TELLING OUR STORY Atlanta Business League Podcasts Host: Marti Covington

This is a story about storytellers.  Janis Ware has published the Atlanta Voice for 42 years.  It's a newspaper written for the African-American audience in Atlanta, GA.  

But there's more to her life's work.  It starts with her father, J. Lowell Ware an immensely talented and hardworking man who honored a deathbed request that changed his life.  Lowell was far-sighted, creative and had an extremely strong personality.  When he paid his only daughter's college tuition at the University of Georgia - she had planned to work with him only long enough to pay off her debt to him. It didn't work that way.

Instead, her father directed her to get a real estate and real estate broker's license and she discovered her passion for financial literacy.  She also developed a talent for flipping properties at a time when white Atlanta residents were moving to the suburbs.  She asked for and received 75 separate houses as donations to a community organization she and her father created.  They rehabbed the homes and sold them to families who wanted to live within the city limits.

Janis also talks about the incredible shifts that have taken place within the print industry and how those shifts have affected the reading habits of her audience.  Her ability to adapt is both admirable and amazing, but the good news about this story is that there is a third generation in the family that has already started to take the reigns of publishing the paper.  The younger generation is also adding ideas and potential streams of income to an Atlanta publication that has served its audience for 57 years - and counting. 

This podcast is about two legal warriors who have spent the last 30 years protecting the concepts of equity in the courts, through analysis and by helping municipalities create policies that withstand assault.  

Rodney Strong and Delmarie Griffin are also a married couple who have come together from very different backgrounds. 

Delmarie was raised in Columbus, GA and attended an HBCU as an undergraduate and the University of Georgia for her law and business degrees. 
Rodney Strong was raised in Memphis, TN by parents who were active in the NAACP.  One of his strongest memories is being a 5-year-old child who couldn't go to McDonald's because it was segregated. 

Both came of age as Jim Crow racial separation ended and the struggle to merge ideals in the newly integrated workplaces began.  Rodney Strong was mentored by people who were looked at as giants in his home state and Atlanta, GA.  He gained a reputation for combatting, and winning against, court rulings that threatened the concepts of DEI  (diversity, equity and inclusion).  His life's work started when former Mayor Andrew Young hired him to be the compliance officer for the City of Atlanta.  It continues through his firm, Griffin & Strong PC.  
Delmarie worked as a corporate attorney for Hughes Aircraft for ten years.  She handled compliance and HR in government contracting with high clearance levels. 

The unexpected factor in this couple's story  is their  London School of Economics trained, Ph.D.-holding daughter.  She received a top-rated education and brought her skills back to the family firm as its director of operations.  

When this interview took place, one of the most unsettling court cases on affirmative action in higher education  in recent history had not taken place.  But Rodney and Delmarie  knew it was on the horizon and were already prepared to tackle its ramifications.  They also showcase that the skills and experience they bring to clients are often stronger than those offered by majority-owned firms that dabble in Griffin & Strong's chosen legal fields of compliance and equity.   

This podcast is both a profile and a story about family.  You will learn more than just what Delmarie Griffin, Dr. Imani Tucker and Rodney Strong do; you'll learn a great deal about who they are.  

This  podcast is a 30 minute history lesson.  

When you listen, you'll hear stories about Black entrepreneurs who lived in  1800s, 1900s and 20th century that will make your jaw drop.  That's because William F. Pickard, Ph.D.  qualifies to be a part of this series for two reasons.  He's a very successful Black business owner  with more than 50 years of experience that includes owning a McDonald's franchise, a casino co-owner and being a parts supplier to major car manufacturers in Detroit, MI.  He's also a researcher and his field of choice is Black business history.  

He's a great story teller and  shares facts most people have never heard. 

He spends a little more than 30 minutes describing what Black people did about banking - in the days before white owned financial institutions would accept their business.  He tells a fascinating tale about the family of Horace L. King, a Black builder who started constructing bridges while enslaved.  He also explains why there were devastating financial penalties attached to several Black industries after integration swept the nation. 

Along the way he drops hints to the fact that he's a billionaire.  But he's one who is committed to Black business development and has backed that belief with his dollars.  

However,  it's probably the final story of the podcast that may stick with you the longest.  Dr. Pickard talks about how the  Negro Education Association in Georgia,   made all Black schools teach civics and political science classes - in 1920.  He doesn't say it.  But listeners will understand that a 20-year-old person taking one of those courses that year, wouldn't be able to apply what was learned - until 1964.  If that doesn't make sense to you - listen to the podcast.  It will.   You'll also see why it's a privilege and is of incredible value to have a gifted successful and articulate person,  show such passion for Black business history.  

This is an episode about the second generation of an incredible African American family.   We describe the topics discussed as generational continuance. 

Herman Jerome Russell founded his Atlanta based construction company in 1952.  He made it one of the largest Black owned companies in the United States and then diversified.  He owned a beer distributorship.  He managed real estate and he raised three children with his first wife, Otelia Hackney Russell. 

Those children have run their father's companies for decades.  They are not resting on his accomplishments.  The awe inspiring futuristic look of Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta and the National Museum of African American Culture and History in Washington, D.C. were erected under the leadership of the 2nd generation of Russells.

But this isn't a podcast about buildings.  It's a story about families and what children remember when their father is building an empire.  

Michael and Jerome Russell discuss family dynamics, personal aspirations and what it was like to live in one of the most famous homes in Georgia as children. 
They also show a level of love and respect for each other and what their father's legacy that's both touching and inspiring. 

Milton Jones, Jr.  is one of the most respected business leaders in Atlanta, GA.  He has a professional history in finance that spans decades and can trace his family tree back generations in Atlanta.  

However, there's one characteristic about him that  almost everyone knows.  Milton's mathematical skills are so formidable that he has a nickname.  He's known as the walking calculator.   It's an attribute that  has impressed many people during his years as an executive banker.  But his ability to conduct  complicated equations "in his head" started long before that.   More than one member of Milton's family seems to have had that same talent and they made sure he developed it - starting at age four. 

But this is not just a podcast about a gifted finance guy.  It's also the story of a family who knew that their legacy would be lived through decendents capable of increasing their assets by developing their minds.  Milton's professional life exceeded their expectations.  He understood the responsibility that came with the way he was raised before he went to college in Indiana.  

However, experiences in college allowed him to see life from a drastically different point of view.  It's a perspective that he carried with him after graduation and helped him to make history in the world of banking at age 39.  
He did amazing things in major financial institutions until he and three other experienced African Americans decided to start their own bank.  

It was a great success - until it wasn't. That didn't stop him or break his spirit.  In fact, he pushed past an incredibly unfair disappointment and co-founded a small business.  He still runs that company, and was doing so when he made history for a second time in his life.  

Milton Jones, Jr. is the first African American to chair the United Negro College Fund.  He took that position in 2022.  This year he added another prestigious title when the members of the 100 Black Men of America, Inc. voted him to be the chair of their 7,000 member organization.  

This podcast is about a fascinating, dedicated and gifted man who needs to write a book.  However, by the time the podcast ends you realize he's too busy sharing his incredible leadership gifts to do that.  So what you learn about this man's impressive life will have to be a placeholder until he has time to share stories about himself with a much wider audience. 

The most important thing to know about T. Dallas Smith and Leonte Benton is that they are not quitters.  That shared characteristic has allowed them to make history.    T. Dallas broke barriers in commercial real estate by becoming the first African American broker in the Atlanta market and possibly the state of Georgia. He started his career, officially, in 1982 and  immediately learned it’s a very insular business.   He quickly understood the rules of the game and restructured his resume so that no one would who read it would think about race.  That meant deleting his time attending Tennessee State and even playing basketball from the written record of his accomplishments.  The foresight and planning worked.  The revamped resume landed him a chance to do a phone pre-interview with Thomas W. Tift, Jr.  Tift invited him to an in-office interview and was completely shocked when a young, Black man walked through the door.  Tift told his secretary the job interview with T. Dallas was going to be very short.  It lasted three hours.  T. Dallas not only landed a job in commercial real estate. He gained a mentor and a father figure with Tift.  He learned a lot about the business from a man whose family had owned property for generations.  Six years later T. Dallas left to find work at a larger company.  He  faced obstacles because neither of the two largest commercial real estate companies in Atlanta, GA had ever hired an African American broker.  One company told them they still weren’t ready to do so.  That was in 1989.  T. Dallas still managed to get his experience, take his lumps and then start his own company with a professional ball player as a business partner.   But he was burned out when the ball player met Morehouse College student Leonte Benton.  Leonte’s elevator pitch impressed the ball player who passed the young man’s telephone number on to T. Dallas.    The realtor had no plans to mentor anyone and thought he had a foolproof plan to send the young man packing.  It didn’t work.  In fact, Leonte shocked T. Dallas when the two met up again less than one month later. T. Dallas  was not pleased, but kept his promise and took Leonte on board.  It turned out to be the best decision of his life.  Leonte’s path toward meeting T. Dallas was also unconventional.  He had wanted to be in commercial real estate since he was a child.  But he didn’t come from a family with wealth, a history of traditional  entrepreneurship or even people with college degrees.  Instead, a godfather that made him see life as it really was and nurtured his drive to do good. That guidance put him in the right place to impress T. Dallas. There was another factor that guided the professional life experiences of both men.  They  credit the voice of God with helping them on their journey.  That voice made them change their hearts on more than one occasion.  It made them dream catchers instead of dream chasers. The ability to make changes that started in the hearts and radiated to other parts of their lives allowed them to build a true father and son relationship. Once their bond was forged, something explosive happened to them professionally. The company T. Dallas Smith founded became extremely successful.  In 2020, his company landed a contract with Microsoft that was the largest real estate deal done in the United States that year.  The company passed another milestone in 2022.  T. Dallas turned 60 and named Leonte as president of his company.  He’s 38.  This is a story about big business real estate from perspectives not usually acknowledged.  It gives a glimpse into the lives of two very successful Black men who show how hard work and preparation isn’t always enough to make it in one of the most lucrative industries in the world.