The Humility Project has sought to identify, recognize and track kindness as they build a grassroots network to support and spread the message. The business is built on a series of Kindness Recycled cards, which are passed along in person and then registered online. Participants can track the journey of the cards they’ve given or received through their website by their tracking numbers. Not only can you track the cards but you will also be able to read the wonderful stories of how people received them.

Traded products that are passed to people in person and then tracked through their website. Their goal is to build an online community as they grow adding more cards, projects and sponsors to their grassroots movement! -kindness recycled.

You can buy their cards individually, in groups of three, nine or in bulk order. Products will be sold online and in local stores.

Their mission is to have people think outside the box and rethink the dynamics of greeting each other. The Humility project will reshape the art of greeting by recycling not just kindness but the wonderful sentiment behind each greeting.

Banks’ silky falsetto voice and smooth choreography helped distinguish the Dramatics, particularly in Detroit’s post-Motown scene of the 1970s, when the group enjoyed crossover pop success with songs such as “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get” and “In the Rain.”

Born May 10, 1951, in Detroit, MI, Banks with a vocal delivery inspired by the Temptations’ Eddie Kendricks. He was among a group of teenagers who formed the Sensations in 1964 and then changed their name to the Dramatics the next year.

After signing with Stax Records in 1971, they released “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get,” which reached No. 3 on the R&B charts and No. 9 on the pop charts, and the atmospheric “In the Rain,” which went to No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 5 on the pop charts.

The band later had top-10 R&B hits with “Me and Mrs. Jones,” “Be My Girl” and “Shake It Well” on the ABC label and “Welcome Back Home” on MCA.

Banks died on March 4^th, 2010 at his Detroit home of a heart attack. He was 58.

Top African-American executives of NFL teams, two African-American head coaches and former NFL Commissioner Paul J. Tagliabue were honored at a unique event during Super Bowl XLVI Week in Indianapolis. The Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation honored these trailblazers at their 7th Annual Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. “Salute to Excellence Awards.”  The Fritz Pollard Alliance is an organization of NFL executives and others who work to increase access and opportunities for minorities interested in coaching, front office and scouting positions in the National Football League.

The Alliance is an outgrowth of efforts by the late Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Cyrus Mehri and John Wooten who pressured the NFL for better minority inclusion. That resulted in the Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview minorities for head coaching and top executive positions.

Honored at the event was former NFL Commissioner Paul J. Tagliabue who is the first recipient of the annual award named in his honor. The award goes to a league or team executive who demonstrates the integrity and leadership Tagliabue exhibited in career development opportunities for minority candidates and advocacy for diversity on the league and club level.

African-American NFL executives honored were: Sheldon White, VP/Pro Personnel and Martin Mayhew, General Manager Detroit Lions; Reggie McKenzie, General Manager Oakland Raiders; Rick Smith, Exec VP/General Manager Houston Texans; Ozzie Newsome, GM/Executive VP Baltimore Ravens and Jerry Reese, Sr VP/General Manager New York Giants.

Two head coaches, Cincinnati Bengals Marvin Lewis and Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin were also honored.

Murdock was signed to Elektra Records with “No More,” which made it to # 24 on the R&B chart in early 1986. Then came her signature hit, “As We Lay.”  The tender, melancholy ballad shot up to #5 on the Billboard R&B single chart and also charted nicely on both the Top 40 adult contemporary and pop charts in 1986. Her LP Shirley Murdock went gold, also helped along by the follow-up hits “Go on Without You” and “Be Free.” She also released full-length albums in 1988 (A Woman’s Point of View) and 1991 (Let There Be Love). In early 2000, Murdock toured in the inspirational/gospel play, Be Careful What You Pray For with Cuba Gooding and David Peaston.

Murdock released Home, her gospel music debut album, in 2002 on T.D. Jakes’ Dexterity Sounds record label. She made her acting debut in the movie Sweating in The Spirit. Her latest release (CD/DVD) is entitled “Live: The Journey.”

On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Brian K. Burns, director of Daddy Restoration located in Austin, TX. The lack of an involved father has had an extremely detrimental effect on children emotionally, socially and economically. Their goal is to see fathers develop an increased sense of responsibility and a renewed desire to nurture their children emotionally and support them financially.

In 1960, one in thirteen children in this country, under the age of 18 lived with his or her mother and no father. In 2006, it was one in four. Furthermore, 34 percent of children live absent their biological father.

Today, half of all children and 80 percent of African American children can expect to spend at least part of their childhood living apart from their father. Children growing up in father absent households, compared to those living in traditional two-parent families, are five times more likely to be poor, two to three times more likely to fail at school, and two to three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems.

Dyson’s searching narrative illuminates Gaye’s stellar ascendance-from a African American church in Washington, D.C., to the artistic peak of What’s Going On?-and charts his sobering personal decline. Dyson draws from interviews with those closest to Gaye to paint an intimate portrait of the tensions and themes that shaped contemporary urban America: racism, drug abuse, economic adversity, and the long legacy of hardship. Gaye’s stormy relationships with women, including duet partner Tammi Terrell and wives Anna Gordy and Janis Hunter, are examined in light of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Also Dyson considers family violence in the larger context of the African-American life and how that heartbreaking legacy resulted in Gaye’s death.

On April 1, 1984, a Sunday morning, the day before his 45th birthday, his father shot Gaye to death after a violent argument.

Dr. Franklin was the James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus and for seven years was Professor of Legal History at Duke University’s Law School. He was a native of Oklahoma and a graduate of Fisk University, receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Harvard University in 1935 and 1941 respectively. Dr. Franklin taught at several institutions including Fisk, North Carolina Central, and Howard Universities as well as St. Augustine’s College in North Carolina. From 1956 to 1964 he served as Chairman of the History Department at Brooklyn College. He joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1964, and was named John Mathews Manly Distinguished Service Professor in 1969 while serving as Chairman of the History Department between 1967 and 1970. In 1982, he became Professor Emeritus.

Perhaps best known for his study, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans, his other works include The Militant South, 1800-1860 (1956), Reconstruction After the Civil War (1962), The Emancipation Proclamation (1963), A Southern Odyssey: Travelers in the Antebellum North (1976), Racial Equality in America (1976), George Washington Williams: A Biography (1985), Race and History: Selected Essays 1938-1988 (1990), The Color Line: Legacy for the 21^st Century (1993) and, Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation (1999), co-authored with former student, Loren Schweninger. In addition to numerous essays and reviews, Dr. Franklin was the editor of The Civil War Diary of James T. Ayers (1947), A Fool’s Errand (1961), Army Life in a Black Regiment (1962), African Americans and the Living Constitution (1995), co-edited with former student, Genna Rae McNeil, and My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck C. Colbert Franklin (1997), co-edited with his son, John Whittington Franklin.

Dr. Franklin died of congestive heart failure at Duke Hospital on the morning of March 25th, 2009.

On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Frank S. Washington, editor of AboutThatCar.com. Known for decades as the Big Three. Ford, Chrysler and General Motors have endured humbling times before, but in the fall of 2008 it was a different story. The chief executives of these auto companies endured extensive ridicule as they turned to Washington for emergency help. not once but several times. In the months that followed, Ford found it was able to stand on its two feet, but GM and Chrysler both ended up filing for bankruptcy after receiving billions in federal assistance.

The financial crisis in the auto industry has been more devastating for African Americans than any other community; it threatened a half-century of economic progress by the African American middle class. From African Americans who left behind minimum wage jobs in the South for high-paying factory jobs in the North, to entrepreneurs who translated hard work and the gift of selling into their own businesses — they’re all getting hammered.

Hobson has become a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy and investor education. Her extensive media experience includes being a weekly financial contributor on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the featured consumer finance expert on Tom Joyner’s Money Mondays radio program, and a regular columnist for Black Enterprise. In 2004, the Wall Street Journal named her as one of its “50 Women to Watch. In addition, she is a spokesperson for the Ariel/Hewitt Study: 401 (k) Plans in Living Color and the Ariel/Schwab Black Investor Survey, both of which examines investing habits among minorities.

Beyond Ariel Investments, Hobson works with a variety of civic, corporate and professional institutions. Her community outreach includes serving as a board member for the Chicago Public Library and its foundation, The Field Museum, The Chicago Public Education Fund and The Sundance Institute. Also, she is a director of three public companies: DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and Starbucks Corporation.

Hobson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy.

Her message can be distilled into the following two words: Dare Yourself. Whatever obstacles or fears one faces, Hatchett’s prescription implores readers to write their own story in this life. With care and conviction, Hatchett uses real life stories from the courtroom and her personal life to counsel readers. She shows them how to find their true purpose and gifts, to be real about their reality and its potential outside of challenging circumstances, and to always be true to themselves.

Interactive as well as inspirational, Dare To Take Charge challenges the reader to ask self-reflective questions that lead to moments of self-discovery and a defined pathway to healing. Daring her audience to study the positive with the same interest and intensity that they study the negative, Hatchett uncovers the potential for grace and success in lives that are now punctuated with despair and unfaithfulness.