As Halloween approaches, Chicago announced the opening of the first African-American owned chocolate factory, something which offers new options for African producers to achieve fairness in marketing their products as we approach the AfriCaribbean Trade Forum on Halloween Eve and Halloween where the African Export Import Bank is giving out real economic treats

The elevation of a radical book banner and opponent of civil rights is the latest consequence of the Louisiana election, but other news shows why Black voters have to be engaged in Mississippi and Virginia next week and nationwide in 2024.

As we've pointed out in the annual State of Black Business reports, the Biden-Harris administration is the first to actually commit dollars and administrative policy towards capitalizing Black communities. I address the cynicism being fueled when we should be as aggressive as the Black voters in the 1860s who achieved three Constitutional amendments

Many of my earliest friends when I arrived in San Jose as editor of the San Jose Business Journal turned out in person and online for Reaching the Tech Promised Land at the College of Engineering, San Jose State University on Tuesday, Oct. 17

On the anniversary of the courageous stand of John Carlos and Tommie Smith in honor of Dr. King's prophecy for the Promised Land, we gave a presentation at San Jose State University for the Silicon Valley Black Chamber that called for the creation of ten billion-dollar Black enterprises to make the infrastructure of the 21st century referencing the seminal role of African-American innovators in the key technologies that created Silicon Valley as a direct result of Brown v. Board of Education

When 700,000 Black voters sat out the Saturday, Oct. 14 Louisiana election, it sent a message that anti-woke partisans were looking for. We had actually gone to sleep in the face of the most serious threat to democracy in 50 years.

I wrote a book called Jazz Management: the art of planned improvisation based on the management lessons of jazz musicians who can come into a completely unexpected situation with unfamiliar musicians and rise to stardom. It doesn't happen by accident. Sen. Laphonza Butler had no idea she would become a U.S. senator, but her life and schooling at Jackson State prepared her to achieve something that thousands of politicians spend an entire lifetime chasing. She also embodies the seminal role of the Black labor movement in American politics. Ironically, the late Sen. Diane Feinstein credited the black labor movement and specifically the late LeRoy King for supporting her early political career in my documentary The King Behind King, Bridges, Chavez and Mandela.

The U.S. government did not shut down, averting an attempt to shanghai civil rights and investment in our communities through the skill and fortitude of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Further reason to celebrate is Nigerian Independence Day, but the party started much earlier in the year.

Neither group should see themselves as minorities or powerless, notes John William Templeton, author of Capitalizing Our Heritage: State of Black Business, 20th edition, in this episode of The Promised Land. It does represent what can be achieved in relatively short periods with proper policies and civic strategies. There is also a comparison with the approach taken by First Nations, to leverage their sovereignty to economic progress and political clout.

Most media missed a truly significant event -- the first African-American Defense Secretary completing a three nation trip through Africa in the nation which sent many of its residents into bondage in the United States. But it shows how The Promised Land can occur, with faith and persistence. The trip impacted such cities as Port au Prince, Nairobi and Luanda as we'll discuss in this episode.