Transcripts For CSPAN3 150 Years After The Freedmans Bank 20150329

Bank was created to spur Economic Development of the emancipated African American population in the postcivil war era. Despite significant financial contributions, the bank failed in 1874, leaving tens of thousands of depositors in financial ruin. Up next, a panel of civil rights and Business Leaders discusses the issue of black poverty in america 150 years after the creation of the freedmans bank. This event from the National Archives is about two hours. Host the first guest on our panel is miss donna o wins owens. An awardwinning journalist who served as an editor for outlets nationwide, she contributes to essence magazine. Magazine. Her byline has appeared in many places. Please give another hand for donna owens. [applause] our next guest is from the office of the comptroller where he leads a department of Community Development located in washington, d. C. Related to a staff responsible for outreach to bags and Community Partners for the creation and distribution of educational materials. Prior to joining he was the director of Affordable Housing sales at freddie mac. Please give a warm welcome to mr. Barry wides. [laughter] our next justices civil rights entrepreneur just is guest is a civil rights entrepreneur. He is also the bestselling author of two books, his most recent top 10 book for 2014 for essence magazine and for ceo read and business strategy. It is the only definite is the bestselling please welcome mr. John hope bryant. [applause] and today i want to thank you very much because we have a special guest in her long list of accomplishments, it is more and her long list of accomplishment is more than just one alone. She does the chief executive officer of the kingston, and internationally renowned speaker who spoke to the united nations. She is a graduate of Spelman College and earned a masters of divinity from emory university. The eldest daughter of Martin Luther king and karen is stuck in, she continues the legacy of nonviolent. Coretta scott king, she continues the legacy of nonviolence. [applause] our next guest gives needs no introduction. It was an advisor for dr. Martin luther king jr. The first africanamerican elected from the south since reconstruction. It was appointed by president carter to the united nations. He served as the mayor of atlanta, bringing jobs. His awards include the president ial medal of freedom and the french legion of honor. A man who needs no introduction, ambassador andrey on. And i have the distinct privilege andrew young. [applause] and i have the distinct privilege of introducing my Fraternity Brother of seeing him in every story from across the country, roland martin. [applause] roland certainly glad to be here, we want to get right to it. They want to avoid the snow. Although d. C. Does not know how to handle the snow. Lets start this way. 50 years ago i was visiting d. C. And standing in front of the white house and going for a walk and i look to the left of the white house and i go, this explains america right here. There is only one department that shares a long with the white house and that is a department of the treasury. At the end of the day it is about money in america. How important is it for us to understand the freedmans bank in the evolution of black folks in this country, realizing the foundation of america is money . Anybody can jump in. Andrew it was obvious that people who were in slavery were not ignorant. There were 27 black millionaires in the louisiana at the time of slavery, at the time of emancipation. There were tradesmen and craftsman who have done all kinds of things. But they understood that in addition to the right to vote to be free you had to have access to capital. So a group of preachers meeting with Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass insisted that there be some vehicle to provide access to the economy for the former slaves. It was out of that discussion that the whole we can make a joke about 40 acres and annual what they were very serious. But they were very serious. If you have a liar and a means of if you had land and a means of producing food you could survive, otherwise you were a slave. Figure out the bank but it did not last long because shortly after john, you need to Say Something about that. Shortly after lincoln died it was just a matter of days before they pulled the rug out under the back. Bank it took a little longer. I was in congress in 1973. The last member of congress in georgia was out in 1875. I was elected in 1972. For 100 years we had no Political Representation but they also took the economic representation by undercutting the freedmans bank. It was reenslave. Reinstatement enslavement. John the wanted all of my years made the observation that you just made the treasury is interconnected and there are tunnels that lead underneath because they needed to make decisions with the civil war and then go to treasury and pay for it and come back to the white house and formalize what they paid for, go back to the department of war. But no one, particularly no one who was a respected member of the media elite or civil rights community, has ever made the observations you made, which was brilliant. That they share a lawn. They share a lawn with money and political power. That is a quote for somebody. [laughter] but the story is deeper than that and i want to thank my Government Relations cheap for forcing me to go on a tour when i was here and i went to the ford theater i was on away when i found out lincoln signed the legislation for the freedmans bank. You are sitting in front of the white house, the treasury is here, you have the bank here. Here is the treasury annex. So the president could have put this in the place you wanted. Any place he wanted. The couldve put it in maryland or on the outskirts. Put it where you look out the window and you could see if the candles were burning and people were working. And it gets deeper than that. Two months before the freedmans bank, and addresses, georgia secretary in justice, georgia, the secretary of war meets with ministers to ask what they want after the war. They didnt say welfare, entitlements, handouts. The did not say reparations. They said they wont land. We want to do for ourselves. They got 40 acres on the coast 40,000 acres assigned to them. Within 30 days, 40,000 former slaves occupied the land planting in an agricultural age in the most unattractive land possible because whatever you put in the ground will be in jamaica tomorrow. It is the beach. The generals were so impressed with him that the next month they said lets reward them with a mule. That was not a slight, that was like giving somebody a crack today track today. It was a good investment. It was not a legislative act, it was done in the field. The were away from congress. Two months later, lincoln signed the Freedmans Bureau act. You want to talk about radical Public Policy, hold on. Lincoln green lit 40,000 acres for former slaves and then created a bag and brought it to the capital to teach the language of capital wonder he was killed no wonder he was killed. And jackson heard rumors everything lincoln did but he could not reverse lincoln did. That is where the klan came from running people off their land, it was nothing personal, it was economic. This was about running you off of your land so they could claim economic interests. Frederick douglass comes in and the gamers come in and game the back and changes the bank charter and over 10 years ruins the bank. Come in with a stellar reputation, not a spot, not a blemish. Not only did they produce is like they put in their own money with the Treasury Department tells me today is 20 million. It was Million Dollars of his own money for a bank he knew that every chance of failing. 20 million of his own money for a bank he knew had every chance of failing. Today it would be one of the top 100 banks in america today. Imagine how that would change everything. So when you say how important this is, i felt like this is like the magna carta. Underneath all of the problems with poverty. Roland indeed i have a dream speech, your father only mentioned equality one time. If you will go beyond the soundbites people here every year, the mountaintop speech and he talks about boycotts in that speech. He talks about freedom and inalienable rights meeting i want the same thing the white folks get when they are born. He was dealing with economics because he came to a conclusion that you could go to a park and a hotel and if you did not have Economic Freedom than you do not have freedom in america. They get up from their pick it up from there. [laughter] that is probably set up. Called a set up. Bernice youre right. I will go out on a limb with this. I think my father strategically understood that they had to deal with segregation in the south first because what good was it to integrate the money, and that money was going to circulate in a small community. We had to gain access through civil rights legislation and Voting Rights legislation. In the back of his mind or the front of his mind perhaps he was already looking at addressing the Economic Issues of america. In the 66, that is when he began to build into this. Like you said, five weeks after lincoln signed this in april three months, four months after my father announced the poor peoples campaign, two weeks before, it was assassinated in april he was assassinated in april. This irony do not think it is an irony, what a coincidence exists. And when you start delving into the issue of wealth and money and particularly when you Start Talking about bringing everybody along, it becomes very threatening and it should not be. And the beauty are think of what is happening through operation hope is that it is lessening the threat and my personal opinion. Because you are coming at it in a different way by saying, lets look at this as helping freemarket enterprise. You understand what i am saying . So yes, that was a heavy emphasis for my fathers work and a lot of people forget that. I say he had threes beatings three freedoms he spoke about. The freedom to participate in government, the freedom to participate in life, and the freedom to peacefully coexist. Those are what he addressed in i have a dream. Didnt i warn you . [laughter] andrew we could not talk about economics in 1955 because the House Unamerican Activities Committee was calling anyone who mentioned economics and they were putting white folks in jail. The genius of your father is that he did talk about economics but he always talked about it in biblical terms. [laughter] i mean, he quoted the bible. And he talked about a slavery of egypt and wandering in the wilderness of segregation and coming into the Promised Land of creative integration. That is an economic theory but she could not use the economic language because at that time he could not use the economic language because at that time it was really you think it is right wing now. Just to think in economic terms and rosa parks never talked about integrating the buses, she just talked about human dignity, being treated fairly. It is not that she did not want those things that we deliberately the book we deliberately pretended to be as conservative as we could be b but we deliberately pretended to be as conservative as we could be. I hate to remind you but it was when he started talking about money and pulled together 23 different racial and minority groups and age groups, everything from aid to dependent children to the Welfare Rights Movement to the aarp which did not exist than, everything from everybody that was poor. Hispanic, asian, native american, were brought together in atlanta, the 23rd of january, right after his birthday. He only made it to april once he started talking about economic justice. And i think we tried our best to stop him, to slow him down. But he understood that his days were numbered and that he did not want to be he said, everybody is going to die, no choice about that. You do not have choice about when you die and how you die. The only choice you have in life is what you die for. And he was determined to die for the poor. Even so much that when we were you did not tell us you did not tell us. He did not tell us. It was Harry Belafonte and myself talking about taking the energy of the movement into politics and we said you can go on to bed and get some sleep you do not have to be up until 6 00 tomorrow night, you can get some sleep. As he walked to his room he said, you all go on to washington, i am going to cut the 6 00 plane to memphis. And i said, well for . What for . And he said he will meet you in washington. It was almost illiterate on his part, when he felt his days were numbered you wanted to be with the poorest of the poor and chose to be with garbage workers. Roland i want to go with you and deal with your previous job, houses. Most americans are able to build up wealth through houses. You look at the housing patterns in america from day one. At the end of the day, that is how americans create wealth. Pushing into segregated areas and purchasing homes at a higher amount than they were worth. The new have the various laws, the covenants. And then you have the various laws, the covenants. The show homes for a profit and invest that in education or savings. It becomes the present day, and you cannot ignore the reality of the racial dynamics of housing playing a Critical Role in economic inequality between whites and blacks in america. Recognizing that in the last six years we lost 53 of black wealth to the home foreclosure crisis, it will take two generations to recoup that money. Were talking about a freedmans bank that dealt with investment, focusing on the economic condition of africanamericans. How then do we present day deal with these financial policies that are contributing to the same inequality . John what you are getting at is how we can incentivize Financial Institutions as federal regulators to provide access that allows people to purchase homes to build wealth. It has been difficult since the financial crisis, credit has tightened although i think it is using. Easing. They are relaxing policies in order to make it easier for folks to purchase homes, requirements related to the mortgage insurance and so forth. As we evaluate bags in terms of how they are serving all of the markets including low income individuals banks in terms of how they are serving all of the markets including low income individuals in terms of the Community Reinvestment act. This was intended to allow all americans access to Financial Services and we reevaluate banks in three every three years and make the examination public and they are very detailed. It is a matter of both the incentives from the regular doors regulators to provide the necessary oversight to ensure from a fair lending standpoint they are following the law and incentivizing them through special provisions under the Community Reinvestment act to entice them to make loans in innercity to individuals with more flexible financial terms. Roland ron susskind says there was a moment in 2005 where the banks said that we have no choice but to follow them because they will determine our fate. Did we fail if not demanding mandated in not demanding mandating that they refinance loans as opposed to voluntary, did that contribute to the present day when it was without taxpayer money they could not survive . Was that a mistake . John i am familiar with the specific incident in his book but over the course of the financial crisis through the Home Affordable Mortgage Program that the Treasury Department administered, there were millions of people who were able to take advantage of refinances of relief under the fannie mae and freddie mac programs as well as tarp. Roland in the book they said that some 4 million were supposed to be impacted john when you look at the tarp program, as well as people assisted, and voluntary loan modification by the Financial Institutions, a very significant number of people were able to take advantage of those programs and try to work out a situation. There were admittedly a lot of people who lost homes might have been able to save them but for mistakes in terms of the way the policies were administered but a large number of people were able to use a variety of programs. Is really saying that i am a regulator of them are the audience and i am not saying a word on this. [laughter] but good try. And by the way, the 72,000 former slaves that lost money in the freedmans bank, they got half of their money back because of the occ. The comptroller of the currency on wound it and it unwound it, and they tried to give the money back to former slaves and they got half the money to the depositors. As was before fdic insurance. This was before fdic insurance. Andrew we talked about what could have been if instead of bailing out of the top they gave every mortgage holder a years free mortgage, suspended the mortgage for a year. It would have shared in the bailout. There were several women that have that proposal available for the president and they were blocked from seeing the president. The president never got that option on his desk. It was larry summers, rahm emanuel, and the people who protected the president from the realities of poor people. And it is not for people, i mean it is the middle class it is not poor people, i mean it is middleclass homes. The banks still made the money but the middle class would not have suffered. Roland gary frank told me that he wished he could have helped those folks. Andrew there were three women three women who had proposals that would have bailed the economy out from the bottom up. And the white house. Now they saved the economy for the rich. Roland we also have the sister on the board of advisers who we never heard from. Cecilia roberts. I want to go to you. I know i am jumping around. The point is we have a sister who was amazing, from princeton. And when we are talking about the issue of economic policies there was nobody other than president obama speaking on it and she was sitting right there on the council of advisors. Can she talk sometimes russian mark my point is i think sometimes . My point is i think americans wanted to hear that but she was fitted. Hidden. The reason i went there with housing and talked about dr. King is when you look at black owned businesses, there are 1. 9 billion in america and women owned one million of those. There are 1. 9 million unemployed black folks in america. It comes down to building capacity, being able to get loans. From your perspective, how do we put the freedmans bank within the context of the present day to understand moving forward economically especially with sisters such a chief engine driver in black america . Donna first of all, essence magazine has always been about empowering black women. When they read about hair and makeup tips they will always read about how to empower themselves Financial Literacy. Last month i worked on a story about African American women and retirement and one of the interesting things that came up when i was doing research is that there have been numerous studies and data on in particular, wells fargo has done studies about how African Americans perceive themselves in the context of what they envision their lives to be in retirement and what the realities might be. In doing these studies, what weve found is that so many people it was more than 50 or as high as 70 of African Americans said that in retirement they envision a life of leisure. They envision travel, not having to work a parttime job. When you ask that same audience with their goals were, had they sat down with a financial counselor, had done any particular planning in regards to retirement, the answers were significantly different. I think one of the things we have to talk about goals with regards to businesses, africanamerican owned businesses, africanamerican women that owned businesses, or what our are what are our goals as a nation and community. It is good to own a business but if you have one employee how can you build capacity you can build your community . One of the things that i had an interesting conversation with friends recently, a young student from an hbcu contacted me recently. He contacted me saying that he was a student at an hbcu and he was in arrears in excess of 30,000. The university had allowed him to continue with this bill unpaid but unfortunately if you days ago the student had to leave the door and is not in school this semester if you ago the student had to leave the dorm and is not in school this semester. I am a proud graduate of an hbcu and also columbia. I started talking about, what is happening in our community when a student who desperately wants to go to school cannot continue in college . We have enough wealth in the Africanamerican Community but that should not be happening. I am trying to do more stories in reporting about where we see ourselves and where we are and what the visions should be in terms of building and how we can galvanize our community and more tangible and concrete ways in order to achieve it. It is absolutely wonderful to think you were going to retire nclb riviera that what is your plan and sail the riviera but what is your plan . Andrew when john parts about Financial Literacy, you all think of children. I have been a congressman, ambassador, and was about to become the mayor. And the lady at my church this was between them. [laughter] when i was running for mayor. Roland because you were the mayor. Andrew this young lady came up to me in church and said, you have a Financial Advisor . I said, what is that . She said, i would like to be your Financial Advisor. And she was really cute. [laughter] i knew that was coming. Andrew i said to my wife, we are in church. [laughter] she was cute in church. Andrew i said baby my wife. [laughter] andrew this young lady wants to be our Financial Advisor. And she says, can you come by my wife understood we were in bad shape. She sat down with my wife and it never got to be but by the time she looked through all of the tuition we had paid to get children through school, all of the times we had refinanced our house, all of the money we had borrowed, and she put it together and gave me and refinanced my house note. And it saved me 973 a month. Now, i am into syria because it is true whether you like it or not. I am going to say it is as it is true whether you like it or not. I am one of the most important negro leaders in the world. [applause] and i am banking like i am ignorant. [applause] andrew that is what the problem is. No need in dressing it up. This is never happened before. [laughter] andrew that is a critical problem. It is a weakness of hbcus, they do not to just about money. We did not have a Business School in atlanta until the 70s. Barry they are making money on tuition, the do not have an endowment or a backup plan. [applause] roland first of all, you are absolutely correct. Report part of that also stems from the fact that but a part of that also stems from the fact that when you have folks with a significant amount of debt, you do not have parents that are debt free. They have not been in situations where as parents they will provide the down payment on your first home so when you make your first job making 35,000 or 40,000, you can take that and live on that. And when you are frozen out of the sixfigure jobs, that exacerbates the whole issue. Barry you are too smart for me to let you get away with that. Roland noto, i will back that up, go ahead. No, no, no, i will back that up, go ahead. Barry youve articulated that so let me come at you, you can handle it. You just sort of let us all and i am not going to do this let us off, and i am not going to let you do this. If you are smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, and doing to starbucks, that is thousands a year. You have lifted up the window and thrown up 20 of your income. And you wonder why you are broke. I know why you are broke. So wealth is a culture like poverty is a culture. James buchanan, Financial Literacy. You need to have a Home Warranty. The Home Warranty cost me nothing. It goes up, that is a hundred dollars. 800. That happens a couple of times a year, that is devastated. The warranty pays for everything, you can get it at sears. My wife said we need to get a medical plan for our dog. All he does is run around and run into walls. [laughter] that is what he does. The day after, he had to go to the hospital, 2500. Thats one dead dog. [laughter] animal lovers are going to get you. Barry so yes, we have to make more money. But my last example, someone wants a 5,000 loan. We have to have a real talk with our people. If you come into a bank looking for a 5,000 loan, you have 35,000 worth of problems in your credit is for up, and your credit is tore up, you are not getting the loan. Youre going to it today and they are going to say, can you go across the hall . When they come to us, we say come with you make . Have you how much do you make . If you have never heard of the earned income tax credit, you are qualified. The government owes you for thousand dollars a year 4000 a year. Is retroactive for three years. If you make 32,000 a year 12,000 is more than you have seen in one time and it is yours because you have earned it. But we do not know. Roland we did on tv one, but go ahead. But heres the point that i am making. Andrew bernie said something the other night, when you change a person. Bernice a social movement that transforms people and institutions is a revolution. Andrew we are in the process and we always do it. We blame ourselves as the victims. But it is structured for us to be like that. Roland thats the point i was making, historically africanamericans have been able to advance in Public Sector jobs. All of a sudden you have folks in power talking about small government, the first thing that gets cut our government jobs and as a result you lose those jobs. The housing crisis in detroit, a significant number of africanamericans in Public Sector jobs, when the jobs home foreclosures jobsgot cut home foreclosures went up. When youre frozen out of the private sector because it does not have the same oversight you have income inequality. When you talk about the education, College Graduates have doubled the let College Graduates have doubled the Unemployment Rate of white College Graduates. We are told to get an education. But point is if i do not qualify and get the sixfigure jobs, i am not in a position to be able to fully save and invest for my kids kids. And when you begin to make 50,000 as a black person you support other family members because the cycle continues. Even if you are not buying starbucks you are having to pay for papers or childcare diapers or childcare and that prevents some of us are having a nice job. Andrew we inherited all of these problems in atlanta and took them on. And it was jacksons leadership that decided we could not make it on government money. The difference between atlanta and chicago and detroit is detroit is dependent on government. They can go to lansing and washington and out powerful with government money. We could not go to the government in atlanta, they did not help us. We got to the place for we could not go to washington. We started going to washington. The end result of the airport on wall street, we have spent 10 billion on the airport since 1981. It has not caused the citizens of atlanta one penny. We got taxexempt municipal bonds, and they pay for themselves. This year, the airport earned this in 2014 it earned 32 billion and generated 400,000 jobs. At least half of the businesses and half of the jobs are people that look like us. Ive often used mayor jackson as the model of politicians. How do you propose us moving getting elected officials to think about jackson in that way in terms of how you use political power and economic power to be able to affect Economic Conditions of your community . I think we are putting too much credit and too much pressure on politicians. People change the world people who change the world are not politicians. They impact politicians. President johnson wasnt sitting around saying, let me get civil rights legislation to pass. After he did the first one, he was done. Pressure was put on him. Nelson mandela, he had just become elected. He said, look true story . Ive got to represent everybody. Not just poor people. Make the case for me. Let me tell you what i was trying to say earlier. What breaks my heart about the friedmans thing, its not the 40 acres in the mule. Its not anything other than this. We never got the memo. Imagine looking at working at wherever you are working at, and you get your direct deposit. No one is denying you, but they cut off your email. No one meets with you. For three months, you have been locked in information. Cspan comes in tell me about the strategic organization. If you want your job you keep your mouth shut. Imagine being locked up for 150 years. We never got the memo. There is a memo on Free Enterprise and capitalism. There were systems set up against them. Slavery was about money. Jim crow was about money. The civil war was about money. Its all, at the end of the day about money. We were denied the memo. What i want to do is deliver the memo. That is what a lot of our conversation was earlier today about the hope centers and the hope inside. Its having the access to a financial counselor to be able to understand how you can access a Small Business administration loan, financial coaching. Roland can i hold it for one second, bernies has to leave bernice has to leave. Final comment. Bernice i am going to say ditto to everything. Roland make a pitch for the king center. [laughter] i am trying to help you. Bernice i am not a fundraiser but i would love to have helped. Kingcenter. Org. Andrew your fathers last book was where do we go from here. That is not racial, if we do not have community we will have chaos. Bernice and right now we have a lot of chaos. Barry on your way out, pivoting on what ambassador young said, bridging two generations of civil rights. If i said we can celebrate dr. King, i have a dream, respect all the anniversaries, but we need to upgrade our software as a people. We cannot keep looking back 55 years, we have to come up with a plan and strategy relevant to today. Is that a legitimate observation or not . Bernice legitimate in terms of upgrading our software . No, i think that is very legitimate. Daddy spoke about that. You have to have a new mental outlook in terms of what the situation demands of the situation today demands that we have a different approach to the way we do things. But we have to find a way to connect the generations in the process of it because i think there is value to the history and the strategy of the past and the movement. And there is strength, obviously, and foresight way down the road for a new generation. So having intergenerational discussion and dialogue is very important. I appreciate at least today is the frankness of this conversation. I think that is important because you are right, we do not have honest discussion and we have to do that and stop making excuses because we will do that forever and we need each other. One thing you were saying in terms of blackowned businesses, one employee. We need to stop pushing into this whole notion of having my own, not recognizing interconnectedness with other people. We can create llcs and be a legitimate Business Owner and have others working alongside of us and we can employ more individuals. If we are caught on, i have to have mine, we will not get there. When daddy was working on integration, we talked about mess us up. Integration did not mess us up. We also use in our community and we need to reclaim those lost values in our community and we need to reclaim those. [applause] we have tunnel vision and we do not understand, if nothing else we have a responsibility everybody has a responsibility regardless of race and ethnicity have a responsibility to each other but you also have a responsibility first and foremost to your family. We as africanamericans have to understand our responsibility to each other and to lift our brothers and sisters as we climb. The middle class, as we advance, we cannot not go back into these communities in some form or fashion. We cannot not bring others along with us as we are climbing because that undermines we are as a people. That is it, i am out. Roland bernice king. [applause] andrew let me give you one of her fathers illustrations of what she just said. You can of the surrealist Martin Luther king but you said, look some of you think that when you stop he said, look, some of you think that when you stop drinking gin on one corner and wine on another corner and regain martini, you think you are integrated are drinking a martini, you think you are integrated. [laughter] that is not what we are fighting for. Roland i do not know why she was tripping. [laughter] barry i interrupted you. John the hope center, the institutions, the Small Business, the minority Business Administration centers, or other there is a resource to help individuals that want to develop are out there as a resource to help individuals that want to develop. Learning how to develop a Business Plan through the Small Business administration. Those are really excellent programs that are engaging Financial Institutions that are partnering with nonprofit organizations Like Operation hope in hopes that individuals will become Bank Customers that they can provide Financial Services to them once they sort of graduate from the counseling groups and the Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance groups. I see some hope and i am optimistic and i hope that the model is one that other Financial Institutions can either integrate into their models will work with other organizations or work with other organizations because i think the partnership between a bank and a nonprofit is a strong model, one that we as regulators encourage and one that banks are incentivized to do under the Community Investment at. Roland i believe in calls to action. Andrew let me give you one. Roland that is what i was about to do. Andrew i have three things on my bucket list. We have been trying drawn and i tried sick john and i tried to six years ago to get a right to a bank account law. We were not able to get anyone to understand that having a bank account is essential to being in capitalism. Having access to capital. We did not do that. Last year i found that in india, they developed a system. We realize that poor people were not getting their money, whether food stamps are health benefits. They were or health benefits. They were ripped off by payday lenders. India developed a universal id for poor people. It includes fingerprints, iris scan, a number, and a signature. Although the money going to the poor and it also includes a nofrills bank account. So all of the money goes to the Bank Accounts and nobody can get it except anybody that can match all of those things. They set it up with several hundred Million People in the last two years. It cost them a little over a dollar per person. The id part. Which means and then i found this out. I found that out on my way to seattle to speak to a Business Group at a Prayer Breakfast. It suddenly dawned on me that all of the companies that did this for india were located in seattle. I said, lord, you are talking to me. [laughter] i said, if you can do this for india, why dont you do this . Barry treasury secretary, i met with him last week. Part of the conversation he would not mind me sharing is he said he was in india and in my book one of the recommendations is a bank account for all at birth. No reason we cannot do it, what are you talking about. He was in india two months after the Prime Minister has the new mandate. Passed the new mandate. This is they opened 100 million new accounts he says they opened 100 million new accounts. Andrew the id piece, although the money goes through the bank. You have an account that nobody can have access to let you. But you. I am leaving to go to seattle in the morning because the governor invited me to meet with him. And i am saying to the governor, look, i do not know what we can do in washington, but you all can do this in india, why not do it in washington . The inventor of all of this is from california. You can talk to california and oregon and do this on the west coast, pretty soon we will even do it in georgia. But we are not going to embrace an idea until somebody else makes it work. Roland donna, call to action and plan for action. Donna when we have an achievement within 10 to care for families. Weve been tend to care for families. First of all, i think that is a good thing. Sometimes they lived in the same neighborhood or the same house. While the model may not work now in terms of our do not what you would my business, or that sort of thing, there was a belief system want you in my business, or that sort of things, there was a belief system. If my brother or husband needs a loan or assistance, that model to me seemed to work at a point in time. We may not move the family in the same home but i think we need to return to that model love, it is not a burden model of, it is not a burden. There should be collective family Bank Accounts. And i think about people like mccarthy, the washerwoman that some years ago, everybody was amazed because she had a washerwomans salary and provided scholarships for kids. Andrew 50,000. Donna yes, sir. You do not need to make a lot to say and i think that model of families save and i think that model of families collectively build together could be effective at this particular juncture in history or are isolating themselves at the computer and so forth and so on. I think it is time to return to families, individual or collective. Jojo is calling me and needs a loan. If jojo needs a loan to go to college or something productive, what is the problem with that . I am not going to pretend that we all want someone in the family calling and begging for money, but at the same time where is that sense of collectivity and spirit that used to be endemic in the black community . You are not going to go to church and say that something is going on and someone was not going to pass the hat. You did not need to be ashamed to do that. In so many ways, we have achieved so much socially and economically despite the fact that we may not be where we want to be. Some of those values that bernice king alluded to slip through the door when we integrated and i would like to see them return. Roland barry, call to action. Barry i would come back to the point i made a few minutes ago that there is a whole industry of Financial Institutions that are trying to work in low income communities to work with underserved populations, those who have been excluded from the financial mainstream, those who are not using Financial Services as much as they could. And to find an operation hope like organization to partner with. There are hundreds and hundreds of nonprofits that are doing the kind of work that we are talking about. Small business Technical Assistance, ownership education. There are organizations that offer incentive matching savings programs that use philanthropy to match savings that an individual goes through, a financial class. We have seen Financial Institutions begin to partner with operation hope and others and i just like all of action would be to encourage more Financial Institutions to engage in those partnerships. Roland john . John i want to finish what the freedmans bank started. My mission between now and 2020 is to open 1000 hope locations inside of Grocery Stores bigbox retailers, government offices, to do approved mortgage counseling and Small Business counseling and mortgage restructuring. We opened 100 locations last year alone, i am not just dreaming. What goal, to move Credit Scores to 700. I believe that nothing changes your life more than god alone improving your credit score. [laughter] john when you think about today, the problem that we have, were going to go home and passed by neighborhoods that we care about, whether black and brown urban, white rural or outside of a military base, this is what we find. A checkcashing next to a payday loan. It is not racism, it is targeted marketing. All we do that operation hope is robbed them of customers by moving Credit Scores 120 points. Half of the jobs today require credit checks. 92 of jobs are private sector jobs, 8 or government our government are government. If you move a neighborhood credit score you have created customers for max. We are planning a hope in ferguson missouri ferguson, missouri [applause] i want to thank regions bank for doing that. Joseph, the ceo of one web bank. Please let them know i gave him a shout out because he had something to say about this. But we have found that when we do this, we migrate Credit Scores, we are creating selfesteem and personal confidence, changing culture and creating sustainable customers for Financial Institutions and others and i think that has an effect that can change america and at the same time create a tax break for voters. Ferguson. What is the most racially divided city in america . Ferguson, missouri. 3 white unbanked, the most racially divided in america. 27 black unbanked. Under these issues is poverty. Roland ambassador, go ahead. Andrew i have a different action plan. I am going to bring them back to mississippi. Everybody in ferguson came from mississippi, moved north to memphis. But the best place in america to live right now is in small towns in the south. If you want to retire, since integration, you cant beat the south. [laughter] andrew and all we need i mean, what washington carver change the self George Washington carver changed to the south with a new crop, peanuts. We have a new crop. It is the people that helped us in the march from selma to montgomery, the landowners. Children went to ferguson but these people are still there and have land but they do not have the energy or crops to do it. We have a crop that we can introduce for free across the south and the department of agriculture will agree to help the farmers have microloans to revive farms. We are getting veterans across the south who are coming back home to own the Trucking Companies to do the harvesting and tillage, and there is no tillage because it is a watercraft, called water crop called duck weed. It grows in six weeks. Duck weed, when you format and process it it becomes ethanol, a Biomass Energy source. It is something i found in africa and i have seen it in the south and i thought god put this on the earth for something. And then i founda moonshi found a moonshine cajun and figured out how to process this in turn it into protein when protein is selling for 2000. That is a big profit margin. The former will not get it all. We need another farmer will not get it all. They will only processing plants that will own the processing plants that will process this. India has put 5 billion out to increase the protein availability. Nigeria, south africa, mexico. Behold world the whole world needs something that we can grow in the south for nothing. The thing about this is, you can harvested in april harvest it in a Brooks Brothers suit. [laughter] andrew we are not talking about a plow and a mule, we are talking about an Automated System that will take this and you can wear your shirt and tie. Barry anybody who said you are tired this week or last week, he is 82 years young talking about making a new industry. [applause] roland a couple of things first when you talk about Credit Scores and action plans, one of them for me is doing away with state laws allowing folks to factor in Credit Scores with jobs. The first job i had at the birmingham news, the editors wanted to hire me but they have a law that allowed them to use the credit score. So i think that from a Public Policy standpoint, that is one of the things that we can do. To get rid of the state laws. The state laws. Andrew when these folks come back from ferguson and take over land with their grandparents they change the politics. We have more black elected officials in mississippi than they do in missouri. This is just opening up to me. At the Prayer Breakfast last month, ms. Mississippi saying after the Prayer Breakfast. I used to get tired of these longawaited fine blondes long legged fine blondes being ms. Mississippi. I looked around and ms. Mississippi was a fine sister. She said she was from Mississippi State and is studying biochemistry. You are ms. Mississippi . [laughter] andrew you have to come back. Roland your ideas, talking about chemistry, i understand. You are talking to me. [laughter] roland the second one is having honest conversations. When i say marching orders literally things we can do leaving here. My parents retired and were going to move into a small apartment and i said i have a house in dallas and you can live there. They go there and they have all of these ideas and i said you can do what you want. I called them back 10 minutes later and said i am going to veto your plan. I told them, this was four years ago, why are you going to create new debt at 63 . The shower is fine and the tub is fine. You dealt with that when we were kids, why create new debt because you want this dream house, it makes no sense. The same thing with my wife and i raising my nieces, we would go to church. Too many people. At the other church, they said that we are going out and i said, that we are not. I said, come what do you think it costs us every sunday to feed all of you at a restaurant . 151, sometimes 200. Times four, times 12. I began to walk them through this is how much a laptop costs. I was talking to another couple and they said it never dawned on us to have those real conversations with their kids. So i forced them now to have economic conversations. You want to go out . You have to pick. A book, or you want to go over here. Andrew that is willing to but you are making them adjust to a bad situation. Roland the kids . Andrew everybody. [laughter] we are talking about changing the economy of the south. Roland you cant change the economy of the south until you change somebodys mind. Andrew we have a revolution. Listen a minute, you will learn something, then it damn it. [laughter] i have nothing to learn lose. Everything i had was put down by my parents and people like you who are intelligent and educated negros. You talk about the land that was given by lincoln 100 miles from the atlantic ocean. I did not know if lincoln knew that but we opened up a treaty with the panama canal and the Carter Administration. And i have been waiting for the big boats to come in from panama city the Carter Administration because there is no place on the east coast for them to land. We cannot get into philadelphia or boston or baltimore. They might get in to virginia about the navy has that. But the navy has that. The atlanta airport, we are going to build that on the east coast of georgia. 40 miles out to sea. We will have the only place on the east coast where these big ships can land. And they will land there, we will unload them there, we will take them into savanna and buford and charleston and brunswick. All areas where heavy black folks live. All of the trade of the rest of the 21st century is going to come in and out of the United States from georgia. If you have learned in georgia hold onto it land in georgia, hold onto it. When we first talked about an airport, it was crazy. In five years, this will exist 40 miles off the coast of savanna and all of the land between savanna and highway 75 much of which is owned by poor black folk, is going to be the boom area of the United States of america. And if you have any money, you want to invest, move someplace to retire in luxury when we start growing duck weed and bringing the shipping and having Assembly Plants you are laughing but we just brought mercedes to atlanta, damn it. Roland and i have to ask you andrew we are not talking about the past, the problems. We are building the future. [applause] roland i have to ask the two of you. Andrew that is what black folks have always done. They thought eli whitney invented the cotton gin, nobody from yale could invent the cotton gin. [laughter] john i am from houston, but i have to ask, how do you reach that person roland i am from houston, but i have to ask, how do you reach that person . Andrew with a magnet which is the money on the farm. John we are having two different conversations. Let me finish. You are talking about the problem but i have the solution. [applause] john look, every Good Management has constructive friction. Everything that he is saying is right and makes sense, it is a macro plan. Great, i am talking about a micro plan. You are talking about with your nieces is a micro plan. It is two different lanes on the highway. Can i answer your question . Andrew no. Roland yes, you can. John let me answer the question. [laughter] andrew we already answered the question. [laughter] we answered it when thurgood marshall, bless his heart, and he was right from 1941 to 1960. But in 1960 we said, ok. Court by court and casebycase, we are going to change the south. And it might mean going to jail. You are breaking the law and my parents pleaded with me not to hook up with the likes of Martin Luther king and ralph abernathy. They were considered rifling young triffling young negros like you said about folks. [laughter] andrew you finally realize when white folks embrace us that we were right but we were not popular. John to your question, i would say that every family talk honestly about how the phone bill gets paid so the kids understand what stuff costs. Number two, on the kids birthday next time, do not get them a trinket, get them one share of stock. You can get a stock certificate. We had a Financial Literacy program in houston actually and the key, after the second time watching a banker in a suit, the fourth time he came in with a suit on and graduated. I went to the kid, how do you feel about this . His friend said, you need to hang out with us. I will give you three 30 to make a decision, you have three minutes. The kids say, i want air jordans. Derek says i want one share in nike stock. The friend said, that is not nothing. Everybody that is cool as air jordans. He is going through the class. The kid says, it is cool. I want them to buy those shoes. [laughter] john because when they do, they are making the money. Most poverty i believe is here and here before it is ever hear. Here. It is crappy role models and environment and that is why we need to reshape the environment and i like the real talk conversation, there is a lot of love. And the third thing that i would suggest everybody can do, for 41. 60 a month, that is what i am calling a dinternship. Going to relaunch we are going to relaunch the internship. I was inspired to get a b. We will give them a six week business internship with business suits and business cards and transportation and food money and that will change the kid and the kid will change the business. One barbershop owner can afford to pay 500 a year for one intern. Or a dentist shop can get 100 kids. Focus brandon said they will do multiple that in here can make it a personal pledge to do that, that would connect education with aspiration, make smart sexy again and change the aspirations of a generation. Roland you have micro and macro and big business. At the end of the day it means literally doing something now. We are talking about celebrating freedmans bank, that is about looking at what took place 150 years ago. How do we move the legacy forward . There are multiple ways of doing that personal, policy, all of the ways of doing that. That is what is critically important. Right now, some brief comments. As women Sheila Jackson lee congresswoman Sheila Jackson lee. [applause] shelia what an enormous breath of fresh air for those of us who have landed from the hill. [laughter] john we are talking about the real world. Shelia ambassador, you talked about saving the security of our nation from going on the brink. We have successfully, democrats and i know we are in a bipartisan room calls the votes for the homeland security, it is now funded. [applause] we stood with our president , and we relies he has authority that others did not see. We recognize that our work has to get done, and those courts can pursue their challenges, but the responsibilities of the executive should be protected. Many of you know that we came from a moment of chastising and lecturing on the security of this world, which again president obama is handing with adeptness and profoundness. I truly believe americans will stand with our president on the negotiations of the Iranian Nuclear proliferation position and the peace of the world. We are standing with him. We understand the right to lecture, and we wish a Prime Minister well as he goes home. [laughter] that was a very polite conversation. I did not want to say more. I thought it was important to let the european audience know. Let me just say that i really came to honor you and to thank all of the panelists, including donna owens and mr. Wise, who works will be office of the comptroller of the currency, and my dear friend, ambassador young , the fellow houstonian and dr. Bernice king, who i had the privilege of seeing as she left. I think its important to be aware of Current Events and what we face in washington, because we need to be partners in the excellent work that is being spoken about right here. The last time i saw john besides being in houston with his wonderful mother was when he invited me to wall street. He is standing on the shoulders of ambassador young. He is a breakout man. He has taken us to levels that have far exceeded some of our own thinking. We appreciate that, john. I believe that this appropriate time, march 3, 2015, the 150 dish 150th commemoration of the freedmans bank, to know that president lincoln signed it five days preceding his death texas is a place that associates itself with 1865. We celebrate the emancipation proclamation. Texans did not get word that we had been liberated, that we were free, that we were no longer slaves until captain granger arrived on galveston shores and said, you are free. You can imagine we feel the symbolism of this day that john has so actively brought these brilliant presenters to washington. I would almost say, to be diplomatic it was a diplomatic day on the hill to be diplomatic, i agree with all the discussions here. As ambassador young has said we need to wrap ourselves around the new visions regarding civil rights that dr. King spoke about. Even as he finished his life in memphis speaking about Economic Opportunities of sanitation workers. He was heading to washington on the poor peoples march. Not to keep our people poor but to challenge the government on wealth inequality. Here we are now, some 50 years later. 1968 was the time of his death. Talking about how we can embrace our young people to be able to get them to understand that they are a quality and rights are tied to their pocketbook rates. Theyre a quality rights are tied to their pocketbook rights. I did something in houston regarding young people being taken as interns and private sectors. It was an amazing experience. The business person and the young person, high school students, whose lives were changed. In this instance it was a job in a business and they were given in association with the Business Owner to see what it means to own a business. You have a similar approach. The ambassador has a new approach. That approach is for us to grab hold of our destinies as it relates to our economic engine. In the south, i welcome all who will come back. I know the ambassador stands with me for those who remain in ferguson, lets get them straight and lets get the dignity of dealing with their issues of economic inequality and justice issues. So, we work on a bilateral we work on a twopronged approach to commemorate this 150th anniversary. I close on this note. Along with the idea of the economic engine that we speak of, trade bills, there is something called the african growth and opportunity act. It is something that i hope john will engage in so theres a presence for africanamericans and minorities in these trade opportunities. There are challenges with them as it relates to jobs in the u. S. I want us to embrace this message for our historically black colleges. Which every day faced challenges on the hill for their survival. Even today, the intelligence he our community are being educated in historically black colleges as they are in harvard, yellen princeton. Yale and princeton pit we should take an interest in making sure the scholars in these colleges are exposed to your work. You worked after katrina with young people on the earned income tax credit. My son enjoyed having that privilege of working in understanding your work. You have a base of support. By the numbers of historically black colleges and state africanamerican colleges to be able to lift your message, a message of the ambassador and roland and that the comptroller is speaking of. We are changing our whole attitude for the 21st century. We are marching with you as we marched across the Edmund Pettis bridge for the anniversary of the Voting Rights act. As we reregister people to come back to the polls and self empowered by viewing this vote as something important. Our numbers are dastardly when it comes to us voting in our community. As we do that, we reinvest in your message. That is the silver message. We have all the population garnering this effort and marching to victory. Im looking for a freedmans bank. Im looking for a Frederick Douglass chairman of that bank. Im looking for billions of dollars being invested in that bank. Not only from africanamericans, but from those who say this is a great bank. This is a bank that is not going to go broke. This is a bank that has a door open for people from all walks of life. This is a bank that has staying power. This is a freedmans bank of the 21st century, this is americas bank. Thank you, john, for telling me about this great day and inviting me. So good to see you again. Count me as a soldier on the battlefield for ensuring that we are lifting ourselves up so that we fly high where the eagles fly. We flight where we belong. God bless all of you. God bless the United States of america. [applause] john give it up for our panel donna owens, barry wides, bernice king, the introvert ambassador andrew young. [laughter] [applause] andrew i really was being good today. [laughter] the thing i find about all the time, whenever we start blaming the problems on ourselves, what we have done wrong there seeps in a sense of victim. We have never been victims unless we decide to be victims. My son reminded me of this. He said your granddaddy in franklin, louisiana somehow got a way to manage and mount 4 million in a bank account in 1912. And i dont know where he went to school, i dont know what he learned. But people in louisiana trusted him. And he is the money and he used the money that slaves and exslaves managed to help fight the fight in louisiana. We did not take much time on angela davis. Not that she was not right. We were trying to always chart the future. The victims will come along. Ferguson will come along. If you change the focus, put the focus on ferguson when the hold the whole world needs our leadership then we are playing ourselves cheap. I just think that the things we have done in shaping america have shaped the world. You can correct me if i am wrong. Right now, the discussions of monetary manipulation in the trade agreements means that the americans do not have much power. The europeans are still running the global economy. And i was sitting in congress where you sit in the Banking Committee in 1973 when nixon came and ended the stability of the Global Economic order. Nobody ever discussed it anymore but i never forgot it. America ran the world from 1944 to 1974. Everybodys currency was tied to the dollar and the dollar was tied to gold. The whole world was growing from 6 to 10 . Now, with the europeans taking over the economy, europe is in a desperate recession. They are not going. The republicans want a balanced budget like germany. German business is coming to atlanta. [laughter] it aint working over there. Weve separated ourselves, we have almost seceded from the u. S. Economy in atlanta. We are part of the global economy. We can run the global economy. I do not want us to get bogged down in the problems we have. One of the things i learned from my old folks was please do not move these mountains, just give me the strength to climb. Do not take a lead a stumbling blocks. Leave them around. We have a special role here. And a special vision. And we should not, we should not limit ourselves to what white folks are still saying. By and large, even the better ones are still thinking of the world in terms of 19th century european economics. Every now and then you get someone like Elizabeth Warren who breaks out. There are a few. Were letting the french and the imf run the economy. They do not know what they are doing. Its not working for anybody but them. It is not even working for them. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. That is not an accident. Somebody has rigged the game. Im trying to unrig the game. We need to do that. We do not need to play this game. We need to make it work like we are all gods children. [applause] finally, there is an argument in Nelson Mandelas last work. He and Ahmed Kathrada are talking about a multiracial society. Mandela says that will never work, we have to have a nonracial society. I take issue with that first but i realized that is true. Ultimately, weve got to see ourselves as spiritual beings who are united in one cause, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick. Does not matter what color they are, where they came from, or what their problems are. We are here to set people free. John and now for the benediction, ryan mack. Ryan i can leave you with a positive note that wraps up and buster youngs desire for big thinking ambassador youngs desire for big thinking. The freedmans bank, it inspired a woman, maggie walker, to create a bank that survived until 2009. Even when dr. King was focusing on money, it was Marion Wright edelman from the childrens defense fund. Her niece, Debbie Wright was ceo of one of the largest black banks in america. Even when you fall, sometimes you fall forward. Women have an untold story in this work of civil rights. The best is yet to come. I think it is going to be the decade of the women. That is another conversation. [applause] sometimes these conversations get with a lot of words. Phds are good, phdos are better. Earlier today, joseph flew here from california. The ceo of a bank about to be 70 billion. He committed, pledged to open 100 hope locations in the city of los angeles alone. [applause] thats the best way to give life to the freedmans bank. We already have 100 locations, i think we are going to have pledges, people think im crazy. I think we will have 300 locations this year alone. Making us the starbucks of financial inclusion. You have got to be crazy to think big thoughts like that. You got to be a little off to say the things that all of us are saying. You have got to be crazy to save the world. I just put on twitter, roland is brilliant. Isnt he fantastic . [applause] i am preacher. You have to tell me what habakkuk chapter two is. Amen. [applause] with that i would like to say thank you for the time today. What a great time. [applause] you are wat