Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher Jr., chairman of New York-based Fletcher Asset Management (FAM) hopes to close the class divide between blacks who benefited from the civil rights movement and those who have not by donating $50 million to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

Fletcher, who made the announcement May 19, said in a press release, “I am thankful for opportunities that the Brown decision created for my family and many other Americans. However, education and other opportunities are still not available to all on equal terms.”

Along with FAM and his two foundations, Fletcher will provide money for educational opportunities targeting groups such as the NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Howard University School of Law, three institutions crucial to the Brown decision.

Fifty fellowships in the amount of $50,000 will be given out to scholars, writers, and artists. Portions of the money will also provide environmental justice scholarships to Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where Fletcher, 38, is currently a graduate student. Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard's African-American Studies department, will serve as chairman of the committee that will advise Fletcher on handing out the funds.

The money will also be used to buy copies of African American Lives (Oxford University Press; $55.00) for every public school in 50 cities, and, provide multiyear support for the Yale Child Development Center's “Comer School Development Program,” a collaboration between schools, teachers, administrators, and parents.

Emmett Carson, president of The Minneapolis Foundation and an authority on black charitable giving, says Fletcher's gift ranks high among black donators such as Oprah Winfrey and Bill and Camille Cosby.

“Brown is a signature event in black history and [Fletcher] understands and recognizes that not all is well in the republic,” Carson says. “He's making a statement with this gift and indicating [that he understands] the challenges, and he's trying to reduce it for other people.”

What's also significant about the gift, Carson says, is that he's giving it at a relatively young age. Most people don't donate like this, he adds, until they lived most of their life or when it's over.

Fletcher has long been a strong supporter of education and donated a copy of the Encarta Africana CD-ROM to more than 1,000 public elementary and middle schools in New York City and Connecticut. In 1999, Ernst & Young honored Fletcher as a New York City “Entrepreneur of the Year,” and in 2002 he was listed as one of BLACK ENTERPRISE's Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street.

Application information for the funds will be posted at Welcome on July 1.

astmartins - credit where credit is due but it always baffles me as to why it is so hard to get fifty million blacks to donate $1 each.

'Cause a whole lotta Black folks live check to check and that dollar means a loaf of Wonder Bread or none.

The point is that we organise to put together some money...

@incognito

I tell my friends the same thing when it comes to business imagine if a group of friends say put £500-£1000 in to some account and invest in property,shares and bonds....
Its the story of our lives a £1 or $1 goes a long way we don't need a Billionaire to do everything for us and even when they do its never enough...funny though our people would rather give a tenth of their salary to the church...businesses creates jobs the church doesn't!!!....as Jim99 said until we start competing on the same level as YTs we always going to be dependent!!
I tell you a true story there was a Nigerian Journalist he had some liver or kidney issue he needed only 20,000 for the operation do you know about a month later only about 2,000 had been collected despite daily campaigns on BEN-TV....

astmartins - it's a disgrace brotha. I remember in my early 9-5 days trying to convince colleagues to put 10 quid of their monthly salary into a common community kitty. The general view seemed to be they worked hard to get where they were so aint bank rolling no low lives.

Been suggesting for a while now what if every night club, every dance and every ticket bought set aside 1 quid of their entrance fee for a common community kitty..do you know how much there would be right now, how many community centres we could build and one off operations we could pay for.

I used to believe if you want something done you have to do it yourself but believe me, nobody aint donating nish after they see the car you drive or the house you live in. People have a way of being unable to distinguish between the merits of your graft and the sweat from your charity. Nigz I tell you!

Or toward nail fill ins, or Yakki, and maybe Alize. NOt many Black people over here starving today, obesity, and apathy are the realer problems.

"If you show a man how to get what he wants he will move heaven and earth for it."

Incog i suspect because we have little real modern day leadership which truely understands how to motivate. They're either too busy alientating themselves and us with their unrealistic and ineffective ideals or they really are sell-outs in it for themselves.

Like this guy there are plenty in America and here who indeed have the funds, power or inflence to make a difference. Some like Oprah etc actually have, but too many havent.

"... Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard's African-American Studies department, will serve as chairman of the committee that will advise Fletcher on handing out the funds ..."

What a shame. With Henry Louis Gates, Jr HNIC at the helm, all we can look forward to is the production of thousands more eurocentric Uncle Toms and Aunt Jemimas.

The donations that matter to help the abused, exploited, deluded and severely retarded people classified as Black / Non-White would not be publicised by the White Supremacist Racist infested press and media.



Any efforts of significance that help people classified as Black / Non-White would not be acceptable by the White Supremacist Racist infested press and media.



Does that make sense?





Why would a White person/business in the media or press choose to publicise genuine and effective work against the impact of White Supremacy when that White person/business benefits from Institutional (Organised) Racism every day?



Think about it.

@Ress
As high profile as Bill Cosby Oprah and Fletcher hardly do you they get a mention of their donations in the mainstream press ...hardly surprising!!....considering we also have other less well known charitable folks

You know MGL i honestly believe its all down to the Individual whether they go to Harvard or Morehouse if they decide to give back or sell out I know history hasn't been kind on the stats of those getting all uppity...
Some and i say some of our value systems are wrong but as @LeMoor mentioned the lack of leadership is whats killing us everyones saying the same things but struggle to channel it into anything really substantial..we still have to do our bit no matter how small

@incognito
Those Dances are a good place indeed!!.... at least your conscience kicks into touch for that moment!!

Not into comparisms but its got to be said YTs generally have access to more money but still have their damn charities for almost everything ....we really need to get off this i ain't given jack its my sweat not everyone is lazy sometimes you come into the world under so many different circumstances some stories are really harrowing but our thing is as far as i got mine you better go get yours!!...we not exactly a selfish race of people the African family has always been one of extended family i guess in the West those values have been eroded and yet its not channeled back in to help the community

Or toward nail fill ins, or Yakki, and maybe Alize. Not many Black people over here starving today, obesity, and apathy are the realer problems.


With all due respect, I'm aware of where a number of the problems in the Black community originate but what doesn't sit right with me is the mention of Yakki and Alize because that's directed at Black folks in the ghetto. Like all our problems would be over if it weren't for those Black people in the ghetto because they're the ones holding us back.

The fact is, getting 50 million Black people to give a dollar each to some cause for our general upliftment isn't going to happen. Why? Because about 20 million of those people who don't have Yakki and fake nails and aren't drinking Alize need that extra dollar for a loaf of bread. Because they are living on the Breadline, not by choice or apathy but:

- Because a large number of us are a people that have too much sh*t going on spiritually, mentally, physically, intellectually, too much to even pause and try to figure it all out, sort out the mess and be 'conscious' because again we are living on the breadline and getting that bread is the priority. Just surviving. Getting By.

And some just Check Out because the pain is too much.

I get so sick of soul-brother-soul-sister-number-one types who just have allll the answers. "Yep, it's just those nigras' apathy and laziness that's holding us back". "Yep, I told those fools to give 5 bucks for this economic upliftment movement and you know they were just so stupid they went off to a club instead".

Did you ever ask why?

Don't act like every Black person that isn't 'conscious' and 'on point' is just some stupid ghetto jigga or some sellout coon. Were you all born conscious and pro-black or pro-whatever? You and I are just lucky, that's all.

Every one of us on this board had to work through sh*t to get to where we are today. Every one of us probably sold out at one time or another and did some sh*t we're ashamed of, but we forget that so quick and wanna look down at those who remind us of what we were at one time or could have been. How many of you have been conscious all your lives? Or maybe you've all forgotten that we all came from the same bucket?

With all due respect, Negroes Please.

If I were you, I'd spend that chedda in the hood. Walk your ass over to the ghetto and spend all them dollars you collect on a sister who's getting her nails done. Maybe she'll listen to you if you pay for her nails and buy her a bottle of Alize and talk to her at her level instead of going in there and 'schooling' her on her 'apathy' and 'messed-up eating habits', lol. Maybe if you buy the bum on the street a bottle of Wild Irish Rose, y'all can sit down on the curb and drink it together and just talk about what he thinks and how he's feeling and maybe what he would like for himself. And then he might ask your ass to help him, because at least he can see you came at him on the ground where he's at.

And even that confused white collar brother that's going to the club; maybe if you tried at his level and didn't just berate him, he might start to listen. Then again, maybe not.