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Barack Obama
Benjamin Jealous
Terrence Howard
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Business World Index
---New CD Inspired by Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign---
Inspired by Barack Obama’s grassroots movement for change, artists supporting Barack Obama teamed up to create a new CD that taps into the campaign’s universal themes of hope, unity and change. The disc, titled Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement, includes a collection of artists from across genres, including such renowned performers as Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and John Legend. Through their musical contributions, the artists seek to mobilize voters in the final stretch before the November election. Many of the artists involved will also be volunteering their time to promote voter registration. Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement is available now through November 4th via both digital download and hardcopy CD exclusively on the Obama campaign’s official website (www.BarackObama.com/music), with all proceeds benefiting the campaign.
---“Women’s Week of Action” with Michelle Obama in Wisconsin---
The Obama campaign announced that Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama will campaign in Wisconsin to kick off the Wisconsin campaign’s “Women’s Week of Action.” Obama will host Wisconsin Women for Obama rallies in Madison and Milwaukee, and an economic roundtable discussion with working women in Wausau. On Monday, Senator Barack Obama will also hold a separate event in Green Bay. The Wisconsin campaign’s “Women’s Week of Action” is an extension of the national effort, “Women for the Change We Need,” an effort to highlight the clear choice women voters have in this election when it comes to the issues that matter most to women and their families.
---New NAACP Leader---
Benjamin Todd Jealous is the youngest President in the NAACP’s nearly 100-year history, and a fifth-generation NAACP member. Effective, September 2008, he starts his tenure doing what he does best -- Getting people involved. “As an organization, our goal is to make the promise of this country real for all families,” said Jealous, “and this starts with making all Americans regular voters. Jealous, whose parents have been civil rights activists since the 1950s, organized his first voter registration drive at age 14. At age 18, he began working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a community organizer in Harlem. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University and a master's degree in comparative social research from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. While unprecedented numbers of African Americans and young people are expected to register in this year’s election, Jealous’ aspirations are higher. “The NAACP has had a history of transforming this country and in that tradition, we will transform the electoral process," said Jealous. "We can do it by registering every last voter, verifying every last voter, mobilizing every last voter, protecting every last voter and ensuring that every last vote is counted.” Individuals interested in registering can visit www.naacp.org to complete, print and mail the registration form before the October 4th deadline.
---Moving up, or down, the economic ladder over time---
Educational attainment, family structure and savings are the strongest determinants of whether Americans move up, or down, the economic ladder, according to a new report authored by Stuart Butler, William Beach and Paul Winfree of The Heritage Foundation and released by the Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. "Education is the key to mobility, and the golden key is a college degree," said report author Stuart Butler. "But our findings show that success in education is crucially influenced by a range of key factors, such as the family environment, community norms, and health during childhood." Education confirms its position as the great equalizer in American society. In today's economy a college degree is increasingly critical to future economic success, and without it many Americans may be held back from realizing gains in upward mobility. "The report underscores that it does indeed 'take a village' and engaged parents to raise a child and assure that child's future success," said Butler. "In particular, it shows how less tangible influences, such as social norms and pressures, and family attitudes to education, as well as differing rates of wealth transfers or homeownership help to explain differences in mobility among Americans."
---Nation's First and Only African-American-Owned Private Swim Club to Celebrate 50 Years---
The Nile Swim Club, the nation's first and only African-American-owned private swim club announced that James O. Ellis III, nationally renowned swimming instructor and inspiration for the 2007 movie Pride, which starred Terrence Howard, will deliver the keynote address at its 50th Anniversary Gala on October 10, 2008. The Club's President Thomas M. Gary, said, "It's about pride, history and core family values. Those are the only reasons this club has survived… because of the people who want to see it prosper and grow and who, themselves, want to prosper and grow through its presence in the community." He continued, "We invited Mr. Ellis to speak at this event because of his national and international reputation as an influential African American in the world of swimming and his ties to the Philadelphia community, as a whole. In our opinion, there wasn't a single person in the country who was more appropriate to be our guest speaker on this historic occasion." Ellis, a 37-year veteran swimming instructor and founder of the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Swim Club, is credited with training and developing more than 10 U.S. National Swim Team members. The Nile Swim Club, based in the Philadelphia suburban borough of Yeadon, Pennsylvania, got its start in 1958 when African-American residents banded together to incorporate the swim club, acquire two acres of land and open the swimming pool in 1959, after being denied admission and membership to the racially exclusive, but now defunct, Yeadon Swim Club. Today, the club owns a 4.5 acre parcel of land and claims a membership of 210 families. The five million dollar capital expansion project will include, among other amenities, the construction of three heated pools, an 18-hole miniature golf course, a 150-seat banquet facility, a fitness center and basketball and tennis courts. |
