Last week I was on vacation. Like so many of us do this time of year, I tried to take some time off to unwind hoping to be rejuvenated when it was time to return to work. That was hard to do. I could escape work, I could escape getting up before the crack of […]
Even though Howard Cosell once publicly referred to me as a “hanger on,” my days as part of the Champ’s camp were some of the most memorable. You can’t be that close to Ali without learning something about confidence, independence, diligence and excellence. Earning his respect, trust and friendship meant a lot to me. I […]
I have to confess that I haven’t seen the 2016 version of Roots yet. But I don’t need to see it to defend the goal which is to present the atrocity of slavery to a new generation of TV viewers. I’m sure there were a lot of black people in the 70s who didn’t want […]
Now that a police officer in the Freddie Gray case has been acquitted, the finger is being pointed once again at State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. She’s been accused of “rushing to judgment” by charging the six police officers with homicide. It’s easy to look back now and analytically assess all the mistakes Mosby may have […]
This is the first graduation season in many years I haven’t done a HBCU commencement speech. It’s been a busy spring for me though. Along with two amazing trips to Cuba I just returned from the 17th Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage Cruise. But in between those events, my world was rocked by the death of […]
When I look back at 2015 a lot of us had some very tough moments. Like me, you may have lost a loved one. Maybe you had an illness, suffered financial loss or experienced a blow in your personal life. Many things that happen are out of our control but even then at some point […]
There are some big problems going on in the country right now and we have the power to fix them. Gun violence, police brutality, and high unemployment disproportionately impact African Americans, and our young Black males in particular. At the same time, high school dropout rates are high and college enrollment for Black men lags behind […]
Protest Plus Policy equals Progress! Last week I received a huge honor, the National Urban League’s “Living Legend” award. The following week, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and this weekend, we commemorated the shooting death of Michael Brown a year later. All three events reminded me that right never goes […]
Dear Rachel Dolezar: Here’s why I’m not going to let you and the media distract me from all the important issues Black America is facing right now. Because the story of you “passing” for black, no matter how twisted it is, has turned the national discussion away from matters of education, police brutality, health concerns, […]
As thrown as I was when I heard that there would be no indictment in the Ferguson police shooting of Mike Brown and that Mayor Marion Barry had died, I was shaken even more by the news that my friend Annie Lee had passed away. So many times when people die we have regrets or […]
Life has a way of showing you how bad it can suck sometimes. Coming after two great weeks on the final leg of our Fall Tour I was met with the news that I was no longer on the air in my hometown of Dallas. Every market where the TJMS is aired is important to […]
When I was a kid, I would lay around dreaming about being rich. But I quickly realized that unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you’d have to get up and get to work to make it happen. But as hard as I worked and got fired and worked and got […]