The Miami leg of Tavis Smiley’s Covenant With Black America Tour for the most part was generically well attended and embraced. I had mixed emotions initially, but left determined to do my part to make a difference. It’s no secret what has to be done, nor are we hiding the fact that the world knows what shape we as a people individually and collectively we’re in. Statistics don’t lie, and our communities bear the scars that have defined and decimated many a hope and deflated many a dream. There are no easy solutions to rectify this malady, but know that Tavis is not the first to decry the plight of our existence. Before him there was Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, Booker T. Washington felt so motivated that he started a school (Tuskegee), W.E.B. Dubois not to be outdone started a movement (The Niagara Movement) and identified numerically how many and why (The Talented Tenth), and not far behind was his association with the formation of the NAACP. There are a cornucopia of other motivated folk, and well-meaning grassroots associations that for the most part were under-funded and unattended that supported efforts for our salvation and prosperity. Saving Black America from itself is a daunting task that will have to embody a groundswell and determined approach in forming better coalitions, individuals will have to purpose in their minds that it will have to start with self. I surmise that this will be the hardest thing – getting people to understand that their habits will have to change, that they will find it imperative to eradicate the comforts of pleasurable options at the expense of a democratic bonding effect. Can we do this? Yes we can, but we need more than a million more just like Tavis!

Do not underestimate the work of this dedicated soldier for Black social change. He helped to initiate the state of the Black family a few years back with tours just as he’s doing now. I waited and watched hoping for something else to complete the puzzle of us magnifying efforts on all levels for economic and social prominence, but wasn’t disappointed. Why? At the close of the 2005 State of the Black Union in Atlanta, I rejoiced as I read that he was on the bandwagon again as he invited the public to weigh in on the most challenging issues facing Black America today – lack of self-empowerment and non-existence of widespread entrepreneurial fortitude. I'm happy to report that because of the huge nationwide response due to the tours to cities near you, we now have documentation and a plan to achieve this. The overall outline gives individuals, groups, and communities the ways and means to move forward to make this nation better. Just like the Lord gave the Israelites a covenant promising goodwill and blessings, so too shall we have a directive to achieve a new sense of being accountable to ourselves. When we do what is needed to achieve all of the above we not only make Black America better, we make all of America better. The Covenant book is made up of 10 chapters on the issues identified by the public. They include economic disparity, health, education and environmental justice. While the completion of the book marks the end of one journey, it is in many ways the first step for those who want to move forward toward real progress in improving Black communities. It is the basics outlined in those 10 chapters that will foment the basis for my essays.

I will do my part. I will continue to work with and mentor the Distinguished Gentlemen (DG) of The Koinonia Worship Center, my church that is located in Hallandale, Florida. DG are a group of young boys comprising the ages of 6 – 18 that have enrolled in a Rites of Passage program at the aforementioned church to transition them from boys to men. My covenant to them is for them to realize their responsibility and contribution to being upstanding men, a credit to their race, and most importantly their implementation to the blueprint of sustaining self-esteem, familial pride and community embellishment. I will continue to opine with my essays for inclusion here and at other critical locations in the hearts and minds of those that can identify. I will support Tavis one essay at a time, starting with Covenant 1 on to Covenant 12. Here’s hoping that the people that this effort pertain to, do what is necessary on their own to insure economic parity.