept. In 1963, she was arrested and brutally beaten with batons by two Black prisoners at the behest of racist police officers.

Even then, Hamer’s civil rights activism and leadership were not deterred. She went on to serve in several roles for civil rights and political organizations, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Freedom Democratic Party. Hamer appeared in Harlem with the honorable El-Hajj Malik El-Habazz (Malcolm X) on Dec. 20, 1964, where she presented her notable speech “Sick and Tired of Being Sick Tired,” where she gave a raw account of the racism, voter suppression, and police brutality she endured. Hamer stated:

“Some of the things I’ve got to say today may be a little sickening. People have said year after year, “Those people in Mississippi can’t think.” But after we would work ten and eleven hours a day for three lousy dollars and couldn’t sleep we couldn’t do anything else but think. And we have been thinking a long time. And we are tired of what’s going on. And we want to see now, what this here will turn out for the 4th of January. We want to see is democracy real?”

Hamer returned to Mississippi after that powerful speech and continued to fight for civil rights. In 1968, she purchased over 600 acres of land in Ruleville to start the “Pig Bank,” a community farm and affordable housing initiative for low-income families. Hamer even helped start a Head Start program and pressed on with activism through the mid-to late 1970s until her health became grave.

Hamer was not just sick and tired of being sick and tired—she was literally sick and dying. She was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer in 1976, which halted her activism. She died of breast cancer complications shortly thereafter.

by Selena Hill

October 6, 2026

2 Alabama Teens Mow 50 Lawns For Free And Learn A Lesson In Entrepreneurship

Ja’Torrian Taylor and Tevin Rice completed a community-service challenge and earned the equipment to grow their lawn-care business.

Two Alabama teens are proving that entrepreneurship can start with a lawn mower and a commitment to serve the community.

According to Upworthy, Ja’Torrian Taylor and Tevin Rice, the young founders of TJ & JT Mowing Service in Gadsden, Alabama, completed the 50 Yard Challenge created by Rodney Smith Jr., the founder of Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service, also known as the “Lawnmower Man.” The challenge asks young people to mow 50 lawns for free for elderly residents, veterans, and people who cannot maintain their yards.

Their work caught Smith’s attention after he learned the boys were sharing an older mower donated by a neighbor. He traveled to Gadsden and gave Taylor and Rice a mower, blower, and trimmer to help them take their business to the next level.

“I’m heading down to Gadsden right now. These are good, hard-working kids that deserve some gratitude,” Smith told KMBC.

Smith framed the equipment as more than a donation. “Giving these boys lawn equipment is teaching them discipline,” he said. “If they tell someone they are going to mow a lawn, they need to mow the lawn.”

He also encouraged the teens to view the milestone as a starting point, saying, “Remember, this is not the end; it’s just the beginning.”

The opportunity reflects the broader mission of Smith’s nonprofit, which combines community service with youth development. Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service provides free lawn care for elderly people, people with disabilities, single parents, and veterans while encouraging young participants to build responsibility, leadership, and work skills.

The 50 Yard Challenge uses a milestone system to keep participants moving toward the goal. Young people receive a white shirt when they begin, followed by orange, green, blue, red, and black shirts as they complete 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 lawns.

By mid-2026, more than 6,000 preteens and teens had signed up for the challenge, according to Upworthy. If participants complete all 50 lawns, the collective effort could amount to more than 300,000 free lawn cuts.

For Taylor and Rice, the payoff goes beyond completing a service challenge. The donated equipment gives their fledgling business the tools to serve paying customers while building on the work ethic they developed through giving back.

“This could be the beginning of a successful lawn service,” said Smith.

And just like that, a few yards at a time, two kids got a business lesson that money can’t buy.

capacity, infrastructure, systems — phot credit: Getty Images

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

October 6, 2026

When ‘You Always Come Through’ Becomes A Business Risk

The reliable executive gets the difficult assignment.

By Ebony Holden, Esq.

“You always come through” sounds like recognition. Sometimes it is. Repeated often enough, it becomes an allocation decision.

The reliable executive gets the difficult assignment because she handled the last one. Her competence becomes evidence of capacity she never formally offered. Over time, praise starts carrying instructions. Keep absorbing. Keep fixing.

For Black women, those instructions can arrive wrapped in language that already carries cultural weight.

Strength, composure, and endurance have long been admired in ways that expand what others expect Black women to withstand. “You’re so strong” can sound affirming while quietly lowering the threshold for concern.

“You always come through” works the same way at work when praise starts authorizing demand and the company begins depending on the very qualities it celebrates.

When Reliability Becomes Infrastructure

A high-capacity executive can make a weak system look functional. Her judgment catches problems early enough to keep them from forcing structural correction. Her competence changes what senior leadership sees. The dashboard says the system works. She is the system.

I call this reliability dependency.

It develops when the same person absorbs instability often enough that her judgment, relationships, institutional memory, and discretionary effort become part of how ordinary work gets done.

Success protects the dependency from scrutiny.

As long as the outcome holds, decision-makers have little reason to examine what the outcome requires from the person producing it.

Capacity Is Not Availability

Companies routinely collapse capability and capacity.

She handled complexity before, so more complexity comes her way.

Each successful rescue makes the next request easier to justify, and a record of extraordinary execution starts functioning like an open line of credit against her attention.

Race and gender sharpen the assumption when overperformance carries professional value because competence is not granted the same presumption across groups.

Composure becomes reputational currency. Endurance becomes part of how credibility is read.

Soon the business is no longer admiring excellence from a distance. It is operating through it.

Then Her Leadership “Changes”

Recovery work consumes attention that would otherwise support judgment, pattern recognition, and strategic direction.

She adapts.

Because she has become more deliberate and less willing to absorb chaos on demand, senior leadership starts reading the effects of its own dependency as a change in her leadership.

The earlier version of her becomes the standard, so when she stops performing unlimited availability, the interpretation shifts.

Less responsive.

Less flexible.

Less engaged.

The behavior has changed. So have the conditions surrounding it. Now adaptation looks like deficiency.

The interpretive risk deepens when warmth, composure, accessibility, and emotional control are already filtered through racialized and gendered expectations.

A firmer boundary can acquire meaning beyond the boundary itself.

The company created the load, then evaluated the adaptation without accounting for the load.

She absorbs the cost twice.

Reliability Dependency Corrupts the Evidence

A company can misjudge the health of its system and the strength of its leader at the same time.

The operating model looks stable because one executive keeps compensating for weak ownership and fragmented coordination.

Her leadership looks diminished when she finally protects the capacity the business has been consuming.

The result is bad organizational data.

Succession decisions, performance evaluations, sponsorship, and resource allocation can all be shaped by a system that looks stronger than it is and a leader who looks weaker than the conditions explain.

Audit the Dependency Before You Evaluate the Leader

Companies need a better question than, “Who can handle this?” They need to ask why the same person keeps being required to.

Recurring rescue work is organizational data.

When one executive repeatedly becomes the answer to unclear ownership or stalled execution, senior leadership should examine the dependency before celebrating the rescue.

The cleanest test is simple:

What stops working if she stops compensating for it?

The answer shows where reliability has become structural. It also tests whether the company is evaluating leadership accurately.

Before concluding that someone has become less agile, less engaged, or less effective, decision-makers should examine whether the business has been consuming the very capacity it now believes has declined.

Reliable executives should strengthen the company.

They should not have to function as hidden infrastructure to keep it stable.

Once “you always come through” becomes the reason instability keeps traveling toward the same person, the compliment has stopped describing excellence.

It has become evidence of dependence.

Author bio

Ebony Holden, Esq. is an attorney, leadership strategist, published writer, and author of the forthcoming DISTORTED: How Sustained Scrutiny Alters Perception, Performance, and Power. Her work examines how organizational conditions shape cognitive bandwidth, decision quality, leadership interpretation, and performance.

Al Sharpton — (Photo: G F/Wikimedia Commons )

by Selena Hill

October 5, 2026

Rev. Al Sharpton Celebrates 72nd Birthday With New York’s Political Heavyweights

New York city Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul were among the political leaders to celebrating Rev. Sharpton’s birthday

Rev. Al Sharpton’s 72nd birthday brought together some of New York’s most prominent political and civic leaders in Harlem this past weekend.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul joined Sharpton, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and City Comptroller Mark Levine on October 3 at the National Action Network (NAN), a civil rights organization that Sharpton founded in 1991. The organization focuses on civil rights, voting rights, workers’ rights, economic opportunity, and political accountability. NAN says its work includes expanding access to capital, employment, and education while addressing discrimination and other barriers affecting communities of color.

“We’re mixing my birthday tribute to the Saturday morning rally, and people are already in the overflow rooms,” Sharpton said during the gathering, according to Harlem World.

During the celebration, Mayor Mamdani described Sharpton as “someone whom you can find inspiration in every decade of their life,” while highlighting the civil rights leader’s work on issues involving justice, economic opportunity, and political empowerment.

Gov. Hochul also offered a personal tribute, joking about Sharpton’s introduction of her as his “big sister.”

“Everybody’s gonna think I’m older than you, and I am not older than you,” Hochul said.

She then turned to Sharpton’s broader legacy, saying, “I cannot imagine what America would be today without having this man, this champion, this voice.”

The gathering also carried a political dimension. With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, Hochul urged New Yorkers to remain engaged in the electoral process and discussed the potential implications of congressional control.

Sharpton’s birthday celebration showed that, at 72, his Saturday morning rally remains a place where New York’s political establishment and community leadership continue to meet—keeping the House of Justice in Harlem at the center of civic conversation.

Earlier this year, NAN hosted conversations with elected officials on issues ranging from economic opportunity and public safety to Black leadership and voting rights.