The Black Perspective: March 22, 2026

This week on The Black Perspective, Andrea Coleman speaks with Keith B. Shoates, President and CEO of the Student Freedom Initiative, about the upcoming HBCU Aware Fest 2026 in Atlanta. 

Mike Stevens shares a powerful conversation with Martin Luther King III and Arndrea King, offering a message of hope and reflection.

Esther Dillard returns with TCBL, joined by Dr. Maxine Bryant — a journalist, educator, and founder using interactive play to bring Black history to life in new and engaging ways. 

Alexandria Ikomoni sits down with Ashley Thomas III, President of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, to discuss ongoing advocacy efforts and upcoming initiatives aimed at increasing Black homeownership.

And Doug Davis talks with fashion designer Tahir Murray about his brand Legacy History Pride, the influence of family legacy, and his impact on urban fashion.

Listen Now!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Sunday, March twenty second, and on today's show, The
Black Information Network's Senior Anchor Andrea Coleman talks to Keith Schultz,
President and CEO of the Student Freedom Initiative as he
prepares us for the HBCU Aware Fest at twenty twenty
six this week in Atlanta, Georgia. BIN News anchor Mike
Stevens is honored to share a special message of hope

(00:20):
through a conversation with Martin Luther King the third and
his wife Andrea King. The Black Information Networks Sester Dillard
is back with the Color between the Lines with doctor
Maxine Bryant, a journalist, educator, and founder using play to
help people experience Black history in a new way. News
anchor Alexandria Kimoni sits down with Ashley Thomas, the third

(00:41):
President of the National Association of Real Estate Bookers, to
discuss their advocacy efforts and upcoming events aimed at increasing
home ownership in the black community. Doug Davis talks with
fashion designer to hear Murray about his brand, legacy, history, pride,
and family legacy in the urban fashion world. These stories
are coming your way. On today's program, Welcome to the

(01:02):
Black Perspective. I'm your host, Mike Island.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Welcome to the Black Perspective, a weekly community affairs program
on the Black Information Network featuring interviews and discussions on
issues important to the Black community.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Good Sunday, and Welcome to the Black Perspective. Word last
week of the Trump administration moving student loan management to
the Treasury Department coincides with an event taking place this
week in Atlanta called HBCU Aware Fest. The event aims
to promote HBCUs and introduce a student loan program designed
to help HBCU students pay for college and set up

(01:36):
future generations of black college students to do the same.
The Black Information Networks Andrea Coleman has.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
More a new mini movement is getting under way in America,
poised to create new pathways to welth for some up
today's HBCU students.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
This movement started at our birthplace mean a birthplace of
Student Freedom Initiative, which was Morehouse College back in twenty nineteen.
Effectively when our chairperson, Robert Smith, who's the founder, chairman
and CEO OFIST Equity Partners, stood on the stage at
Morehouse College during a commencement addressed and said, listen, my
family and I go to pay off all of your
student loans. There was a hush in the audience. People

(02:12):
really didn't know what he said until people started registering.
Did he just say he was paying off all this Yes,
but not only just the students but their parents.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Keith Sholtz's presidency of the Student Freedom Initiative or SFI.
Under his leadership, the organization has established a culturally sensitive
suite of services designed to help black college students and
others pay for their education without acquiring a massive load
of debt. What's more, the program has a built in
pay it forward feature, giving it a community focus rarely

(02:42):
seen in other financial aid programs.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
We have a set of services that we make available
that are very student centered. For example, the parent plus
loan is the original target that we set our sights
on because we wanted to make sure that there was
a private sector alternative to the parent plus loan with
a couple of distinct ships. Distinctions like a discount from

(03:09):
an interest rate to the parent plus loan, no credit check,
no capitalization of interests, no co signer, no payments if
you're below three hundred percent of a federal poverty level.
But more importantly, we wanted to make sure that every
student who received benefit pays it forward. And so as

(03:30):
we make this benefit available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors
that have market what we call market driven majors, after
the six month grades period and they start repaying it,
it goes back into fund to make the benefit available
to future students. Not the same as a scholarship. I
got lots of scholarships. The intent, though, is what we
found based on the data, is after all scholarships have

(03:53):
been received, all federal scholarships work study, it was about
a fifteen thousand dollars gap.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
What happens.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
A person can take a parent plus loan or they
could take an alternative commercial alternative that, like I said,
is it a discount to parent plus, no credit check,
no co signer, no origination fees, no payment of figure
old three hundred percent of that are popular. But more importantly,
the blessed community kicks in because then when they start
making payments after the grace period, it goes into a

(04:22):
fund that then makes that benefit available to future students.
And that benefit is twenty thousand dollars per year maximum
and forty thousand dollars over their sophomore, junior, and senior,
so very student facing, and they just have to be
a participating institution. So that's one student service. We've partnered
with Cisco and Prudential and Capital One and a host
of others who are very mission aligned. Because having your

(04:46):
handle on your student debt but being financially illiterate is
not helpful, right, and so we wanted to make sure
we have what we call wrap around service in terms
of financial literacy, to make sure that people understand what
a budget looks like, Understand how to do a zero
based budget, Understand what it means to have an emergency
fund so you don't go to credit cards to make

(05:06):
emergency purposes, and likewise make sure that one of the
examples that I oftentimes uses this when Hurricane Barrel came
through the Gulf. One of our partners, Texas Southern, they
had several hundred students that were adversely impacted by a hurricane.
We have an emergency micro grant program. Think of FEMA,
think of any of those who come to rescue. We

(05:26):
don't come to rescue like those individuals, but we do
come to the rescue of students and as a dollar
amount that we've made available up to one thousand dollars
for students who had these one time emergencies like what
happened did Hurricane Barrel. All the President had to do
is say, hey, we've got this issue, here's justification, here's
who's impacted, and we disperse dollars to those students through
the institution, just as a FEMA or a Red Cross does.

(05:48):
Because what we found is when someone has these one
time emergencies, it actually throws them off track. My grandmother
got ill. I had to leave college. I had to
put together every dollar I had, and I don't come back.
I have all this debt. I had to go home
to address an issue with my grandparent. I never go back.
So I have all the debt and no degree persistence.
So by putting together both this program that I've referenced

(06:10):
in terms of this alternative parent plus in these wrap
around servers, not only do we address this issue of
student debt, but we do it by helping institutions by
ensuring that those students persist. Because students on campus is
how most of our schools create the revenue to continue
our operations.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
This week in Atlanta, SFI is hosting one of its
largest events ever, spotlighting its programs and there are benefits.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
This thing we call hbc Awaarfest is a continuation of
that message that says, yes, there is this issue of
student debt. People hear about one point seven trillion dollars
in forty three million bars and some thirty nine to
fifty one thousand dollars. It's owed by the individual students.
But it's much more impactful if you say something like this,

(06:55):
seventy plus percent of people are not fully funding never
target plans, or more people are not starting a family
or buying their first home as being delayed. It's the
impact of that student debt which Student Freed Initiative Awarefest
are all trying to address. How do we address the
downstream implications of all of that student debt, things like

(07:17):
not fully funding your retirement plan. All of those are
wealth creators, So ours is all about how do we
address what we call the wealth gap that exists at
our participating institutions. And the primary purpose of HBCU Awarefest
is to one raise dollars to address that, but more importantly,
there are a lot of our HBCUs that are doing

(07:39):
some phenomenal work as anchors within their communities, and people
need to know about it.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
And so we want to make.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Sure people are aware of the impact of both what
the HBCUs and their students mean for the economy within
their communities and this issue of student debt and how
it impacts wealth creation. And we're raising dollars to address.

Speaker 6 (07:58):
Just that point.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
HBCU Aware Best will also shine a powerful light on
the nation's historically black colleges and universities, a light that
may be more needed than many of us realize. There
was a report recently that talked about the average or
a majority of black high school students not being aware
of HBCUs.

Speaker 6 (08:18):
You're spot on.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
I was at a session in New York City at
one of the community colleges that were there, and not
only are they not aware, a lot of them don't
see the reason to go to college at all because
graduating with one hundred and twenty one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars worth of student debt and then being underemployed
or unemployed. A lot of young people not only do

(08:39):
they not know about HBCUs, because generally people know about
the elite HBCUs the equivalent of our Ivy League institutions.
But when you start talking about some of our less
well known hbcues, you might get through people know that
is a Howard Morehouse, Smellman, Tuskegee fam you hit. But

(09:00):
then when you say, well, there's a Houston Tillotson in Austin, Texas.
They just celebrated their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary one
hundred and fifty years. When you get to a school
like Claflin in Orangeburg, South Carolina, phenomenal presidents at some
of these schools that you don't hear about, but they're
doing some phenomenal work, like Stillman and Tuskegee down in Alabama,

(09:21):
and they've created this model at all of these schools.
If people only knew there's a school that had an
individual who had come from the FBI Forensics Lab in Quantico, Virginia.
That person had gone to an HBCU and they've replicated
the FBI Forensics Lab at the HBCU. Who would know

(09:42):
that those kind of things are going on. So we
want to highlight as part of Aware Fest and make
people aware of there's a one hundred HBCUs out there
each with this unique characteristic that people kind of need
to know about.

Speaker 6 (09:53):
That's what we want to elevate that.

Speaker 7 (09:55):
So how are you going to do it?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
What's the breakdown for people who aren't interested in coming?

Speaker 5 (09:59):
What's the whole event?

Speaker 4 (10:00):
To be Awarefest dot org is how people can find
out more details. But here's what's going on on the
twenty sixth of March at State Farm Arena here in Atlanta, Georgia.
We are going to have this concert, but the concert
is only part of a much broader activity. The intent
currently is to have a series of activities that brings

(10:21):
the community together by the community, not just agepecies, but
the broader communities here in Atlanta. Then do some things
that are funds. We'll have like a gospel concert, We'll
have like a comedy night. There's some fundraising activities that
are going on the evening before, there's a fireside chat
where our chairperson is going to speak about these types
of issues, and then it rolls into the actual concert itself.
So the intent is not just to have a singular

(10:42):
event called a concert. Well that's important of course because
that it becomes a draw, but to actually build out
some other activities that are going on leading up to
that event.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
But as Awarefest looks to include the community, SFI needs
the community to show with some love and support as well.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
How can the general public help?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Can we just give a donation or do we sign
up to be patrons or supporters or so forth.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah, there are a couple of ways that the general public,
whether to be students, not students, companies, what have you. Yes,
you can go to Awaarfest dot org and make a donation.
A ten dollars donation is great, but a ten dollars
donation once a month for a year, or sixty months
or five years is a better answer. If we can
get a groundswell of a million people to say, you

(11:26):
know what, I can give up a pizza once a
month for this because I know someone who's impacted by
this issue of student dad. So they can go to
a website and make a straight donation. There's a little
tab button where you just say, hey, I want to
make a donation, and so anyone can do that. From
the standpoint of whether it be an individual who seeks
to give something and make a difference, or a corporation
or family office or whomever it may be can decide

(11:49):
to go and make a contribution. So that's how the
public can get involved. The other way that they can
get involved is come.

Speaker 6 (11:56):
Come.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
The other way that they can get involved is tell somebody.
If you ye the fact that, as an example, Cisco,
as an example, gave one hundred million dollars to Hbcughes,
tell somebody if you hear the story about a McKenzie
Scott giving money to pick the school, tell somebody. Because
I know the companies are not doing this to get publicity.

(12:18):
They're not. I know the ones that they're not. There's
you got on the fringe people who think that's happening.
But picture this picture. Every time a philanthropists gave money
to pick a school or number of schools. If everyone
who's on their social media page is said Mackenzie Robert
read whomever it may be, thank you, We wish there
were more people like you, and then said to the institution, congratulations,

(12:43):
you deserved it. Picture what would happen? Do you think
more people would want to give because they see that
they're going to get twenty million people saying how great
they are and thank you them. I putting my chest
out a little bit and say I think there are
a lot more people who would give if there was
more gratitude, right, A little bit of gratitude would go
a long way. So I've said it multiple times. At

(13:05):
anytime a philanthropist gives money to an HPSU, I want
my handles and websites and to be the first one
that come out and say thank you for the organization
it gave it, and congratulations to one who received it.
Because gratitude matters. People want to inherently want to get

(13:26):
a thank you for something. They're not doing it for
that reason, but everybody likes a pat on the back
in a thank you, and so that's another way that
people can help anytime they see something that's great. There
are enough people saying what's bad in the world. When
they see any philanthropic donation, person, company, whatever, doing something
regardless how big or small, say thank you and put

(13:46):
it out on all these socials. I mean, there are
people who have tens of millions of followers. If one
of those individuals or a handful of those individuals who
have tens of millions of followers, and I won't say
the op, but you could imagine if they would be
the first ones to say thank you and congratulations. More
people would be, as our event says, would be aware
of the power of our HBCUs.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
So you can learn more about the Student Freedom Initiative
and all its programs at Student Freedom Initiative dot org
and again check out and register for this week's HBCU
Awarefest at awarefest dot org. As mentioned, the event promises
to be all the raved with the likes of Jill Scott,
John Legend, Earthwinn and Fire, Metro Booming, Glorilla Kirk, Franklin,
Coco Jones and Common all slated to perform, but a

(14:30):
dynamic and exciting way to show some love for HBCUs
and support a gray cause at the same time. I'm
Andrea Coleman on the Black Information Network Home a Black
News First.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Thank you Andrea and Keith, and just to repeat that
address for you. You can learn more at awarefest dot
org and donations of all sizes are welcomed. There's an
important effort going on in the nation involving Martin Luther
King IID and his wife Andrea Waters King to honor
the legacy of doctor Martin Luther King Junior and his

(15:00):
commitment to service, and it involves a well known product
many of us have had in our homes for years.
Black Information Network news anchor Mike Stevens spoke with the
Kings about the initiative that recently kicked off at an Oakland,
California elementary school.

Speaker 8 (15:14):
All right, thank you so much, Mike Island. Joining us
now is Martin Luther King the third and his wife
are Andrea Waters King, who works side by side with
him but is well known in her own right for
advocacy for social justice and civil rights causes. Glad to
have you both with us on the Black Information Network.

Speaker 7 (15:32):
Well, we are honored, Thank you for having so much.

Speaker 8 (15:35):
The pleasure is ours. I wanted to start by saying,
how appreciative actually we are in the black community for
the work that you guys have done over the years.
As kind of a side note, I was a television
anchor at two TV stations in Atlanta, Martin and had
the pleasure of meeting and interviewing your mother coredit, Scott

(15:56):
King on a couple of occasions.

Speaker 7 (15:57):
Oh wonderful Which stations by.

Speaker 8 (15:59):
The way, I was at the CBS Okay and then eleven.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
Alive, Oh wonderful, wonderful, and.

Speaker 8 (16:06):
I met Dexter as well. It was just a pleasure
to spend time with her family. And I believe this
was around the time that you were president of the
SCLC after doctor Lowry. Oh certainly, but this is the
first time speaking with you directly, and missus Kane, I
followed you as well with your activism. I wanted to
start off, if you don't mind, to get you to

(16:28):
share your thoughts. After the recent passing of Reverend Jesse.

Speaker 7 (16:31):
Jackson, the nation lost a huge leader in Reverend Jackson,
and I was actually thinking about that just recently because
one of the major attributes of Rev. Jackson's was the
fact that whenever he shared for I don't know the

(16:52):
last thirty years, we always ended up in Selma together.
And of course, just last weekend, on the eighth of March,
we observed the sixty first anniversary, the first time that
Reverend Jackson was not there. Whenever he shared his view,
it always was filled with important information. Many of us

(17:14):
can speak and inspire, but the information is so critically needed,
particularly now because there's so much confusion in the world.
And although they are new leaders coming all the time,
I'm very excited about what I see happening with young
people around the nation and the world, because every movement

(17:34):
that has ever moved forward, it has been because of
young people's engagement. So I have a lot of admiration, respect,
and hope for young people coming. And again, I believe
certainly many would consider Reverend Jackson a giant in terms
of many of the things that he did around voting rights,

(17:54):
around opportunity.

Speaker 9 (17:56):
And to your point, actually he was a youngster with
your father. Yes, he was one of the younger ones.

Speaker 10 (18:03):
That's right.

Speaker 9 (18:03):
Father started out very young in the Montgomery bus boycott,
on the Montgomery Movement, but by the latter part of
his life, Jesse Jackson was considered the youngster.

Speaker 6 (18:13):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (18:14):
That's right.

Speaker 8 (18:14):
Yeah, it's funny to look at the old videos seeing
John Lewis as a young man. Yes, and then even
your daughter is picking up the mantle.

Speaker 7 (18:23):
She is.

Speaker 8 (18:25):
So both of you are involved in an effort called
the Realize the Dream effort sponsored by Clorox, which has
been in the cleaning business for over one hundred years,
which is parthering with the Martin Luther King the Third
Foundation and Legacy plus a service based movement to unite
and uplift communities across America by working toward one hundred

(18:46):
million hours of community service, and this is related to
the one hundredth anniversary of doctor King's birth in twenty
twenty nine. The Clean Feels Good initiative is grounded in
the belief that service, starting with how we care for
our own spaces, strengthens individuals, classrooms, and communities. Please tell

(19:07):
us more about that well.

Speaker 9 (19:09):
As the nation is coming closer to observing the one
hundredth birthday of Martin Luther King Junior at a time
when we are more divided than ever, what we thought
about is the best way to honor him is to
really give people an opportunity to be a part of
the legacy of Martin Luther King Junior. There is no

(19:32):
greater access point to that, to serving to be a
part of building this beloved community that he sought and
saw so clearly, and for young people then particularly, but
for all of us to do our part in helping
to create that beloved community. Little did we know when
we started this initiative four years ago how critically needed,

(19:55):
not only to unite us across this country, that this
initiation is needed, but as we are seeing services being cut,
as we are seeing affordability skyrocking and people not being
able literally to afford their grocery bills or having to
choose between groceries and medication. That everybody coming together and

(20:19):
being involved in service to help our neighbors. This is
more needed now, more than ever. There are more people
that need food banks, people who thought they would never
need food banks. We have so many services, so many
issues and needed and so it's really up to each
one of us to see what is our role, what
is our part and helping to create that blood community.

(20:42):
And we're hoping that this realizes. The Dream Initiative gives
all of us an opportunity to find our role, to
find our part in that legacy, for all of us
to be about the business of Martin Luther King Junior.
And may i add Correta Scott King.

Speaker 8 (20:58):
Yeah, it's interesting because because so many people around the
country observe doctor King's birthday, for example, in different ways,
you know, marches, speeches, oratory contest. But a day of
service has become something really important and this would expand
upon that.

Speaker 7 (21:16):
Yes, because you know, my mother always said that it's
a day on, not a day off. And technically when
we think about holiday, we're thinking about relaxing, you know,
having barbecue, doing just nothing, just enjoying yourself. But this
is a day to recommit, to recommit to work to

(21:36):
fulfill the dream that is nowhere near where it maybe
should be, or even where we had hoped it would be.

Speaker 8 (21:45):
By this time.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
I think the vision Dad had was a vision that
encompasses everybody. And as you said, while we're talking about
the United States, Dad's birthday in some way, form or fashion,
is observed in over one hundred countries around the world.
So this has has global potential. And again, as Andrea shared,
we kind of knew maybe three years ago when we

(22:09):
began this initiative, we probably could never project that we
would be this far divided, and no one could have
totally predicted. You could have maybe thought about it that
we would be involved in a war, a very critical
situation that could lead to things that are not managable.
Feels that way right now. The world is in chaos.
When you are serving, you're not thinking about the chaos.

(22:32):
You're thinking about the community. And that's what we are
focused on.

Speaker 10 (22:37):
How do we build community.

Speaker 7 (22:39):
And we're not telling people, well, you must do this
or you must do that. There are hundreds of service opportunities,
and we want people to think about what what is it.

Speaker 10 (22:49):
That moves me?

Speaker 6 (22:50):
What am I concerned about?

Speaker 7 (22:52):
And you can find that opportunity in work in conjunction
with others, you know, so that we can really we
can advanced building the community and ultimately we will be
able to realize the dream the dad envision and Mom
certainly throughout her life work to achieve.

Speaker 8 (23:10):
So this event that you guys are involved with for
this annual celebration, I think they're calling it the National
Day of Clean tell us how this connects to service opportunities.

Speaker 9 (23:23):
Well, I think that obviously anytime that we could be
shining light to bring in community together, to working together,
to working on efforts, that shows and demonstrate just how
easy it can be and how rewarding it can be
for all of us to serve. As you said, this
is an initiative and a day where Clorox is encouraging

(23:46):
all of us to be involved in service, to be
a part of again cleaning communities and building better communities,
and to be a part of something like this, to
be able to highlight it and also to be able
to replicate it, to encourage others to replicate it in
their community throughout the year. Was incredibly important for us.

Speaker 7 (24:08):
And also for us when you know Clorox, I have
some funny stories about when but Clorox does get the
dirt out, it does bring the cleaniness. And we're talking
about cleaniness in a positive way to transform communities. And
so we're going to be involved with in elementary school.

(24:30):
We're involved with professional athletes in this case from the
w n b A. And when you join in this
kind of effort and you're really you're providing access for
young people because anyone. Dad used to say, anybody can
be great, because everybody can serve.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
And this is.

Speaker 7 (24:50):
What we're creating, the opportunity for all of us to
feel like we're great because we're creating a better nation
of the United States and ultimately a better world.

Speaker 9 (25:00):
I ad too for the young people that we will
be working with, it's two things. Number One, it reminds
them that they're important and that people care. And it
also demonstrates that we all have a responsibility to serve
each other. And how cool if you will, and how
fun it can be to serve and to help each other.

Speaker 8 (25:23):
And it sounds like it's a great partnership with Clorox.
I mean, you know, Black folks traditionally are very brand loyal,
and so all of us can look back and say,
oh yeah, I remember Clorox from years and years and
years ago. So it's certainly a perfect it would seem
a combination to work with them.

Speaker 7 (25:40):
And we're truly honored to have that opportunity to work
with with Clorox because of it what it stands for,
certainly what it does, but what it stands for in
our in our community and our nation, really in our world.

Speaker 9 (25:55):
Well, and I think it says a lot about them
that they came to the plate, that they stood up
to partner with us on this that fact that you know,
like they are putting you know that it's not just slogans,
that they really are putting their effort and money into
the community.

Speaker 8 (26:09):
Well, listen, we thank you so much Martin King the
third and Andrea Waters King for being with us, and
we'll look forward to speaking with you again.

Speaker 7 (26:16):
Absolutely, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Thank you, Mike Island back to you, Thank you, Mike,
and special thanks to the King family for joining us
on the Black Information Network. For Women's History Month, we're
highlighting black women who are changing how we understand history
and culture. This week, the Black Information Networks Ester Dillard
speaks with doctor Maxine Bryant, a journalist, educator, and founder

(26:38):
using play to help people experience Black history in a
new way.

Speaker 11 (26:43):
I say we're harming them when we paint an untrue
picture of.

Speaker 12 (26:51):
Not only the struggle, but also the resilience of Black people.

Speaker 13 (26:57):
That right there is the heartbeat of today's conference. I'm
mister Dillard, and this is the color between the lines today.
I'm joined by doctor Maxine Bryant, award winning journalist, educator,
cultural truth teller, and the founder of Great Speaks. Doctor
Briant has spent decades helping people connect with accurate Black history,
not just through books and workshops, but now through an

(27:18):
innovative new board game designed to make learning communal, engaging,
and deeply rooted in Africa and the global Black diaspora.
In our conversation, we talk about why telling truth about
Black history still matters, especially right now, and how play
can become a powerful tool for education, healing, and pride.
Let's get into the conversation. What does a great mean

(27:41):
to you and how does that shape everything that you do?
With Great speaks.

Speaker 11 (27:47):
So the African proverb is until the lion tells the story,
the hunter will always be the hero. And when we
look at African American stories, our narrative, other people have
always told our story from their perspective. I was reading
a quote, I'm gonna get to your question.

Speaker 12 (28:07):
In a minute, a quote from Malcolm X to over
the weekend, and it said that you know, when other
people tell your narrative they you're then you then become
confused because you're being miseducated.

Speaker 11 (28:26):
And I'm about educating with truth. So when I both
came into knowledge of that particular African proverb, it became
my mantra and I used Grell speaks to do that.
My background, it's academic background, it is criminal justice. But
I became the director of the Delagachi Center and the

(28:47):
Center for African of Studies for Georgia Southern University several
years ago, and that prompted me on my quest to
learn more and to tell more. So we know that
in West Africa, the grill is the history village, keeper
keeper of the heritage, keeper of the information, the librarian,

(29:07):
if you will, or the library actually for all of
that knowledge. As the rio speaks, brand coordinator creator, if
you will. What I endeavor to do is to replace
mythology in African American history, replace in misinformation, and to

(29:31):
fill in the gaps with truth for information that's been
eliminated or minimized. And so much of that is going on,
particularly now with our banning of books. People control other
people controlling our narrative. It's like this is time, and
particularly now more than ever, because we're facing so much
misinformation in media, in our schools, our educational system. So

(29:56):
for me, positioning myself in this role means I have
the privilege and the honor of correcting untruth.

Speaker 13 (30:06):
Why is telling truth about Black history clearly and accurately
still essential, you know, regardless of the political climate that's happening.

Speaker 11 (30:16):
So there is so much we don't know esther about
our brilliance. One of the things I say is that
genius cannot be stopped, and we are so I don't
want to say we know so little about our genius.
Throughout history, we've not been told that we are brilliant,

(30:38):
that we are genius, that we are the originators of life,
of law, of of knowledge, of science, of math, of
all of those things. I don't know about you, but
many people like me were told or being were led
to believe that Europeans gave us those things, and us

(30:58):
poor African people and the descendants of Africans were like
in the dark ages until they came along wrong. If
we knew our brilliance and our genius, then we can
begin to see ourselves differently, to walk and frive. And
I believe that if white children grow up knowing about

(31:20):
the brilliance and genius of black children, they will learn
to view blackness in a different way and have a
different sense of respect for us, and we can have
a different respect for ourselves. It's easy my background. Like
I said, it's criminal justice. I firmly believe it's easy
for me to take you out if you look like me.

(31:40):
But I don't love me. I've never been told anything
positive about me. My narrative has been already written. I'm
gonna either be dead or in prison, or on welfare
or all of those negative things because I don't amount
to anything. My high school counselor told me I was
not college material basically because of the color of my skin.

(32:02):
Now you know, I didn't apply myself in high school either, Okay.

Speaker 10 (32:06):
But that's on me.

Speaker 11 (32:08):
But he gave me ammunition to believe. Oh well, I'm
not gonna amount to anything anyway, so why try. Had
it not been for my mother, I want to kind
of college, And when I went, I didn't go for
the right reason. I went to go get a others right.
But along the way I found that I'm smart. I
know some things I can retain, information I can create,

(32:31):
and so that motivated me. I know that if all
young people were inundated with accurate truth about their heritage,
about where they came from, about the DNA genius, for
the genius that is in their DNA, they can begin
to have a deeper and different appreciation for not only

(32:53):
what they can do, but yeah, for what they can
do in the future and change their life trajectory.

Speaker 13 (33:00):
At one point, you decided that this work was going
to be needed to move beyond books and workshops and
become this game.

Speaker 6 (33:08):
What sparked that idea?

Speaker 11 (33:13):
The only answer I have is that God downloaded the
game into me. Really, I was in Atlanta and had
just come from visiting my sister in Florida, and I
already had come up with the concept of Rio speaks
right I was going to do online virtual workshops and

(33:35):
that kind of thing, because that's what I do. The
idea of the game literally dropped into my spirit and
I saw it all laid out, and it comprises of
over three hundred question cards where they're in four categories geography,
and it's throughout the diaspora, not just the United States,
so it includes the Caribbean and Africa. People, people who

(33:59):
have said things, people who have done things. Culture, literature, music, theater,
all of that is important. The delagichee culture and skirmishes, battles,
protests that we've been involved in or that have been
done against us, like the Rosewood massacre and other types

(34:19):
of things, the Coastal massacre. People move around the board
by answering those questions.

Speaker 13 (34:27):
What if you observed from people who when people learn
black history together through play rather than through a lecture
or through a textbook.

Speaker 11 (34:38):
Excitement of owning it, of owning the information. I've had
three gain trials, if you will, testing prog opportunities for
the game to be played. And in each setting, when
two of the settings, fifteen people played, the four players
and one person who's the grio who actually reads the

(35:00):
question and lets people know that the answers to the
correct or not. But I observe people getting excited about
information that they knew, excited about learning corrected information whereas
there had been something taught to them that was erroneous,
a curiosity to want to know more. Lots and lots

(35:22):
of discussion among the players.

Speaker 13 (35:25):
But the conversation doesn't stop at how people learn. It
also raises a bigger question about who this history is
really for. The argument in many circles has been that
when we have too much focus on things like black history,
it makes other white children feel inferior. Can you talk
about that.

Speaker 11 (35:45):
For those people who believe that we're harming children when
too much focus is put on the negative about slavery
and all of that, I say.

Speaker 13 (35:58):
And that's where the conversation ships, not to just what
we teach, but what happens when we don't to hear
Doctor Maxine Bryant's full response on how her work through
Brian Speaks is challenging the way we think about history, learning,
and connection. Listen to the full conversation on the Color
Between the Line's podcast on iHeartRadio, YouTube or wherever you
get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
I'm Ester Dillard, thank you, Esther and Maxine. For many families,
home ownership remains one of the best ways to create
generational wealth, and the National Association of Real Estate Brokers
provides advocacy, support and a list of resources for members
of the Black community to achieve the home ownership dream.

(36:40):
Alexandria Ecimoni recently spoke with Ashley Thomas, the third president
of the NAARB, about their upcoming events and ongoing commitment
to helping families down the path to owning a home.

Speaker 14 (36:52):
This is Alexandria Icimoni with the Black Information Network and
we have Ashley Thomas, the third president of the National
Association real Estate Brokers. How are you, Ashley.

Speaker 10 (37:02):
I'm doing wonderful. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 14 (37:04):
Yes, we are happy to have you here. A lot
of great stuff to talk about. You guys have when
I say you, guys. Association has a great amount of
events coming up in the next few months. So let's
start with some exciting things. I want to start with
the National Realist Week. Tell us more about it and
how people and how the community can benefit from it.

Speaker 10 (37:23):
Thank you, sonyrab National Association real Estate Brokers. We refer
to us as nay rab Our members are Real Test
members and we have over one hundred and fifteen boards
across the country, so in every major city, in every
parts of the country, we are present. We are Real
tists on the grounds doing the work and so Real

(37:44):
Test Week is something that has been started for some time.
It's a part of our fabric. We celebrate everything from economics,
encouragement in our community to the importance of home ownership.
We do community days where people can come out and
learn more. We have components about airs property rights, which
is very important in terms of how to keep the

(38:04):
property in my family and create generational wealth. So for
one week April twelfth through the nineteenth, there's a Real
This Week, probably very close to you.

Speaker 14 (38:12):
And then right after that, you guys have another type
of tour event coming up, Affordable home Ownership Tour. Tell
us more about that one and again how people in
the community can benefit from attending the tour if it's
in their city.

Speaker 10 (38:27):
Yeah. Absolutely, so, we are launching our Affordable home Ownership
Bus Tour. We will be on the bus for eight
days going to eight different cities. We're excited about this
is we believe that housing is a human rights issue.
A lot of times we want to frame it as
civil rights or we want to frame it as you know,
if you can afford it. We believe that everyone has

(38:48):
an opportunity, should have the opportunity to buy a home
if that's if their heart desires it. So we are
taking our movement to the ground. We're going to start
off in Philadelphia on April twenty fifth. The next day,
we'll be in Baltimore, Detroit, then Gary, Indiana, Kansas City, Missouri, Memphis, Tennessee,
Little Rock, Arkansas, and then we will conclude in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(39:12):
And we selected the cities and there are many cities
that we can be in it, and probably in twenty
twenty seven we'll take a more southern route. But we
selected the cities where the medium income could afford a
media and sales price property in that city. And so
that's very very important to us. And so what an
honor to be working with the African American Mayor's Association.
All of the cities have an African American mayor that

(39:34):
we will be working with in.

Speaker 14 (39:35):
Tandem, which is amazing. And we on the Black Information
Network focus and cate our stories to the black community.
And I wanted to talk about specifically for the Black community.
Why is home ownership so important in our community?

Speaker 10 (39:49):
Well, home ownership is important, I believe in all communities
in terms of building generational wealth. Number one, specifically in
the Black community is because that's where we tie a
lot of our network in in terms of value, and
so it's still important. We believe that over the years,
we've gone away from everyone should take part in the
American dream to now the conversation is proved to me

(40:11):
why you deserve to have a home, And so Realist
members are the advocates on the ground working to say,
if you want to buy a home, I'm going to
stay with you. If it takes you eighteen months twenty
four months to be ready for that, then that's what
we're going to be here for. And so we definitely
believe that home ownership is the number one wealth builder
in America still to this day, and so we're going

(40:31):
to fight for it. We're going to continue to advocate.

Speaker 14 (40:33):
I know there are so many tips and so many
things you can say about what I'm about to ask,
but I wanted to ask you how can people start
creating wealth through real estate? If you can simply put
it into words or just some nuggets of information that
they can use in order to start that journey.

Speaker 10 (40:49):
I think first steps is to evaluate where you are
at in terms of credit and income and whatnot. That's
what I would encourage you to do, you know, and
as an industry person, we want to make sure that
we fight for policies that open up the credit box.
You know that you don't have to have a seven
fifty or eight hundred credit score when there's programs out
there that will let you into home ownership at a

(41:11):
five eighty credit score. And so getting that word out
is our job. But you know, taking the step forward
as a consumer to say that this is what you want,
We want to meet you there.

Speaker 14 (41:21):
What would you say are the biggest barriers or black
families when it comes to home ownership and getting into
this space.

Speaker 10 (41:27):
So the two greatest barriers I would say is number
one is credit. Number two is the financial down payment
or closing costs to being able to have the funds
to come. But I also want to say that those
are things that we'll look at as individuals, but we
have a responsibility because there's many people that have great
credit and they have the funds and they still haven't

(41:50):
found home ownership, and that's because we're dealing with outdated systems,
and so one of the things that we're advocating is
to move the system into a new area. We're still
using underwrite and guidelines that are thirty forty years old,
when income is different today than it was thirty years ago.
People are working in gig economies, having a second dairy job,
side hustle or whatnot, and so that income is not

(42:12):
being considered, and so we're fighting for those types of
issues as well as student loan debt has grown to
an all time high and how is that configured into
the application process. So we're looking at all of those areas.
But we want to tell the consumer, if you want
to buy a home, we're going to meet you where
you're at.

Speaker 14 (42:28):
You've been giving a lot of great information about this
and really pinpointing on where we need to start if
you want to get into home ownership here, but I
want to dive a little bit deeper if I can.
What are some tips or policies or programs that people
don't really know about that can help make purchasing a
home a little bit easier. It's not an easy process,
but it's a little bit easier, just it's easy to

(42:50):
start if you will.

Speaker 10 (42:51):
I think starting the starting point so if most cities
around the country have programs to help that constitution on
to get into home ownership, and so looking into city
programs is very very important. But I would say this
that the most important step in any process of buying
a home is to find somebody that is a trusted

(43:12):
member and so that has a standard of excellence that
will go the extra mile and so they wrap the
National Association Real Estate Brokers. We impose that on our
membership and that we want to deliver excellence. And so
if you don't have the eight hundred credit score, you
don't have the million dollars or whatnot that you need,
then we want to work with you just the same.

(43:32):
And so I think that that's very important. A lot
of times people get discouraged in the process because they
don't feel like they're getting the answers that they need,
and so we want to make sure that we are
always filling that gap.

Speaker 14 (43:43):
And honestly, I think what we're saying here is that
there are a lot of resources, There are a lot
of assistance and help out there for people to be
able to get in this space if that's what.

Speaker 10 (43:51):
They want, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 14 (43:53):
And I do want to talk about closing the gap.
And we know that's a theme, that's something you are
passionate about and you guys really do work on. So
what are ways to help close the racial homeownership gap?
If you can't put that into words.

Speaker 10 (44:08):
So I think it's important to talk a little bit
about how we got to the gap. So I'll try
to move through this. But in nineteen thirty four, FAHA
was created. Now, most first time home buyers in terms
of people of color, utilize FAHA to be able to
get financing, but for the first thirty five years of
this particular program, only two percent of all of the

(44:30):
mortgages went to people of color, and so this was
the creation of the gap. And so I think it's
very important when we look at policy and we say, well,
policy should not be how we close the gap. Yes,
it should be because this is what created the gap.
And so our job is to continue to work with
our congressional leaders, continue to work locally and nationally to

(44:52):
talk about policy that will bridge this gap. But you
also have to have people that are ready to step
up into home ownership and deal with a little bit
of trauma of potentially coming out of the foreclosure crisis
from eight to twenty ten, and so it's time now
to get back into home ownership. So I want to
say to those that are listening, if you lost your

(45:13):
home before and now you've been a renter and you
feel that that is comfortable, we're not growing any wealth.
So we need you back into home ownership. Your family
needs you back into home ownership. Generational wealth can only
be done through home ownership. And so we're very excited
about all of the things that we're doing on the ground,
but we want to definitely get out to the public

(45:33):
that this home ownership is important.

Speaker 5 (45:35):
Home ownership is important.

Speaker 14 (45:36):
We know this, and yeah, a lot of people are
still hesitant, and a big reason why is affordability. They
just cannot afford a nice house in their community and
their areas. They have to go an hour plus from
work in order to afford something. What are your thoughts
or what can we do or what policies that need
to be put in place in order to kind of

(45:57):
fix the affordability house crisis that we currently have.

Speaker 10 (46:02):
Yeah, so I think when we first started lending, and
I was talking a little bit about FHA. Earlier, when
we first started lending, we were doing you had to
put fifty percent down payment, and then you did a
three to five year mortgage. FAHA came in and said,
we're going to take this out to twenty year mortgage
and you can put twenty percent down. Today we're at

(46:22):
three percent. There are a lot of programs that allowed
down payment assystems, so you don't have to come in
with anything. And so what I think first thing that
we can do is a better job of educating what
programs are out there so people can take advantage of them.
Their programs out there that will pay for your down payment,
we'll pay for your closing costs, and we need to
do a better job of marketing that as we move forward.

(46:44):
But I will say it's specifically in closing a gap
that everything that I listened right now was very personal.
It was on the individual. But I will want to
call on our congressional leaders. It's time for new programs
to come out that reward home ownership again. The American
Dream should not have turned into a rentals. Policy that

(47:07):
comes out should be about the new construction and advancing
homes in terms of single family residents. I travel the
country and I go to many cities across this country,
and you'll see cranes and development being done, but it's
being done for apartment buildings. Where are the single family residents?
And so that's what we're fighting for. Policy should match

(47:28):
the needs of the people, and the needs of the
people are we want to be able to have more homes,
to be.

Speaker 14 (47:33):
Able to buy any last word you would like to
leave with the listeners, I.

Speaker 10 (47:37):
Just want to say that again, thank you for having
me on the show. In terms of last words, home
ownership is a very important dialogue that every family should
be having. We need to have this dialogue earlier in
life with our young people. But the conversation that we're
having in barbershops and beauty shops and kitchen tables across

(47:58):
the country. I'm going to challenge the congressional leaders. These
are the conversations that Americans are demanding, the voters are
demanding that we need to fix the affordability issue in America.
So again, thank.

Speaker 14 (48:09):
You, well, thank you so much. We appreciate you coming
on the show once again. Ashley Thomas, the third president
of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, We thank
you for your time.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Thank you, Thank you, Alexandria and Ashley. To learn more
about the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, visit their
website at NAARB dot com. That's nar EB dot com.
Doug Davis returns with his in depth conversation with Tahir Murray,
the creative mind behind the rebranding of the nineties clothing

(48:41):
brand a School of Hard Knocks, and his brand legacy
history pride.

Speaker 8 (48:46):
Doug.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Hey, Thanks Mike, and welcome back to another segment of
Your Black Business Today. We continue with this past Friday's
conversation on BIN news Is Hour with their Generation Entrepreneur
to hear Murray, the new creat a force behind the
rebrand of the Natias clothing brand, School Heart Knocks, Whether
to hear Welcome back to the Black Information Network and
now you're a black business.

Speaker 6 (49:04):
Let's talk some business.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
You know, black owned businesses, we face unique hurdles at
other companies don't face funding gaps, you know, retail access,
even cultural appropriation per se.

Speaker 6 (49:16):
What's been the toughest challenge that you've.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Had to navigate right now with this new reboot of
School of Hard Knocks.

Speaker 5 (49:26):
I wouldn't even say it's a challenge.

Speaker 15 (49:27):
But this is all about leaning into like leaning into,
like I said before, leaning into what we have right
in front of us. You know, when people started clothing
branding and started business, they think they got to go
to a bank and they got to get all this fundraising,
all this capital. And it's like once you realize that
you have all the tools right in front of you
to just make it happen, and you got to take
a one step at a time. It's like I have

(49:49):
all the faith in the world in the team that
I have of all the faith in the world, and
the creative vision that I have and the resources that
are at Orange reach.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
So gotcha. So you know the big question is funding.
How did you get your funding?

Speaker 5 (50:03):
A lot of it has come from my brand LHP.

Speaker 15 (50:07):
I also run a collegiate lifestyle brand or wear, a
license vendor for various HBCUs and we've been running that
for the past seven years. And now it's just like
I said before, it's like it's.

Speaker 5 (50:19):
Just time to branch and to get our pocket and
start doing different things.

Speaker 7 (50:23):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
So just expread the brand from that.

Speaker 15 (50:26):
Lens is just a new mindset of like ownership that
I want people to see, like you gonn got to
box yourself in and just do one thing.

Speaker 5 (50:33):
But LHP is kind of.

Speaker 15 (50:37):
It's the overarching, like parent company of all these sub
brands that I want to continue to build out. So
School Art Knox is just another sub brand underneath that umbrella,
gotch and just so many other things I want to
do too.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
But for right now, we're going to focus on School
of R Knox.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
What made you choose HPCU or peril when you created this,
this opportunity.

Speaker 6 (50:57):
There to keep your purpose and your dream alive.

Speaker 8 (51:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (51:01):
I went to Howard University, so the minute I slept
on campus, I kind of went to the school books.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
So when I just realized there's not a lot of product.

Speaker 15 (51:08):
That really speak to campus life and Black culture life
and really just the richness of what our culture is.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
So I wanted to create a parel that.

Speaker 15 (51:17):
Really speaks to that unique designnique, storytelling, really creating pieces
that people are proud to wear, like stepping on a
HBC you campus every day as a fashion show. You
know people don't there are times where people don't go
to a class if they don't have a fit on.
So we have to make apparel that really speaks to
that and speaks to the literal legacy history pride of
our culture. So I started the brand my sophomore year, Howard.

(51:41):
We started off with like a T shirt and some beanies,
and from there we flip that into the crew next
and then we required licenses for five schools and our
license vendor for close to thirty schools right now.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
So it's been an.

Speaker 15 (51:56):
Incredible journey of like not just building out product, but
so being able to share certain stories about the community
and about our history, and being able to give back
and do scholarships and fundraising. Like I say all the time,
it's way bigger than just about the clothes. It's about
what we can do to push an honerculture moving forward.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Well that is dope, man. I love to hear that
come out of a young brother's mouth. Let me answer
you this question too. You know, Trump tariffs, rising costs,
global competition. How do you balance affordable pricing for our
community while still being profitable and growing that's a business.

Speaker 15 (52:35):
Yeah, it's just flexibility and just really working closely with
our manufacturers and just getting really just developing a really
strong pivot foot Like I feel like I'm like car
phone booth Carmelo Anthony where you can just make a
few moves off one pivot foot and still get a bucket.

Speaker 5 (52:52):
Like that's literally what it is on a day to.

Speaker 15 (52:54):
Day is getting really creative with business problems, solving strategy
and just working with our manufacturers and finding different ways
to you know, create ideas and push our brand envision
out there. So it's tough times right now, but we've
been through worse, like we've been through COVID, which was
a time where we didn't have a product for like

(53:16):
like eight months, So it's like, how do we continue
to build a brand and build this community without even
a product on hand.

Speaker 5 (53:23):
So even during that time, that's how I knew we
had something.

Speaker 15 (53:25):
Special because people were one excited for the product to come,
but they were still just keeping up with me, sharing
the story, my personal story, meet sharing different things going
on in the HBC experience. HBC you've seen sharing the
history of our schools, and people don't play about their HBCUs.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
People don't play about black Man. Look Central State University.
I don't play either.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
People don't play people where they come from.

Speaker 15 (53:51):
That's right, So it's really just having faith and just
trying to like figure out how many different ways we
could flip it and continue to get the string movies.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Do you source your cotton from overseas or do you
do you get your stuff here in.

Speaker 5 (54:03):
The US overseas? We do all overseas production.

Speaker 6 (54:06):
Gotcha? Gotcha? Gotcha?

Speaker 2 (54:07):
So you do your manufacturing overseas, Yes, sir, would you
like to do some US manufacturing if it was affordable.

Speaker 6 (54:13):
Of course with the black owned brand.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (54:16):
Gotcha.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Okay, let's let's let's dig into you know a little
bit of your your personal growth. I should say, you know,
you've you've grown up around legacy, man, purpose and vision.
What's the biggest personal lesson in your journey that has
taught you about you?

Speaker 15 (54:35):
M For me, I learned that you can't have a
functional business if you're not even a functional human being.
And when I say that is like, you know, you're
going to have all the business acumen in the world,
all these creative ideas, But I've had to learn to
slow down, especially after college. I had to just slow
down significantly and just take care of myself mentally, physically, spiritually,

(55:00):
being a little bit more discipline and mature about my
routine and how I go about my days. When I
started the brand in college, you know, I was I
was a student. I'm DJing, I'm throwing parties, I got
this brand, social life, all these distractions.

Speaker 5 (55:16):
By the time I graduated, you could just see the
smoke kind of coming off of me.

Speaker 11 (55:20):
Man.

Speaker 5 (55:20):
Like it.

Speaker 15 (55:20):
It was kind of like I just needed to take
a second to just sit down and just understand that
if I want to my ideas of success is having
a brand that outlets outlives my time on earth. So
if I want to go down that journey and really
treat this like a marathon that it is, I really
got to like move at a pace that is comfortable

(55:42):
with me.

Speaker 5 (55:43):
So I've had to just learn what that.

Speaker 15 (55:44):
Looks like, what is it, What's the type of food
that I need to eat, What's the type of workout
regimen I need to have, what are the books I
needed to read? And I had to just grow and
get really serious with myself if I wanted to, you know,
be serious with where I want to go with my
brand and with my company.

Speaker 11 (56:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (56:02):
Yeah, man, that's that's pretty heavy.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
And in a related question, I should say, what you know,
what's the story that you want the next thirty years
to tell?

Speaker 6 (56:12):
Of School of Hard Knocks and your and your businesses.

Speaker 15 (56:15):
I mean, the goal is to be up there with
the greats when people when people ask about the greats,
to talk about the greats, I need School Ofhard Knocks
will be in that conversation. I rethink it's in that conversation.
I think lhp's already in that conversation. This is a
matter of how many people know about us. So I
wholeheartedly like see understand the direction.

Speaker 5 (56:39):
That we're going in and it's just a matter of.

Speaker 15 (56:41):
Time before everything unfolds and just having I just have
to continue to see to the vision.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
You know, your anniversary collection a lot of nostalgia there.
What are you bringing back? And then secondly, it's a
great quote unquote business play, right, It's a great way
to drive some revenue, build more loyalty, particularly with some
new customers. How do you plan for long term growth?

Speaker 15 (57:05):
How we plan for long term growth is just not
us not deviating from the foundation of what my grandfather
and my dad built from day one of being true
to the.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
Game, of focusing on creating the.

Speaker 15 (57:24):
Best quality items for our customers, bringing back nostalgic pieces,
but even whipping them up with the higher standard of
what it looks like in you know, twenty twenty six
and just staying true to who we are.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
My grandfather, my dad always had an emphasis on community.

Speaker 15 (57:42):
The store that they had in New York on Sneaker
Store was more than just a sneaker store. My grandfather
would be down in the basement cooking trinaty and food
for customers on the weekends. It was really family atmosphere.
And what he was in the community was more than
just a business owner.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
You know.

Speaker 5 (57:59):
When he pass and we had a street naming in.

Speaker 15 (58:01):
New York, Yeah, when people were talking about him and
talking about the business like, they weren't even talking about
the accomplishments.

Speaker 5 (58:07):
They were talking about just the impact that you had
right in people's hearts.

Speaker 15 (58:11):
That's the foundation. That's really it lean into what you
truly love. If you if you do.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
What you love like you'll do it.

Speaker 15 (58:19):
You'll do it for free, you know, and it makes
the it doesn't even make it seem like work anymore.

Speaker 6 (58:25):
Yeah, word, that's great, that's great.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
But to hear thank you so much for sharing your insights, man,
and you know everything about the rebrand of the nineties
clothing brand School of Hard Knocks, be looking out for it,
and you're welcome back on the show anytime. Man keep
us up to date with the development and we wish
you the best. This is Doug Davis.

Speaker 6 (58:42):
You're listening to the Black Perspective on the Black Information Network.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Thanks Doug and Ta here. For more information on School
of Hard Knocks or Legacy History Pride, go to shop
LHP dot com. That's shop LHP dot com. That's our
show for this week. For more on these stories, listen
to the Black Information Network on the free iHeartRadio app
or log onto Bionnews dot com for all of the

(59:08):
latest news impacting the black community.

Speaker 6 (59:10):
We'd love to hear from you about.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
The Black Perspective. Log onto the Black Information Networks talk
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Speaker 8 (59:31):
I'm Mike Island.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Have a great Sunday. We will see you next week
with a new episode of the Black Perspective with stories
from Andrea Coleman, Esther Dillard, Doug Davis, and other BION
anchors right here on the Black Information Network