many black accomplishments in America
early in our history either goes ignored
or brushed under a nice red carpet I
truly believe that it is very important
that we remind share and highlight black
achievements we’re young black men and
woman who doubt your capability and
scale to build a united community which
would be significant in America today
for example let’s see if you can
identify which community these three
individuals belong to if the answer come
to your mind hold on to it the first
person is business pioneer mr. JP
Stratford this individual owned at 54
luxurious facili which was considered to
be one of the finest and I mean finest
black owned hotels in America at the
time on top of being rich he influenced
a lot of families in his community to
start businesses and he attracted a lot
of young black professionals to come and
settle in his community the second
person is dr. Andrew Jackson and this
doctor was recognized for being one of
the best and well experienced black
physicians in the country according to
Mayo Clinic and with his influence he
promoted wellness in the black community
and lastly we have mr. Andrew Smitherman
who owned a newspaper outlet which was
respected for his commentaries which
discussed real issues that was happening
within his community and across America
so now the question is which community
do these individuals belong to if you
guessed the Greenwood community that you
are correct
this community was located in Tulsa
Oklahoma I bet if these three
individuals were our lives today black
social media
quick to give him the hashtag black
excellence but they did more than just
live in the same community together and
with their influence the Greenwood
community became one of the wealthiest
black communities in America was so
crazy is the entire state of Oklahoma
only had two airports yet six families
had their own private airplanes now
that’s black excellence
unfortunately in 1921 one of the biggest
race riot occurred in that community
killing many destroying many destroying
over thirty five blocks and leaving many
homeless making it very hard for them to
rebuild again as a community ten years
down the line in the 1930s another
community united exemplifying black
excellence this time not in the state of
Oklahoma but right here in our own very
backyard
the Bronzeville community this community
achieved a lot of great things but like
people here owned their own hospitals
churches apartments banks and they even
attract a civil right leaders like
today I’ll be talking about how unity
within the community as an example of
black excellence and I learned this from
my parents who traveled country to
country in search of financial freedom
and a community to belong in growing up
as a black person in Europe was no
walking apart my father left Ghana at a
very young age and settled in Sicily
Italy where the Mafia originated from he
stayed in a very small community with
different black folks that spoke
different languages and that’s because
they were from different parts of Africa
like Nigeria Sierra Leone and Senegal
this small community dependent on each
other for survival
therefore they helped each other
translate the Italian language to the
people who just arrived
they helped each other find jobs and
also write letters back home a few
months later my father met a young lady
that spoke treaty which is the Ghanian
language and in back in those days to
find a girl that Spokeo language and ate
your food was very rare
therefore it was love at first sight and
nine months later I was born after a few
years we moved up north in the region of
emilia romagna which is about 600 miles
away from sicily the population there
was about 5,400 people in the early 90s
which is about like five percent of the
entire Ohio State Stadium our sense of
community had to change at this point
because we were the only black family in
this community some white people treated
as well and welcomed us nice because
they were fascinated for the fact that
we were the first black family that had
ever encountered and some white folks
just walked past us holding their noses
and harassing us people driving and
honking their horn and saying Negro do
mirtha invited to a pie is it meaning
you black beep go back to your country
those were the norms I remember being in
elementary school and I’ll have kids
asking these stupid questions so as a
kid I would give him stupid answers so
the questions was what color is your
blood so depending on what day it was it
was a different color so on Monday it
could be green and on Thursday it could
be blue my father realized that the
system in Italy made it very difficult
for a black person to itself especially
after a family friend outside of the
community can now find a job as a doctor
because they baby-boomers in that
generation did not want to be touched by
a black person my father told us that we
will be moving to America I got super
excited because I used to relate to all
the black Hollywood characters that I
saw in movies who has seen the movie The
Little Rascals
I remember watching this movie in Italy
and going to school and all the kids ran
around me and said Harrison are you
related to these people and of course I
said Whoopie Gilbert was my aunty so
everybody thought my aunty was a
celebrity initially we were supposed to
move to New York by my uncle suggested
that we moved to Ohio I remember the
conversation that my uncle and my father
had my uncle was like you do not want to
raise your son in New York he is going
to be against that instead of a
professor make sure that you moved him
come to found out or here was Ohio so Oh
H that’s right
coming to America was a dream come true
but the dream turned into a nightmare
when the group of black Americans
laughing came up to me saying you
African booty scratcher go back to your
country till today I can still remember
the sound of people laughing but not a
single white person laughed at that
moment I realized early that the black
community did not like Africans they
made fun of us how he looked how we
talked some even said we had AIDS and at
that moment I decided to stay away from
them they wanted nothing to do with us
and guess what we wanted nothing to do
with Joe either because we knew our
worth and it was so crazy that I did not
even cared why Rosa Parks sat on the bus
I did not care why Martin Luther King
march on Selma and I definitely couldn’t
care about no civil rights movement
because they didn’t know nothing about
who Kwame Nkrumah was or who held
Selassie was so I’m like y’all keep your
leaders and we’ll keep our leaders but
my mindset started to change
after I finished high school and college
when great friends of mine introduced me
to leaders like Marcus Garvey who talked
about the importance of black community
and leaders like Malcolm X who made the
statement that stuck with me for a long
time and he states there could be no
white and black unity unless there was
first black and black unity this
statement rung in my head for a long
time and two years ago when I went to
Ghana and went to the elmina castle
which is where they held the slaves
before they shipped them in the Western
culture the question came to me Harrison
what are you going to do about this
division I made it my mission when I
returned back to America that I will
create a platform start a conversation
where different cultures within the
black community will get to know each
other and know their differences and
focus on their similarities I only had
two tricks food and music and the events
were amazing people shed tears and
people connected with each other I truly
believe that the future is easy to
predict when you know it repeats itself
I believe that we can repeat as a
community that things that the great
communities did a long time ago to me
honestly black excellence is using your
accomplishments and achievements to help
your community so now I’ll leave you
with this question what does black
excellence mean to you thank you [Applause]
early in our history either goes ignored
or brushed under a nice red carpet I
truly believe that it is very important
that we remind share and highlight black
achievements we’re young black men and
woman who doubt your capability and
scale to build a united community which
would be significant in America today
for example let’s see if you can
identify which community these three
individuals belong to if the answer come
to your mind hold on to it the first
person is business pioneer mr. JP
Stratford this individual owned at 54
luxurious facili which was considered to
be one of the finest and I mean finest
black owned hotels in America at the
time on top of being rich he influenced
a lot of families in his community to
start businesses and he attracted a lot
of young black professionals to come and
settle in his community the second
person is dr. Andrew Jackson and this
doctor was recognized for being one of
the best and well experienced black
physicians in the country according to
Mayo Clinic and with his influence he
promoted wellness in the black community
and lastly we have mr. Andrew Smitherman
who owned a newspaper outlet which was
respected for his commentaries which
discussed real issues that was happening
within his community and across America
so now the question is which community
do these individuals belong to if you
guessed the Greenwood community that you
are correct
this community was located in Tulsa
Oklahoma I bet if these three
individuals were our lives today black
social media
quick to give him the hashtag black
excellence but they did more than just
live in the same community together and
with their influence the Greenwood
community became one of the wealthiest
black communities in America was so
crazy is the entire state of Oklahoma
only had two airports yet six families
had their own private airplanes now
that’s black excellence
unfortunately in 1921 one of the biggest
race riot occurred in that community
killing many destroying many destroying
over thirty five blocks and leaving many
homeless making it very hard for them to
rebuild again as a community ten years
down the line in the 1930s another
community united exemplifying black
excellence this time not in the state of
Oklahoma but right here in our own very
backyard
the Bronzeville community this community
achieved a lot of great things but like
people here owned their own hospitals
churches apartments banks and they even
attract a civil right leaders like
today I’ll be talking about how unity
within the community as an example of
black excellence and I learned this from
my parents who traveled country to
country in search of financial freedom
and a community to belong in growing up
as a black person in Europe was no
walking apart my father left Ghana at a
very young age and settled in Sicily
Italy where the Mafia originated from he
stayed in a very small community with
different black folks that spoke
different languages and that’s because
they were from different parts of Africa
like Nigeria Sierra Leone and Senegal
this small community dependent on each
other for survival
therefore they helped each other
translate the Italian language to the
people who just arrived
they helped each other find jobs and
also write letters back home a few
months later my father met a young lady
that spoke treaty which is the Ghanian
language and in back in those days to
find a girl that Spokeo language and ate
your food was very rare
therefore it was love at first sight and
nine months later I was born after a few
years we moved up north in the region of
emilia romagna which is about 600 miles
away from sicily the population there
was about 5,400 people in the early 90s
which is about like five percent of the
entire Ohio State Stadium our sense of
community had to change at this point
because we were the only black family in
this community some white people treated
as well and welcomed us nice because
they were fascinated for the fact that
we were the first black family that had
ever encountered and some white folks
just walked past us holding their noses
and harassing us people driving and
honking their horn and saying Negro do
mirtha invited to a pie is it meaning
you black beep go back to your country
those were the norms I remember being in
elementary school and I’ll have kids
asking these stupid questions so as a
kid I would give him stupid answers so
the questions was what color is your
blood so depending on what day it was it
was a different color so on Monday it
could be green and on Thursday it could
be blue my father realized that the
system in Italy made it very difficult
for a black person to itself especially
after a family friend outside of the
community can now find a job as a doctor
because they baby-boomers in that
generation did not want to be touched by
a black person my father told us that we
will be moving to America I got super
excited because I used to relate to all
the black Hollywood characters that I
saw in movies who has seen the movie The
Little Rascals
I remember watching this movie in Italy
and going to school and all the kids ran
around me and said Harrison are you
related to these people and of course I
said Whoopie Gilbert was my aunty so
everybody thought my aunty was a
celebrity initially we were supposed to
move to New York by my uncle suggested
that we moved to Ohio I remember the
conversation that my uncle and my father
had my uncle was like you do not want to
raise your son in New York he is going
to be against that instead of a
professor make sure that you moved him
come to found out or here was Ohio so Oh
H that’s right
coming to America was a dream come true
but the dream turned into a nightmare
when the group of black Americans
laughing came up to me saying you
African booty scratcher go back to your
country till today I can still remember
the sound of people laughing but not a
single white person laughed at that
moment I realized early that the black
community did not like Africans they
made fun of us how he looked how we
talked some even said we had AIDS and at
that moment I decided to stay away from
them they wanted nothing to do with us
and guess what we wanted nothing to do
with Joe either because we knew our
worth and it was so crazy that I did not
even cared why Rosa Parks sat on the bus
I did not care why Martin Luther King
march on Selma and I definitely couldn’t
care about no civil rights movement
because they didn’t know nothing about
who Kwame Nkrumah was or who held
Selassie was so I’m like y’all keep your
leaders and we’ll keep our leaders but
my mindset started to change
after I finished high school and college
when great friends of mine introduced me
to leaders like Marcus Garvey who talked
about the importance of black community
and leaders like Malcolm X who made the
statement that stuck with me for a long
time and he states there could be no
white and black unity unless there was
first black and black unity this
statement rung in my head for a long
time and two years ago when I went to
Ghana and went to the elmina castle
which is where they held the slaves
before they shipped them in the Western
culture the question came to me Harrison
what are you going to do about this
division I made it my mission when I
returned back to America that I will
create a platform start a conversation
where different cultures within the
black community will get to know each
other and know their differences and
focus on their similarities I only had
two tricks food and music and the events
were amazing people shed tears and
people connected with each other I truly
believe that the future is easy to
predict when you know it repeats itself
I believe that we can repeat as a
community that things that the great
communities did a long time ago to me
honestly black excellence is using your
accomplishments and achievements to help
your community so now I’ll leave you
with this question what does black
excellence mean to you thank you [Applause]
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