Previously On Urban Focus
Robert L. Johnson
Robert L. Johnson, the renowned businessman and founder of Black Entertainment Television, discusses the nation’s economy and the importance of closing the economic gap between white Americans and African Americans on this broadcast of Urban Focus. Mr. Johnson is currently the chairman of RLJ Development, a holding company he founded. He is the first African American to be included on any of Forbes magazine’s lists of the world’s richest people. A staunch advocate of African Americans investing in Liberia, Mr. Johnson also discusses why he has become so deeply involved in the West African nation.
Brett Pulley
The show also includes an interview with Brett Pulley, a journalist and reporter with Bloomberg LP. Mr. Pulley, who has worked at Forbes and The New York Times, is the author of the biography of Robert Johnson, called “The Billion Dollar BET: Robert Johnson and the Inside Story of Black Entertainment Television.”
Joan Parrott Fonseca
Also, Joan Parrott Fonseca, a professor of public administration at Medgar Evers College and a senior fellow at the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy, talks about the challenge of establishing wealth in the African American community – one of Mr. Johnson’s central themes. Dr. Fonseca was the first woman to serve as the Director of the Minority Business Development Agency in the Commerce Department, in the Clinton Administration
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Urban Focus is broadcast nation-wide via the Internet every Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at http://streaming.intacs.com/clients/medgarevers. In Brooklyn, the program will be aired on BCAT TV on Channel 70 (Cablevision), Channel 56 (Time Warner), Channel 44 (Verizon ) and Channel 84 (RCN). Urban Focus will be broadcast every Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and programs will be archived here on the DuBois Bunche Center’s website.
Through interviews with politicians, policy makers, industry practitioners, scholars and expert analysts, Urban Focus will explore a range of issues that affect underserved communities and communities of color from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to Cape Town, South Africa. The discussions will serve to both draw attention to problems and highlight solutions for issues of concern to these communities.
