In Black America; Tribute to Earl G. Graves Sr.

The following program is the tribute to Earl G. Grave Senior, founder of Black and Apprised magazine in Black America spoke of Grave in November 2001. Grave died on April 6, 2020. He was 85. From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is in Black America. People kept saying to me, how do you do what you did? And I said, well, you know, one day I'll write it. And then somebody said to me, you know, if you wrote it, you could make some money. You know, you get some publicity and it would work out. Well, it was tough because, you know, I'm not disciplined enough to want to sit down and start thinking back to what I did and looking at it. And we're talking about doing this over, oh, it's really working at the heart,

to get a book thing that even with somebody who's working with you. And I did have someone working with me. That person prompted me and me to the money, my just talking out loud, and that person sitting there typing a re in a computer, laptop as we talked and taking notes at the same time, and then coming back and cutting in and putting it back together. And people who are going to publish a book for you, expect to make money. And I must say to you that I got my first royalty check to the beginning of this year. That means I got paid in advance for the book. They did it. What I think was a very reasonable sense of marketing of the book in terms of when it was out. And I guess this is about three years ago. I did this. We did a book tour all over the country, which turned out to be great. She says that we made the, you know, time's best all the business that we made the Wall Street Journal best all the best. Earl G. Gray's senior founder and publisher, Black Enterprise Magazine. Black Enterprise Magazine is the premier business news publication for African-American entrepreneurs, corporate executives, professionals, and decision makers. Gray's has been a tremendous force in leading the Black

business community to new heights and a nationally recognized authority on Black business development. In 1972, he was named one of the 10 most outstanding minority businessmen in the country by President Nixon. In 1974, he was named one of Time Magazine's 200 future leaders of the country. In 1970, with a $175,000 loan, he started his publication. I'm Johnny O'Hanston, Jr. and welcome to another edition of in Black America. On this week's program, Black Enterprise Magazine with founder and publisher Earl G. Gray's senior in Black America. At the end of the day, I urge your listeners to aspire to all the things I've talked about and go even further than I've gone, but in addition to that, look back and not forget to help those who have been less fortunate along the way because if you were fortunate, if you got to reach back and do an end edition, don't forget to take care of yourself. Male, off-female, getting up three and four days a week, if you only walked three miles, I was just off in the Caribbean and then on a

re-degree last week and I walked six miles a day before breakfast. And I urge people to do that because taking care of yourself is very, very important. The reason that you and I are talking tonight is that we have to change it a couple of times because I was having an annual physical at Howard University with their outstanding doctors there and it's a place where I'm also a trustee. And so I believe in also doing businessors who I do business with and so when it comes even my medical care, I believe that I should find qualified African-American doctors and qualified African-American lawyers and whether they're here or she, if they can do the job, I want to do business with them. Earl Gray's has served as publisher of Black Enterprise for 30 years. He's continually sought after as a keynote speaker by small and large corporations alike and is the author of the book entitled how to succeed in business without being white. Gray's has shown himself to be more than just a successful businessman. He is a role model for all African-Americans. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from Morgan State University in 1957 with a BA in economics,

the business school there bears his name. Until recently he served as chairman and CEO of Pepsi Cola of Washington DC, the largest minority-controlled Pepsi Cola franchise in the country. During the span of his business and professional career, he has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding business leadership and community service. Recently in Black America, spoke with Earl G. Gray's senior. I grew up in a household where my mother and father were very much there. My father and mother in particular, my father ran the house with a democracy with a very small D. He, democracy, and turned to what it was. He demanded that my sister, my two sisters and my brother and I all do well in school. They inculcated and have it home that we had to be somebody that we had to own something that we had to do well. But when I was growing up and what was then for Starvation, there was a consensus of community, meaning that if we did something wrong, I'm Mrs. Williams, who was only up to street about three or four doors, would first come down and give me a whack if I wasn't doing something right. And then go back up and sit in the window

and when she saw my father coming down the street from work, very tired from the job that he had, probably she would come down or call from the window and say I had acted up to that man, I was going to get a double dealing one from Mrs. Williams who had already taken care of it and then my father to make sure that I got the message. I don't think that made me a bad person. I don't mean to make this response as long as it is, but I grew up and I also had my first deal to my entrepreneurial yearnings, if you will. I was selling Christmas cards at age seven and my route, if you will, on my sales area was the square block I lived on. I had to keep making right turns that was not allowed to cross the street. So when I got to the corner, I made a right turn, went down the other side of the block and covered that whole square. And within that square, when there were several thousand people in terms of the area that I grew up in. How did you happen to select Morgan State? I worked in a library, one of the many jobs that I had grown up all the way to high school. I was working in a library and as a fact, getting paid 57 cents an hour. And there was a gentleman working there with a name

of Sam Young, who I have many, many times have hoped I would have found him. I don't even know if he's still alive and if he were even hearing this broadcast and said that I'm the same Sam Young used to working. The library would be delighted to know that one is still alive and just to appear notes because he took me down to Morgan on a visit. I listened to him talk about Morgan over a course of a couple of years. He was a graduate of Morgan State and then went on to NYU. And I think it wasn't got his master's degree in library science. And he talked about this Morgan State all the time. And I went down there on just one trip and fell in love. At first, I'd never been on a real college campus before. Went down and I saw it was back all day, which means the religious ceremony is having to do with the graduation, which was going to be the next day. And they were all of these young men who were going to attend it already. And they were going to be sworn in as officially as attendants the next day. And they were walking around and here with the campus with a track and a football field. And I was just dazzled. And I came home and made up my mind that I wanted to go to school. Well, the rest of

in his history, 45 years later, graduate of Morgan State. There's a business school at Morgan State University, which is our largest school on the campus, in terms of number of students in it. And the name of the school is the early grade school of business and management. And so let's just say that Morgan gave me something in terms of an education. And over the last 40 years or 45 years, I've given back to Morgan. And I think in a very meaningful way in terms of what I got from that school and what I think I have an obligation to get back. But of course, as you and I both know John and we've discussed this before, this is something that we both believe in. And that is the giving back, whether it's the NACP or whether it's Operation Police Registration Jackson or the Urban League or Southern Christian Leadership Conference or the program that Mrs. King runs in memory of Dr. King or the colleges that we attend. I've now spoken probably about 60 different college graduations and have probably almost as many honorary degrees. And I look forward to doing it all the time because I think that the young people need

to know what the challenges are. They need to know what it is to accumulate wealth and build wealth because I believe today that if we're going to have the position, we sure the need to have in this country, then we have to do it by wealth accumulation. We're not going to do it by this in itself owning a house. We have to have something that we're going to pass on to future generations. Why and when did you become an administrative assistant to the late U.S. Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy? You've done your research very well, John, but that doesn't surprise me. That's why you're successful as y'all. I worked for Robert Kennedy full time from 1965 to 1968. I joined his staff. I first had worked during his president and when his brother was president as a federal agent and with the tragedy of his death and Robert Kennedy not at the stepping down for being the Attorney General. And all that has came under him as Attorney General. I went into real estate where I had done some sales before and had been quite successful

at it. When Senator Kennedy ran for the Senate in 1964, I had the opportunity to do some volunteer work for him. And that's by the way, the reason that this campaign that's coming up is so important. To me, I assume that by the time this is, the election will be over. But as I said, elections have a very special meaning for me because I believe that the tragedy of Robert Kennedy's death in 1968 not happened. He would have been president in the United States. Our country would be a much better place and a much different place and we would not still be arguing about equality. At least not to the extent that we are today. But anyway, I worked for Kennedy to 68 and with the tragedy of his death in the assassination. I went into business for myself in 1968 and in 1960-90, I then concept of a Black Enterprise magazine came along in August of 1970. It's first issue came out and in this August, we just celebrated 30 years of Black Enterprise in circulation as of January 1st. We'll have a guarantee of over 400,000. There are four million readers of Black Enterprise magazine and we have three sons that work in various businesses

and we have two or four work directly within doing things with the magazine. And you know, you get a return on your investment for paying all this tuition, John. Right. Right before if you stay with it long enough. Having an idea is one thing, but putting that idea into practice and actually seeing it come to fruition. Give us a backstage look at once the idea that formulated in your brain of making that idea a reality. I had worked in economic and I was development for Robert Kennedy in the three years. I worked for him and I was doing this full time. So I did things time to do with real estate development. I did things time to do with health care delivery and I did some things time to do with other areas of urban planning now having to do with the cities of New York State. So he was a senator from the junior senator from New York and the senator Javits and the Republican was the senior senator. Very liberal and also a good man. And then an event with the tragedy of his death, it really was a matter of what was I going to do if I didn't cover it if I'm repeating myself about me.

And so looking at what the opportunities might be, I first thought of an idea of a newsletter. And then somebody suggested to me if I was going to do a newsletter, why not do a magazine? Well since I didn't know very much about a newsletter and probably even less about a magazine, seeing the media that made some sense, I went and asked for some advice from people or I knew I thought they knew something about a magazine. They did offer some health particularly people in the advertising industry and drove on the importance of what advertising was going to mean. Because certainly I know for well one having been in the radio business and done some fairly successfully and two just in knowing for the success and what it took for you to get where you are with your program and your state, your stations because we are both in the communication business. In my case in print and your occasion broadcast, but both of us have to go out and get those all mighty advertising dollars and therefore I have to have a vehicle meaning that magazine that was going to warrant people wanting to advertise. Well we did a couple of dollars shy of doing $40 million a year now with the magazine alone. And so obviously when you reach that level,

we are number 65 and grows out of the thousands of magazines you have in this country this year in terms of the increase in sales that we have enjoyed. I have to give a lot of credit to two of our sons who are directly involved with the magazine. And I think we have to give credit to the fact that we have an outstanding editorial staff. We have an outstanding group of young people who work for it. Not just my two sons are very proud of them. And more and more people recognize the importance of what we are saying and we are how to book with saying to people that we mean to show the way. And we are talking about the importance of wealth saving and wealth accumulation. We are talking about the importance of planning for the future. And I think what gave me more of a push in the right direction was setting goals for myself. I have done that since I can think all the way back when I was eight or nine years old. Why don't I have a bike stick? I went out and saved money by selling Christmas cards to do that. And I couldn't have any more than eight years old. I wanted to be a life card. I made up my mind. I was going to swim because I

knew what the beaches that all the young girls were and they were paying ten dollars and five cents a day. That was a lot of money when I was in college. And so I went down and kept on practicing and swimming and became that life card. I knew I wanted to be an officer in the Army and went to the ROTC. He did that and was fairly successful at that. Although I didn't stay in the service when I got out. I was a captain in the Special Forces, which is a young member. It's the Green Brothers. And if you ask me, I met a wonderful woman who I met and we have now been married 40 years. And when I met her, first of all, I thought she had the second leg that I've ever seen in my life. She wasn't. She wasn't as pretty as she was. But you know, you got to look all over. Now of course, my mother was modified because she just said if she had a warm personality, but I said, ma'am, I can't go on person out there. I got to ride this subway with this lady. So she's got to look a certain way. So I found a lady who I've very much loved to this day. And she, because more, more we've had more and more partners and friends as our marriage continues. We have three sons that said three daughters and seven grandchildren. And so I think I'm

very blessed. And I don't think I do what I do by myself. By the way, I have a spiritual feeling and a belief in the God that says that if you want, you've got to set those same goals and and then an occasion, get out of your knees and not remember that you've got to give something back and that it all doesn't come to you just because you're smart. Mr. Grayson, we spoke about 15 years ago. You had mentioned that it was, it was difficult and convincing advertisers to advertise in your magazine for the simple fact that they didn't believe African Americans was interested in business or interested in investing. I went through my, my stockpile of Black Enterprise magazine found a January 83 edition, 64 pages. Current edition that I located September 2000, which is an anniversary edition, 216 pages. What has changed since then? Well, first of all, my most important firm, I have less hair on top of my head. You and I have this right. I'm trying to make this thing fly. But we had a strategy, we had a plan, we had a goal. We knew that we wanted

to be, we wanted to say how to, I say to my people all the time, we're not saying how to and not doing a job because our magazine really is talking to people, I would say, to you in age in the 39 that they're about. But I mean, it is for the person getting out of college, it is for the person in college. There's something there for everyone. It's the person who's looking at another career. They retire from the army at age 39. They retire from being a policewoman and they want to do something else. They retire. But we, in terms of what we wanted the magazine to do. And now, and 30 years later, John, by frankly, people, the advertisers believe it. We have some of the most obscure advertising you'll find in the country. A second area of advertising, financial service companies, where you're talking about Merrill Lynch, you're talking about Dean Witter, you're talking about the Bank of America, you're talking about Chase Manhattan Bank, you're talking about American Express, which is huge advertising for us. You're talking about Charles Schwab, where we know Mr. Schwab and Dave Pottracker, the co-CEO of that company. But a very few entities you're talking about in that area, we don't do business. We do a ton of business with the

auto industry and very up-skill cars. We're all the big three Toyota Mercedes-Benz now in the call. Daimler Benz, we do business with across the board with BMW Volvo Jaguar. And if to mention those, if you look at the up-skill liquor brands, we certainly do an area of business with those. The colleges who are looking and people who are recruiting, we have the number one magazine in the country for recruitment advertising, because the people that read our magazine and the people that their businesses are looking for. And the other thing you need to understand, we are 20% of the people who read our magazine and people actually are business, people putting the key in the door themselves owning that business. 80 to 85% of the people who work in corporate America, people who work at radio stations and people, and at a radio station there's one owner, two owners unless it's a partnership or unless it's a corporation or some kind of public corporation. And then the other people work that they are very, very good at what they do. For example,

one of the best broadcasts in the country is probably you and I would agree is Tom Joyner. He works for ABC and does a hell of a job and he's a good friend. But the fact is he may own stock in ABC, but he doesn't own that company. He's an owner by virtue of owning some of the stock. And yeah, he's an outstanding executive, one of the premier personalities in this country, whether you tell my broadcast, you're just talking about another area where a person develops himself or herself into being a first-pass personality. And so I am talking to the people who work at IBM. I'm talking to the people who work at Lucin, what used to be Lucin, I'm talking to people that work at AT&T, I'm talking to people that work at airlines, I'm talking to people that work at major multinational corporations. And I'm of course talking to those people who work at black businesses, whether or not that's a radio station, this black program in black owner, or I'm talking about a company such as my owner, I'm talking about the people at essence, or I'm talking about the people at auto dealerships where someone who's African-American owns the dealership. And so we have a broad range,

the reason that we enjoy the popularity I think we do today is because we have, when we have promised our readers and our subscribers to do, we have done as an entity. Why is it important for black enterprise to publish the BE-100s? We had looked at measuring businesses in this country and made up our minds in 1973. Our editors and our editor of staff, that it was time to have a compilation of what the leading black owned businesses were in the country. And the first time we did it was in, I think, the total revenues were $4.73 million. And the number one company in 1970 was Motown Records, or Motown Industries, which was Barry Gordy's company. Today, the number one company by itself is in excess of $4.73 million. So you can show you the progress we have made. And now it is almost 1973, so we're talking 27 years. Now that we've been doing this list, we have now divided the list. And so one half for the list,

if you will, one half for the BE-100s, which is actually 200 companies are the auto dealership, separate lists, and then what we call the industrial service companies. My own company we have had, we have had historically two companies as I just sold our Pepsi Cola business in Washington DC and stay invested with Pepsi Cola. It's one of the outstanding corporations in this country, if not in the world. From a brand-in-point interview, I have a company to do business with. But back enterprise and the other entities we have are still a part of it. Now we own a private equity company, we're today, which is another thing we do. Our corporation lends money not to start-ups and not to real estate deals, but to companies that are mid-sized, African-American, or other minority-owned businesses, or looking for money to expand to go to that next challenge of growing as an entity. So we're talking about people that are doing already, $25, $30 million a year in business. And I'm looking for an investor who's going to put money in, but also wants to own a part of the company. And that's what we do. And then down the road, the he or she will sell the company

with, and we will both make money if everything we've done works out that way we mean it to. So we've gone from what was a very modest listing of the companies in this country back in 1973 to now. And we have a list of the banks and financial institutions. We have a list of the investment banking firms. We have a list of the, excuse me, of the, what have I left out? Let me say, how I mentioned the banks. I mentioned the companies. And sure as companies. Sure as companies. Thank you. And the advertising companies, which are now in a part of the, if you will, the B-E-100s. And there's much research. People finish one year and start doing the research for the next year. It's not something you wait until January to start doing. I mean, by January, we've gotten a good part of the numbers for what will be next year's list. And so it's a very exciting part of what we do. And people, you ask me, once a part of I'm, when am I ever going to retire in the answers? I think they'll take me out feet first and they say, well, I've got a grade put in a good life. And now I'm able to take it right to the cemetery,

right to the funeral home. But I enjoy what I do too much. I want to spend more and more time with my wife. We're going to do a trip around the world next year. It's something that we want to do together. Remember, John, if you and I don't spend it, our kids will, right? Exactly. So, and am I son that I enjoy working together? I must say we have a very unique situation. We have a very close family. We vacation together in the summertime. We vacation together in the wintertime. And so as I said, I feel very blessed in terms of what my family, if you ask me what I measure my success, I put my, I say my family first and then I think whatever I have achieved in business after. When did you come to the realization that you needed to write a book and you did? How to exceed in business? I think what it was two reasons that happened. One is people kept saying to me, how did you do what you did? And I say, well, one day I'll write it. And then somebody said to me, if you wrote it, you could make some money. You get some publicity and it would work out. Well, it was tough because I'm not disciplined enough to want to sit down

and start thinking back to what I did and looking at it. And we're talking about doing this over Oh, it's really working at the heart to get a book banged out even with somebody who is working with you. And I did have someone working with me. That person prompted me and made my, my talking out loud and that person sitting there typing away in a computer laptop as we talked and taking notes at the same time and then coming back and cutting in and putting it back together. And people who have published a book for you, expect to make money. And I must say to you that I got my first royalty check to be beginning of this year. So it means I got paid in advance for the book. They did it. What I think was a very reasonable sense of marketing out the book in terms of when it was out. And I guess it's been about three years ago. I did this. We did a book tour all over the country, which turned out to be very successful. We made the in the York Times best dollar business that we made the Wall Street Journal best dollar list. Did you have me talent writing your name? No, I think that's part of what I enjoy. I mean, I love going on the college campus and talking to students all the time. I love going to

these graduation. I did Ford on this year. I did Grammling this year. I did Florida. I did M this year. I did North Carolina and T and I did Mars Brown. And then somebody else had asked about it when did that one also. And it cost me money. Money is time for me. And so doing them is a one way given back. And in other words, it's a sacrifice. But I mean, I just get to energize visiting these campuses, seeing these young people who have the aspirations that we do. And so with any one thing, I regretted that look at it that racism is still a bounds in this country. It doesn't mean we can't get to where we need to, but it's just one more thing we have to overcome. And not a modest thing. And I would hope, and that's why I think this election is so important that we put in place a person or will have put in place a person by the time this broadcast comes to is a person who will do the right thing. And I must say that I think that person would be hopefully will turn out to be our goal. Why was it important for BE to have these economic summits? You have the tennis and golf challenge. Well, our audience has to meet

each other. We have to network them. You have to know people. We have to we have to find each other. And so we started our conferences, first we started a golf and tennis event, which has become the premier event for upskilled African-Americans meeting each other every day over four day holiday. And it's turned out to be very successful for from the point of view what it is. The largest program or the largest entity happening in terms of the coming together of the kind of people who read our magazine. And it gives them, I mean, you're talking about 500 golfers. Anybody who's a golfer, black in the United States, it doesn't show up in our event. And people will tell you that they're not a real golfer. At least they're not a golfer who really wants to compete and meet and read other African-Americans. And then people who play tennis can do their tennis thing. And then the derailleur we've had this for the last seven years is the premier has a premier first-class spa where people have been known to go in there seven in the morning. I come out till seven at night. And so it is a fun time. People bring their kids. And so there's nine after seven years kids who have met each other. I'm going to start to grow up and some of you haven't

gone off the college together. We've had a couple of marriages that have come out of our event. I haven't heard about any divorces. I'm hoping those don't happen. And now we have, and then the other thing we have, and we're doing now for five years, is our entrepreneurial conference. And that's really focused on strictly on business. We do have some golf in the afternoons, but for the most part, it is a coming together. If you have an interest in how you're going to grow your business, how you're going to start a business, how you're going to consider the idea of a different career, it is a place you'd want to come. If you need money for your business, we have financial institutions who are there to invest in businesses and make loans to businesses from both a private sector point of view, and public companies as well as governmental agencies. So it's something which is extremely successful. We anticipate having a technology conference sometime early next year. We're also moving our entrepreneurial conference to Nashville, Tennessee next year. So the first week in May, the first 10 days in May, I forget exactly the location, but it's a four day event. I don't remember, but I think it's somewhere around 7, 8, 9,

my son will probably shoot me if I'm not known today. But it's something that we look forward to. And then we have a ski challenge in Vale, Colorado. Now all of these things are not just done for fun and they're on the part of our company at all. One, they're done because everything is important for our readership and our people who are our subscribers, but two, that we do, because they are money-making events and things where people do pay and pay because it's something they want to enjoy, something they want to learn, and it's a participation which we think we've been very fortunate to have taken a hold and run with this thing. This has been a tribute to Earl G. Graves Senior, founder of Black Enterprise Magazine. Graves died on April 6, 2020. He was 85. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions as to future in Black America programs, email us at inblackamerica at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and follow us on Facebook. You can have previous programs online at kut.org. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily

those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez, I'm Johnny O'Hanston, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs, KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America CDs, KUT Radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT Radio.