Earl G. Graves is a philanthropist, author, publisher and founder ofBlack Enterprise Magazine.

Earl G. Graves was born on January 9, 1935, in Brooklyn and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, where he learned hard work and perseverance from his parents, Earl Goodwin and Winnaford Colette Sealy Graves.

Graves attended Morgan State University, where he became a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1958. After writing a letter to the Democratic National Committee, he became a volunteer for the 1964 presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson.

His work with the party gave Graves the opportunity to serve as administrative assistant to newly elected Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1965. Following the assassination of the senator, Graves landed a seat on the advisory board of the Small Business Administration in 1968.

In 1970, he founded Black Enterprise Magazine–a business-service publication targeted to black professionals, executives, entrepreneurs and policy makers in the public and private sector.

It has been profitable since its tenth issue and yearly sales (currently over $53 million) are steadily increasing. BLACK ENTERPRISE has a paid circulation of 475,000 with a readership of more than 4.1 million. It is carried on board most major airlines, and can be found on newsstands nationwide.

In 1972, he was named one of the ten most outstanding minority businessmen in the country by the President of the United States, and received the National Award of Excellence in recognition of his achievements in minority business enterprise.

He is also listed in Who’s Who in America, and in 1974, was named one of Time Magazine’s “200 Future Leaders” of the country.

Graves served as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the U.S. Army from 1978 to 1980. He attended Airborne and Ranger School and finished his Army Career (in the rank of Captain) as a member to the 19th Special Forces Group, the Green Berets. He is also the recipient of the U.S. Army Commendation Award.

Earl G. Graves also served as Chairman and CEO of Pepsi-Cola of Washington, D.C., L.P., the largest minority-controlled Pepsi-Cola franchise in the United States. He acquired the $60 million franchise in July of 1990.

The company covers a franchise territory of over 400 square miles including Washington, D.C. and Prince George’s County, Maryland. At year-end 1998, he sold the franchise back to the parent company where he continues to be a significant stockholder and is Chairman of Pepsi’s Customer Advisory and Ethnic Marketing Committee.

In 1997, he authored a book entitled, “How to Succeed in Business Without Being White.” It chronicles the success strategies of America’s premier African-American businessman. Published by HarperBusiness Publications, the book made the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal Business Best Sellers lists.

The book was also selected as a finalist for the 1997 Financial Times/Booz-Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award.

In 2002, Graves was named by Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 most powerful and influential African Americans in corporate America. He also serves on the Board of Selectors of the American Institute for Public Service, the Advisory Council of the Character Education Partnership, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the National Advisory Board of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

In addition, Graves is a trustee of Howard University, the Committee for Economic Development, the Special Contributions Fund of the NAACP and the New York Economic Club.

During the span of his business and professional careers, Graves has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding business leadership and community service, including (but not limited to) the Ronald H. Brown Leadership Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Dow Jones & Company Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence in 1992.

In 1999, he received the 84th NAACP Spingarn Medal, the highest achievement award for African Americans and was named one of the Top 100 Business News Luminaries of the Century by TJFR, a publication that covers business journalism.

In 1995, he was named New York City Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, and was also inducted into the National Sales Hall of Fame by the Association of Sales and Marketing Executives.

Graves is a member of the National Black College Hall of Fame and has received honorary degrees from 53 colleges and universities, including his alma mater.

Today, he continues to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Earl G. Graves, Ltd., parent company for the Earl G. Graves Publishing Company, publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine

In his 50-year career span, Graves has become one of the most powerful and influential businessmen in the country and clearly a champion of community service and philanthropy.

Currently resides in Westchester County with his wife, Barbara, of 42 years. Mr. and Mrs. Graves have three married sons, all successful professionals who work in the family’s businesses.

Earl G. Graves, we acknolwedge your lifelong service to your community, and we honor your tireless efforts toward developing leadership in black businesses.

They are the black men wearing royal purple and old gold who volunteer to deliver Friend-in-Deed meals to the poor of Springfield.

They help not-for-profit groups with fundraising. They participate in voter registration drives. And they mentor and provide scholarships to disadvantaged youth while enjoying the fellowship of other black men whose roads to college degrees and middle-class life may not have been smooth.

“We try to be a presence to encourage younger men,” said Roy Newman, a member of Springfield’s graduate chapter of Omega Psi Phi.

The black fraternity, headquartered in Decatur, Ga., celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Current and past members include civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson, comedian Bill Cosby, poet Langston Hughes, radio talk-show host Tom Joyner, basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and astronaut Ronald McNair.

Founded in 1972

The Springfield chapter, founded in 1972, is one of eight graduate chapters of black fraternities and sororities in the city. The others are fraternities Phi Beta Sigma, Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Phi Alpha and sororities Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho.

Several of the Omega chapter’s members said they are keenly aware of the influence they can have on young black males, as well as the positive image they can promote to the community amid negative statistics and stereotypes about black men nationally.

“We have the opportunity to give back,” said Newman, 46, a native of Ebenezer, Miss., who works as an Ameren account executive and is pastor of Fresh Visions Community Church.

The local chapter has 35 members, not all of whom were members of the fraternity when they were attending college. But all members must have four-year college degrees to join, according to chapter president Eddie G. Frazier.

Newman, who has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Mississippi Valley State University and a master’s in ministry from Lincoln Christian University, joined after his college days.

He said the fraternity’s four “cardinal principles” are “manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift.” He said he wanted to be part of “a network of guys that believe in those principles and strive to accomplish them together.”

College degrees

The chapter members’ education level is unusual in Sangamon County, Illinois and the United States. Only 15 percent to 16 percent of black men 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. White men in Sangamon County, in Illinois and nationwide are more than twice as likely to have earned at least a bachelor’s degree.

About 20 percent of black women locally and nationally also have at least a bachelor’s.

High incarceration and unemployment rates, low educational achievement and a variety of social ills create a “daunting future” for black boys and young men, according to the National Urban League’s 2007 “State of Black America” report.

“This state of underachievement, with its devastating and far-reaching ramifications, is the most serious economic and civil rights challenge we face today,” Urban League president Marc Morial wrote in the report

Springfield’s Omega Psi Phi chapter, which includes men in their late 20s through their 70s, has become a family of sorts for some who didn’t have two parents at home during their childhood.

“I love the brotherhood,” said Doug Collins, 42, Lanphier High School’s girls basketball coach.

Collins, who grew up the only child of a single mother in Springfield’s old John Hay Homes public housing project, joined the fraternity after he graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.

Focus on public service

Omega Psi Phi, like many graduate black fraternity and sorority chapters locally and nationally, focuses on public service.

Springfield Police Chief Robert Williams, a Springfield native, said he learned about the fraternity as a child from his physician, the late Dr. Edwin Lee, a founder of the Springfield chapter.

Williams, 48, a graduate of the University of Illinois Springfield and Benedictine University, said he joined the chapter for “the opportunity to serve and just to enhance and help the community as a whole.”

Collins said he tries to expose Lanphier students to successful African Americans by inviting black Greek letter organizations to Lanphier’s annual Orange and Black Alumni Fundraiser.

“I’m trying to decrease the students’ level of excuses,” Collins said. “Education brings opportunities, and it also gives you a chance in life. There is a better life.”

Frazier, 60, a civil engineer, added: “We say, ‘You can make it. I don’t care what kind of household you came from.’”

The fraternity’s projects include g an annual community picnic, providing scholarships to aspiring high school students, and giving school supplies to needy children.

Newman said chapter members mentor young people whenever possible. He said he and other members are grateful for the help they received when they were younger.

“You want to give back to the community,” he said. “I came from a large family in a rural area in the South, and so certainly people helped me get through school.”

The chapter’s activities can improve the public image of black men, Williams said.

“Overall, it changes perceptions,” he said.

Edmund Lewis measured about a dozen young men for shirts and gave them donated ties. While he took measurements and tied ties, the 25-year-old Detroiter talked about college.

“I want them to know you don’t have to be sagging to be cool,” Lewis said after a meeting at Community High School in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. “There are brothers with their pants pulled up wearing ties, and they’re still cool.”

For Lewis, the tie-and-talk session was more than idle chatter.

When he was a high school senior in rural North Carolina, Lewis met a man who helped him forge a path to success. Without that man, Lewis, who has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan, says he could have easily been another statistic.

African-American men remain twice as likely as white men to be unemployed, three times as likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated, according to a 2009 National Urban League report.

Lewis works as a community support person, coordinating services for the Brightmoor Alliance, a consortium that works to improve the lives of neighborhood residents. That work led him to volunteering at Community High School, where he is trying to keep the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alive by encouraging success among the young men there.

“I appreciate what he’s doing,” said Eduardo Marshall, 17, a senior at Community High. “He wants to change the image of black dudes, you know, the hoodies and sagging pants.”

U-M grad works to expose young men to a better life, then help them achieve it

Edmund Lewis never gave any thought to going to college.

Growing up, his grades were mediocre. Mostly, he hung out with friends, acting as if he didn’t care about anything. He ran track for his high school team in rural North Carolina.

That’s what young black boys did, he thought, never having had a father figure to talk with about what he could — and should — aspire to do.

Then one day during his senior year, a man who volunteered at his school stopped him and asked about his plans after high school.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” was Lewis’ response.

But he did care, and the man, Gregory Lee, knew it.

Lee told Lewis that he ought to go to college. And Lee went further: He helped Lewis fill out applications and apply for scholarships and paid the application fees.

“He basically took away every reason I had for saying no,” Lewis said.

Four years later, Lewis graduated with honors from North Carolina Central University. In 2009, he received a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan.

Since then, Lewis moved to Detroit and vowed to pay Lee back by giving back — following in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He works as a community support specialist, coordinating services and programs through the Brightmoor Alliance, on Detroit’s west side.

Since last year, he has spent hours volunteering at Community High School.

He recently formalized his volunteer efforts by creating a nonprofit called Minority Males for Higher Education. The intent of the initiative is to ensure that young black men have all the resources they need to get into college and be successful once there.

“There were so many things I didn’t know, that can make you uncomfortable in a professional setting,” Lewis said.

The group will teach young men such things as dressing for success and dining etiquette. In addition to visiting college campuses, the young men will attend plays and other programs to broaden their experiences.

The need is great. In Detroit, only 7% of black men ages 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to 2010 U.S. Census data. But Lewis didn’t need statistics to know the need.

“When I got to college, I realized I was one of a very select group of black males to go,” he said.

Being there made him hunger for a better life.

“You can’t envision anything else if you don’t see anything else,” Lewis said.

During college, he went on a civil rights tour that took him to the Edmund Pettis Bridge, the site of the attack on people marching peacefully for civil rights from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, Ala. One of the marches was led by King.

Lewis began to see getting an education not as a personal feat but as a community necessity — a way to not only say thank-you to Lee, but to men and women before him who had sacrificed to create opportunities for him and others.

During his college years, he began volunteering and joining and becoming a leader in such organizations as 100 Black Men and Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

His grades and community service work earned him a full-tuition scholarship to U-M and led to a fellowship from the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation. The fellowship included an internship that introduced him to Brightmoor neighborhood in Detroit and Community High School.

He also volunteers at the school.

“He’s up here so much, it’s almost like he’s on staff,” said principal Aaron Williams. “He mentors our young people, helps them with college applications. He has even attended our parent-teacher conferences. He has a tremendous heart for young people. He and I share the same passion for helping young men, in particular. We know that keeping them on track in terms of getting an education can take them away from a life of crime. There’s an unspoken culture that says all we do is rob, steal and kill. We know that’s not true.”

The youngsters he works with expressed appreciation during a meeting at which he measured them for dress shirts and gave away coats and ties donated by members of his fraternity.

Aaaqi Peterson, 18, a senior, plans to go to North Carolina Central, just as Lewis did.

“His whole speech moves me to try harder and go farther,” said Peterson, who wants to study business and music.

Emmanuel Whitley, 16, a junior, said Lewis built up his self-confidence.

“I didn’t believe in myself,” Whitley said. “Now I work harder in school, and I want to be a computer engineer.”

Khari Greene, 17, also a senior, said the men can relate to Lewis because his background is similar to theirs. “It’s just good for a man who doesn’t even know us to start talking to us and saying he’ll help us get to where we want to be.”

President Barack Obama has a new, moneyed supporter in this new year — a super PAC dedicated to mobilizing black voters in key swing states.

Calling itself 1911 United, the super PAC is aiming to raise $1.5 million during the election cycle and train its efforts on Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, committee treasurer Sinclair Skinner told POLITICO.

“He needs a boost,” Skinner said of Obama. “And we want to use all the means possible to support him, including a super PAC. Black political participation is still evolving, and what we hope to do is get as many voters active in the process as early as possible.”

The committee is backed by two large, historically black fraternities, Kappa Alpha Psi and Omega Psi Phi, both of which celebrated their centennials last year.

The 1911 United super PAC will likely work to “organize and deploy” black voters — particularly potential first-time voters — in support of Obama, said Skinner, a long-time Washington, D.C.-based political organizer who’s a mechanical engineer by trade. He notes that the group intends to make significant use of phone banking and social media to achieve this goal.

Broadcast media messages are a possibility, but “we’re really going to focus on working with the people directly,” he said.

Super PACs, formally known as independent expenditure-only committees, may raise and spend unlimited sums of money in support of, or in opposition to political candidates, so long as they don’t directly coordinate with campaigns.

These committees have become major forces in the 2012 presidential election, with numerous super PACs spending millions of dollars to promote and attack Republican presidential candidates in early caucus and primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Many of them are run by the presidential candidates’ former staffers, and thanks to loopholes in election law, they’ve largely avoided disclosing their funders ahead of early primary and caucus contests.

This is the first presidential election in which super PACs have existed. They sprung into existence following a pair of 2010 federal court decisions, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission, which prompted their legality.

To date, Priorities USA Action, run by a pair of Obama’s former White House aides, is the largest super PAC to back the president during his re-election bid. Almost all of its more than $306,000 in expenditures so far this election cycle have gone toward attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council of Marquette University Presents The 2012 Brew City Stomp Down Step Show Sponsored By City Year Milwaukee

On Saturday, February 4, 2012, the National Pan-Hellenic Council of Marquette University once again brings you Wisconsin’s largest step show- and this time it’s BETTER THAN EVER. Featuring the organizations of the Divine Nine: Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho, and Iota Phi Theta.

With a special guest host, music by Marquette’s very own DJ Poizon Ivy, and the most talented, most LIVE step crews from across the Midwest all on the Riverside Theater stage, the 2012 Brew City Stomp Down Step Show is sure to be one show you don’t want to miss.

Tickets will be available beginning Friday, December 9, 2011 at noon. General admission tickets are $20 (+ taxes and applicable fees). Tickets can be purchased online at www.pabsttheater.org/show/2012BrewCityStompDown, in person at either the Riverside Theater box office (116 West Wisconsin Avenue) or Pabst Theater Box Office (144 E. Wells Street) Monday through Friday from noon until 6:30pm, or through the box office by calling 414-286-3663.

Like in previous years, this event is guaranteed to sellout- plan to get your tickets early! For the latest updates on the show be sure to follow us on twitter: @brewcitystomp.

Please direct any questions or concerns to brewcitystompdown@gmail.com.

Mr. Curtis Thwaite Murray Sr., 73, departed this life unexpectedly on Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, at Bristol Hospital. He was the widower of Kathy (Olmstead) Murray, his devout and loving wife of 25 years.

Mr. Murray was born March 22, 1938, in Augusta, Ga., a beloved son of the late Isaac Lee and Marietta (Rhodes) Murray. Raised in Waterbury, Curtis was educated in the Waterbury public school system, graduating from Wilby High School. He obtained a bachelor of arts at St. Augustine College in North Carolina. In 1965, he became a proud member of the Lambda Rho Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

Well-known for his artistic gift, Curtis shared his talents with many and became known as the “Painter Man.” He enjoyed photography, fishing, car shows and, most of all, spending time with his family and friends. He spent his weekdays at the Connecticut Department of Labor, where he was employed for many years. His job gave him purpose and he appreciated the friends he made there who always rallied for him.

Curtis had a huge heart and a generous and giving spirit with an infectious smile. If you were loved by him you knew it!

His memory will be cherished by his two children, Danae L. Murray of East Longmeadow, Mass., and Curtis T. Murray Jr. of Sacramento, Calif. He leaves his legacy in the future he knew to come with his two grandchildren, Christopher Jalen Savage and Christian Tomas Murray, several nieces, nephews, cousins and a host of friends. He also leaves behind Marian C. Petrucci of Waterbury, who cared for him daily and was a cousin in title only. She was the sister he needed. He will be missed greatly by all who knew him.

Funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, at Grace Baptist Church, 65 Kingsbury St., with Rev. Larry C. Green officiating. Burial will be at the convenience of the family. Calling hour will be held 10 a.m. Tuesday. Nov. 15, 2011, at the church. The family will receive friends at the church from 10:30 a.m. until the time of service.

Arrangements entrusted to Chapel Memorial Funeral Home, 35-37 Grove St., Waterbury.

and member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Frater Bailey served as National Pan-Hellenic Council President from 1972-1974. Frater Bailey was living in Antioch, California at the time with his family.

Brother James Bailey, Chi Phi 1947, Life Member Number 66, current member and past Basileus of Theta Alpha Chapter, Dallas, Texas has now entered Omega Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

We will pass along additional information as it becomes available.

The Omega Men of Rome were joined by the Georgia Northwester Technical College Lady Bobcats basketball team for a walk around South Rome promoting awareness of prostate cancer, the first ever for the social organization who hopes to make the walk into a tradition.

The group’s president Joel Berrien Jr. said Saturday that he was hoping next year that with a more robust organization and sponsors to make the walk an annual event.

“Being that we’re men, we want to first and foremost promote awareness for prostate cancer,” Berrien said. “But we’re also involved in lots of social causes, and we hope in the weeks and months to come to get more participation from the community.”

The Omega Men of Rome is currently seeking a graduate fraternity charter from Omega Psi Phi, who has 700 chapters around the United States. If the group receives their charter from the fraternity by the end of the year, Berrien said it would represent the entire Northwest Georgia region.

“We’re all from different schools as graduate members, but we have a number of undergraduate chapters in universities all over the country,” he said.

Once chartered, Berrien said the group will continue to promote activities in the community that promote social awareness for a wide range of issues from voter registration to helping to build Habitat houses.

The only requirement to join the fraternity is that members must already have their undergraduate degrees from a accredited university, Berrien said.

For more information about the group, contact Berrien at jberrienjr794@gmail.com.

Read more:RN-T.com – Omega Men of Rome hold first Prostate Walk for Awareness

Karen, a young lady 16-year old, is confronted by her family’s generational curse of destructive behaviors. With no help, no resources, and no way out she becomes a victim of the world she tries to escape…Her mother’s debt becomes her own, her only friend has turned her back on her, and the world she lives in places her in a parallel universe.  A comparative account of a young lady facing questions that society regards as non-existing….

Introducing the dramatic stage play, “My name is Karen,” written and directed by Anthony Wallace of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. (Tau Kappa Kappa), Starring Cynthia Simmons Boyce of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc (Delta Delta), Erika Taylor of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (Delta Upsilon) and Keith Bullock of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc (Tau Kappa Kappa).

Members of Omega Psi Phi gathered around Parks Library Tuesday night after their probate show to celebrate the acceptance of new members into their fraternity.

Omega Psi Phi was the first African-American fraternity to be established in the United States. Its first chapter was founded in 1911 at Howard University in Washington D.C.

“We came here at Iowa State in February 1970,” said Marvin DeJear, community service chairman for the fraternity and state representative of Iowa. “We are a community-based organization. Our cardinal principles are manhood, scholarship, perseverence and uplift. Our motto is, ‘Friendship is essential to the soul.’”

The celebration took place on Tuesday because the fraternity members needed time to prepare for a trip to Washington D.C . The members will leave for Washington D.C. on July 27. Once there, they will take part in a celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of their fraternity’s establishment.

The fraternity members had a reason for choosing Parks Library as the site of their celebration.

“This is a historical spot,” said Jerrome Mosley, graduate student in microbiology and genetics. “If you don’t touch this place once, you are not going to have a lot of scholarships. This is where you gain the knowledge to gain those scholarships.”

Mosley said he believes that as a student he has a mission to pursue knowledge during his time at Iowa State.

“I have a lifelong journey to pursue knowledge that previous brothers have laid down,” Mosley said.