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For 60 years, The Bay State Banner has been at the center of the conversations shaping Black Boston — and this Thursday, we continue that legacy.
Join us for “Black-Owned Businesses: Building Wealth & Strengthening Economies,” part of our State of Black America Forum Series in partnership with GBH Amplifies.
From access to capital and entrepreneurship to ownership and economic growth, this conversation will bring together leaders, innovators, and changemakers focused on the future of Black business.

📍 Hynes Convention Center
📅 Thursday, May 14
⏰ 2:30–5PM

Featuring:
John Barros, Nicole Obi, Collette Phillips, Marvin Gilmore + more.

Panel discussion • Audience Q&A • Networking Reception
Earlier in the day, join us at the Boston Public Library for the live studio taping of GBH Amplifies: Ron Mitchell, The Bay State Banner.
Important conversations. Meaningful connections. Real solutions.

In the midst of war and economic hardship, inspired leadership means governing with wisdom. It means drawing on the knowledge and experience of trusted advisers. It means forging alliances to strengthen the nation in the battles to come. It also means using the bully pulpit to soothe the public and set forth in clear terms what’s at stake and the pathway forward. Think President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his “Fireside Chats” to explain his New Deal policies during the Great Depression and his efforts to defeat the Axis powers during World War II. FDR set a high standard that succeeding presidents, from Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, sought to emulate.

President Donald Trump, never a friend of Black America, has chosen a different approach, one fraught with peril for the American people and the world. Launching a war on Iran in league with Israel, Trump left European allies on the sidelines. Having dismissed senior national security staff, he has relied on relatives, cronies and unqualified cabinet secretaries like Pete Hegseth for guidance. And when it came to communicating his grand strategy to the American people, Trump has pinballed between rationales in his public statements and didn’t even bother addressing the nation for more than a month after the Feb. 28 start of the bombing campaign. And when he did, that address drifted into his usual grievances and failed to offer a clear path ahead.

✍️Ronald Mitchell
🎨 Cagen Luse

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