The Role Of The Church In Community and Economic Revitalization

The Role Of The Church In Community and Economic Revitalization

by The Rev. Gerald Austin Sr. BSET, ThM, DMin

Founder and CEO, The Center for Urban Missions, The New City Church,

Mega International & Associates, LLC

E X E C U T I V E  S U M M A RY

In today’s society, an institution tends to be viewed as an accumulation of the individuals who compose it. The Church, for example, is seen as a group of like-minded individuals who gather together to have their religious needs met. But the Church also represents the most powerful institution in the world, with a vast and untapped potential for restoring the broader community and revitalizing urban landscapes.

This White Paper focuses on the role of the Church in addressing the societal and economic ills facing our city, particularly in the African American community. My basic argument is that the Church must take serious its theology of place, the role of our Black academies, and responsible individual empowerment if it is to continue its relevance in the 21st Century.

This White Paper is designed to address at least two audiences:

Government and business leaders

I want to challenge you to understand the invaluable role the church plays in addressing our City’s social and economic issues. Political leaders can still adhere to our constitutional obligation of separation of church and state. But in the social, economic and community development, there must be freedom to broaden our thinking and realize the strength of the partnership between the government, business and church communities.

Leaders in Faith communities

I want to challenge you to embrace the theology of place, the need for informed scholarship from our community’s Black academies of substance and the cultivation of indigenous giftedness, all of which are outlined in this paper.

Church leaders catch God’s corporate vision by resisting the contemporary trends of radical individualism and personal peace. The church must engage in vibrant community and economic development with business savvy, while influencing government and society with the values of God’s Kingdom.

My mission is to glorify God, edify those who honor Him, reach out to those who are trying to find their way to Him, and to provoke conversation and discussion that develops solutions to the problems our community faces. I am confident that you will take seriously the basic philosophies espoused in this document, be inspired to hope, and turn that hope into action that helps renew our city.

My desire is for this White Paper to spur further interest, discussion and research into the relationship between the Church and its role in Urban Community and Economic Revitalization. I hope that you enjoy and find value in this white paper, and we welcome your feedback.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Oliver Cromwell, nicknamed “Old Ironsides” from his prowess as a brilliant soldier and commander of the British army in the late 1600s, was going through a difficult economic crisis. The British government lacked silver to mint coins, so Cromwell sent officials throughout the country to find this resource.

After much research, they reported back to the commander that there was one source for this precious commodity – the statues of the saints adorning the churches throughout the cities and townships, were overlaid with gold and silver.

Cromwell said, “Good, we’ll melt down the saints and put them into circulation.” As we face the ever-increasing challenges in Birmingham, we too must tap into the resources in our churches and put the saints back into circulation. The church has historically played a major role in helping African-Americans overcome challenges, from slavery to unjust Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham during the 1960s.

As our nation prepares on April 4, 2008 to remember the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 40th anniversary of his assassination, the black community faces a new struggle just as daunting as the Civil Rights struggle he championed- community and economic revitalization. It appears that “melting down the saints and putting them into circulation” spoken by General Oliver Cromwell over four centuries ago is just as real today.

Throughout history, faith-based institutions have played a leadership role in confronting social injustice, developing a sense of community, and addressing a broad range of human needs. Recognizing the importance of this role, private funders, locally and nationally, have begun to partner with faith-based institutions to meet common goals, such as creating affordable housing and job opportunities, educating youth, reducing crime and addressing health needs.

Problem Statement

Over the past 40 years, the federal government has spent trillions of dollars to solve the ever-increasing social and economic challenges in our communities with little return on investment. While Blacks have made tremendous progress in the areas of politics, job advancements and growth of the middle class, the economic disparities continue to widen as many in the Black Church failed to tackle the issue of community and economic development.

Like most American cities these days, Birmingham is a deeply troubled place. At the root of its problems is the massive economic shifts that have marked the last two decades. Hundreds of industrial jobs that boosted its residents have either disappeared or moved overseas. Many of the new jobs created in the U.S. economy are either highly professionalized, and require elaborate education and credentials for entry, or they are routine, low-paying service jobs without much of a future. In effect, these shifts in the economy, and particularly the disappearance of decent employment possibilities from low-income neighborhoods, have removed the bottom rung from the fabled American “ladder of opportunity.”

As a result, our urban community is in crisis – a moral and societal breakdown of families, substandard and underperforming schools, a decline in Black-owned businesses, and deteriorating neighborhoods plagued by high crime and soaring poverty. If you drive through the majority of Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods, you will see communities struggling to survive.

According to John Hopkins University’s October 2007 list on “Dropout Factories,” half of the City of Birmingham’s high schools made the list of schools with alarmingly high drop-out rates. The high school graduation percentages ranged from 57 percent at Jackson-Olin, 56 percent at Ensley, 47 percent at Huffman, 43 percent at West End and 41 percent at Woodlawn.

Black boys are especially at risk. According to a recent NBC News special series on the plight of African-American females, many teachers are giving up on Black males as early as the fourth grade due to their bad grades and behavioral problems that stem from lack of positive Black male role models in the home. Numbers detailing the breakdown of the Black family are staggering. The NBC News series found that two-thirds of Black households are led by women, largely due to the growth of unwed mothers and the alarming number of Black men who are incarcerated.

Ebony Magazine recently reported there are more Black men in jail or on probation than in college. The magazine also stated that Black women outnumber Black men by 7 to 1 at historically Black colleges and 4 to 1 at traditional colleges.

The NBC News series found women to comprise nearly 67 percent of new businesses owned by Blacks and generated two-thirds of new Black wealth over the last five years. ” Empowering Black males to reach their full potential is the most serious economic and civil rights challenge we face today,” said National Urban League CEO Marc H. Morial last year when releasing the 2007 State of Black America Report, which focused for the first time on the plight of the Black male.

The U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that despite the growth of the Black middle class, the salary gap between Blacks and Whites is wider than it was in 1968. Blacks also failed to capitalize on a strong economic market in 2007, and now we are faced with a major concern as the job market has slowed, and housing and credit challenges continue to escalate in 2008. The Black unemployment rate was 8.3 percent in 2007 vs. 4.7 percent for Whites, the Labor Department found. It was even more dire for those most at risk: Black males aged 16 to 19 have a 29.4 percent unemployment rate, more than twice the rate of 13.9 percent for White males aged 16 to 19.

In 1992, the United State Congress passed into law “Charitable Choice Legislation,” which gave rise to the establishment of the federal Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives. This legislative act was an admission that there’s “silver and gold in the pews” and the work of faith-based organizations can get a better return on investment when the “saints are put into circulation” in the market place. This growing interest at the federal level in providing public funding for the secular activities of faith-based institutions, while controversial, raises numerous possibilities for increased public and private sector funding.

In essence, the government recognizes that the Church represents a vast, untapped resource that can more effectively address some social and economic aspects of Urban Community and Economic Revitalization better than it can.

Therefore, our City must seize the moment for business and government to work together to revitalize our communities, not relegating the Church to a culturally-defined existence, but one of influencing culture in ways that positively reshape urban landscapes.

I work from the premise that “right thinking always precedes right behavior.” What people think and believe ultimately influences how they live their lives, how they invest their money, etc. If the Church is to define its role in the 21st Century marketplace, it must understand its place in history as an institution, and how its existence also affects non-members, i.e., the broader community.

T H E  PA S T  I N F O R M S  T H E  P R E S E N T  A N D  F U T U R E

Birmingham, a city that gained the moniker the Magic City for its rapid growth in the late 1800s and early 1900s, had hit its prime as a central city in the Southeast when the volcanic eruption of the mid-1960s Civil Rights struggle shook the world. The lens of global media focused on Birmingham and what had been magic had become the madness of the human condition as fire hoses and police dogs were turned on Blacks seeking basic civil rights that others took for granted.

It was the Black Church that took the central role in the fight for freedom. I submit to you that by God’s grace, 40 years later the God of our dreary years and not so silent tears, is once again calling to that age-old institution of the Church to rise up and “seek the welfare of the city”!

Dr. Wilson Fallin, professor, pastor and author, eloquently analyzed the role and place of the African-American church in his book, “Birmingham, Alabama 1815-1963: A Shelter in the Storm.” Fallin’s well-researched book, which traces the African American Church in Jones Valley from 1815 to the Civil Rights movement and the Birmingham protests of 1963, also sheds light on the social context in which these churches operated. Blue-collar working conditions and the long history of segregation and black subjugation in Birmingham are important elements in unpacking the disparity that exist in understanding then and now.

Convinced that these churches were central to the development of the community, he argues that at times the Church focused primarily on helping “Blacks cope with their oppression by being a refuge in a hostile environment” (p. 64).

Fallin identifies several key pastors who served congregations in Birmingham over several years, comparing and contrasting their roles according to the socio-economic situations they faced, showing how versatile the churches and their leaders were.

For example, William R. Pettiford, a late-19th and early-20th-century Baptist minister, engaged in a wide range of religious and secular activities – entrepreneur, banker, and churchman – while maintaining an accommodationist position on issues of Black self-help and self-determination. He was convinced that Blacks could earn the respect of Whites through responsible living. Years later, Fred Shuttlesworth became a pastor and leading civil rights advocate. He left entrepreneurial activities to lay leaders and concentrated on identifying a God who sided with the weak, the marginalized, and the downtrodden. He was convinced that the system of segregation would not change without active African-American protest and litigation.

Fallin’s book clearly connects the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham to the religious community.

Likewise, today’s economic rights dilemma can only be solved with the church playing a leading role in transforming the communities they serve.

S O L U T I O N

So what does this history lesson have to do with the Black Church in Birmingham, Alabama today? With the decline in Black businesses and communities in general, the escape to suburbia of higher-income Black families who’ve left behind the poor to their fate, the Black Church has become the only viable source of economic vitality in many inner-city communities.

This means the Black Church must step up its role to empower its members and the surrounding neighborhoods it serves.

Four decades after the Black Church in Birmingham played a major role in securing civil rights for all, the Church again can take the lead in tackling today’s issue of community and economic revitalization. Our challenges are immense and I argue that the Church will need to take a serious look at three underlying principles and critically apply them if it is to continue to be relevant in the 21st Century.

1. Spiritual Capital, A Theological of Place

Spiritual Capital is defined as “resources that are created or that people have access to when people invest in religion as religion.” Churches raise significant revenue, a great deal of which is funneled into its mission, which typically means using it to help society’s weakest members. Its people invest according to their values, and those values are often defined religiously.

Cities have always been important to God because it’s where people tend to live. So His concern for cities is even greater, now that the world today is urbanizing faster than it ever has in its history; this trend appears irreversible. In the U.S., 51% of its citizens live in 39 cities with a million or more in population. Just a few years ago, Birmingham for the first time became a world-class city, with more than a million people in the metro area.

Because Christian identity cuts across every other dividing line found in urban neighborhoods, it has the unique authority to use its spiritual capital to reverse the mindset of radical individualism and personal peace that is endemic to American society, a society that feels free to ignore the needs of the city, and therefore, its people.

If we are to recover an earthy Christianity, one that connects profoundly to community and economic revitalization, we must develop and embrace an abiding “theology of place” that says cities can honor God. I believe that nothing promotes the peace and health of the city like the spread of faith in the Gospel, of understanding the Word of God. It renews both individual lives and reweaves the fabric of whole neighborhoods.

This verse of Scripture seems to best describe the Church’s prophetic role in the place where human beings are most concentrated and they are most capable of building and sustaining a God-glorifying community: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7)

Just imagine that you were forced to leave your home in suburbia that had been destroyed by gang-bangers from Birmingham.

You pack up what you can salvage and become a refugee. Leaving behind destruction, fatalities, and a life that was, you reluctantly move to the City of Birmingham. Fully intending to return home to suburbia, you don’t fully unpack your bags. Instead, you patiently wait for justice to be served, or in today’s language, for Jesus to come again.

But in Jeremiah 29, God does not tell the refugees to lead a passive, patient life in the city. No, God tells them to settle down, make the city their new home, work and grow their families, and – now get this – pray for the city’s prosperity.

Today, God is actually calling us to do the same, to actively work for the shalom of the city – its peace, justice, mercy, compassion and prosperity.

Some would ask, Why should I care about these people that I am afraid of? They break into cars, they vote differently that I do. Why should I have any interest in their messed-up lives? Why, for goodness sake, should I pray for the people that don’t even speak or look like me? Maybe you have asked a form of that question at some point in your life. But remember the message and its promise: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

If the “dropout factories” impact my welfare, would I engage in the lives of its academically-failing students any differently? If the actions and behavior of millions of children of incarcerated parents impacts my little comfort zone, would I do anything to intersect their lives? If we truly believed Jeremiah 29, Birmingham would be different, and we would all realize that poverty and crime in the inner-city affects the suburbs as well. We are one city, one region united and the church is the best vehicle to address those urban ills of society.

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in New York City, in “A New Kind of Urban Christian” (Christianity Today, May 2006) writes, “We need Christians and churches everywhere there are people.” Today’s urban renewal requires the kind of vision and action that churches and people of faith possess.

Churches must help the broader community realize the personal and corporate implications of the Scriptural truth and the words leaders have spoken: Seek the prosperity of Birmingham, because “as Birmingham goes, so goes the Region.”

2. Social Scholarship, An Academy of Substance

No community has ever reached the shores of liberation and equality and empowerment without maintaining and increasing the capacity of their own educational institutions. The role of higher education institutions in the economic development of society has been well documented. Some of the monetary benefits of higher education include increased tax revenue, greater productivity, and greater consumption. Its societal benefits includes reduced crime rates, increased charitable giving or community service, improved ability to adapt to and use technology, and greater involvement in political process as informed advocates.

Therefore, the call for urban and community revitalizations means the church must specifically call upon social scholarship from academies of substance. In the African American community, that means embracing and affirming the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Founded for the sole purpose of providing higher learning to Black Americans when others would not, HBCUs must be celebrated and supported because they, like the Black Church, are vital to the empowerment of the Black community.

No other institutional type has the historical, cultural and economic heritage to be greater producers of knowledge on African Americans. Empowerment means individuals developing a historical and systematic knowledge base about themselves and individuals with similar cultural heritage. It’s incumbent upon HBCUs, therefore, to have curriculums that are infused with knowledge about the accomplishments of African Americans and Blacks globally. We must find ways to encourage HBCU faculty to be engaged in academic research and practices related to discoveries and contributions made by Black people in the world, across time.

I will cover the linkage between HBCUs, the Black Church and economic success in the African American community in greater detail in a book I am currently writing. For now, I will say that we must create a forum and continue the necessary conversations regarding the vitally important challenges that HBCUs face in the new millennium as they continue trying to bridge the gap between economic development and cultural empowerment.

I have discussed with local educators, business leaders and municipal communities about the possibility of endowing a professorship or fellowship in the area of community and economic development. I am convinced that HBCUs, such as Miles College in Fairfield and Lawson State in Birmingham, must pay particular attention to ways that they can be more closely aligned with their urban neighborhoods.

HBCUs tend to be intricately linked to these neighborhoods, primarily because many of their students come from them. One of the biggest challenges facing HBCUs today is the recruitment and retention of quality Black students who, because of the civil rights gained in the 60s, can go to virtually any college or university in the country. The cream of our academically- and athletically-gifted students are skimmed away by more “prestigious,” predominately

White institutions, many of which actively recruit Blacks and people of color. This leaves HBCUs to pick up students who are often less prepared and not as motivated as their more talented peers.

Because HBCUs often do not have the financial resources to compete with the scholarship packages that elite institutions can offer, HBCU leaders who are creative and have vision will increasingly be needed to both recruit and create environments for a range of student types. For instance, high-achieving students who choose to attend HBCUs say their reason for enrollment is that they were pursued by personal contact via telephone or in person with the president or other administrative leaders. At the same time, HBCU leaders must also honor their historic legacy to help the least of these by providing opportunities that uplift those African American students who will not be welcomed at any other institution. This is not an easy task, and it is why the church must play a role in helping HBCUs meet such challenges.

3. Community Engagement, Responsible Individual Empowerment

Typically, well-meaning folks from Churches and benevolent institutions have approached the problems of inner-city ills paternalistically. They first focus on the community’s needs, deficiencies and problems and spend millions of dollars and hours of human capital trying to address them. But I believe in a capacity-focused model that insists on building up a community’s strength from within by empowering its individual members.

What I propose to the Black Churches is that instead of documenting the problems, we map the solutions by creating an asset inventory of the people we want to serve in order to mine the silver and gold that sits under our very noses.

I propose that Churches go household by household, building by building, block by block and thoroughly inventory the gifts, skills and capacities of the community’s residents. We would be pleasantly shocked to discover a vast and often surprising array of individual talents and productive skills, few of which are being mobilized for community-building purposes.

More than any institution, the Church understands the principle of the “spiritual giftedness” of every individual. This is particularly important to persons who often find themselves marginalized by society. It is essential to recognize the capacities, for example, of those who have been labeled mentally handicapped or disabled, or of those who are marginalized because they are too old, or too young, or too poor. In a community whose assets are being fully recognized and mobilized, these people too will play a vital role in the redevelopment of their own communities, not as clients or recipients of aid, but as full contributors to the community-building process. They add to the asset base of every community and can often provide the framework for effective community engagement in their own neighborhoods.

Once these combinations of local assets and capacities – individual residents, citizens’ associations, and the resources of local institutions – have been mapped and mobilized, a community is well on its way to regenerating itself.

Such a community may still, of course, require help from the outside. But it is now in a position to control and define that help, to focus and direct outside resources to the locally generated agenda and plans. Rather than existing as an object of charity, such a community will say to the outside world: we are mobilized and powerful; we are a sure-fire investment.

A .G .  G A S T O N  C O N F E R E N C E , A  P R O P H E T I C  VO I C E

The A.G. Gaston Conference’s past white papers have been a prophetic voice in addressing the economic challenges Birmingham faces, especially its African-American communities. These papers have outlined the crises in Black Birmingham that are due, in part, to the disturbingly low number of Black-owned businesses and its implications.

Birmingham News reporter Roy L. Williams has written that the number of Black businesses is falling in Birmingham due to a combination of lack of access to capital and Black flight to the suburbs. The ramifications of the demise of the Black entrepreneur base, as retail shops, restaurants and grocery stores that once were Blacked-owned on the decline, are enormous. Their demise only adds to the deteriorating neighborhoods, rising poverty and skyrocketing crime rates in the inner city.

So what does this have to do with the church? With the decline in Black businesses, the Black Church has become the only viable source of economic vitality in many inner-city communities. This means the Black Church must step up its role to empower its members and the surrounding neighborhoods it serves.

There is now a growing recognition and interest from both public-private and corporate sectors in providing funding for the activities of faith and community-based institutions to more effectively combat these negative city trends. For example, over $665 billion are awarded to charitable and faith-based organizations each year from corporations, foundations, private individuals, federal, local and state governments.

Four decades after the Black Church in Birmingham played a major role in securing civil rights for all, it again can take the lead in tackling today’s leading civil rights issue – economics. We can do this by building schools, credit unions, developing affordable housing in low-income areas and other direct forms of community investment and revitalization.

We can undertake these activities ourselves using money awarded to faith-based organizations, or in collaboration with other churches, faith-based organizations, educators, government and businesses to generate effective change.

C O N C L U S I O N

I have made the clarion call for the faith community to step up to the 21st Century challenge of Community and Economic Revitalization by looking through three concentric lens; A Theology of Place, An Academy of Substance and Responsible Individual Empowerment.

All around the world, in times past and present, people have expressed their God-given creativity and imagination in art, folklore, drama, music and food. I see God at work, taking the patchwork of this fallen creation, here in Birmingham and molding it into a community of people who would reflect His glory.

I have a vision that God will turn Birmingham, the Magic City, into the “Miracle City.” It will be more communityoriented, where we not only support each other in our city as individual families, but also come together as a metro-city government. My hope is that God will make out of us a credible witness of beautiful diversity, where needs, resources, cultures, celebrations, and relationships are shared.

May God make us a community in which people are committed to living out the values of His Kingdom – values that are without class or any other kind of alienating distinctions. May we make a commitment to live together and support one another as a unified community that will spread out geographically throughout the 99 neighborhoods across various sectors of our city.

I have a vision that Birmingham will be a city about service to the poor, the helpless, the seeking, and the fearful. May our city strive to embody God’s “perfect love that casts out fear.” May we be a city where the empowered and the powerless can learn to trust each other – not playing the parts of paternalistic, distancing “charity givers,” nor long-faced poor with manipulative receiving, but being true citizens and pilgrims who recognize that all men are created equal, because we are created in the image of God.

Our Lord, in teaching His disciples to pray, said, “Thy Kingdom come.” Let us as a city in the same spirit, irrespective of our faith orientation, echo the clarion call in a misguided world which shouts out, “Thy Kingdom come and peace on earth and good will to all men! Thou will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We, as God’s children, can be a model to a desperately needy world – reflective of the perfect love, redemption, reconciliation, and transformation He offers to all people.

Therefore my beloved “Birminghamians” let us roll up your sleeves and share in this opportunity to influence culture with the values of God’s Kingdom!!

A B O U T  T H E  AU T H O R

Rev. Gerald Austin Sr. knows from personal experience that there is hope for our urban communities. One of nine children raised by a single parent in Birmingham, Austin emerged from a life of potential entrapment and now holds a B.S. from DeVry University in Electronics Engineering, Th.M from Grace Theological Seminary, and a DMin. Degree from Bakke Graduate University in Transformational Leadership for the Global City. He is also a Graduate of Harvard Divinity School Center for Religion, Values and Public Life, where his project was recognized as a model for 21st Century Community Transformation.

In 1986, Rev. Austin founded The Center for Urban Missions, a Community Development Corporation whose vision is to demonstrate God’s love by bringing positive change in urban communities and equipping individuals, churches and strategic organizations to address its holistic needs.

Rev. Austin also served 5 years as the Coordinator of African American Church Planting for Missions to North America, the home mission board of the PCA.

He is the founder and Pastor Emeritus of The New City Church, begun in 1990 in his home. After serving 15 years as founder and Senior Pastor, he brought the Church into the Evangelical Covenant Church in America Denomination and successfully completed a succession plan for pastoral leadership for New City Church in April 2006. The church is strategically located in the heart of Birmingham’s downtown business district and continues to serves as a beacon of light in a city that is being transformed.

The Center for Urban Missions has received numerous awards through the years, including a $1 million matching grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Technology Opportunities Program, the first award of its kind in the Southeast. An adjunct professor at Samford University and member of several strategic boards, Rev. Austin is well known as a strong voice in the area of Urban Economic Development, Church Planting, Justice and Compassion Issues, Marriage and Family and Racial Reconciliation.

He has written several white papers and numerous articles on the subject of Racial Reconciliation, Community and Economic Development and Urban Family Life that have been published in books and other publications across the country. A multiple award recipient, Rev. Austin is in high demand as a teacher and mentor of pastors and community service leaders called to transform their congregations and communities. He and his wife of 30 years, Minister Gwen Austin, are the proud parents of 6 children and 12 grand children.

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ECONOMIC SUMMIT PROMOTES COOPERATION, PLANNING AND INNOVATION IN CURRENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Birmingham Economic Summit: Pathways to Economic Synergy 2008 will be held in Birmingham November 11-13 at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex in the East Meeting Rooms.  Discussions will assist the region’s leaders from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors as they plan for the future of the region during these lean economic times.

The summit is a free event presented by the Birmingham City Council’s Economic Development Committee, headed by Councilor Steven Hoyt, in cooperation with Mayor Larry Langford.  Those interested can register to attend at www.bbrc.biz.

National and local leaders in economic development will be participating in panel discussions and answering questions from attendees. Presentations will cover a broad range of topics including the following: environmental considerations in real estate development, technology transfer, entrepreneurial development, neighborhood shopping and entertainment, transportation options, travel and tourism, and faith-based community development initiatives.

“This event should facilitate the development of innovative ideas and help us build competitive communities while we review the economic challenges currently being faced,” said Michael H. Bell, Executive Director of the Birmingham Construction Industry Authority and Summit Planning Committee Chairman.  “The importance of everyone in the region working together for progress is the focus of this conference.”

Dr. John Sibley Butler, Ph.D. is the keynote speaker on day one of the conference.  Butler is from the University of Texas at Austin.  He is a professor of management and sociology, as well as director if the Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship.  Kim M. Williams, Ph.D. is the keynote speaker on day two.  Williams is as associate professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Local participants include some of the most respected voices on economic development including the following: Stephen Craft, Birmingham Southern professor of marketing; John Lauriello, principal, Southpace Properties, Inc.; and Ted vonCannon, Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board president.

“Our team at the Metropolitan Development Board has assisted a diverse range of companies locating or expanding in the Birmingham region,” vonCannon said.  “Clearly many entities in the area share the desire for continued growth.  With this event, interested parties will gather to become more informed and develop ideas for further progress.    Progress is made through cooperation.”

Man Finds Racial Slur Printed on Reciept

Man Finds “Dumb Ni$$er” printed on his receipt from Journeys shoes in Overland Park, Kansas.

Checkout the video below. The struggle continues..

Obama-Biden Tax Calculator

Obama-Biden Tax Calculator

Barack Obama and Joe Biden proclaim that they will cut taxes for 95% of working families, and provide at least three times as much tax relief for middle class families as John McCain and Sarah Palin. The Obama/Biden plan provides $1,000 of tax relief for workers and new tax benefits to help families pay for college, childcare and save for retirement.

Check out the widget below to see your cut.

More info on the Obama – Bide Tax cut Here

Four questions for Condoleezza Rice

It seems that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been keeping a pretty low-profile during the campaign cycle of the 2008 election.  After the Colin Powell endorsement I wondered what Secretary Rice might be thinking about the campaign trail and if she really believes the Republican ticket is the right way to go.  A recent national news report showed Rice falling short of giving a full endorsement to the ticket last week at a Palin run rally. I would think an endorsement of Palin (or the McCain/Palin ticket) from Secretary Rice would be necessary for the Republicans to help sway voters but for some reason that has not happened.

If I was given the opportunity to speak with Secretary Rice and ask her a few questions I would ask the following.

1. What do you think about the Colin Powell endorsement?

2. What do you think about the negative campaigns?

3. What do you honestly feel about the McCain / Palin ticket?  In other words, in your heart do you feel that John McCain and Sarah Palin would be the right choice for America?

4. What do you think about Barack Obama and the possibility of having an African American president?

As one of the most powerful women in politics it seems that the Republican party would have sought the support of Secretary Rice to certainly help with women voters as well as entice the African American votes.  Reports of Secretary Rice becoming more outspoken over the number of African Americans she encounters during a typical day at work certainly came as a welcomed statement to the African American community. This could have served as a foundation to attempt to pull African American votes from the Obama camp. It only leaves us to believe that Secretary Rice may have mixed emotions about the ticket and like Colin Powell she feels the need for change.

UPDATE 11/4/2008  -  Take a look at the video on the Urbanham.com home page and see Secretary Rice congratulate President Elect Obama.  You can see the pride and joy in her face.

Homegrown Artist – Ashley Guin

Jiffy Mixed Music is preparing to release a project from new artist Ashley Guin and I have to tell you that this CD is definitely worth adding to your music collection.  Ashley’s talented voice in front of the musical production of Alvin “Cornbread” Garrett will certainly give way to a fresh new sound that music fans will certainly embrace.

While listening to the music on this CD I noticed that it has plenty of soul but you can’t necessarily categorize it as just soul music.  It seems to reach across a variety of music genres.  Soul, r&b, blues, jazz and pop seem to all show up somewhere in this CD which I think speaks to the range in Ashley’s voice as well as the versatility of the music production. Read more

A “Star Studded” Classic

Update: Check out the pictures from the Magic City Classic. GO >>

The annual pilgrimage to the Magic City Classic has begun and the largest event in Alabama has officially kicked off.  Generations have participated in the Magic that is the Classic as Alabama A&M  meets Alabama State in Birmingham, Alabama.  As many that participate in this grand event I did not attend either school but for as long as I can remember the Magic City Classic in Birmingham has been sort of an unofficial holiday in the African American community.

The rest of the world has finally discovered the Magic City Classic which was named the most attended HBCU Classic in the country.  Although 65,000 plus will be in the stands and perhaps another 50,000 plus outside tailgating the crowd continues to grow each year and the heritage continues to pass on to the next generation.

Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the Classic, outside of the normal crowd, has to be the number of celebrities that find their way to the Magic City. Each year this number seems to grow and of course the celebs are getting paid to entertain Classic fans but the once hard to fill ticket of coming to Birmingham Alabama to perform is becoming a much easier sell.   This is one weekend the city will have more stars than a Piddy birthday bash….well maybe not that many but you get the picture!

Who’s in town for the Classic!

• Avant
• Big Daddy Kane
• Biz Markie
• Charlie Wilson
• Doug E Fresh
• Kindred The Family Soul
• John Witherspoon
• Rickey Smiley
• Ralph Transvant
• Steve Harvey Morning Show
• The Gap Band
• Tom Joyner Morning Show
• M.C. Lyte
• Morris Day & Time
• Noel Gourdin
• Vivica Fox
• Whodini
• and YOU!

Stop by the Urbanham.com calendar to see where these celebrities will be hanging out during the Classic and let us know who we missed!  Also make sure you visit the official Magic City Classic website to get the 411 on parking and other important game day information.

Be safe and have fun!

MBI launches website for the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transportation Authority

Birmingham based web design firm Media.Boadcast.Internet, a subsidiary of Digital Arts Inc., recently completed the web design and development work for the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transportation Authority (BJCTA).  The new site has several new features such as instant rider alerts, interactive routes and maps, bus schedules, a trip planner powered Google and is available in Spanish.  To preview the website visit www.bjcta.org.

Media.Broadcast.Internet, founded in 2003, has provided web design and consulting support for the Florida Lottery, the City of Birmingham, McWane Pipe and several other corporate and small business clients throughout the region.  Visit www.mbi-llc.com for more information on MBI, LLC

Urbanham talks with Alvin Garrett about music, business and faith.

As we highlight the new music of Homegrown Artist Ashley Guin, we also saw an opportunity to talk with Alvin Garrett, CEO of Jiffee Mixed music, the man that started the company behind Ashley’s CD project. After visiting Alvin in his studio I thought how so many people would love to be able to work for themselves doing what they love. Since Alvin is doing such a good job at it we figured we would feature him this month in our Urban Profile section to perhaps serve as a motivation to those of you looking to make a jump to self-employment and as a role model to those that would like to pursue a career in music. Read more

Did you know: A maverick is a non-conformist or rebel.

A maverick is an unbranded range animal, especially a motherless calf; it can also mean a person who thinks independently; a lone dissenter; a non-conformist or rebel.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick

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