Gabrielle Deculus Shares Business and Strategy Tips to Pivot and Cope Amid COVID-19
Gabrielle Deculus began her entrepreneurial journey in 2008 at 19 and has earned herself a reputation for delivering results. For nearly a decade, Deculus has gained experience in branding, marketing, public relations, and social media while keeping people at the center of her work.
As a former development director for Habitat for Humanity, Deculus was instrumental in the management of all marketing, grants, and fundraising projects in South Atlanta, including Rick Ross’ Fulton County Community Initiative. Deculus was recognized by Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation and Essence magazine for her efforts in raising over $30,000 for flood damage and mobilizing recovery efforts in South Louisiana.
Deculus’ latest entrepreneurial accomplishment, Saint Josephine, is a marketing consulting firm for social good. She created this firm to house her brands, serve her clients, and build a space for partnerships to develop. One of the brands—Business Rules for Women (BRFW)—just celebrated a 240,000 milestone, now reaching success-driven women on six different continents. The BRFW online network distributes unique content to over 2 million viewers per month.
BLACK ENTERPRISE had the chance to speak with Deculus about Business Rules For Women, how to pivot your business strategy, and how to successfully execute a fully virtual conference.
BE: What is Business Rules For Women?
Deculus: Business Rules For Women was created for women who are looking to dominate in their careers. The Business Rules For Women platform was founded in April 2015 in Houston, Texas, and currently reaches over 1 million women each month through online content. We have built a global community for a wide range of women totaling just under 250,000 coming from major cities like Atlanta, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and Lagos.
How were you able to successfully pivot a three-day conference into a virtual conference?
To me, it was all about pivoting this event. People purchased tickets and were traveling from all over to attend this conference so I had to make this happen. After many conversations with my team, volunteers, and mentors I decided that I had to have this conference. Before contacting the attendees I knew that I had to have a solution for them. I was able to work a deal with on-site vendors to transition the physical meeting into a fully virtual conference utilizing the technologies that were available. We were expecting a few hundred attendees so we literally had to pivot every aspect of the conference to the virtual space. We developed a conference app that allowed attendees to check-in at workshops, panels, and health and wellness events that were scheduled. We had a QVC-style business marketplace for our vendors to still take part in the virtual experience. We took the experience of a physical conference and took it virtual.
What key lessons did you take away as a result of having to pivot to a virtual conference?
Information and being a resource is so powerful. This is what this conference really did for us. It solidified the importance of education, and access for people. How can you continue to be a resource for women and men in the community regardless of uncontrollable things happen? Being innovative in the face of uncertainty is possible.
Three pieces of advice you have for entrepreneurs to get through this period of time:
Great companies are built when the rest of the world is in chaos. Be a solution and let people see you as a resource.
This is a time to reconfigure what your business looks like, and what your products and services look like. You may have a product or service that before COVID-19 was positioned for one thing. Now is a great opportunity to possibly re-market and pivot that same product for a solution it provides today.
Invest in yourself. This is a great opportunity to learn new skills and become even more of an expert in an area. There are a lot of free online classes and trainings that are available due to the climate we are in. Take advantage of them.
This Black Couple Created Culturally Inclusive Toys to Show Diversity and Career Images
Frustrated with the lack of diversity featured in children’s puzzle drawings, Matthew Goins knew he had to start his own puzzle company to address that issue.
He and his wife Marnel created Puzzle Huddle which has led to young children being able to see images of kids that look just like them in puzzles. The culturally inclusive brand allows kids to piece puzzles together and the result is seeing Black representation of scientists, doctors and even pilots when the picture comes together.
Representation matters.
With the effects of the coronavirus running rampant, forcing schools to close and families to stay at home, the timing has increased sales for Puzzle Huddle.
Goins talked to BLACK ENTERPRISE about how his company is different than most and his life as an entrepreneur.
BE: What motivated you to become an entrepreneur and how has that decision affected your life?
I’ve had a lifelong interest in becoming an entrepreneur. I sold Blow-Pops out of my locker and bookbag in middle school. I’ve also had a lifetime discipline and interest in academic progress through school. My academic and pragmatic career disposition had more influence over my life until recently.
My upbringing in Detroit, then attending Howard University, connected to a peer group of people that are determined to achieve and make a difference in the world. I feel like a part of a generational cohort that know we need to make a difference where we can.
Self-employment has created increased uncertainty and income instability, but it’s one of the most fun and fulfilling things I’ve ever done.
What inspired you to start your children’s puzzle company, Puzzle Huddle and how is business these days?
As my family grew to include three young children, we looked for toys and games that would support their learning. Puzzles are a pretty standard purchase for families with young children, but I was very frustrated with the lack of diversity featured in the puzzle drawings.
We had an unseasonal increase in sales as many school districts suspended class and parents were preparing to have their children at home during the day.
During this coronavirus pandemic, have you seen any type of change in people ordering items from your company?
More families are ordering and we’ve also seen an increased interest in larger, more complex puzzles because students of all ages have been affected by school closures.
What sets Puzzle Huddle apart from other companies that may be similar in theory?
Our puzzles emphasize diversity and career images. Browsing our website we hope people notice the ranges of skin colors, hair textures, and career images. We enjoy hearing from parents and children that believe the puzzle art was drawn to look like them. We started with STEM images and we’ve added public safety careers, art professionals, Bible story characters, and others.
What has entrepreneurship taught you and what advice would you give others seeking to start their own endeavor?
Entrepreneurship requires comfort with risk taking and storytelling. I recognized early that people were interested in the small business journey, so we communicate a storyline around our products and business journey.
US Chamber’s Rick Wade To Black Business: ‘Reboot, Reinvent, Reimagine’ For A Post-COVID World
As the US Chamber of Commerce’s Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Outreach, Rick C. Wade plays a pivotal role in positioning companies, large and small, to take care of business as they grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
For two years, he has been busy initiating programs to forge diverse relationships and partnerships for the world’s largest business organization representing 3 million firms. Over the past two months, however, Wade has been engaged in everything from rallying the business community to lobby Congress to replenish stimulus funding to holding conference calls to help companies put employees back to work.
As a senior adviser to President Obama and Deputy Chief of Staff at Commerce during The Great Recession, the Lancaster, South Carolina, native intimately knows how such crises can devastate black businesses. That’s why he’s spent considerable focus on helping African American entrepreneurs gain access to immediate financial and strategic resources while guiding them to remake their firms for a post-COVID environment.
“There’s nothing more urgent than short-term measures to keep businesses alive. That has to be our No. 1 objective. As we’re doing this, we have to recognize that the American economy is being redesigned and we can’t afford to be left out of that redesign. You got to take the initiative to reboot, reinvent, reimagine,” he asserts, citing healthcare, tech, and global business as prospective entrepreneurial hotspots.
The following are edited excerpts of Black Enterprise’s interview with Wade on today’s unpredictable business environment.
What has been the impact of the COVID-19 environment on your role at the Chamber?
A lot of what I do is making sure that we build an economy that’s diverse and inclusive, not just in terms of workforce, but access to funding and opportunities for African American- and other minority-owned business, and to the extent that we are inclusive in our policy advocacy on Capitol Hill. So the urgency, immediacy, intensity of this work is so important because, as we’ve seen, this pandemic could have a disproportionate and adverse impact on the African American business community as well as other minority communities.
With the second tranche of funding for PPP that started on April 27 and new provisions for financing through Minority Depository Institutions and Community Development Financial Institutions [CDFIs}, have you been encouraged by the availability of capital to black- and minority-owned businesses?
We all are very interested in data and being able to measure the impact of these funds, which we don’t know yet. Due to the provisions of providing the $60 billion to CDFIs and minority depository institutions, credit union, et cetera, these are places where minority enterprises are more likely to have open relationships. So I’ve been hearing encouraging news that that process has been working but that is a first step to what has to be a longer-term investment to make sure that minority enterprises across the country are not left behind.
The recent MetLife -US Chamber study found that only one-third of small businesses have applied or tried to apply for a PPP loan. So what can you do in your role to just encourage more small businesses and minority businesses to apply for the PPP funding?
I think in the short term, we have to consider the outreach that we have been doing, literally on a day-to-day basis, to make sure black-owned companies understand the application process and know that they’re eligible. I have been leading calls and been on calls with organizations from fraternities and sororities to faith communities and other organizations trying to get the word out. We’ve also been working closely with one of our partners, the Minority Business Development Agency [MBDA] and their minority business development centers across the country to engage minority firms at every level possible and give them the technical support they need to be successful in the application process.
Wade with members of the Minority Business Development Agency
So how should business owners position their companies post-crisis?
We’ve got to think short term because we have an immediate problem and if we don’t address it my fear is that a lot of minority businesses won’t survive. But we also found that we must think long term and figure out this whole broader access to capital issue, and not just from the lending institutions, but private equity.
One of the areas that I’ve had a lot of experience at the Department of Commerce is following foreign direct investment. How do we look at every piece of capital and build a structure that is a very diverse structure in terms of capital access for black-owned enterprises? What about joint ventures? What about acquisitions? What about new structures for partnerships? Also, reimagining business infrastructure and restructuring how we access capital to do business. There’s going to be a lot of innovations that come out of this new normal world that we live in. I want to make sure that African American businesses are thinking and leaning forward in providing business solutions to these challenges that we are confronted with.
So your message to black business is to do what they need to do to stay alive today but at the same time, focus on what’s going to be the new, new economy?
Yes. There’s going to be the new economy. How can we fit in this new design model of the future? I’ll give you an example. I had a call with barbershops and beauty salons and trying to get them connected because we know the important role they play in our social and organizational structure. We are trying to get them connected to PPP and other resources to keep them alive. In reimagining our community, I then ask what is the role of barbershops in terms of healthcare information? There’s a study I found in The New England Journal of Medicine where barbershops were used to convey information about hypertension to black men, coupled with their medication, and there was significant improvement of hypertension among black men.
So when I say lean forward, how can we re-examine and reimagine the businesses that we have to help address some of these underlying structural, historical challenges that have always existed in the black community? And I think that presents opportunities. For example, having pharmacies co-located at churches or in barbershops to give people the ability to access prescription drugs as well as educate them on healthy eating and lifestyles.
So based on your role and what you’re communicating, now is not the time to stand still and look for saviors because in a certain sense, like in every environment, we must be our own cavalry.
That’s right. You got to take it upon yourself, take the initiative to reboot, reinvent, reimagine. And in my role at the largest business organization in the world, I want to support black entrepreneurs and help them create these innovative new approaches. So we have tremendous access. So what are the innovative partnerships that we could create with small and big businesses to help provide solutions that’s a win-win for both small businesses as well as corporate America?
NBA legend and entrepreneur Isiah Thomas and Wade at the AT&T lunch during 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend
We Must have A Seat At The Policymaking Table
One aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it fully communicates the importance for black business owners to be involved in politics and policy, which are the drivers of immediate solutions.
I regularly convene all the diverse chambers—the black, Hispanic and Asian chambers—to get them connected to the policies at the federal level and helping them to adjust as it cascades down to the state and local level., we have to be in the room at the table as policies are being constructed.
That’s one of the big value areas of the Chamber. We’re the voice of business as related to Congress, the state level as related to legislatures, and local level related to city councils. This is where the design concept of policy begins. Our work begins with politics, and it ends with policy and accountability. Oftentimes we vote and think, “That’s it.” We have to make sure we are part of that design of the laws, regulations, and policies being promulgated and the results that come from laws and regulations and policies already implemented. There’s a tremendous gap there.
So in designing this new paradigm, do you believe that black businesses need to make a pivot to global markets?
We’re not in the room during the global conversation, considering that 95% of the world’s consumers live outside the United States. So if we really want to think about how we could peak in the future, we’ve got to think and be global. Oftentimes I’m trying to be a bridge at the Chamber, not just in the United States. The American Chambers of Commerce are in over 120 countries around the world. So our footprint is not just domestic but is also global.
US Chamber President Suzanne Clark, Howard University President Wayne Frederick and Wade with next-gen scholars
Keeping The Diverse Talent Pipeline Flowing
In terms of the current environment, how do you move forward with your next-Gen Initiative and the role of HBCUs?
For the last two summers, I’ve focused on next-gen scholars from HBCUs around the country. That program is really about internships and creating a talent pipeline in hopes that these young people will look at business policy advocacy and working in business, and working in corporate America as a career path. We’re going to continue that in this new virtual world.
The other part is how do we engage HBCU leadership as we develop pathways forward for business in our economy? We hosted last year over 60 HBCU presidents at the Chamber and the conversation about the future of higher education in business. So the role of HBCUs is extremely important as we think about not just the workforce of tomorrow but finding entrepreneurs and solving some of the top challenges that we have in our society. How do we move to research at HBCUs from innovation into commercialization? We ultimately create this inclusive economy. This is a really important partnership. In fact, the first time ever in the history of the Chamber, we have the first president of a university on that board; Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick.
What are some examples of how you are engaging HBCUs?
We are looking at how to work with faculty and connect them to some of the policy centers within the Chamber. I recently brought Tuskegee University to participate in our largest summit, the Aviation Summit. We seek to develop a business ecosystem in and around Tuskegee considering they’re one of the largest producers of aerospace engineers. I was thrilled to get them engaged in the summit that included pretty much every CEO of every airline across the industry in America. Whether it is aviation, technology, healthcare or pharmaceutical manufacturing, connectivity to that industry produces opportunities for us to create jobs.
What are some of the other initiatives in which you are focused?
I’m really, really proud of our engagement with the Kellogg Foundation around the Business Case for Racial Equity. Again, this is something I believe demonstrates that the Chamber is leaning in on this issue. Prior to the pandemic, we were having roundtable conversations with business leaders, owners, and stakeholders in Mississippi, New Mexico, and Michigan. I wanted to point that out because we have to deal with racial equity from a business perspective if we’re going to close the equity gap in our economy. Companies will understand that if we close this gap, the economy wins. We look forward to expanding on that in the future.
Another unique program that I put together is called the Business Huddle, convening professional athletes with corporate CEOs and helping them understand how to expand their firms and become more competitive in their businesses. I wanted to mention those things because it gives you a sense of the breadth and depth of the Chamber’s reach. We have an extraordinary footprint where we can be an advocate for diversity, inclusion, access, equity, capital from all of these different lenses.
Family of Black EMT Worker Who was Killed at Home by Louisville Cops Hires Ahmaud Arbery Attorney
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump is the latest addition to the legal team representing the family of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black EMT worker who was shot eight times by Louisville Metro Police officers in her own apartment, according to USA Today.
The Taylor family hired Crump, a Tallahassee, Florida-based attorney who is known for his involvement in high-profile cases of black Americans who were killed in controversial shootings, including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice. Crump has also taken on the case of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man who was shot and killed by two white men in Georgia in late February.
Taylor was shot by Louisville Metro Police officers who had entered her apartment around 1 AM on March 13. Police claim the officers were there to serve a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation, but there were no drugs found at the EMT’s home.
“We stand with the family of this young woman in demanding answers from the Louisville Police Department,” Crump said. “Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding her death, the department has not provided any answers regarding the facts and circumstances of how this tragedy occurred, nor have they taken responsibility for her senseless killing.”
Crump joins local attorneys Sam Aguiar and Lonita Baker in representing the family. Crump, who called Taylor’s death “inexcusable” said no one from Louisville police has been held accountable for her death.
— Benjamin Crump, Esq. (@AttorneyCrump) May 13, 2020
Taylor’s family filed a lawsuit alleging that police fired more than 20 rounds into her home, striking objects in the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, both bedrooms, and into an adjacent residence where a 5-year-old child and pregnant mother were present.
The lawsuit alleges wrongful death, excessive force, and gross negligence on the part of the police officers. They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as legal fees through a jury trial.
“Breonna had committed no crime, posed no immediate threat to the safety of the defendants, and did not actively resist or attempt to evade arrest prior to being repeatedly shot and killed by the defendants,” the suit says.
Meet The 25-Year Old South African Lawyer Who Runs Her Own Law Firm
Becoming a lawyer is no easy feat and thousands of dedicated students around the world work tirelessly to gain entrance into a promising law program. For one South African woman, not only did she obtain her law school degree, she proceeded to use her education to open her own law firm all before the age of 30.
At the age of 25, Sne Mthembu became the founder and director of her own law firm, Passcara and Partners Inc., based out of Durban, South Africa. Her focus is on handling cases dealing with family and personal injury law among others.
“I took it as a challenge upon myself to do it. I then decided that no matter what people say I’m going to do this,” she told Power FM. “It was difficult from the point where I started my degree to where I am now. I don’t regret anything.”
Mthembu says she’s confident with her new venture despite the challenges that lie ahead of her. “What is hard in our field is marketing yourself. There is a thin line between marketing and touting. Touting is like when you are asking or begging for clients,” she said. “It makes it hard to market because you don’t want to cross that thin line that the [legal] council has put for us.”
She recently celebrated the huge achievement on her Twitter where she introduced herself as the founder and director. She wrote, “I am to Inspire. If I did it then so can you!!!”
Allow me to Introduce myself. My name is Sinenhlanhla Passcara Mthembu and I am the Founder and Director of Passcara and Partners Incorporated. I am a 25 year old and the owner of this Law Firm.
I am to Inspire. If I did it then so can you!!! #GirlsTalkZApic.twitter.com/fIypgaqTKe
Brooklyn Actor and Entrepreneur Lloyd Cornelius Porter Dies of Coronavirus
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the world, it has claimed the life of businessman Lloyd Cornelius Porter, according to The Grio.
The 49-year-old entrepreneur was also an actor from Bedford-Stuyvesant who just happens to be the brother of singer Gregory Porter. Porter and his wife, Hillary, were owners of a bakery called Bread Stuy and later opened an eatery called Bread Love in the Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He was often referred to as “Mr. Hooper,” a tribute to the grocer from Sesame Street.
Porter died last week due to complications related to COVID-19. After news of his death made the rounds, people in the neighborhood started gathering to pay their respects. Dozens of locals amassed wearing masks and many showing up in Porter’s trademark bow tie and hat, to parade past the place he lived in with his wife Hillary and daughter MacLemore.
“You don’t get that kind of processional he got if you haven’t impacted the lives around you,” close friend Keith Arthur Bolden told BuzzFeed News. “He would hold court. People just look to him to lead, to be the pulse.”
“Low-key, I’ve always wanted to be like him,” said Bolden, who dressed up as his good friend Porter in a flour-covered Bread-Stuy T-shirt for Halloween. “He was the most courageous person I know.”
A GoFundMe page was set up for his daughter MacLemore and has thus far raised over $82,521 toward the goal of $100,000.
“On May, 6th Lloyd Cornelius Porter gained his wings leaving his family, friends, and the Bedford-Stuyvesant community heartbroken by his passing. He left behind his beloved wife and soulmate Hillary, his daughter and angel MacLemore, and the countless lives he touched. In Lloyd’s honor and memory, we are starting a scholarship fund to support MacLemore’s education and future.”
Porter started feeling ill back in March and in early April, his condition worsened and a hospital test confirmed it was COVID-19, Bolden said. After spending nearly a month on a ventilator, his condition improved and he was able to come off the ventilator. Thinking the worst was over, friends and family celebrated. But within three days, Porter died from COVID-19 complications.
Congresswoman Alma Adams Leads Bipartisan Letter For HBCU Funding
Since last year, there has been pressure by different civil rights groups and political leaders to protect the future of historically black colleges and universities that are in danger of closing due to financial constricts by providing more funding. Now, Democratic Rep. Alma S. Adams (N.C.) is leading the charge by penning a bipartisan letter to request more funding for the nation’s HBCUs.
Adams, in addition to Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-OH) and Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R- Mo.) as well as 24 additional members of Congress, have come together to send a letter to Secretary of Agriculture David Perdue requesting more funding for the 2020 fiscal year be issued for all historically black colleges and universities to weather the financial storm brought by the COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, pandemic.
The bipartisan letter also calls on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue final guidance on Section 7114 of the 2018 Farm Bill which Rep. Adams introduced in 2018 as the Carryover Equity Act.
“1890 Land-Grant Universities, like all historically black colleges and universities, are suffering during this pandemic. The USDA should promptly provide them with the funding they need to provide for their students and faculty, as well as the farmers and larger communities they serve,” said Congresswoman Adams in a press statement.
“Additionally, finalizing the implementation of the Carryover Equity Act is a major issue of equality and fair treatment under the law for the nineteen 1890 Land-Grant Universities. These institutions, especially during this time of financial crisis, deserve a swift resolution to this decades-long injustice they have faced under the existing law. While our HBCUs are stronger than COVID-19, they need a hand up right now. I ask that USDA act promptly to provide desperately needed funding and guidance to these schools so that they can continue their mission to educate the farmers and agricultural researchers of tomorrow.”
Jared Kushner Unsure If Presidential Election Will Take Place Despite Laws Saying Otherwise
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner said on Wednesday that he’s not sure if the 2020 Presidential Election can take place on Nov. 3.
“I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other.” Kushner said of holding the election on the first Tuesday in November: “Right now that’s the plan.”
According to Slate, the comment was immediately met with backlash leading Kushner to revise his comments to The New York Times.
“I have not been involved in, nor am I aware of, any discussions about trying to change the date of the presidential election,” Kushner tried to clarify later to The Times.
Since 1845, the U.S. presidential election is, by law, held “the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.”
Kushner acknowledged neither the executive branch nor President Trump himself, have the power to unilaterally change the date of the election. That would require Congress to alter the law and the Democratic-led House of Representatives would never allow that.
However, many are concerned that laws won’t stop the Trump administration. Even Democratic nominee Joe Biden said in April, he thinks Trump will try to delay the election.
“Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” said Biden during an online campaign event, according to Yahoo Finance. “That’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
Many believe Kushner’s comments are the opening salvo to a playbook the Trump administration has used to bypass other laws.
Trump recently has blasted the idea of mail-in voting, despite using it, along with other Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence also and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
“Mail ballots, they cheat,” Mr. Trump said at a White House briefing in April. “Mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They go collect them. They are fraudulent in many cases. They have to vote. They should have voter ID, by the way.”
According to MSNBC, 60% of Americans have expressed support for “allowing people to vote by mail-in ballot instead of in-person.
Meet The Black-Owned Legal Firm Handling The Murder Case of Ahmaud Arbery
Stewart Trial Attorneys based in Atlanta — one of the most respected African American law firms in the country — is now handling the Ahmaud Arbery shooting.
Arbery was shot twice and killed by retired district attorney investigator Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael. The men said they saw Arbery running and confronted him believing he was leaving a crime.
The Atlanta-based attorney partnered with S. Lee Merritt and Benjamin Crump to represent the Arbery family.
According to BlackBusiness.com, L. Chris Stewart is the founder of the firm, which handles a variety of cases including wrongful death and civil rights. The firm also handles shootings and sexual assaults. Although Stewart has been successful in the civil rights space, it wasn’t his focus originally.
“I’m actually a wrongful death and catastrophic injury lawyer and we’ve just handled civil rights cases as they came along,” Stewart told Black Enterprise. “But there were so many cases in this country like this we’ve taken on.”
Stewart received the 2019 Southern Center For Human Rights Vanguard Award, the 2018 Julia Humbles’ Civil Rights Award, the National Bar Association’s Wiley Branton Award for Leadership.
Attorneys at the firm include Associate Trial Attorney Michael Roth, Attorney of Counsel Joshua Palmer, and Senior Associate Attorney Daedrea Fenwick.
The firm has some high-profile wins on its résumé, including the first-ever billion-dollar jury verdict in U.S. history for a rape victim. Lawyers at the firm also won a record $5.1 million negligent security settlement.
However, Stewart Trial Attorneys is also known for its civil rights cases. The firm won a $6.5 million settlement with South Carolina for the shooting of Walter Scott. In 2015, Scott was shot in the back by South Carolina police officer Michael Slager.
The firm also represented some of the nation’s highest-profile civil rights death cases, including Alton Sterling, who was killed on video by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Stewart told Black Enterprise the laws do not make fighting civil rights cases in court easy.
“There is progress but the problem is there are so many laws against civil rights,” Stewart said.
Shootings of African Americans have been highlighted during the coronavirus pandemic. Charges related to Arbery’s murder was held up for more than two months as two prosecutors recused themselves from the case, and a third stepped down from the case. It was only after African American residents brought light to the case through social media and protests that charges were filed and arrests were made.
Barack Obama to Headline JP Morgan Chase’s ‘Show Me Your Walk HBCU Edition’ Virtual Commencement
Graduation season is here! And while it is not what students and their families looked forward to in the traditional sense, black leaders have banned together to celebrate HBCU grads virtually amid COVID-19.
On Saturday, May 16, more than 20 black leaders across arts, government, music, business, and sports will join JPMorgan Chase for the ‘Show Me Your Walk HBCU Edition’ as a part of their Advancing Black Pathways initiative.
More than 20,000 students from 78 HBCUs will participate in the star-studded celebration hosted by Kevin Hart. During the commencement, former President Barack Obama will share a special message.
Guest appearances will include Steve Harvey; Chase Consumer Banking CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett; Ariel Investments Co-CEO and President Mellody Hobson; National Urban League President, Marc Morial; and academic leaders from participating HBCUs. Other participants include 10-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul, 8-time NBA All-Star Vince Carter, Debbie Allen, and Vivica Fox.
Graduates will also get to enjoy performances by Anthony Hamilton, Wyclef Jean, Omari Hardwick, and other musical guests—as well as a drumline mash-up featuring Doug E. Fresh.
In a statement released by Chase, Duckett shared her excitement about creating this opportunity for HBCU graduates in partnership with Paul Quinn College President and member of the ABP Advisory Council, Dr. Michael Sorrell and other members of the advisory council from Howard University, The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, United Negro College Fund, and the National Basketball Association.
“Every student graduating in the Class of 2020 deserves to celebrate this moment—they earned it, even more so during a challenging year for our country and the world. We are showing up for them because we recognize they are our now and our future, and the way forward is full of opportunity,” said Duckett.
Dr. Sorrell added, “As a result of COVID-19, our students have been robbed of a moment that they and their families have earned,” Sorrell said. “I am so grateful that this coalition of partners stepped up to answer the call of the HBCU community and stand in the gap for our students and their families.”
HBCUs are the mecca for some of the world’s brightest minds. According to UNCF, historically black colleges and universities produce 70% of African American doctors and dentists, 50% of black lawyers, and 80% of black judges.
“Historically black colleges and universities remain a critical resource in educating our young people and putting them on a path to lasting and rewarding careers,” said Sekou Kaalund, the Head of Advancing Black Pathways. “Here at JPMorgan Chase, we are firmly committed to supporting HBCUs and helping them continue a tradition of excellence that has helped generations of black people achieve academic and professional success.”
The 2-hour event will be live-streamed on Chase’s YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn channels, as well as HBCU Connect’s Facebook page and Essence Studios on Saturday, May 16 at 2 pm EDT.
