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Killer Mike’s Digital Banking Platform, Greenwood, Raises Nearly $40 million in Funding From Investors

Killer Mike’s Digital Banking Platform, Greenwood, Raises Nearly $40 million in Funding From Investors

By goodblacknews on March 29, 2021

[Photo: Killer Mike, Andrew Young, Ryan Glover via bankgreenwood.com]

Greenwood, the digital banking platform introduced last year by co-founders activist/rapper Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Bounce TV President Ryan Glover, has raised almost $40 million in Series A funding since its website launched in October 2020, according to a joint announcement last week.

The burgeoning financial startup — named for the Black business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma that existed in the early 20th century (before the 1921 Tulsa Massacre) and earned the nickname “Black Wall Street” — received investments from Truist Bank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, PNC, Wells Fargo, Mastercard, Visa, and SoftBank, six of the seven biggest banks among others on a growing list of major financial institutions now invested in Greenwood.

https://youtu.be/xVbXaP-zHlE

“The net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family and eight times greater than that of a Latino family. This wealth gap is a curable injustice that requires collaboration,” said Greenwood Chairman Glover.

“I am elated that many of the world’s top fintech companies have invested in Greenwood and join us in this mission. The backing of six of the top seven banks and the two largest payment technology companies is a testament to the contemporary influence of the Black and Latino community. We now are even better positioned to deliver the world-class services our customers deserve.”

Greenwood delayed its planned January 2021 launch date because of overwhelming demand after more than 500,000 people signed up for an account before launch.

To learn more and join the Greenwood community and product waitlist, visit www.bankgreenwood.com. 

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended to August 15 by Biden Administration; Premiums Decreased

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended to August 15 by Biden Administration; Premiums Decreased

By goodblacknews on March 24, 2021

According to usatoday.com, the Biden administration is extending a special opportunity for people to sign up for government-subsidized health insurance through the federally run marketplace, commonly referred to as as Obamacare.

The special enrollment period will no longer end May 15 but extend to Aug. 15 to give people more time to take advantage of the expanded subsidies included in the recently passed $1.9 trillion stimulus package.

The package increased the subsidies already available to people who don’t receive health insurance from an employer or through a government plan like Medicare or Medicaid.

The package also makes the subsidies newly available for people earning more than four times the federal poverty level, which is about $51,520 for a single person.

Additionally, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, insurance premiums will decrease an average of $50 a month per person, but some people could possibly save several hundred dollars each month. The savings are available starting April 1.

President Joe Biden made the announcement yesterday on the 11th anniversary of the day former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

“[O]n this anniversary, we should remember just how close we have come to losing that act we so fought so hard for,” Biden said during an event in Ohio. “And we have a duty not just to protect it, but to make it better and keep becoming a nation where healthcare is a right for all and not a privilege for a few.”

People who already have insurance through an exchange can either apply the new subsidies to their existing plan to lower their monthly payments or can switch plans. Switching could allow someone to buy a plan with a much lower deductible, with the higher subsidy covering that plan’s higher premium.

To learn more: https://www.healthcare.gov/apply-and-enroll/how-to-apply/

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/23/obamacare-enrollment-period-extended-health-insurance-subsidies/6972257002/

Goldman Sachs Commits More Than $10 Billion in Investment and Philanthropic Capital to One Million Black Women Initiative

Goldman Sachs Commits More Than $10 Billion in Investment and Philanthropic Capital to One Million Black Women Initiative

By goodblacknews on March 11, 2021

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. announced a new investment initiative yesterday of more than $10 billion to advance racial equity and economic opportunity by investing in Black women.

The initiative, One Million Black Women, is named for and guided by the goal of impacting the lives of at least 1 million Black women by 2030.

It is being shaped by Black women within Goldman Sachs, alumna of the 10,000 Small Businesses program and partnerships with Black women-led organizations such as  Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., National Council of Negro Women, Power Rising, Black Women’s Roundtable and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Walker’s Legacy Foundation, Sistahs in Business Expo, and The Links, Inc.

“This initiative is transformational,” said Melanie Campbell, Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable and President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a partner with Goldman Sachs on the program. “What Goldman Sachs is doing has the potential to materially impact the lives of Black women, their families and communities across the country.”

The investment will be grounded in the voices and experiences of Black women. Goldman Sachs and its partners will commit $10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic capital over the next decade to address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Black women leaders across Goldman Sachs developed and will continue to lead this initiative alongside an Advisory Council of Black leaders, including:

“Our newly published research, Black Womenomics, suggests that no investment could have a bigger impact than unlocking the economic potential of Black women,” said David M. Solomon, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Black Lives Matter Foundation Expands $3 Million Survival Fund to Help Those Struggling Financially During Pandemic

Black Lives Matter Foundation Expands $3 Million Survival Fund to Help Those Struggling Financially During Pandemic

By goodblacknews on February 26, 2021

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is formally expanding a $3 million relief fund it launched earlier this month to help people struggling financially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Associated Press.

The foundation, which grew out of the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement nearly eight years ago, plans to give 3,000 microgrants of $1,000 each to people who it believes need it most.

The BLM foundation has already begun asking recipients to apply for the Survival Fund grants as it builds out its philanthropic arm. Those approved can have the money is deposited directly into their bank accounts or made available on prepaid debit cards, the foundation said — no strings attached.

As of Thursday afternoon, the foundation reported the response had been overwhelming and it was no longer accepting applications for the initial round of the fund.

To quote the Associated Press:

Patrisse Cullors, the foundation’s executive director, said that so far the Survival Fund’s first recipients have included the families of people killed by police or who died while incarcerated, grassroots community organizers, people who identify as transgender, single parents and formerly incarcerated individuals.

“This came from a collective conversation with BLM leadership that Black folks are being hurt the most financially during the pandemic,” Cullors said.“I believe that when you have resources, to hoard them is a disservice to the people who deserve them.”

During that time, mutual aid and direct assistance programs like BLM’s Survival Fund have increased in popularity. According to the nonprofit Town Hall Project, which created the Mutual Aid Hub to track various collective efforts last March, the number of mutual aid groups in the U.S. grew from 50 to more than 800 in 48 states by last May.

Black mutual aid efforts date back to antebellum times, when enslaved Americans pooled their money to buy each other’s freedom from bondage. In the 1960s, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense created programs in several stated where members provided groceries and breakfasts to the elderly and schoolchildren, as well as health care screenings through community clinics.

Cullors said the Survival Fund is a tribute to that legacy.

To read more: https://apnews.com/article/black-lives-matter-survival-fund-ad6c0c0777b3fdc44a4cd3aec8e09ccc

Calvin E. Tyler Jr., former UPS Driver and Morgan State University Alumnus, Endows the HBCU with $20 Million

Calvin E. Tyler Jr., former UPS Driver and Morgan State University Alumnus, Endows the HBCU with $20 Million

By goodblacknews on February 22, 2021

[Photo: Philanthropists Calvin E. Tyler Jr. and Tina Tyler with ‘Tyler Scholars,’ students with scholarships from the fund established in the Tylers’ name. September 2017, at groundbreaking for the Calvin and Tina Tyler Hall Student Services Center.]

Morgan State University recently announced receipt of a $20 million commitment from alumnus and philanthropist Calvin E. Tyler Jr. and his wife Tina Tyler, increasing an endowed scholarship fund previously established in the Tylers’ name.

In 2016, the Tylers made a commitment of $5 million to Morgan State — at the time the largest in Morgan’s history—bolstering the Calvin and Tina Tyler Endowed Scholarship Fund established in 2002 to provide full tuition scholarships for select need-based students residing in the Tylers’ hometown of Baltimore.

In light of the financial hardships and challenges a number of students and their families are facing as a result of the current pandemic, the Tylers were compelled to expand their giving to the HBCU. Once exclusive to students from Baltimore, the endowed scholarship is now national in scope and will benefit generations of future Morgan students seeking a college education.

To date, the endowed fund has supported 222 Morgan students by way of 46 full-tuition and 176 partial scholarships, with the promise of benefiting more ‘Tyler Scholars’ with the increased multimillion-dollar pledge and expanded scope.

“Morgan is so proud to call this son and daughter of the great City of Baltimore our own, and through their historic giving, the doors of higher education will most certainly be kept open for generations of aspiring leaders whose financial shortfalls may have kept them from realizing their academic dreams,” said David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University.

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Hazel M. Johnson, the “Mother of Environmental Justice”

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Hazel M. Johnson, the “Mother of Environmental Justice”

By goodblacknews on February 20, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

This is Hazel M. Johnson. A working-class woman and mother of seven who lived in the Chicago housing project Altgeld Gardens for most of her adult life.

Because of Johnson’s grassroots efforts to combat environmental racism, she is now known as the “Mother of Environmental Justice.” In 1979, a decade after her husband died of lung cancer, Johnson saw a TV report saying South Side of Chicago residents had the highest incidences of cancer in the city. Hazel became determined to find out why.

Hazel learned that not only did the steel mills, refineries and chemical companies nearby shoot toxins into the air and dump into the local river (which locals fished in) making Altgeld Gardens a perfect storm of contamination of air, water and land which Johnson herself would later call (and coin) “the Toxic Doughnut,” but that Altgeld Gardens was originally established as a federal housing project for World War II African American veterans.

(Hazel Johnson and the ‘Toxic Doughnut’ map. Credit: PCR0

It was built atop land that had been an industrial sludge dump for the Pullman Motor Company from 1863 until the early 20th century. Altgeld Gardens, it turned out, had the highest concentration of hazardous waste sites in the nation.

Johnson went door-to-door collecting data from neighbors and started calling city and state health departments to investigate industrial pollution in her community. In 1982 Hazel founded People for Community Recovery to fight environmental racism.

Hazel Johnson working with young community organizer Barack Obama to draw attention to
environmental issues in Altgeld Gardens in 1989 (source: PowerShift.org)

PCR, made up mainly of mothers and local residents who were volunteers, pushed for city and state officials to do epidemiological studies of Altgeld Gardens (there was no legislative mandate before Hazel Johnson’s activism that addressed how industrial pollution was affecting the quality of life for low-income and minority communities).

Hazel and PCR also put pressure on the Chicago Housing Authority to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens.

Johnson was equally instrumental in convincing city health officials to test drinking water at Maryland Manor, a South Side neighborhood dependent on well water. After tests conducted in 1984 revealed cyanide and toxins in the water (Hazel convinced city and state officials to meet her in Altgeld Gardens and took them on a “toxic tour” so they could see the problems first-hand), officials installed new water and sewer lines.

Voting Rights Activist Stacey Abrams Garners Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize

Voting Rights Activist Stacey Abrams Garners Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize

By goodblacknews on February 2, 2021

Stacey Abrams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to promote voting rights via Fair Fight in Georgia and the United States overall.

“Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights,” said Lars Haltbrekken, a member of Norway’s parliament.

“Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society,” Haltbrekken said.

Other candidates this year include the Black Lives Matter movement, the World Health Organization, U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

According to Reuters the Nobel Committee in Norway, which decides who wins the award, does not comment on nominations but nominators can choose to reveal their picks.

The 2021 laureate will be announced in October.

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Carter G. Woodson, “The Father of Black History”

BHM: Good Black News Celebrates Carter G. Woodson, “The Father of Black History”

By goodblacknews on February 1, 2021

Happy Black History Month 2021! The team at Good Black News is excited as ever to celebrate and explore the events, movements and people who have contributed indelibly to African American life and culture throughout the centuries.

Today we start by honoring Carter G. Woodson, the man responsible for creating and advancing the concept of having a specific time every year nationally to recognize the achievements of Black people in the U.S.

Known as “The Father of Black History,” author and historian Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents who were never taught to read and write.

To make ends meet, Woodson often had to forgo school for farm or mining work, but he was encouraged to learn independently and eventually earned advanced degrees from the University of Chicago and Harvard University.

In 1915 he helped found the Journal of Negro History, (see issues of the Journal here) and starting in 1926 he developed and promoted the second week of February as Negro History Week.

In 1933, Woodson published The Mis-Education of the Negro, a book where he argues that African Americans were being indoctrinated instead of taught in American schools, and being led to view themselves as inferior. Woodson encourages his readers to become autodidacts and to “do for themselves”, regardless of what they learn in the educational system.

February officially became Black History Month across the nation in 1976.

(paid links)

Black Lives Matter Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, Wins Sweden’s Human Rights Prize for 2020

Black Lives Matter Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, Wins Sweden’s Human Rights Prize for 2020

By goodblacknews on January 30, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Petter Eide, a member of Norway’s parliament, nominated Black Lives Matter for a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the movement’s continuous work towards manifesting racial justice in the U.S. and across the globe.

“To carry forward a movement of racial justice and to spread that to other countries is very, very important. Black Lives Matter is the strongest force today doing this, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and in Asia,” Eide told USA TODAY.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 in recognition for his work and mission of non-violent protest during the Civil Rights Movement.

Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela won in 1960 and 1993, respectively, for their campaigns against racial discrimination and apartheid in South Africa.

Additionally, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has won Sweden’s Olof Palme human rights prize for 2020, for promoting “peaceful civil disobedience against police brutality and racial violence” according to the prize’s organizers.

Patrice Cullors, one of the original founders of Black Lives Matter, will accept the $100,000 on behalf of BLM during an online ceremony today.

To read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/30/black-lives-matter-nominated-nobel-peace-prize-norwegian-mp/4322546001/

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-55862130

“New Direction for Democracy”: Dena Crowder’s 6-Minute Power Shot on the Importance of Listening to Black Voices (WATCH)

“New Direction for Democracy”: Dena Crowder’s 6-Minute Power Shot on the Importance of Listening to Black Voices (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on January 22, 2021

In today’s “Power Shot,” TEDx speaker, Power Lab performance coach, and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder breaks down how white supremacy is the ideology behind the biggest threat to democracy in the United States.

Crowder clearly and concisely explains how Black people have been and continue to be essential to preserving and re-defining democracy, why Black voices must be listened to, and gives deeper context for why #BlackLivesMatter. Check it out:

Check out Dena’s other Power Shots below: