Chicago Defender

PepsiCo agrees to meet with Till family, Sharpton

Rev. Al Sharpton

NEW YORK — PepsiCo Inc. officials will meet Wednesday with members of Emmett Till's family and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Sharpton continued to press for the meeting last week after the company's partnerships with Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator, of Odd Future to promote Mountain Dew sparked controversies.

PepsiCo and Lil Wayne have since parted over creative differences after the rapper's offensive lyrics related to the civil rights icon Till. The company also pulled a commercial directed by Tyler that angered anti-violence and civil rights advocates.

The meeting to be held at PepisCo headquarters in Purchase comes as an outcry over offensive lyrics increases. Reebok recently ended its partnership with Rick Ross for similar reasons.

Sharpton said last week that corporations have a civic responsibility when deciding who they partner with.

Wayne had sent the Till family a letter offering empathy and saying that he would not reference Till or the family in his music, particularly in an inappropriate manner.

But the Till family said the letter fell short of an apology.

"It's mindboggling to me that they partnered with him in the first place," said the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., a Till cousin and witness to his abduction. "Major corporations should scrutinize who they endorse, don't let greed or money determine who you sponsor."

Rev. Al Sharpton, who had been working with the Till family to arrange a meeting with Lil Wayne and PepsiCo officials, said in a telephone interview that he hopes the decision ultimately is less about punishing individual rappers and more a cultural "teaching moment."

"Otherwise we're just waiting on the next train crash instead of trying to really resolve our problem and learn from these experiences and set a tone in the country that's healthy for everybody," he said.

The controversy erupted after Wayne made the reference to Till on Future's song "Karate Chop" earlier this year. He refers to a violent sexual act on a woman and says he wants to do as much damage as was done to Till.

The Black teen from Chicago was in Mississippi visiting family in 1955 when he was killed, allegedly for whistling at a white woman. He was beaten, had his eyes gouged out and was shot in the head before his assailants tied a cotton gin fan to his body with barbed wire and tossed it into a river.

Two white men, including the woman's husband, were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Till's body was recovered and returned to Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till, insisted on having an open casket at his funeral. The pictures of his battered body helped push civil rights into the cultural conversation.

Music and media industry executive Paul Porter, who comments on music issues on his website RapRehab.com, said he thought PepsiCo's decision was an effort by the company "to do the right thing now."

Thursday marks National Day of Prayer

Youth Pastor Torrey Barrett of Life Center Church of God in Christ, left, and Tavis Grant, pastor of Greater First Church in East Chicago, Ind., right, led a prayer vigil outside King College Prep High School in the days following Hadiya Pendleton's Jan. 29, 2013 shooting death. She was a student at the high school. Thursday, May 2, 2013 is National Prayer Day and faith leaders and supporters are calling on people to pray for youth and society, as a whole. Defender/Rhonda Gillespie

“When you pray, everything will be all right…in despair, I know He’ll be right there. Just have faith when you pray” are lyrics written by the late Bishop Walter Hawkins and recorded in 1979 by the golden voice of now-award-winning gospel recording artist Tramaine Hawkins.

Today is the National Day of Prayer. If there were ever a time we desperately needed to bow our heads and our hearts on one accord for our families, nations and everything that concerns us it’s right now.  

I believe that a lack of prayer is tantamount to attempting to operate a machine without the owner’s manual or an instruction guide and without it you are inevitably lost.

Not only is prayer defined as worship and adoration of God, but it also refers to an earnest request or petition. On this National Day of Prayer, take a second to say a prayer for the safety and healing of Chicago. Also, pray for the safety and education of our children as well as an end to violence. Your prayer does not have to be long and elaborate, rather a simple, earnest request with the belief that it is going to happen. You can whisper a prayer, read a prayer or you can sing a prayer as long as you take time to pray.

Let’s join hearts and make an earnest request for love, peace and blessings upon our families, leaders, sisters and brothers around the globe. Let’s believe that God will hear our petition and the changes in us and through us will manifest into a better world for all of us.

Effie Rolfe is a Chicago Defender columnist, author, media consultant, radio personality and motivational speaker. Contact her online at www.EffieRolfe.com, on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/EffiedRolfe and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/MsEffieRolfe

Obama dares graduates to reject cynical voices

Culture-_Obama_Ohio_State_commencement.jpgPresident Barack Obama arrives at the Ohio State University spring commencement in the Ohio Stadium, Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Columbus, Ohio. Obama is the third sitting president to give the commencement speech at Ohio State University. At left is Annie Leibovitz. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A year to the day after kicking off his victorious re-election campaign on this college campus, President Barack Obama returned to Ohio State University and told graduates that only through vigorous participation in their democracy can they right an ill-functioning government and break through relentless cynicism about the nation's future.

"I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to dream bigger," Obama said.

In a sunbaked stadium filled with more than 57,000 students, friends and relatives, Obama lamented an American political system that gets consumed by "small things" and works for the benefit of society's elite. He called graduates to duty to "accomplish great things," like rebuilding a still-feeble economy and fighting poverty and climate change.

"Only you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be," Obama told more than 10,000 cap-and-gown-clad graduates gathered for the rite of passage. "But it requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship."

The visit to Ohio State — the first of three commencement addresses Obama will give this season — was a homecoming of sorts for Obama, who has visited the campus five times over little more than a year, starting with his first official campaign rally here last May. He made many more stops elsewhere in Ohio as he and Republican Mitt Romney dueled for the Buckeye State, and its 18 electoral votes were pivotal to Obama's victories in both 2008 and 2012.

There was little direct mention of party politics Sunday, but ample allusion to the partisan battles that cramped many of Obama's legislative efforts in his first term and have continued unabated into his second.

In an apparent reference to his failed push on gun control, he bemoaned that a small minority in Congress find excuses to oppose things that most Americans support.

"This is a joyous occasion, so let me put it charitably: I think it's fair to say our democracy isn't working as well as we know it can," Obama said.

Invoking the end of the Cold War, 9/11 and the economic recession, Obama said this generation had been tested beyond what their parents could have imagined. But he said young Americans have responded with a deep commitment to service and a conviction that they can improve their surroundings. He urged graduates to run for office, start a business or join a cause, contending that the health of their democracy "requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship."

"You've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems," Obama said. "You should reject these voices. Because what these suggest is that somehow our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can't be trusted."

Among the 10,143 students receiving diplomas at this sprawling state university Sunday were 130 veterans, including the first class to benefit from the new GI Bill that Congress passed after 9/11, university officials said.

Ohio State also bestowed an honorary doctorate on Obama, applauding his "unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose." Also honored was photographer Annie Leibovitz, whose images of Obama and his family have become iconic reflections on the nation's first black president.

Obama's other two commencement speeches this season will be later in May at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and at Morehouse College, an all-male school in Atlanta.

Chicago business, civic communities pay farewell to Jacoby Dickens

Mourners lament the loss of Jacoby Dickens, the chairman of Seaway Bank and Trust Company and a man considered one of its foremost business and community leaders.

The banking executive was laid to rest Saturday following funeral services held at Chicago State University’s Jones Convocation Center, 9501 S. King Drive. He had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died April 14 at his home in Fisher Island, Fla., at age 81.

Dickens was listed among Chicago Magazine’s “20 Most Influential People in Chicago” and had been inducted into the Chicago Business Hall of Fame.  A who’s who of Chicago’s business, education and civic community attended the funeral.

"He was part of a ‘cadre' of extraordinary philanthropic and successful business entrepreneurs and was a role model for all of us,” said John Rogers, president of Ariel Capital Investments. “He was a great business genius with a commitment to helping others.”

Originally from Panama City, Fla., Dickens had been a longtime resident of Chicago. He was elected to the board of Seaway Bank in 1979 and served as vice chairman before becoming chairman in 1983. He was considered a champion for the African American and civic communities, and served as chairman of the Committee to Elect Harold Washington; as a Commissioner of Economic Development for the City of Chicago; and as a board member of the Chicago Urban League, Chicago State University Foundation and the School of Business at Florida A&M University. He also served as a trustee at the Museum of Science and Industry; at DePaul University, where a scholarship-and-loan program was named in his honor, and at Chicago State University, to which he donated more than $1 million. In 1995, the physical education and athletics building was named for him.

After moving to Chicago in 1946, he attended Wendell Phillips High School on the South Side and credited his father, Jacoby Dickens Sr., with cultivating his love for business and of community.  The younger Dickens soon became a landlord, real-estate investor and connoisseur of entertainment in such venues as the Savoy Ballroom and the Regal Theater. His deep involvement with the community shaped his work at Seaway, where he helped implement the opening of bank branches in otherwise underserved areas of the city, including his own South Side of Chicago.

Believing that Seaway shared responsibility for the financial health of the surrounding community, Dickens focused on growing new businesses through loans, outreach and community development programs. He also supported local churches and mentoring programs, sponsoring African American teenagers through high school and college.

“I learned a lot from Jacoby, I will miss him not only as a mentor and a counselor but as a close personal friend,” said James Compton, former president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League.  

Dickens is survived by his wife of 15 years, Veranda.