Black Wall Street was destroyed by a mob of angry whites on June 1, 1921, however, there are efforts from community leaders and the Illinois Legislature to recreate the successful African American economic movement.

Imagine over 600 successful businesses including churches, restaurants, grocery stores movie theaters, hospitals, banks, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system all destroyed, along with 3000 people killed. It didn’t happen in some far off country in the Middle East, nor did the carnage take place in a poor African or Eastern European country. The incident took place in Tulsa Oklahoma, in one of the most affluent Black communities of the time, right here in America. It was June 1, 1921 when Black Wall Street was bombed from the air and burned to the ground by mobs of envious whites.

However, the bloody event has not been forgotten. In fact, Black Wall Street lives and continues to grow right here in Chicago as well as in other cities. The necessity of a Black Wall Street is underlined by new leaders and new efforts, determined to revive this African American economic movement. Black Wall Street came about based on need, says Ron Carter, Chairman of Black Wall Street Chicago. “It was frustration about what’s not happening in the Black community. We needed a vision as to what’s going on in our community,” Carter said about why Black Wall Street Districts are necessary. “We came up with, we want to control our business strip. Black people need it,” Carter says. “We need a vision of what our community can be like,” he added.

Black Wall Street was created to sustain and strengthen Black businesses in the Black community and in other communities through economic development. To this end, the State of Illinois House of Representatives and Senate recognized the potential to recreate on Stony Island Avenue and 75th Streets east of the Dan Ryan Expressway, the positive aspects of the historic Black Wall Street in Tulsa, by issuing resolutions proclaiming the areas Black Wall Street Chicago Districts. “It’s important for Black businesses to support each other. It’s important that Stony Island businesses support each other and keep black dollars in the Black community,” says Angela Williams, executive director of the South East Chamber of Commerce.

The mission of Black Wall Street District Chicago is to enhance and strengthen Illinois’ premiere African American  spiritual arts and commerce district through on going promotion, advocacy, business development, and community relations; to make the Black Wall Street District a vital clean safe and attractive business district for the enjoyment of members and visitors and to institute and maintain a method of exchanging and interchanging business information.

Creating a Black Wall Street district is necessary because, “When we go outside our community, we take away from what our ancestors worked so hard to create,” Williams said. There are also Black Wall Street Districts established in California; Minnesota and Georgia. The organization’s National Summit Agenda will be held in Chicago this year August 20-23 at various locations throughout the city

Throughout the years, the Q.B.G. Foundation has helped create leaders who have gone on to work in both the corporate and private sectors. Many of them are making a positive impact in their respective communities where they are trailblazers in their own right. By providing financial assistance to deserving Black youths who want to further their education, Q.B.G. has given students a chance to shine, an opportunity to give back and for eighteen years, the foundation has awarded college scholarships to deserving Black youth totaling over $1 million.

My passion is to help young kids. I spend a lot of time helping them find employment both through the foundation and through the Chatham Business Association (CBA) where I am also Chairman. The young people there range in age from 14 to 24. My focus has also been to train young people to become entrepreneurs and two Saturdays out of the month, I meet with them at the QBG Foundation where we participate in activities that stress the importance of creating jobs. This is my passion, this is my focus…but it’s important for everyone to give back, each one to the best of his or her ability.

Giving back, changes the world. It changes generations and it does make a difference. Some may use poverty as an excuse for not giving of their time, resources, knowledge and/or skills. But it’s no excuse. As one of eleven children from Alabama, I was poor but was able to build a successful business in spite of the odds. Most people who are successful today, were born poor but when you give back, you create a cycle of help and a cycle of hope. By helping somebody else, they will in turn help the other person and the cycle repeats itself. Just like the change agents including Dr. King and other civil rights leaders whom I marched with fought for change, that’s what we should do.

When you come into the foundation, you will see an oil-painting of my son, Quentis, to the left and right across from it, a picture of myself. These pictures represent two generations of Garths. It was the loss of my son, Quentis, in 1989 which inspired me to start the foundation which is named after him.

Since its inception, we have been stressing the importance of education and using it as a tool to help facilitate change. At Q.B.G, we believe that what we do can change our youth, our communities and future generational leaders. We do this by giving inner city youth who may not have been able to go to college, a chance to succeed, awarding them up to $10,000 per student.

Our recipients have graduated from institutions like Clark Atlanta University; Tennessee State University; Florida A&M University; Chicago State University, Howard University; Tuskegee University; Spelman College; and Alabama A&M University. We are proud of them all. The QBG Foundation also boasts of a stellar list of past and present contributors, which without their help, none of this would have been possible. These partners have included Dominick’s, Jewel, ComEd, and Coca-Co, to name a few. We have also hosted other fund raising and community events, including the Q.B.G. Annual Rodeo and a Back to School and Wellness Fair, as well as a job fair sponsored by Target.

In keeping with the tradition of assisting aspiring Black students, Change Through Education: “Preparing Future Generational Leaders” the theme of this year’s gala, the Q.B.G. Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner and Fundraiser promises to be an exciting and powerful display of our mission and our purpose. We hope you will join us as we recognize both past and future recipients on Saturday, July 31st, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, located on 151 E. Wacker Drive. We will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner promptly at 7 p.m. Our host will be V103’s Herb Kent featuring Chicago’s very own The Chi-Lites. We look forward to seeing you there

When Census Bureau Director Robert Groves noted last week that some areas are lagging behind the rest of the country in mailing back their 2010 Census forms, it was bad news for Chicago and underrepresented communities.

With Census Day on April 1, it was no April Fool’s joke that Chicago has one of the lowest rates of mail participation. Nationally, 50 percent of households have mailed back their forms so far. But in Chicago, the mail participation rate is significantly lower, at 36 percent. In 2000, 58 percent of Chicago households returned their census form by mail. The national rate in 2000 was at 72 percent.

Returning the forms is far too important for the issue to be taken lightly.  While Illinos struggles with a $13 billion fiscal deficit, the data collected on the Census gauge economic as well as societal growth and needs. A major factor in improving transportation, education, healthcare, housing, emergency services, the census is also a tool for marketing, business expansion and job opportunities. Despite being one of the shortest forms in American history, comprised of 10 questions that only take about ten minutes to answer, completing the 2010 Census, particularly for underserved communities, simply makes good sense.

Not only will it help determine the distribution of more than $400 billion in funds to local, state and tribal governments but a complete and accurate census count will ensure that your state and community get their fair share of Congressional seats and community services.

On top of that, when a person fails to return a form, a census taker has to visit every household that doesn’t send it back.  That process comes at a significant cost to taxpayers while the emphasis on encouraging mail participation is a practical one.

For every percentage point increase in mail response, taxpayers will save an estimated $85 million in federal funds. Those funds would otherwise be required to send census takers to collect census responses in person from households that don’t mail them back. After the 2000 Census, the Bureau was able to return $305 million in savings to the federal Treasury because mail rates exceeded expectations. Those are results taxpayers can count on and a move the Bureau wants to repeat.

The Census Bureau is urging communities nationwide to take charge of their census mail participation rates. Since the possibility of receiving federal dollars depends on it, the only way to get your fair share of the funds is to stand up, be counted and fill out your census form.

by Lesley R. Chinn

If the Supreme Court decides to overturn a 28-year-old gun ban in Chicago after hearing McDonald v. Chicago, Morgan Park resident Otis McDonald said he thinks it would lead to a decrease in homicides because people would think before they act.
McDonald, whose life was previously threatened with violence, is the lead plaintiff in the McDonald case. According to him, the hand gun ban is not working. “If law-abiding citizens could have handguns, a robber in the streets will have something to think about when he gets ready to [kill someone],” McDonald stated.

Petitioners in this case want the Supreme Court to extend federal protections of the Bill of Rights—including the Second Amendment—to all 50 states. McDonald v. Chicago is a follow-up to the 2008 Supreme Court ruling of District of Columbia v. Heller, which reversed a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., which allowed individuals to “keep and bear” arms. Before the Supreme Court heard the gun rights case McDonald v. last Tuesday, the city recorded 458 murders last year, in which 81 percent involved firearms, according to the Chicago Police Department Research and Development Division.
The city included stats from the 4th Police District, which includes Calumet Heights with a total of 41 murders. The 6th District Police, which includes Auburn Gresham, reported 35 murders while the 7th Police District, which includes Englewood and West Englewood, had 45 murders. Twenty-one murders were reported in the 5th Police District, which includes Roseland, Pullman, West Pullman and a Chicago suburb of Riverdale. Nineteen murders were reported in the 22nd Police District, which includes Morgan Park and Washington Heights.
The South side has already experienced its fair share of gun violence cutting short the lives of 18-year-old Terrell Bosley; 16-year-old Blair Holt, and two Englewood youth Starkesia Reed and Siretha White.
Mayor Richard M. Daley warned that overturning the city’s gun ban could result in jeopardizing the public’s safety. “How many more of our children, our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers must needlessly die because guns are too easily available in our society today?” he stated.
When asked about the impact of McDonald v. City of Chicago on crime-ridden communities in the Chicagoland area, Atty. Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel to the Washington, D.C.-based Constitutional Accountability Center, said that would be an answer for the courts to decide. Right now, she said she doesn’t believe the case gives a definite answer to which gun regulations would be permissible if the Second Amendment is enacted against the states. Wydra noted that after the D.C. ruling, the D.C. Council replaced its ban with regulations that require gun owners to receive five hours of safety training, register their firearms every three years and face criminal background checks every six years. “Cities would have to go through a process of enacting permissible regulations that will still be constitutional,” she contends.
Although a decision is not expected until June, Adam Samaha, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, predicted the possibility of the courts using the “due process” clause of the 14th Amendment. “Any rights used in the privileges and immunities clause will only apply to U.S. citizens and not immigrants,” he explained. “Opening up the privileges and immunities clause would open up a host of additional issues and lead to fundamental changes in constitutional law.”
Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois Rifle Association, said the courts are mostly likely to favor overturning the ban. “Chicago’s gun ban has been illegal for years. It discriminates against law-abiding citizens and lets criminals run free,” he stated. “Law abiding citizens can’t defend themselves in their own home.”
Jennifer Hoyle, a spokesman for the city’s law department, disagreed. “Individuals can still legally possess long-barreled rifles and shotguns as long as those guns are properly registered with the Chicago Police Department. For that reason, it’s not impossible for law-abiding citizens to own guns to protect their families. It’s simply illegal for them to own handguns,” Hoyle said.

By Shanita Bigelow

President Barack Obama discusses a point with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during the health insurance reform legislation meeting at Blair House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 25, 2010.

“[W]e need to find common ground…We know it’s possible to do this,” Obama stated in his weekly address, Saturday evening. “[N]o final bill will include everything that everyone wants. That’s what compromise is…I am eager and willing to move forward with members of both parties on health care…But I also believe that we cannot lose the opportunity to meet this challenge. The tens of millions of men and women who cannot afford their health insurance cannot wait another generation for us to act. Small businesses…Americans with preexisting conditions cannot wait. State and federal budgets cannot sustain these rising costs.”
Thursday’s bipartisan meeting, a seven hour, televised debate, further solidified Republican and Democratic differences; chief among them, cost and implementation. And what little ground they found provided few solutions and left many, even those in attendance, with more than a few questions, most prevalent: What’s next?
“I think it was a good forum,” Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I hope that it could be the basis for us to have some serious negotiations. But we still have the fundamental problem: Do we go on the partisan plan that…ran through the Senate and the House or do we start over from the beginning?”
But starting over to some is tantamount to doing nothing. The “Republican mantra” of starting over “means do nothing,” according to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) also on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”  That’s simply not the case, according to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WS), who said “we want to fix this…but this is not the solution,” at Thursday’s meeting.
Republicans fear a government takeover and suggest starting over and addressing the problem step by step. “Coverage doesn’t equal care,” said Sen. John Barrasso (RWY), as Republicans tout a bill that would expand coverage to only three of the more 30 million Americans currently uninsured.
“[We] can’t get from one point to the next incrementally unless we deal with it holistically,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).
Aside from opposing solutions to the health care quandary, the parties also differ in their definition of the problem itself, said Ronald Brownstein, Political Director for Atlantic Media, on “Meet the Press.”
“[T]he Senate bill reallocates resources in the health care system effectively enough that the independent Medicare actuary has estimated that the measure would cover 33 million more people by 2019 while increasing total health care spending by less than a penny on the dollar. It’s not perfect, but…does provide a solid foundation for a more equitable and efficient health system,” Brownstein wrote in the National Journal Magazine. Democrats hope to build upon the common ground and muster enough votesto move the legislation through to the American people. Should Democrats find themselves stymied by their fellow congressmen and women, they may opt for congressional r e c o n c i l i a t i o n . Reconciliation would allow for passage with a majority of 51 votes as opposed to 60, a risky move for such sweeping legislation. Today, President Obama will address “what’s next.” He “will talk about the merits of the legislation, mainly about the costs of doing nothing versus the cost of doing something and what this will accomplish,” said Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, to the New York Times.

End-stage renal disease will become the main cause of death over the next two decades, according to the World Health Organization while racial minorities, particularly Blacks, are disproportionately affected by kidney disease, accounting for 32 percent of patients with the illness in America. Raising awareness among high-risk populations affected by chronic kidney disease with information on transplantation, in particular through living donors, is a consortium of doctors, community-based health providers, transplant and communications professionals. Recently, they made a stop on Chicago’s South side to talk about reducing wait times for a healthy kidney, getting an organ from a healthy live donor and what donors can generally expect.

Enhancing Life through Transplantation

by Lesley R. Chinn

If a dialysis patient is suffering from chronic kidney disease, organ transplantation may be another lifesaving option.
During a kickoff awareness campaign at Chicago State University last week, the Kidney Informational Consortium (KIC) armed the audience with information about how dialysis patients can enhance their lives through transplantation from living donors.
Dr. Paul Crawford, a partner at Associates in Nephrology in Chicago and KIC spokesman, said “far too many people impacted by chronic kidney disease in communities of color are spending excessive periods receiving kidney dialysis treatment.”
A U.S. Renal Data System report found that 37 percent of Blacks nationwide are on dialysis while 19 percent only make up organ transplants.
Dr. Amy Waterman, a Washington University medical school professor, noted that in five years, only 35 percent of patients who begin dialysis are still alive but added that with a transplant, the chances of survival increases from about 70 to 80 percent. Waterman is also creator of the St. Louis-based Explore Transplant program, which is designed to educate patients and providers about the medical option of transplantation. She pointed out that minorities on dialysis are less likely to receive information about organ transplants. “Everyone needs to make an informed choice early while having the life-saving option of dialysis… so that no one is left out,” Waterman stated.
As part of the KIC’s initiative to raise awareness, the group also plans to document the lives of individuals like Citizen Newspapers publisher William Garth, who has been on dialysis for three years and just recently received news about being placed on a kidney transplant list.
“Transplantation is a better viable option as opposed to being hooked up to a machine [because] dialysis patients spend so much time being devoted to a machine that they often have barriers that prevent them from living their lives like they want to,” said Paul Davis, president of First Trace Communications.

By Eric Mayes

Special to the NNPA from the Philadelphia Tribune

Michelle Obama

First lady Michelle Obama, crusading against childhood obesity and “food deserts,” singled out North Philadelphia as a shining example of how communities can come together to bring healthy foods to urban areas while creating jobs and revitalizing ailing neighborhoods. “You all should be very proud to be highlighted here today for the work that you’ve done. It’s really groundbreaking,” she told a crowd of hundreds gathered at Fairhill Elementary School on last Friday, where she appeared to promote a new healthy eating and fitness initiative called “Let’s Move” aimed to reduce childhood obesity.

“You decided first that no family in this city should be spending a fortune on high-priced, low-quality foods because they have no other options. You decided that no child should be consigned to a life of poor health because of what neighborhood his or her family lives in. And you decided that you weren’t going to just talk about the problem or wring your hands about the problems, but you were going to act.” Obama, accompanied by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, made two stops: First at the new Fresh Grocer in Progress Plaza and then at the school. She was greeted like a superstar at both venues. Shoppers shouting “We love you” mobbed the grocery store, crowding impromptu barriers of pastries and other baked goods as Obama toured the store’s deli and produce section.
Their shouts drew the first lady away from the prepared tour as she took time out to shake hands, even reaching into the crowd to squeeze the hand of a little girl on her father’s shoulders. The crowd had been waiting inside the store for hours hoping to catch glimpse of Obama.
Storeowner Patrick Burns escorted Obama on the tour where she saw shelves filled with fresh fruit, vegetables and prepared food and even stopped to buy a strawberry-banana smoothie.
“I even have my own money,” she told the worker pulling out a $20 bill to pay for it and jokingly checking to make sure she got the correct change. The 46,000-square-foot Fresh Grocer located in one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, where an estimated 25 percent of families live in poverty, is part of Progress Plaza, said to be the first African-American-owned shopping center in the United States, having been developed in 1968.
The $15 million store opened last December. It was developed by, among other entities, the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a public-private partnership created to increase the number of supermarkets in underserved communities across the state.
The initiative, in partnership with the state, the Reinvestment Fund and the Food Trust — both nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia — will spend $190 million to build 83 grocery stores in 34 counties and created 5,000 jobs statewide, she said. “If you can do it here, we can do it around the country,” Obama said. “Our goal is ambitious. It’s to eliminate food deserts in America completely in seven years.” President Obama has announced that he will spend $400 million from the 2011 federal budget for a national Healthy Food Financing Initiative based on the Philadelphia model.

At the second stop, Obama spoke to an auditorium filled with hundreds of people, a mix of adults and children, where she promoted her “Let’s Move” initiative. Obama noted that one in three children in the United States are overweight or obese and that more children are showing up in pediatricians’ offices with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.
“‘Let’s Move’ is a nationwide campaign to rally this country around one single but ambitious goal, and that is to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that the kids born today grow up with a healthy weight,” she said. The program combines four steps: food and menu labeling, more nutritious food in schools, promoting physical activity and providing access to healthy foods to everyone. “So let’s move,” she said. “That’s really the point. If we know it can be done, let’s move; let’s get it done. Let’s give our kids everything they need and everything they deserve to be the best that they can be.”

When you think of the Census, think about your slice of the American pie. If you do the math, it’s easy to see what an accurate count of residents can do for communities. Better infrastructure, more services and how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding will be spent on things like hospitals, job training centers, schools, senior centers, bridges, tunnels and more. The shortest form in history, filling out the census form just makes good sense.

By Shanita Bigelow

Continuing a White House tradition of strong support for the census dating back to 1790, President Barack Obama recorded a public service announcement encouraging national participation in the 2010 Census.

Despite being one of the shortest forms in American history, comprised of 10 questions that only take about ten minutes to answer, completing the 2010 Census, particularly for underserved communities, could never be more important, especially during tough economic times, said Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League .
Not only will it help determine the distribution of more than $400 billion in funds to local, state and tribal governments but, “a complete and accurate census count will ensure that your state and community get their fair share of Congressional seats and community services,” said Morial, who views it as “an essential tool of economic and political empowerment.”
The form will be delivered to all U.S. households in less than a month and is supported by individuals determined to account for every resident of the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Through ad campaigns and community partnerships, the Census Bureau is trying to reach generally undercounted populations, largely Black and Hispanic.
Community partnerships like Complete Count Committees (CCC), local groups comprised of community leaders actively engaged in raising awareness, dispelling myths, and encouraging participation, are essential for a wider understanding of how census data are used.

The data collected gauge economic and societal growth and needs. A major factor in improving transportation; education; healthcare; housing and emergency services, the census, is also a tool for marketing,business expansion and job opportunities.

In the 2000 Census  Illinois’ participation rate was 73 percent. In Cook County, the county with the largest population of African Americans (1.4 million) in the nation, as of July 2008, 70 percent of the residents were counted, according Census data. Chicago, on the other hand, had low participation, with only 58 percent of its residents completing the questionnaire.

“I understand that some people are skeptical…and have growing concerns about privacy, [b]ut I am making this appeal for full participation… because the stakes for our communities are so high,” Morial continued.

All collected information is confidential. “By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with anyone, including the IRS, FBI, CIA or any other government agency,” according to the Census Bureau.

Census partners, aware of the challenges their communities face, work with community organizations (social service, religious, political and educational) to demonstrate the importance of a complete count because “being counted can mean dollars for the community,” dollars utilized by those organizations, according to the National Black Child Development Institute.

According to Illinois Issues, one report to Congress estimated that the biggest counties in the country would lose $3.6 billion in federal funds over a decade — or $2,913 for every missed person — because of under counts in the 2000 census. Cook County alone, according to the report, lost out on $193 million.

“In 2000, the Black population in the United States was estimated at 33.5 million and rose to 40.7 million by 2007, according to Census Bureau data. Census participation will give this growing and diverse Black population a voice and power to influence change in their communities,” Dr. Robert Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau wrote in “Supporting the 2010 Census: Toolkit for Reaching the Black Community.”

Community partners have a unique and vital role in this year’s census. They have to reach everyone in their “growing and diverse”
communities, young and old. Whether through forums held at community churches, educational outreach at local schools and social service organizations, through Facebook or Twitter, these partners, who have been working for the past year to foster a deeper understanding of the census, are sowing a grassroots effort designed to mobilize their communities. For partners, determining what messages will have the most impact, is essential.

One example of such mobilization was an event held last week in the South Suburbs. “Just last week more than 20 different communities came together…at Lincoln Mall…for a four hour event,” said Muriel Jackson, media specialist for the Chicago Regional Census Center. In addition to viewing a “Portrait of America Road Tour” exhibit, participants also received written information, and had the opportunity to speak with local government officials about the ways in which census data directly affect their communities, she continued. “There are examples of that going on all over the Chicago area,” she said.

Census data are entrenched in everything from the distribution of funds to the implementation and evaluation of programs to laws such as the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and Fair Housing Act while the data helps guide local planning decisions, including where to provide additional social services, establish child-care and senior centers, as well as where to build new roads, hospitals, and schools and job training centers.

“At the federal level…there are a minimum of 20 agencies that use census data” from the Departments of Education, Commerce and Justice to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Health and Human Services (HHS), Jackson said. Census data are used for everything from “funding formulas” to monitoring laws,  she continued.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

EUR -*Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley will step into the ring on May 1 after both fighters agreed to “Olympic-style” drug testing – an issue that scrapped Mayweather’s fight with Manny Pacquiao. “This one is definitely for the fans as I wasn’t going to waste anyone’s time with a meaningless tune-up bout and asked to fight Shane immediately,” the unbeaten Mayweather said, according to the Associated Press. “I have said ever since I came back to the sport that I only wanted to fight the best. I think Shane is one of the best, but come May 1, he still won’t be great enough to beat me.”

Mosley, meanwhile, he “will have no problem beating [Mayweather].”

But that bout fell through over disagreement on prefight blood testing procedures, with Pacquaio unwilling to agree to the random tests demanded by Mayweather. After weeks of wrangling and a failed attempt at mediation, the proposed Mayweather-Pacquiao bout, tentatively scheduled for March 13, was cancelled.

Shane Mosley

Pacquiao is now scheduled to face Ghana’s Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

By Lesley R. Chinn

Gold Medalist Diana Williams Muhammad who is also coach for the women’s track and field and cross country teams at Chicago State University.

As the world begins to focus its attention on the Winter Olympics in Vancouver next month, Chicago State University has added its own Olympic talent to its athletic department.

CSU recently recruited former Olympic long jump record holder Bob Beamon as as associate athletic director. His 1968 feat in the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City stood as a world record for 23 years. The school’s new women’s track and field and cross-country coach is Diana Muhammad,  South side native, who competed in the Olympics in 1980 and 1984. They both came on board at CSU this past fall.

CSU athletic director Sudie Davis envisions a new department with the addition of Muhammad and Beamon. He said hiring the two will help CSU add more weight to the athletics department program as it competes for “greater acheivement in the NCAA Division I and the Great West Conference” while promoting “outstanding academic success.”

Davis has known Beamon, who previously served as director of athletic development at Florida Atlantic University, for 30 years. they both worked together on the South Florida Inner-City Games, an event that also involved now California Gov. Arnold Scwarzenegger.

Davis said Beamon is a “good fit for the administration” because with his status he can help raise money for the school.

Giving back to the students is what Beamon said interests him the most. “We want them to have a good four years so they can be competitive in the world,” Beamon stated.

Davis once coached Muhammad, who competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes as well as the 4-by-100 meter relay,  during her days with the Chicago Zephyrs Club.

“To see her come back is phenomenal,”  Davis stated. “I really like her demeanor and and how she deals with young people.”

Meeting an Olympian is something new for students, but Muhammad hopes to
draw from her experience as a world-class athlete to educate and inspire them. “I am encouraged to meet with the team because they are on top of their studies,” she stated. “Athletics is one thing and academics is another and if an athlete can’t compete, inspiring them to get a degree is more important [to me],” she stated.

Davis is excited that students will get a chance to interact with former Olympians who have moved on after their athletic careers. “People like Diana and Bob have that special touch because they’ve been there and the two will bring a breath of fresh air at CSU [as] we plan to take athletics and academics…to the next level,” he stated.