Earl Graves, Sr., trailblazing founder of Black Enterprise magazine, dead at 85

Black Enterprise founder Earl G. Graves Sr. died Monday night after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85.

READ MORE: Black Enterprise lists the most powerful African-American corporate board members in US

Graves’ son announced the passing on Twitter: “At 9:22 pm this evening, April 6, my Father and Hero Earl Graves Sr., the Founder of @blackenterprise, passed away quietly after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. I loved and admired this giant of a man, and am blessed to be his namesake. LOVE YOU DAD!” tweeted Earl “Butch” Graves Jr.

At 9:22pm this evening, April 6, my Father and Hero Earl Graves Sr., the Founder of @blackenterprise, passed away quietly after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. I loved and admired this giant of a man, and am blessed to be his namesake. LOVE YOU DAD! pic.twitter.com/UoerizfX8a

— Earl Butch Graves Jr (@EarlButchGraves) April 7, 2020

Graves was a trailblazer and a legend who leaves behind a magazine created in 1970 to help Black entrepreneurs traverse the challenges of business to succeed and “achieve their measure of the American dream,” according to Black Enterprise. The magazine was created to educate, inspire and empower readers to accomplish their professional and economic goals.

The Brooklyn, New York native began with that dream and built a multimedia business empire that now delivers financial information to more than six million African Americans across print, digital, broadcast and live-event platforms. Graves also once operated Pepsi-Cola of Washington, DC, one of the country’s largest soft-drink distributors owned by African-Americans, and is the author of the book, How to Succeed in Business Without being White, according to Black Enterprise.

Graves was a graduate of Morgan State University where he earned a degree in economics. After graduating, he served for two years in the Army as an officer and later worked in law enforcement and real estate. In 1975, he became an administrative assistant for Senator Robert F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Graves decided to start a magazine that would provide a roadmap for Black people pursuing entrepreneurship.

“Black Enterprise was just a modest magazine when I founded it—just me, a few brave advertisers like Pepsi, ExxonMobil, and General Motors; and a small but spirited staff. And one other person who did just about everything there is to do to put out a magazine—my wife, Barbara,” Graves wrote, according to Black Enterprise.

READ MORE: Black Enterprise celebrates 40 years of listing America's largest black companies

He landed a $250,000 loan from Chase Manhattan Bank to start Black Enterprise and was so successful at selling subscriptions and advertisements, along with running the magazine that it turned a profit in less than a year, allowing Graves to fully repay the loan. The magazine has featured everyone from media moguls Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson to former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault and money manager and tycoon, Reginald F. Lewis.

Graves’ wife, Barbara, predeceased him in 2012. The couple has three sons, Earl Jr., Johnny and Michael, and eight grandchildren.

The post Earl Graves, Sr., trailblazing founder of Black Enterprise magazine, dead at 85 appeared first on TheGrio.

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Telecommuting Shows Its Advantages During Coronavirus Outbreak

The coronavirus outbreak is currently changing every aspect of life, however, work is continuing for many at home and its advantages are showing.

Everything from job interviews to daytime and late-night television shows has changed in recent weeks. However, telecommuting is showing that with widespread implementation, it could provide significant advantages.

According to Fast Company, the coronavirus is showing governments and countries that working from home can be the new standard.

“Coronavirus is going to expose more people to working remotely than ever,” said Greg Caplan, CEO of Remote Year, a company that helps businesses with working remotely. “Most people will see that it is very possible and start to grow accustomed to the benefits of [remote work], including autonomy, no commute, and less distractions than open offices. Companies that don’t allow remote work already are going to have to continue supporting it going forward, now that they have proven to themselves that it works.”

Some believe that telecommuting forces people to stay more connected to the teams and people they work with.

“Our individuals and managers make more conscious efforts to clarify roles, expectations, and to discuss progress with remote employees,” said Shanna Tellerman CEO of Modsy, an E-interior design company. “Our remote employees rank 5% higher than office employees when asked if they know what is expected of them at work. They also rank 5% above office employees when asked if they have had discussions with their managers about progress in the past six months.”

Many remote workers thrive on routine and discipline and as a result, will often complete work assignments faster than if they were in-office. Madeline Kelley, a global enterprise sales manager, told Fast Company she’s far more productive and effective as a remote worker “Because no one is around to hold you accountable, you have to be accountable for yourself.”

“I spend most of my days in my apartment—with my two dogs—on sales calls, replying to emails, and having internal video meetings. And I always manage to get everything done.” Kelley added.

Another advantage of telecommuting is the cost. Businesses across the world pay thousands in rent for office space. Meanwhile, mass transit or gas and food costs are just a few of the daily expenses for employees. Being able to save on office space is a great way for companies to save money while paying their workers more at the same time.

“Most companies spend 10 to 15% of revenue on rent. We use that savings to pay our employees above-market wages,” said Chris Neumann, who started his company, Cro Metrics, with a remote workforce in 2011. “We are providing really great jobs that team members would otherwise not have access to, and in return, we are able to attract the best talent from around the country.”

While the news is good for those who can work from home, for African Americans, the chances of working from home are lower than most races. Making things worse, is that low-wage workers are putting themselves at a greater risk for contracting the virus.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is Donating $100 Million to Feeding America For Coronavirus Relief

There have been many moves to make sure people don’t go hungry through this coronavirus crisis. Amazon‘s Jeff Bezos is just the latest to contribute to the cause. The Amazon CEO posted on his Instagram account, the efforts of his funds being donated to Feeding America, a Chicago-based nonprofit with more than 200 food banks across the United States.

“Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately COVID-19 is amplifying that stress significantly. Non-profit food banks and food pantries rely in large part on surplus food from a range of food businesses. For example, many restaurants donate excess food. But during this time of social distancing, restaurants are closed, and many other normal channels of excess food have also shut down. To make matters worse, as supply is dwindling, demand for food bank services is going up.⁣

⁣“Today, I want to support those on the front lines at our nation’s food banks and those who are relying on them for food with a $100 million gift to @FeedingAmerica. Feeding America will quickly distribute the funds to their national network of food banks and food pantries, getting food to those countless families who need it.⁣

⁣“Feeding America is the largest non-profit focused on food security. Millions of Americans are turning to food banks during this time. If you want to help, the link to Feeding America is in my bio. They’d be excited and grateful for donations of any size.”

Feeding America will distribute the funds to its national network of food banks and food pantries, helping those in need.

 

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Even in ordinary times, food insecurity in American households is an important problem, and unfortunately COVID-19 is amplifying that stress significantly. Non-profit food banks and food pantries rely in large part on surplus food from a range of food businesses. For example, many restaurants donate excess food. But during this time of social distancing, restaurants are closed, and many other normal channels of excess food have also shut down. To make matters worse, as supply is dwindling, demand for food bank services is going up.⁣ ⁣ Today, I want to support those on the front lines at our nation’s food banks and those who are relying on them for food with a $100 million gift to @FeedingAmerica. Feeding America will quickly distribute the funds to their national network of food banks and food pantries, getting food to those countless families who need it.⁣ ⁣ Feeding America is the largest non-profit focused on food security. Millions of Americans are turning to food banks during this time. If you want to help, the link to Feeding America is in my bio. They’d be excited and grateful for donations of any size.

A post shared by Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos) on Apr 2, 2020 at 11:00am PDT

 

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Tiger Tests Positive for COVID-19 at The Bronx Zoo in New York City

The spread of the coronavirus has reached so far that, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, a tiger was tested and received a positive test result for COVID-19 at a New York City Zoo.

The Malayan tiger, who is named Nadia, is believed to be the first known case of an animal being infected with COVID-19 in the United States. It is believed that Nadia and six other big cats were infected by an asymptomatic zookeeper at New York City’s Bronx Zoo. The test result was confirmed by the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa.

Nadia, a 4-year-old female tiger, along with her sister, Azul, two Amur tigers, and three African lions developed a dry cough and all are expected to recover.

In a written statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society, “We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about COVID-19 will contribute to the world’s continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus.

“Though they have experienced some decrease in appetite, the cats at the Bronx Zoo are otherwise doing well under veterinary care and are bright, alert, and interactive with their keepers. It is not known how this disease will develop in big cats since different species can react differently to novel infections, but we will continue to monitor them closely and anticipate full recoveries.”

It’s also been reported that none of the zoo’s other cats, including snow leopards, cheetahs, clouded leopard, Amur leopard, puma or serval are showing any signs of being infected by the COVID-19 illness. Appropriate preventive measures have been put in place for all remaining staff who are caring for the animals and the other cats in four Wildlife Conservation Society zoos in order to prevent further exposure of any other of our zoo cats.

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Building and reconnecting MIT in Minecraft

Many MIT students, like their beaver mascot, are well-known for engineering skills, industrious habits, and for creating some amazing things late into the night. So, an ambitious project to build a 1:1 scale replica of MIT in Minecraft may come as no surprise. “As MIT students normally are nocturnal people anyway, there’s no doubt that we would apply our normal schoolwork habits to a light-hearted project like this,” says Shayna Ahteck, a first-year student involved with building and community outreach for the initiative.

With the Covid-19 pandemic scattering students around the globe, Minecraft — a sandbox style game akin to digital LEGO — has served as a creative and cathartic outlet for some students while they are physically away from campus, while also providing the entire community with some sense of stability. “Getting back to the basic structure of what campus looks like, while not a replacement for the feeling that I got from people and everything, it reminds me of all the times that we had, as well as processing some of my own grief from leaving campus,” says Ahteck.

The initial idea to recreate MIT’s campus in Minecraft surfaced in the Busy Beavers Discord server, a chat platform that has connected nearly 1,000 students and other displaced members of the MIT community. Jeffery Yu, a sophomore in Course 18, originally hosted the project on his personal computer. “We told people they could build whatever their heart desired, and it’s been really interesting to see how many MIT interests have come together,” Yu says.

As more students joined the project, it had to be migrated to a server. The game is now hosted and supported by the Student Information Processing Board (SIPB), a volunteer computing group that has worked to improve MIT’s computing environment since 1969.

Alexander Patton, a senior in mechanical engineering who laid the groundwork in the Minecraft server, has been pleasantly surprised by everyone’s creative collaboration. “I've really been blown away by the attention to detail that people put into all the buildings and projects,” he said. “When we started this, I kind of expected, like, okay, there's so many buildings, we probably will just build the outsides so it kind of looks like MIT, but people really have been trying to build the whole interiors. It really just shows to me how much these spaces meant to them and how MIT is basically like a second home.”

The Minecraft platform launched in 2009 and was acquired by Microsoft in 2014. Today, 112 million players are active each month, and it is now considered the best-selling video game in history. The platform is so flexible that courses on paleontology, chemistry, and computer coding have been launched through an educational version.

The project truly is a community-wide project, including admitted members of the Class of 2024. With long stretches of social distancing on the horizon, Minecraft is serving as a channel for human interaction for many during a time of uncertainty. “To be able to see everyone from all these different walks of MIT when you otherwise wouldn’t have is cool because otherwise it would a little while longer until we randomly happen across these people and have interesting conversations about the things they enjoy,” says William Moses '18, a PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science and chair of SIPB.

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Earl Graves Sr., Founder of Black Enterprise And Ultimate Champion of Black Business, Passes Away At 85

Black Enterprise Founder and Publisher Earl G. Graves, Sr., the quintessential entrepreneur who created a vehicle of information and advocacy that has inspired four generations of African Americans to build wealth through entrepreneurship, career advancement and money management, has died. According to his son, Black Enterprise CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr., he passed away quietly at 9:22 p.m. on April 6, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Graves was 85.

Graves was widely considered to be the ultimate champion of black business, launching Black Enterprise in 1970 to not only chronicle the rise of African American entrepreneurs, but also provide the tools for African Americans to succeed in the business mainstream and  “achieve their measure of the American dream.”

In his award-winning, now classic, business bestseller, How To Succeed In Business Without Being White, Graves stated his life-defining purpose for founding Black Enterprise in simple, direct terms: “The time was ripe for a magazine devoted to economic development in the African American community. The publication was committed to the task of educating, inspiring and uplifting its readers. My goal was to show them how to thrive professionally, economically and as proactive, empowered citizens.”

Driven by that mission, Graves became a trailblazing entrepreneur in his own right, building Black Enterprise from a single-magazine publishing company 50 years ago, to a diversified multimedia business spreading the message of financial empowerment to more than 6 million African Americans through print, digital, broadcast and live-event platforms.  As such, Black Enterprise was one of two companies that would appear on the BE 100s—the publication’s annual rankings of the nation’s largest black-owned businesses—each of its 47 years. At one point, Graves would operate two companies on the list, including Pepsi-Cola of Washington, DC, one of the nation’s largest soft-drink distributors owned by African Americans.

Graves’ influence and reach also extended into the mainstream of corporate America. One of the few African Americans to serve on the boards of major corporations such as American Airlines, Daimler Chrysler, Rohm & Hass and Federated Department Stores (Macy’s), he was a staunch advocate for African American inclusion in the C-Suite and corporate governance. Graves was also a tireless champion of major corporations doing business with black-owned companies.

Beyond business, Graves was a force in politics, civil rights and philanthropy. In fact, he played a pivotal role in galvanizing support for the election of the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama, through his endorsement in Black Enterprise and service as a surrogate campaigning on his behalf. Before that, Graves also championed the historic presidential bids of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Moreover, his fight for racial justice and economic parity earned him the NAACP Spingarn Medal, the organization’s highest honor, in 1999.

Graves was also known for his dedication to family, and especially to his wife Barbara Kydd Graves, who passed away in 2012. Together, they raised three sons, Earl Jr., Johnny and Michael, and were blessed with eight grandchildren.

Born in 1935, Graves reaches the pinnacle of power from humble beginnings in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. It was in that community where he learned the lessons of hard work and perseverance from his parents, Earl Godwin and Winifred Sealy Graves. After graduating from a Morgan State University with a B.A. in economics, he served two years as an officer in the Army, and held jobs in law enforcement and real estate. In 1975, he joined the staff of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy as his administrative assistant. When Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, he decided to start a publication that would provide blacks with the pathway to go into entrepreneurship.

He wrote: “Black Enterprise was just a modest magazine when I founded it—just me, a few brave advertisers like Pepsi, ExxonMobil  and General Motors; and a small but spirited staff. And one other person who did just about everything there is to do to put out a magazine—my wife, Barbara.”

The young publisher managed to gain a $250,000 loan from Chase Manhattan Bank and proved so masterful at selling and running the magazine that it became profitable in 10 months — enabling Graves to repay the loan to the major financial institution.

With his wife Barbara at his side, he grew the magazine into one of the nation’s most successful and respected. The world first discovered such business luminaries as Oprah Winfrey, former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, billionaire dealmaker Bob Johnson and the late financier Reginald F.  Lewis on the pages of Black Enterprise. In fact, Robert Smith. the billionaire CEO of Vista Equity Partners, like so many successful black entrepreneurs and corporate leaders, admitted that he switched careers to high finance after reading Black Enterprise.

“The truth of the matter is that we are humbled by the achievements of the talented people we report on,” Graves wrote. “We are in awe, still, by the courage it takes to put oneself on the line in an unmerciful marketplace.”

Hundreds of thousands express awe and gratitude for the role he played and example of excellence and achievement he set for generations to come.

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Floyd Mayweather breaks silence following daughter Yaya’s arrest

Boxer Floyd Mayweather is breaking his silence in the wake of his daughter, Iyanna, getting arrested over the weekend, which has prompted many to question his parenting.

Sunday evening, the boxing champ shared a video of him with his son Koraun, training him on some boxing moves. Seemingly, in response to those who criticized him for his daughter’s actions, he captioned the clip, “Never claimed to be perfect, but I strive to be the best father possible. #DaddyDuties”

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Never claimed to be perfect, but I strive to be the best father possible. #DaddyDuties @kingkoraun

A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Apr 5, 2020 at 10:29pm PDT

READ MORE: Floyd Mayweather’s daughter Yaya arrested for allegedly stabbing NBA Youngboy’s baby’s mother

 

TMZ reported that the boxer’s 19-year-old daughter, whose nickname is Yaya, stabbed another woman, Lapattra Lashai Jacobs, in a confrontation over her boyfriend NBA Youngboy, 20. She was arrested Saturday morning at around 1:30 a.m. and held in Houston’s Harris County jail. 

Iyanna Mayweather mugshot (Credit: Harris County Police Department)

READ MORE: Floyd Mayweather’s comeback likely stalled due to recent deaths

Yaya was charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after attacking the young woman who is the mother of rapper NBA Youngboy’s child. There has been no update on Jacobs’ condition.

Yaya has since been released on a $30,000 bond and will reportedly plead not guilty to the attack. She was also was seen back in the rapper’s home, by his side, with him calling her his “wife” like nothing happened.

The last few months have been rough for Mayweather’s family. In March, law enforcement sources were puzzled by the circumstances surrounding the death of Josie Harris, his ex-girlfriend of and mom to three of his children. Floyd’s uncle, Roger, also died after battling illness.

It’s been speculated that all of the upheavals have led Floyd to postpone his return to the ring.

 

The post Floyd Mayweather breaks silence following daughter Yaya’s arrest appeared first on TheGrio.

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