I'm so thrilled. I am so honored to be here because Dr. Bernice King invited me here. I'm so proud to be here. I'm proud to be with Kathy Hughes, the one and only Urban One, Radio One, TV One, the one and only. And I mean, not just a legend and an icon, but somebody who paved the way for all of us, for all of us who came behind her. And just a couple of examples. As a DC native, we all know Miss Hughes's story, but at WHUR, Howard University transformed that station. I had the opportunity to intern at WHUR, a communications class at the Kathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University. I got a little training there as well. And you all know and are very familiar with the Quiet Storm, that wonderful, beautiful evening programming that really transformed evening programming for so many of us. I think it was what, 480 stations when it just blew up and so I think the birth rate nine months after it quadrupled. I'm just saying that was a beautiful, beautiful way to celebrate you and to be a part of just the pathway that you created for all of us. So thank you. Thank you so much. It was the credential that enabled me to borrow my first million-dollar loans.
Yes. And I want to talk about because we're here and Dr. King put it so well this morning and last night about the power of community and purpose and really creating platforms that last. And we are in a world of hurt right now, I think, in some ways in terms of media and just really pushing back and making sure that we have free speech, that we have voices. I want you to begin with talking about your journey as a young person who had the heart and the faith to believe that there were platforms in ways that Black voices in particular could be heard and amplified.
First, if I can just give praise and thanks to God. I try to do that before I ever use the microphone. Because I know it is a blessing for us to have our voices magnified, but also to Dr. King. It is such an honor for me to be here with you having known both your mother and your father. I can't tell you how exciting. I did an interview two days ago and they asked me what was the most exciting aspect of my career and I said being here with you today. I said being here with you today. When I was 15 I ran away with two other of my girlfriends to Resurrection City and Dr. King evidently had an aide who came to him and said we've got some runaways here and they're young girls. And he said, 'You young ladies need to be going home before you get us all in trouble.' So, I knew that I did not like the image, the story that was being told about my people. My mother is from Mississippi and she liked to always say that they studied Black history 365 days out of the year. It wasn't just the month of February that she grew up in an environment where they used Black history as inspiration for Black people in Mississippi to do better to improve their lives. So I come to Washington DC, a Black city at that time called Chocolate City. We were like 74% of the population. I remember now exactly city growing up. One of my air personalities said we now are just a few sprinkles. We're no longer chocolate. We just have a vanilla ice cream with a few sprinkles on it. I did not like what I was seeing. And my very first job was in the newspaper industry with the Omaha Star. Simone Sanders' mother now owns it and operates it. Is 85 years old and that was my very first job. And the publisher Mildred Brown always said that it was important for us to have our own communications, control our own communications outlet be it print or electronic because it should not be the responsibility of another culture to really understand what's important to us and who we are. And what we desire. Dr. King was a master at that. He understood that the story was very important to change the mentality before laws were even enacted in this country. And if you got someone else telling your story, it's like the African proverb that the hunt will always be from the hunter's perspective until the lion learns how to talk. That's okay. Right? And that's the same thing with our community. We cannot depend on someone else to tell our story. Frederick Douglass understood that, Ida B. Wells, there were individuals who got into Black-owned and controlled media well before we even had the ability. And it was interesting because as you know, Ida B. Wells was burned out twice. Okay? Because the opposition understood the importance of us controlling our own outlets and being able to say things. For eight, I was on the air for 11 years. Eight of those years, Dick Gregory was with me. And the only reason he could say what he really felt that was going on in this country is because he was sitting next to the person who was the decision maker on that microphone that he was on. And so he could say things that we used to get hate letters from the White House, from various divisions because they were like, 'You can't be telling people that this is happening. This is a conspiracy theory.' They tried to paint Dick Gregory as a conspiracy theorist. Dr. Martin Luther King understood that this was a genius, okay, that was at his right hand, okay? That he was a visionary. He could see what was actually going on. He had the unique ability to connect the dots. And for eight years, I was blessed to be able to give him that platform that he used to like to say resurrected his career. It was more important. He was able to inform. Information is power. He was able to tell Black folks in the Washington community that one day they would no longer be Chocolate City.
That's right. Let me ask you this because and by the way, we used to get a couple of hate calls from the administration when I came. That hasn't changed. So now the administration just lifts your license and puts you out of business.
Well, I mean now we don't even have those platforms. And I want you to explain to our audience because it really was very bold and courageous that you were able to have the vision to see that the ownership, the platforms, not just the content, not just the personality, we were personalities as well, but the platforms themselves made the difference because ownership gives you the protection. All right. I have a boarding school that's 117 years old in Mississippi that was started by my grandfather called the Piney Woods School. And Piney Woods School is its own city. I'm sorry. Okay. Because Booker T. Washington went around to all the Black schools of his day and said to them, 'Each state was different, but if you had so many acres, you could incorporate it and you could incorporate your school into its own city.' We have our own zip code. We have our own post office that you know because of protection. Ownership is protection. And this is what Booker T was saying to these Black institutions well before HBCU was even a term that was used that you need to be able to protect what you're doing.
Can you tell the audience just very quickly that story about your grandfather that you were talking about and the fact in Mississippi that he was almost lynched and he was on the horse, just briefly telling.
Quick story. He was on the horse. They have pictures and everything. Ancestry.com, again Dr. King is in Salt Lake City. A lot of people don't know that or this is a Mormon company. But anyway, so they have pictures, they have found written accounts and everything to, you know, verify he was on the horse. They were getting ready to lynch him because he had taken his PhD, which was an Ed.D. from Iowa State, the first Black person in the Midwest to get a PhD in education to teach. He went to Mississippi. He said God sent him there to teach Black folks how to read and write. While they're trying to lynch him, the largest land owner comes up on a horse saying, 'You know what's going on with a on a horse?' said, 'He teaching these darkies how to read and write.' He said, 'Oh, oh, wait a minute.' And he goes up to my grandfather. He said, 'You been to college?' My grandfather said, 'Yes, sir.' And he said, 'You know how to teach people how to read and write?' He said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Can you teach white people how to read and write?' This man was illiterate. The very next, he said, 'Get that down.' So my grandfather turned a lynching into a fundraiser because this man gave him money and property to teach his family. But we've been doing it for 116 years now because education is an issue with all groups worldwide. It's a global issue. And this rich land owner knew that his family, he came to the classes with my grandfather and learned how to read and write again. But it was Booker T who taught my grandfather how to keep the Klan off the property so he never ended up on a horse again. It was how to incorporate him. Ownership gives you a level of protection.
Traditional media is in danger now because we're controlled by the Federal Communications Commission. So you are correctly as if I'm wrong, but you are the second wealthiest. Is that right? No, that's Wikipedia. I just What did I talk about? It's crazy. It's crazy. I said I just look like Sheila Johnson. Sheila Johnson is the richest Black woman in the United States of America. I want you all to know that. Her divorce settlement was $500 million. When Bob sold BET, it was in the newspapers. But okay. All right. But boy, I'll tell you. She took it and became the richest. She has nine major resorts. Okay. Nine of them. She has 820 employees in Jamaica that were affected by the hurricane that she is personally supporting. She put them up in housing. Okay. That's just one of her resorts that she has 82. So, we all know she's so impressive. But, but my point is you're not Sorry. No. Yeah. Then you're not doing so bad yourself. In fact, so bad yourself. Wikipedia puts you pretty much in good company, let's just say. So, how do we I mean, we don't not all of us have those platforms and we have to control the narrative. We have to take ownership. How do we make that leap? Because you did some things that were pretty extraordinary very early on in your career. When you had a million dollars in debt, you ended up taking your son and living in one of your radio stations while you were trying to sort out all the money. We're in a precarious time now. What do you recommend people do when they listen and they hear that message that we got to take ownership here? How do you do that? How do you have that?
My family has a mantra that you cannot do well in life until you first do good for someone else. Okay. And we function with that. It's never been about the money for me and please I can't say that in public because I am a public corporation and I'm my number one objective and goal is supposed to be to enhance shareholder value. My number one goal in life is to help Black folks move up. Okay? And I never focused on the money. It was perfect. Radio, my first business, 24/7. So, it was a blessing in disguise when I lost my house, when I lost my car, when I couldn't pay myself a salary that I slept for 18 months in a sleeping bag on the floor in the station. It was a blessing in disguise because I grew up with my business. As my business, okay, I was there around the clock. My employees could get to me 24/7. Not to mention the fact that some days I would be working 48 hours without just a nap in between. So it was all about having my first job being in this Black newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska where Mildred Brown said that this newspaper has to stay alive. You have to do things to give a voice and a view to your community if you're going to succeed. And so I just took what I had experienced as a 14-year-old in her first job and incorporated it into what I was doing. And in the nation's capital, as you know, the news capital of the world, my show was ruling supreme in a market where I'm competing against NBC, CBS, ABC because of the beauty of the Washingtonian, the community. When you're really being of service to your community. It's like your movie how it's transformed. It was so wonderful hearing about that.
Yes. Watts. There are some of our filmmakers in the audience as well. It that's so important when you're really operating in the best interests of your people. Your people look out for you.
They see to it that you will be that's what you're seeing going on now with this battle, all the demonstrations. Black people realize that it is not our problem. That is what's occurring now. Because if we look out for each other, that's how we survived slavery. We can survive anything as long as we are one. When we're on the same page and the legacy of Dr. King and thank God for the holiday, but my frustration is trying to get more people to understand the significance of coming together.
So community is so important both Dr. King talked about community but we find in this environment right there's so much disinformation, misinformation and there's also a lot of confusion people don't have media literacy to really understand even with the AI generated stories and images what is real and what is not real so how do we help educate people in not just in the media but across you know this audience here what would be the best way to really inform herself and inform others to create that type of positive community.
Number one, again, going back to Dr. King's strategy, it doesn't matter whether or not the story is popular, it's whether or not it's true, whether or not it has integrity. That's the most important aspect. We have to be true to the story. We have to understand that no weapon formed against you when it's coming from a position of truth is going to and sometimes as in the case of Dr. King, you may not be here to see it. You may not make it to the mountaintop with everybody, but your legacy will live on and get stronger and better as time progresses. We've got to have courage. We've got to be willing to What does that look like? It's scary because I just had this discussion the mayor of Washington DC who was personally trained by Marion Barry when she was on the city council. Muriel has decided not to run for a fourth term. And I'm disappointed because when you become a leader, you have to really be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. That sometimes means your family, your children, your relatives, and ultimately your life. That is the true definition. If you're really an effective leader, then there's a good chance that you won't see your end result. But you've got to be willing to make that sacrifice. And I think that, you know, for years, you know, when 50 years ago, I was on the first faculty of the Howard School of Communications, all we taught was be objective. Okay? You got to tell both sides of the story. Well, we live in a day and time now where there's only one side of the story being told. And it's critical for us with integrity and truth to have the courage to tell our side of the story.
