The casting of a Black actress as Cleopatra caused something of a stir as we examine two important sources of culture, Alexandria, Egypt and Philadelphia, PA, but there is no doubt about the impact of Francis Johnson, known as the father of American music. If you didn't know that, then you should be subscribing to The Promised Land

Four metropoli with a long history, but which one goes back 1,200 years? We discuss how motion pictures shape our concept of place and time in this episode of The Promised Land and the implications of using such streaming services as Kweli.tv or the Africa Channel. Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, Vol. 2 has a list of every African-American who appeared in motion pictures prior to 1970 in order to correct the myth of absense.

Today's episode of The Promised Land lifts up Debron and Voncher Walker in Warm Springs, GA who have purchased the Eleanor Roosevelt School and gained a $700,000 grant from the National Park Service to begin restoration of the only brick Rosenwald School of the thousands built between 1912 and 1936. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a personal check to finish the campaign for the school, near his vacation retreat. It's an example of how to protect and preserve history like the marker in North Beach by Maya Angelou that says "without courage, we can not practice any of the other virtues with consistency." Listen to see how her courage took her from St. Louis to Arkansas to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Cairo--and that's just the beginning.

What do Chicago and Kinshasa have in common? The fate of humanity is tied up in making those cities work. John William Templeton discusses the ways those urban areas contribute to reaching the Promised Land in today's podcast, which also points out the threats to the 14th Amendment, the foundation of global democracy. Subscribe to The PROMISED LAND https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=K37XZFZDBRMN8

Capitalizing Our Heritage: State of Black Business, 20th edition, unveils the 60 Cities initiative. The Promised Land will describe those cities with more than one million population each day for the next 60 days and also highlight American cities such as New York City where the West Indian American Day Parade was the largest live event in nation this past weekend. We also spotlight the executive director LaShawn Allen Muhammad of Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. for winning a cash prize of $20,000 for being one of the Just Brooklyn Award winners from the Brooklyn Community Foundation and Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets.

On Black American Day, John William Templeton describes the significance of the death of Crispus Attucks in 1770 as the first American to die for the country.

John William Templeton, a fourth generation Presbyterian Ruling Elder, reenacts the most important speech in African-American history, Let the Monster Perish by Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, the first African-American to address Congress at 15th Street Presbyterian Church where Garnet pastored during the Civil War.

Jan. 22 sermon at Third Baptist Church about Deliverance Architecture through the three African-American churches started in 1852 as outposts for the Underground Railroad

The Journal of Black Innovation National Black Business Month chooses Marcus Garvey's birthday, Aug. 17, each year to acknowledge the power of Black unity.

We issue the pledge of allegiance to the heroes of July 30 from the African-American Civil War Memorial where the names of 209,145 U.S. Troops of African Descent are an eloquent statement on the centrality of Black veterans to the creation, preservation and future of the United States of America. Five million African-Americans have fought for this nation, which made a covenant in the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment to them and their descendants.