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A PBS-TV Special to benefit The HistoryMakers®
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Saturday, October 28, 2006 |
This hour-long, one-on-one interview program provides an inside look into the life and career of publisher Earl G. Graves, Sr. Taped live in Chicago, Illinois at the historic Goodman Theatre on Saturday, October 28, 2006, this program is the twelfth in The HistoryMakers’ An Evening with. . . series. Social activist and civic leader Julian Bond interviewed his close and long-time friend Earl Graves, while PepsiCo served as the event’s title sponsor.
Born in New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Graves went on to revolutionize the publishing world with the creation of Black Enterprise. The interview covers his life from a young man selling Christmas cards for his uncle, his time as an aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his life as one of the most influential men in corporate America. The life of Earl G. Graves, Sr. is an example that businessmen and women look to for guidance. Produced by The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive, An Evening With Earl Graves is enlightening and engaging, and provides rich insight into the rise of a great American.
The HistoryMakers would like to thank its staff, Earl Graves, his staff, all our volunteers and corporate sponsors for making An Evening With Earl Graves, one of the organization’s most successful fundraisers!
To order a DVD copy of An Evening With Earl Graves, click here.
(Above Left): Julian-Bond and Earl Graves on stage. (Above Right): Guests. (Bottom Left): The Graves Family. (Bottom Right): The John Work Chorale
Earl Graves
Publisher and business leader Earl Graves has done more to change the landscape of the African American business community than anyone in the United States. In the late 1960s, when African Americans were starting to enter corporate America, Graves decided to start a newsletter. The idea for a newsletter quickly grew into Black Enterprise Magazine. Since launching the business publication in 1970, Graves has helped to foster the growth of a vibrant African American business community. Today, Black Enterprise is a multimedia company with properties in television, radio, events, digital media and the Web. The company boasts annual sales of nearly $60 million, with more than 500,000 paid subscribers and 3.9 million readers. The author of the New York Times bestseller How to Succeed in Business Without Being White, Graves is the recipient of more than 60 honorary degrees from colleges and universities nationwide and abroad, and countless awards for his business success and civic contributions. In 1999, he was awarded the 84th NAACP Spingarn Medal, the highest achievement award for African Americans. Earlier this year, he was immortalized in wax when ExxonMobil commissioned a likeness of him to be exhibited in the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. In August 2006, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for his contributions to the field of journalism and the publishing industry.
Julian Bond
Civil rights activist and politician Julian Bond was born on January 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1960, Bond was one of several hundred students who helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1965, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives but was barred from taking his seat until December 1966 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor and he served four terms as a state representative and six terms in the Georgia State Senate. Bond hosted America’s Black Forum for many years. Bond continues his tradition of activism as Chairman of the NAACP. He is a distinguished scholar in residence at American University and a faculty member at the University of Virginia.
