Gubernatorial candidates Andrew Gillum (Florida) and Stacey Abrams (Georgia) have given the November mid-term elections just the spark it needed.   It’s not easy to get voters fired up for non-presidential elections so the national attention these two candidates are getting is inspiring voters in those states.  But what about the rest of the country […]

It’s been 12 years this week since Hurricane Katrina brought death, devastation, and destruction to New Orleans and other parts of coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  The majority of survivors evacuated to Texas,  but they also moved to other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Arkansas. led to  But we […]

It’s been eight years since the Tom Joyner Morning Show, family members and I were in Chicago at Grant Park for one of the most significant events in history. We were surrounded by politicians, media and civil rights icons, and even though we were hoping and praying for a victory that night, we were almost […]

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 […]

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 […]

Floyd Mayweather says he doesn’t care that 50 Cent and Manny Pacquiao call him uneducated. He says if it’s true, ‘It makes my story that much more interesting.’ I agree with Floyd 100 percent. Now, before you call me a hypocrite, let me explain. You know I’m a proponent of education and believe that everyone […]

I’ve spent much of my career working with Black comedians – some of them A-listers who have risen from the comedy clubs up the food chain to cable TV, talk show host/movie star, network sitcom star/radio show host and back down again. For everyone’s who’s really made it, I can name you five that should have […]

Mother’s Day is about moms, but it’s also about all the women who played roles in our lives. If you’re Black, especially, chances are your grandmother, your godmother, your aunties…your mama’s special friend…or someone else …had a hand in bringing you up. For me,  it was my Aunt Nettie. I wrote about her and my […]

It’s just human nature that extreme measures have to be taken just to make people in power do the right thing. We’ve seen it with civil rights, affirmative action and now, maybe, with college sports. When I first heard the news about college football players at Northwestern University wanting to unionize, I initially thought they […]