Category: Community

Warnock, Wyden Open Senate Inquiry Into Possible Political Use of IRS Enforcement

Sens. Raphael Warnock and Ron Wyden opened an inquiry into reports that Trump administration officials may be influencing IRS enforcement against left-leaning nonprofit organizations.

By Milton Kirby | Washington, D.C. | September 5, 2026

More than a decade after the Internal Revenue Service came under fire for subjecting conservative organizations to improper scrutiny, two Democratic senators are asking whether political officials in the Trump administration are attempting to influence IRS enforcement against organizations on the political left.

U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Ron Wyden of Oregon have opened an inquiry into reports that senior Treasury officials are considering increased scrutiny of left-leaning tax-exempt organizations and potentially revoking their tax-exempt status.

Warnock is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness. Wyden is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

Their inquiry does not establish that the IRS has improperly targeted any organization. Instead, the senators are seeking documents and answers to determine whether political considerations have influenced or are being used to influence federal tax enforcement.

At the center of the inquiry is a question that reaches beyond the organizations or political party involved: Can Americans trust the IRS to enforce the nation’s tax laws without regard to political ideology?

“Americans of every political persuasion must be able to trust that the IRS applies the tax code objectively under one set of rules,” Warnock and Wyden wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Frank Bisignano, acting head of the IRS.

A Reported ‘Blueprint’

The inquiry follows an Aug. 27 report by the New York Post that Treasury officials were reviewing the tax-exempt status of several organizations, including the Open Society Foundations, Southern Poverty Law Center and Council on American-Islamic Relations, as well as other left-leaning and labor-aligned organizations.

According to the report cited by the senators, members of Bessent’s “inner circle” were developing a “blueprint” that could lead to revocation of some organizations’ tax-exempt status. The newspaper also reported that administration officials wanted to complete “a good chunk of the crackdown” before the November midterm elections.

“If accurate, the New York Post report raises serious questions about whether political officials are influencing IRS decisions concerning particular taxpayers in ways prohibited by federal law,” Warnock and Wyden wrote.

“If accurate” is an important qualification.

The senators’ letter raises questions about what administration officials may be considering or doing. It does not establish that the IRS has been ordered to audit the organizations named in the report or that the agency has decided to revoke their tax-exempt status.

Tax-exempt organizations are not beyond federal enforcement. Organizations operating under Section 501(c)(3) must comply with federal requirements governing their tax-exempt status. Among those restrictions is a prohibition against participating or intervening in political campaigns for or against candidates for public office.

At the same time, IRS guidance allows 501(c)(3) organizations to take positions on public-policy issues, including issues that divide political candidates, as long as their communications do not favor or oppose a candidate.

The issue raised by the Senate inquiry, therefore, is not whether nonprofit organizations can be investigated. It is whether organizations are being selected for scrutiny based on evidence of violations or because of their ideological positions.

Federal Law Restricts Political Intervention

Warnock and Wyden point specifically to Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code.

The law makes it unlawful for certain executive branch officials to directly or indirectly request that an IRS employee conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of a particular taxpayer.

IRS employees who receive prohibited requests are required to report them to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. A willful violation can result in a fine, imprisonment of up to five years, or both.

The law also contains limited exceptions, including certain requests by the Treasury secretary resulting from implementation of a change in tax policy.

The senators want to know whether Bessent, Treasury political appointees, White House employees or other covered officials communicated with IRS personnel about audits or investigations involving particular taxpayers.

If such communications occurred, they also want to know whether IRS employees reported them to the inspector general and whether Treasury contends any communication was permitted under the tax-policy exception.

Warnock and Wyden additionally raise questions under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, which generally protects the confidentiality of taxpayer returns and return information.

They ask whether President Donald Trump or White House personnel requested or received taxpayer information concerning tax-exempt organizations connected with the reported initiative and, if so, whether federal requirements governing access to that information were followed.

The letter does not establish that either law has been violated.

National Security Directives Enter the Inquiry

The senators place the reported nonprofit review within a broader series of administration directives.

Their letter points to National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, issued in September 2025, and an executive order directing federal agencies to target financial networks connected to Antifa and domestic terrorism.

Warnock and Wyden contend that those directives extend beyond violent conduct by incorporating ideological viewpoints.

“Rather than targeting actual violence, these directives explicitly conflate terrorism with subjective political viewpoints such as ‘anti-capitalism,’ ‘anti-Christianity,’ and views on race, migration, and gender,” they wrote.

The senators also cite a December 2025 memorandum from then-Attorney General Pam Bondi directing law enforcement to examine financial support for “Antifa-aligned extremists” and pursue applicable tax crimes.

Whether those national-security efforts resulted in improper IRS enforcement against tax-exempt organizations is among the questions the inquiry is seeking to answer.

Ten Questions for the Administration

Warnock and Wyden’s inquiry seeks considerably more than confirmation or denial of the reported “blueprint.”

The senators want the blueprint itself, along with policies, directives, guidance and criteria concerning the selection of tax-exempt organizations for examination or possible revocation.

They want to identify Treasury, IRS, White House and other executive branch officials who developed those policies or recommended particular organizations for review.

They ask whether Treasury, the White House or another executive branch office identified specific organizations for IRS examination, investigation, compliance review or possible revocation.

One question goes directly to the approaching election.

The senators ask whether any executive branch official requested that IRS personnel “accelerate, prioritize, complete, or take enforcement action” concerning particular tax-exempt organizations before the November 2026 elections.

Another asks whether political affiliation, ideological viewpoint, electoral timing or classifications such as “Antifa-aligned” have been used to identify organizations for IRS scrutiny.

The senators also want the administration to explain the legal and evidentiary standards used to determine when a tax-exempt organization has directly or indirectly financed political violence or domestic terrorism and what safeguards prevent officials outside the IRS from directing examinations over the objections of career IRS personnel.

One of their final questions concerns Bessent himself.

Because of Bessent’s previous senior roles at Soros Fund Management and its relationship with the Open Society Foundations, the senators are requesting information about any ethics review, recusal determination, waiver or other safeguards governing his participation in matters involving the foundation.

Warnock and Wyden also instructed Treasury and the IRS to preserve potentially responsive records, including emails, text and encrypted messages, memoranda, notes, calendar entries, meeting materials and draft documents.

They requested answers and documents by Sept. 15.

Echoes of 2013

The inquiry carries particular significance because Washington has confronted questions about political influence over IRS administration before.

In 2013, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS had used inappropriate criteria to identify applications from Tea Party and other organizations for additional scrutiny.

The controversy led the Senate Finance Committee to conduct a bipartisan investigation lasting more than two years.

Republicans and Democrats did not agree on every conclusion. Republicans argued that conservative organizations had been unfairly targeted and that political bias contributed to their treatment. Democrats emphasized serious management failures and noted that the investigation did not establish criminal wrongdoing. The investigation also examined improper treatment and lengthy delays involving some progressive organizations.

But the episode established a broader principle: federal tax administration should not depend upon an organization’s political viewpoint.

Warnock and Wyden invoke that history directly.

“Republican leaders repeatedly argued that tax administration must never be influenced by political bias or viewpoint,” they wrote. “That principle should apply equally regardless of the political views of the organizations involved.”

The comparison provides a standard that does not depend on which political party controls the White House.

If conservative organizations should not face improper IRS scrutiny because of their political views, organizations on the left should receive the same protection.

Enforcement or Political Retaliation?

None of this means nonprofit organizations are immune from government scrutiny.

Organizations granted tax-exempt status must comply with the laws governing that status. Evidence that an organization violated federal tax law can legitimately trigger examination and enforcement.

Warnock and Wyden acknowledge that distinction.

“Organizations that violate section 501(c)(3) should face appropriate enforcement regardless of their politics,” they wrote, “and organizations should never face IRS scrutiny because political officials disapprove of their views.”

That distinction is at the center of the inquiry.

At this stage, publicly available information does not establish that political officials directed the IRS to investigate particular organizations. The inquiry is intended, in part, to determine whether such direction occurred.

It also gives Treasury and the IRS an opportunity to dispute the senators’ premise, explain the purpose of any review of tax-exempt organizations and describe safeguards intended to keep political considerations from influencing IRS enforcement.

The senators have requested answers by Sept. 15.

Those responses could provide the first opportunity to compare the allegations that prompted the inquiry with the administration’s account of what Treasury and the IRS are actually doing.

Until then, the central question remains unanswered: Are organizations being examined because there is evidence they violated federal law, or because political officials disagree with their views?

The answer could determine whether this remains a dispute over tax policy and political rhetoric or becomes a larger examination of the independence of the Internal Revenue Service.

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Can a Black Veteran Farmer Win in Rural Georgia?

Shawn Harris’s grassroots campaign tests whether a Black Democrat can compete in deep red rural Georgia, leveraging biography, small dollar fundraising and growing support across northwest communities.

“This story was originally published by Barn Raiser, your independent source for rural and small town news.” 

Gap narrows in a district once held by Marjorie Taylor Greene

By Barn Raiser |  August 29, 2026

Lori and Scott Jordan were leaving the Kroger in Dallas, Georgia, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. They were among the rare people willing to stop and talk politics while others hurried to their cars.

“I got plenty to say,” says Lori. They’ve seen the price of everything go up recently. “The sign right there tells a lot of it. $4.09,” says Scott, pointing to a nearby gas sign. “[The president’s] on TV saying it’s less than $2 per gallon.”

Democrat Shawn Harris speaks to supporters during townhall in Chatsworth, GA July 21, 2026 (Milton Kirby)

The Jordans, a white, middle-aged couple, say they are voting for Shawn Harris, a Black retired brigadier general running as a Democrat for Congress in Georgia’s sprawling 14th Congressional District. The couple frequently finished each other’s sentences while explaining that in the last two years, Scott, 63, who uses a pacemaker, lost his federal health coverage. After the One Big Beautiful Bill rolled back tax credits and imposed new requirements to the Affordable Care Act in 2025, their adult children no longer have access to health insurance, including their daughter, a recent cancer survivor. 

“She doesn’t have insurance now,” Lori says quietly. 

Dallas, a town of 15,000 more than 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, is the county seat of Paulding County, one of the most competitive parts of a congressional district that spans roughly 3,000 square miles along the northwest corner of Georgia’s state line. In previous years, the district held national attention because of its firebrand Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

Greene rose to power in 2020, riding a wave of extreme right-wing reaction during the pandemic, during which she compared vaccine requirements to the yellow stars that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. Her unabashed promotion of Donald Trump’s false claims of a rigged 2020 election, QAnon conspiracy theories and Christian Nationalist views enabled her rapid ascent as a central figure of the MAGA movement. 

Yet Greene’s subsequent fall from grace in the Republican party has marked one of the more astonishing political reversals in recent memory. By 2025, tensions that emerged between Trump and Greene had turned into a full-blown rift as Greene criticized Trump for his opposition to the Epstein Files Transparency Act and ignoring an “America first” agenda with military interventions in Venezuela and Iran. In November 2025, Greene announced her decision to resign from Congress, leaving power up for grabs in her Georgia seat. 

14th US Congressional District

In a March special election to complete Greene’s unexpired term, Democrat Shawn Harris finished first in a crowded field of 17 candidates, 12 of them Republicans, receiving 37% of the vote. Republican Clay Fuller finished second with 35%.

In the April runoff, Fuller, who is white, defeated Harris, with 56% of the vote to Harris’s 44%, a difference of just over 15,000 votes. In Paulding County, population 191,000, Harris lost by just 273 votes, garnering 49.9% of the vote, a dramatic 9-point improvement over his previous run. 

Both men subsequently secured their parties’ nominations for the November election (Fuller also received Trump’s endorsement), setting up another Harris-Fuller contest, this time for a full two-year term.

The result could carry implications beyond northwest Georgia. In 2024, Harris challenged Greene and lost decisively, receiving just 36% of the vote. Harris’s 44% in the April runoff could either represent evidence of an electorate becoming more receptive to him or the ceiling for a well-funded Democrat in one of Georgia’s most Republican congressional districts.

At a time when Democrats nationally are searching for ways to compete outside major cities and suburbs, Harris is testing whether biography, small-dollar fundraising, local organizing and a deliberate appeal to independents and Republicans can overcome a district’s deeply established partisan identity.

Soldier, farmer and candidate

For Harris, a retired brigadier general and cattle farmer, places like Paulding may determine whether his latest campaign for Congress ends differently from the ones before it.

He is attempting something Democrats have been unable to accomplish in this deeply Republican corner of Georgia: win a seat in Congress. And he’s attempting it as a Black man in an 88% white district without an ounce of support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). 

This time, however, his numbers show his effort is about more than making a statement.

Harris’s appeal to northwest Georgia voters begins with his biography.

He grew up on his family’s farm in southwest Georgia. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He later earned a degree in agribusiness from Tuskegee University, where he met his wife, Karla. He transitioned to the U.S. Army, serving as a combat infantry commander in Afghanistan and rising to the rank of brigadier general before retiring. Today, Harris and his wife operate a first-generation grass-fed cattle farm near Rockmart, 50 miles northwest of Atlanta.  

Speaking before voters in rural Chatsworth in July, Harris presented himself as a politician focused on constituent service.

“When I get to D.C., my focus is one hundred percent you, your kids and your grandkids,” Harris told the audience. “I don’t need to be seen on TV. I’m not looking to be some celebrity.”

Shawn Harris speaks to voters at a campaign event in Chatsworth, Georgia, on July 21. (Milton Kirby)

For at least one voter in Chatsworth, that message strikes a chord. Peggy Hobgood voted for Trump 3 times. 

“Just seems like this time, I hate to say this, that man’s all about putting his name on a building or a boat or a dollar bill,” Hobgood says. “We don’t need a president like that and we don’t need another one falling in behind him either. I just hate to see people, older people who worked their whole lives and they’ve got nothing.” But Hobgood says she has no plans to vote again because “it’s crooked everywhere.” 

Harris calls himself a moderate, “common sense” Democrat and argues that his path to Congress requires a coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans. He is running on bread-and-butter issues such as better roads, more mental health services, more health clinics, lower grocery prices, expanded broadband and a fully-funded farm bill. Fuller, his opponent, is an attorney who also serves in the Air National Guard. Fuller grew up in north Georgia and was the district attorney for a four-county circuit in northwest Georgia, according to his campaign website. Appointed by Trump as a White House Fellow during the president’s first term, he identifies himself as a Christian conservative who defends the unborn. He espouses America First policies including tougher immigration enforcement and mass deportation. 

Donald Trump carried the 14th District by roughly 37 percentage points in 2024. But the president’s polling numbers have sunk to new lows. Democratic candidates across the country are tapping into the economic hardship voters are facing from arbitrary on-and-off tariffs and an unprovoked war on Iran driving up prices while Republicans respond with cries of communism. 

Harris sees his campaign’s role in a larger Georgia political landscape where many key races are in play. 

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, is in a statistical tie with billionaire newcomer Rick Jackson for the open governor’s seat, according to Georgia-based pollster InsiderAdvantage, WABE public radio reports. Jackson announced last week that he has allocated $87 million in advertising against Lance Bottoms, who has less than $1 million on hand. The same poll also showed Sen. Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent, 7 points ahead of his challenger Mike Collins. Both candidates are multimillionaires, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. 

“If Jon Ossoff is still our senator, and Keisha Lance Bottoms is our governor, she just made history,” Harris tells Barn Raiser. “And then everybody else below me gets elected, all the way down to the lowest level you can come up with, and I lose, that is still a win.”

Measuring rural support

Harris Campaign Communications Representative Lauren Boone tells Barn Raiser that support is already developing across rural Northwest Georgia. 

Boone points to local volunteers, donors, people placing yard signs and residents attending events. The campaign says its volunteer operation extends throughout the district and includes people from rural and agricultural communities.

Boone also claims that campaign canvassing from the special and runoff elections indicated Harris received support from 65% of independents and 20% of Republicans.

Georgia does not register voters by political party, making crossover voting difficult to determine from election returns alone, so the campaign’s numbers do not prove Harris won 20% of Republican voters. But they reveal what Harris’s campaign believes its own voter contacts are telling it, and they help explain the campaign’s strategy.

A yard sign supporting Shawn Harris in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. (Milton Kirby)

An analysis of the election results offers some insights, though. In more Democratic-leaning parts of the district, Harris was able to hold his own, garnering between 43% and 58% of the vote. 

But the numbers change considerably farther into the district’s Republican strongholds. In those areas, support for Harris ran between 24% and 36%, far behind Fuller. 

Perhaps most strikingly, Harris received only 31% of the vote in Polk County, where he lives and farms.

Those results show both the opportunity and the problem facing his campaign. Harris has demonstrated significant competitiveness in portions of the district, while a substantial Republican wall remains elsewhere.

Can Harris really win over Republicans?

The narrow margin in a Republican stronghold like Paulding does not mean that Paulding has suddenly become Democratic, nor does it establish that large numbers of Republicans crossed over to Harris.

It does demonstrate something more limited, but important: in at least one populous part of this overwhelmingly rural and Republican district, Harris was able to make the race essentially even. 

For Democrats looking nationally at whether deeply Republican territory can still be contested, Harris does not necessarily have to turn every red county blue. Neither does he have to persuade most Republicans to vote Democratic. He just needs enough of them, combined with Democrats and independents, to change the arithmetic in counties where Republican margins have traditionally been overwhelming.

Rural Georgians feeling the economic pain of the Trump administration’s policies combined with inaction by a Republican-led Congress might just tip the scale.

Paulding County offers a glimpse of what that would look like.

An $8 million question

Harris has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to raise money without party support.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show his campaign raised approximately $8.1 million from April 2025 through June 30, 2026, four times more than his opponent. 

Nearly all came from individual contributions. About $6.22 million of Harris’s individual contributions were reported as unitemized.

Communications Representative Boone says the average contribution is $22.02, although that figure cannot be independently verified by FEC reports. Fewer than 50 contributors have donated more than $3,000. Harris reported no candidate loans and no contributions from party committees.

Campaign records show that Harris hired a Massachusetts campaign consultant called Campaign Industries, founded by a veteran election campaign organizer Mac D’Alessandro and a veteran union organizer John Hennelly. It offers candidates complete campaign services from creating strategy to hiring, firing and managing field staff. 

The Harris campaign has dedicated more than $3.2 million to digital fundraising and social media, which explains, in part, the high number of small donors. 

Boone says the campaign maintains a small staff, with four regular staffers and several part-time consultants and support staff, allowing it to devote resources to direct voter contact.

“We are very focused on our field program, door knocking, phone calling, town halls, etc. throughout the district,” she says. “Our amazing volunteer corps has played a big part in allowing this model to work so successfully.”

Less than $1 million was spent on campaign staff during the 12-month period, according to Boone. The remainder went toward fundraising, voter contact and persuasion through field operations, social media and paid media.

Boone says that in addition to nearly 200 active volunteers inside the district, the campaign has more than 500 nationwide. Some of those volunteers, she says, are expected to travel to northwest Georgia during the closing days of the campaign. For a congressional candidate receiving no DCCC support, the nationwide volunteer network presents an unusual contrast. 

Republican Clayton Fuller’s financial operation looks considerably different.

Through June 30, Fuller reported approximately $1.85 million in receipts and $1.78 million in spending. About $1.08 million came from individuals, with his top donors contributing tens of thousands each and another $305,481 from other political committees. Fuller also loaned his campaign $450,000.

The Republican PAC Conservatives for American Excellence has spent nearly $500,000 opposing Harris. Additionally, more than $2.7 million in dark money is backing Fuller. 

Fuller’s donor list includes the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Koch Foundation, MAGA, Inc., Lockheed Martin and WinRed. His PAC donor list is more than 100 organizations long and totals an estimated $305,000. (By comparison, four PACs have donated just under $14,000 to Harris.)

Fuller has also spent the majority of his funds on media buys and digital strategy. His campaign consultant is Wiregrass Strategies, a firm run by Brandon Phillips, manager of Donald Trump’s 2016 Georgia presidential campaign. There is little indication of major expenditures on field staff in his FEC report. His campaign did not respond to requests for interviews.

The contrast shows Harris is attempting to finance a competitive campaign largely through individual contributions and an enormous small-dollar fundraising operation.

Fuller, on the other hand, is benefiting from a different financial ecosystem, including candidate financing, PAC contributions, major donors and outside spending.

A test bigger than GA-14

Harris frequently tells audiences that “leadership matters.” For him, the phrase extends beyond winning an election.

“Leadership means you know when to get the hell out of the way, so somebody else can get in the seats,” Harris told an audience in July.

He has also framed leadership as something extending beyond himself, talking about helping elect other candidates and building political participation throughout the ticket. 

His campaign expenditures show he means it. Not only is the Harris campaign not receiving funds from the Democratic Party, he is donating to them. Federal filings show the Harris campaign donating more than $27,000 to Georgia’s state Democratic party and multiple county Democratic parties in the district for event sponsorships and more.

Georgia’s 14th District is becoming a test of something larger: Can a Black Democrat compete in deep-red rural and white America without waiting for the national party to decide the race is winnable?

Harris is betting millions of dollars, hundreds of volunteers and yet another campaign that the answer is yes.

In the Bronx, Finding Cancer Early May Begin With Finding Each Other

Bronx residents and lung cancer survivor Colette Smith show why community trust, early detection and access matter ahead of a September cancer health conversation.

By Milton Kirby | Bronx, NY | August 31, 2026

Along a Bronx street lined with apartment buildings, Colette Smith tends flowers growing in beds along the sidewalk.

She is quick to correct anyone who calls it her garden.

“It’s our garden,” Smith said.

The flowers have grown from seeds. Solar lights illuminate the beds after dark. Trees provide shade on hot days, when neighbors sometimes bring out lawn chairs.

For Smith, working in the soil provides something more.

She is a lung cancer survivor.

Colette Smith The Bronx, NY (Milton Kirby)

Cancer, she said, “can live in your head if you let it.” Even years after treatment, an upcoming scan or unexpected reminder can bring the anxiety rushing back.

“When I come out here and I play in the dirt and the soil, it quiets that,” Smith said. Working with something living and beautiful, she said, gives her a feeling of control.

These days, Smith is cultivating more than flowers.

She is trying to grow awareness about lung cancer in a borough where residents face significant health disparities, and where getting potentially lifesaving information to the people who need it can be a challenge.

On Sept. 19, HEAL Collaborative, with support from Amgen, Merck and Commonpoint Bronx, will hold a community conversation at Commonpoint Bronx, 1665 Hoe Ave. The program is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m..

The gathering will focus on lung cancer screening and treatment while also addressing patient navigation, mental wellness, financial health literacy, medical debt and access to care.

But before residents walk through the doors, another part of the work is already taking place outside them.

It is happening on sidewalks, beneath elevated subway tracks and at bus stops.

Sometimes the conversation begins with a simple question:

Do you know someone who could benefit from this information?

Sometimes the answer is no.

Sometimes there are only minutes to discover that the answer is yes.

A Cancer She Wasn’t Expecting

Smith did not fit the image many people still associate with lung cancer.

She did not smoke.

Her cancer was discovered after an unrelated medical procedure. Smith said an elevated heart rate eventually led her to an emergency room, where doctors performed a CT scan while looking for blood clots.

Instead, they found nodules in her lungs.

Smith recalls being told that because she did not smoke, she should not worry about the nodules and should follow up in six months.

She didn’t wait.

Smith went to her primary-care physician. Another scan was performed about four months later, but questions remained.

Finally, Smith asked her doctor a different kind of question.

“If this were your wife, what would you do?”

She was referred to a cardiothoracic surgeon.

That encounter did not satisfy her either.

Smith eventually sought another surgeon and continued asking questions, including whether a biopsy could be performed before major surgery. The process ultimately confirmed lung cancer at an early stage, and surgery followed.

The Lung Cancer Foundation of America identifies Smith’s diagnosis as Stage 1A adenocarcinoma in 2015 and describes her as a never-smoker.

Her experience now informs one of the messages she carries into her community: lung cancer is not only a smoker’s disease, and patients sometimes have to push for answers.

“But I Don’t Smoke”

That message remains necessary.

During conversations with Bronx residents about the upcoming program, questions about lung cancer sometimes produced an immediate response:

They didn’t smoke.

In one encounter, two women responded that way after hearing about the Sept. 19 program.

The conversation turned to something they had not necessarily considered: people who have never smoked can develop lung cancer.

That does not mean every nonsmoker should receive routine lung cancer screening. Current screening recommendations generally target people at high risk based largely on age and smoking history.

But Smith’s experience illustrates why lung cancer cannot be viewed exclusively as a smoker’s disease.

One of the women described keeping up with other preventive health care, including mammograms and gynecological visits.

Another woman encountered during the outreach said she had been screened and was approaching her 50th birthday.

These encounters were not a scientific survey and cannot establish what Bronx residents generally know about lung cancer.

But they offer a glimpse of the challenge facing organizations trying to increase awareness.

Before someone can decide whether screening or additional information might be relevant, that person first has to understand why it could matter.

Smith has seen what can happen when that connection is made.

She recalled meeting a man during a neighborhood block party where she shared her cancer story.

Later, he returned with news.

“I heard your story and I went and got screened,” Smith recalled him saying.

According to Smith, doctors at Mount Sinai found a lung nodule and began monitoring it. The man smoked, she said, but Smith believes another part of their encounter was important.

He trusted her.

He heard the information from someone in his community and acted on it.

For Smith, that is what impact looks like.

“There are more stories out there like that,” she said. “We just need to find them or they need to find us.”

Ishawna Bridges, The Bronx, NY (Milton Kirby)

Ten Minutes at a Bus Stop

Under elevated subway tracks in the Bronx, the roar overhead and noise from the street made conversation difficult.

Ishawna Bridges was waiting for a bus.

There were perhaps 10 minutes before it arrived, only a brief window to tell her about the Sept. 19 community conversation on lung cancer screening and treatment.

Then the conversation changed.

Bridges said her mother has Stage 4 kidney and lung cancer.

“My mom’s has stage four kidney and lung cancer,” Bridges said during a brief recorded statement. “And I think this will be a good result and good information for me and my mom.”

She wanted to attend the Sept. 19 gathering and hoped her mother could attend as well.

Bridges discussed trying to get her mother there and possibly enlisting her brother’s help.

She carries other family responsibilities as well. Bridges said she has a nonverbal son with autism and another son with multiple sclerosis.

“I have a lot going on,” she said.

Then the bus came.

A woman who had been waiting for public transportation was gone.

But in those few noisy minutes beneath the elevated tracks, what began as an effort to tell a stranger about a community health program had connected with a family already confronting advanced cancer.

For Bridges, questions about cancer treatment were not theoretical.

They were already inside her family.

Her encounter illustrated something easily lost when community health is discussed in terms of programs, initiatives and statistics.

People have to be reached in the middle of their lives.

They are catching buses. Going to work. Caring for children and parents. Managing illnesses. Paying bills.

Sometimes there may be only 10 minutes to make the connection.

Lung Cancer and the Bronx

Traveling along the Bruckner Expressway offers another view of the Bronx.

Older brick apartment buildings line portions of the roadway, many with window air-conditioning units jutting from window after window. From the expressway, parts of the borough can appear caught between eras.

The view does not tell the whole story of the Bronx. But it offers a visible reminder that New York’s prosperity and modernization has not reached every neighborhood in the same way.

At the street level, however, another Bronx emerges.

People tend flowers along the sidewalk. They wait beneath elevated subway tracks for buses. They care for children and aging parents. And community advocates such as Colette Smith work to make sure their neighbors have information that could someday save a life.

It is against that backdrop that the Sept. 19 community conversation will take place.

The Bronx had an estimated 1.38 million residents in 2024. About 55% were Hispanic and nearly 30% were non-Hispanic Black, according to the New York State Department of Health. More than one in five Bronx families lived below the poverty line during the 2020-2024 period, and nearly 36% of children were living in poverty.

Lung cancer also cuts across racial and ethnic lines.

From 2020 through 2022, the age-adjusted lung cancer incidence rate in the Bronx was 38.5 cases per 100,000 residents, according to state health data.

The rate was highest among non-Hispanic White residents, at 53.6 per 100,000. It was 43.8 among non-Hispanic Black residents, 34.4 among Asian and Pacific Islander residents and 30.6 among Hispanic residents.

Those numbers are important because they prevent an oversimplification of the story: Black Bronx residents do not have the borough’s highest lung cancer incidence rate.

But incidence is not the only measure of disparity.

Across New York, Black people with lung cancer are less likely than White patients to have their disease diagnosed early, according to the American Lung Association’s State of Lung Cancer report.

The report also identifies disparities in survival and treatment among Black patients. Those findings provide a broader context for Smith’s concerns about the experiences of Black women with lung cancer.

Smith belongs to an affinity group of Black women who have experienced the disease. She said the group once included 32 women and that three have since died. Many, she said, experienced later-stage disease.

“We don’t get believed when we go to doctors’ offices and we describe symptoms,” Smith said. “We are not given diagnostic measures. We just get ignored.”

Smith’s experience cannot establish how frequently that happens throughout the health-care system.

But independent health data show that disparities in lung cancer diagnosis, survival and treatment exist.

The numbers and Smith’s experience arrive at the issue from different directions.

Together, they raise a question central to the Sept. 19 gathering: How do communities make sure people receive useful cancer information, and can act on it, before opportunities for early intervention disappear?

Four Organizations Behind the Conversation

That challenge is bringing together HEAL Collaborative, Amgen, Merck and Commonpoint.

Their support of the Sept. 19 community conversation brings health advocacy, private-sector resources and an established community presence together in one place.

But the larger question is not simply who supports a Saturday health event.

It is what happens afterward.

A community conversation can provide information for several hours.

Improving health outcomes requires people to know what to do with that information after they leave, where to go, whom to call and how to navigate the barriers between learning about screening and actually receiving appropriate care.

Smith believes part of the answer is trust.

She wants health outreach to happen in ways that feel natural to the community, including conversations and activities where residents feel comfortable asking questions. She has discussed bringing screening resources directly into neighborhoods.

She knows what can happen when people feel comfortable enough to listen.

One man heard her story.

Then he got screened.

Cancer Doesn’t End With Treatment

Smith’s advocacy did not end when doctors removed her cancer.

She said other lung nodules have been monitored for roughly 11 years. Some have disappeared or calcified.

Neither did her experience navigating the health-care system end after surgery.

Smith said an insurance company denied coverage for one of her surveillance CT scans about two years ago.

She challenged the decision.

“We got to fight them,” she said.

There was also the financial side of cancer.

Her husband’s earlier experience with prostate cancer prompted Smith to obtain disability and catastrophic-illness insurance and think more seriously about how the family would manage if she became seriously ill.

Two or three years later, she said, she received her own lung cancer diagnosis.

Because those protections were already in place, Smith said she was able to spend months recovering at home without the same fear about what she calls “financial toxicity.”

That experience helps explain why the Sept. 19 conversation extends beyond screening and treatment to mental wellness, financial health literacy and medical debt.

Cancer can begin with an abnormal scan.

Its consequences can spread into employment, household finances, transportation, caregiving and mental health.

Smith knows that.

So does Bridges.

But the two women stand at very different places in the cancer journey.

One is years beyond an early-stage lung cancer diagnosis and now spends part of her life encouraging others to seek information, ask questions and advocate for themselves.

The other is a daughter whose mother is confronting Stage 4 disease and who hopes a Saturday morning community conversation might provide information her family can use.

Between those experiences are Bronx residents whose relationship with cancer may not yet be known.

Some may be caring for someone with cancer.

Some may qualify for lung cancer screening.

Some may need help navigating treatment.

Some may be worried about what medical care will cost.

Some may simply hear something on Sept. 19 that becomes important later.

And others may never walk through the door unless somebody reaches them first.

Finding Each Other

Back on her Bronx block, Smith continues tending the flowers.

The garden gives her somewhere to put some of the anxiety cancer left behind. Her advocacy gives her somewhere to put the experience.

Smith believes there are other people who need to hear what she and other survivors have learned.

“We just need to find them or they need to find us,” Smith said.

A short distance away, beneath the elevated subway tracks, that challenge became literal.

Bridges was waiting for a bus.

The trains and traffic made it difficult to hear. Her mother has Stage 4 cancer. She had other family responsibilities waiting for her.

And there were perhaps 10 minutes to make a connection.

Then the bus came.

On Sept. 19, HEAL Collaborative, Amgen, Merck and Commonpoint Bronx, will try to bring more of those connections under one roof.

But the work of reaching people will continue after the chairs are put away.

Because somewhere in the Bronx, another person may be waiting for a bus, walking home, sitting beneath a shade tree or simply going about an ordinary day unaware that a conversation they have not yet had could someday matter.

Smith put the challenge more simply.

“We just need to find them or they need to find us.”

In the Bronx, perhaps they need to find each other.

The HEAL Collaborative is based in Atlanta, GA. To learn more, please visit: www.healcollaborative.org.

Related articles

One Small Card, One Big Question That Changed a Life

Six Blocks That Changed the Conversation About Lung Health

A Celebration of Hope Inspires Birmingham’s Community Conversation on Lung Cancer

Part I – “Anyone With Lungs”: Understanding the Hidden Realities of Lung Cancer

Part II – “Your Lungs Are Talking”: How the Respiratory System Works – and What It Tells Us

Part III – “From Awareness to Action”: Communities Confront Lung Cancer Together

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Beyond the Title: USBC Power 50 Celebrates Black Women Who Turn Influence Into Impact

The U.S. Black Chambers 2026 Power 50 Women of Influence honors Black women whose leadership, entrepreneurship and impact are shaping business and communities nationwide.

By Milton Kirby | Washington, D.C. |August 30, 2026

Inside The Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., accomplished Black women from across the country gathered Monday, July 13th to be recognized for their influence.

They were executives and entrepreneurs, filmmakers and advocates, corporate leaders and community builders. Their professions differed, as did the paths that brought them into the room.

But throughout the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. 2026 Power 50 Women of Influence luncheon, conversations kept returning to a larger question: What makes someone influential?

Nicole Parker had a straightforward answer.

“How you give, how you serve, how you show up.”

Parker, a member of the inaugural Power 50 class, was describing qualities behind an annual recognition of Black women whose leadership and impact extend across business, government, healthcare, finance, entertainment, technology, nonprofit leadership and other sectors.

Some of the women honored have names recognized far beyond their industries. Others have spent years doing consequential work with considerably less public attention.

That distinction is part of why the Power 50 exists.

Looking Beyond Familiar Names

Tiffany Murphy, who works with the Power 50 program, said its beginnings grew partly from noticing who was, and was not, receiving recognition.

“We realized the same Black female executives were getting recognized, but there were so many that were doing wonderful things,” Murphy said. “And that’s what essentially became the Power 50.”

The response to the program suggests just how many women fit that description.

Murphy said USBC received nearly 1,000 nominations for the 2026 class.

Organizers then faced the difficult task of narrowing that pool to the women who would receive the annual recognition. Despite the Power 50 name, Murphy acknowledged that organizers have found it difficult to limit the final class to exactly 50.

The number of nominations points to something larger than an awards program. There is no shortage of Black women leading companies, building organizations, influencing industries and serving communities. The challenge is making sure more of that work is seen.

Murphy believes the program itself is beginning to reach another stage.

“I think this is the first year it’s really kind of did its own thing,” Murphy said. “We’re five years in. It’s getting buzz. People are learning more about it.”

The 2026 class included women from a broad range of professions and experiences.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was named Global Trailblazer of the Year. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett was named Woman of the Year.

Isaacs made history in 2013 when she became the first African American to serve as president of the Academy. She now serves as founding director of the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University.

But national name recognition is not what defines a Power 50 honoree.

The class also includes women building businesses, creating nonprofits, opening professional pathways and working in communities where their names may never regularly appear in national headlines.

“How You Give, How You Serve, How You Show Up”

Parker has watched the Power 50 develop from its early years.

A small-business owner and USBC board member, she returned for the 2026 luncheon as a previous honoree supporting a new class of women.

“The Power 50 is just about women leading the movement, from women entrepreneurs to C-suite executives in all industries,” Parker said.

Asked what goes into identifying a Woman of Influence, Parker did not begin with titles, money or celebrity.

“They look at community,” she said. “They look at the impacts that you’ve done in your industry or in the community, how you give, how you serve, how you show up.”

Inside the luncheon, those qualities took different forms.

For one woman, influence meant turning a missing pathway into an opportunity for others.

For another, it meant recognizing the collective economic and creative power of Black women.

And for another, being honored for decades of work became a reminder that there was still more to do.

Creating the Opportunity She Once Needed

Agnes Moss knows what it is like to search for a professional pathway and not find one.

Moss, founder and president of the National Black Movie Association, once dreamed of working in film.

Agness Moss – Photo by Milton Kirby

While attending North Carolina Central University, she could see successful Black filmmakers such as Spike Lee and John Singleton. What she could not see was a clear path from college into a sustainable career in the industry.

“We didn’t have social media, so there was no direct path to get to a viable career in the film industry,” Moss said.

Her professional journey eventually took her into news, education, public relations and other fields. Still, the desire to tell stories through film remained.

Years later, Moss began asking herself what might have changed her own journey.

“How could my trajectory have been different?” she recalled. “What did I need?”

The answer helped shape the National Black Movie Association, a nonprofit that champions Black stories, promotes equity in film education and works to connect aspiring filmmakers, including students at historically Black colleges and universities, with opportunities in the industry.

Moss summarized the evolution of that work in one sentence.

“We used to advocate for opportunities in the film industry, but now we create them.”

Her experience offered one answer to the question of what influence can accomplish.

It can make sure someone coming behind you does not encounter the same closed door.

Kyra Hardwick – Photo by Milton Kirby

“We’re All Impact Makers”

Kyra Rénel Hardwick saw another kind of power in bringing accomplished Black women together.

Hardwick, founder of The Kyra Company, works with small businesses and corporations on operations and business development.

“Black women coming together and being honored for being amazing is top tier,” Hardwick said. “But the fact that we know we’re all impact makers is what makes this amazing.”

For Hardwick, the significance was not simply that individual women were receiving awards. It was what their collective presence represented.

“You get us in the same room and all this good energy, regardless of what our economic status is, regardless of what our economy is saying, we are innovators. We’re creators.”

The room represented women who had accumulated experience, relationships, resources and influence in different corners of American life.

Bringing them together created the possibility that individual influence could become collective impact.

Beth Powell – photo by Milton Kirby

Recognition Without Arrival

Beth Powell offered perhaps the clearest example of why recognition matters even to someone who has already accomplished much.

Powell is a Boeing 737 captain with American Airlines, as well as an author, emerging filmmaker and longtime community advocate.

She described being selected for the Power 50 as “incredible, humbling and, at the same time, inspirational.”

Her reaction also illustrated Parker’s earlier description of the qualities behind the recognition.

Powell said her community work spans more than 26 years. Yet when she looked around the gathering, she did not describe herself as someone who had arrived.

She saw women she admired.

“I see the vision, and that they believe in me, and that I will be like my heroes and sheroes someday,” Powell said.

It was a striking observation from a woman who had already been selected to stand among those she admired.

Recognition can acknowledge a body of work. But it can also tell recipients that others see something in them that they may still be working to see fully in themselves.

For Powell, selection to the Power 50 did not sound like an endpoint.

It sounded like another reason to keep going.

The Work That Remains

The Power 50 luncheon was built around recognition, but the conversations surrounding it repeatedly returned to responsibility.

Murphy talked about women whose work deserved to be seen.

Parker talked about giving, serving and showing up.

Moss talked about creating opportunities.

Hardwick talked about impact.

And Powell talked about work.

Together, their voices offered a definition of influence considerably broader than a job title or a place on an annual list.

Influence meant having enough experience to create a pathway for someone else.

Enough visibility to bring attention to work that matters.

Enough access to open a door.

And enough humility to recognize that receiving an honor does not mean the work is finished.

Powell returned to that idea as she reflected on what the gathering represented.

“We’re celebrating tenacity,” she said. “We’re celebrating the work. We’re celebrating the work within the community I’ve done over 26 years, and there is work that still remains to be done.”

For an event honoring some of the nation’s influential Black women, it was a fitting reminder of what the Power 50 recognition can mean.

Not merely reaching the room. But remembering who still needs a door opened.

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Atlanta, MARTA Reach $52 Million Settlement to End Years-Long More MARTA Dispute

Atlanta and MARTA reached a $52 million settlement ending their More MARTA funding dispute, shifting attention from competing audits to promised transit improvements.

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | August 28, 2026

The City of Atlanta and MARTA have reached a $52 million settlement ending a years-long dispute over how money collected through the voter-approved More MARTA Atlanta sales tax was allocated for enhanced bus service.

The agreement resolves a disagreement that produced dramatically different conclusions about how much money should have been returned to the More MARTA account.

A city-commissioned audit concluded that MARTA had overcharged the program by approximately $70 million. MARTA disputed that finding, and a later assessment by accounting firm KPMG calculated the amount at approximately $865,630.

The final settlement landed between those figures, but considerably closer to the city’s calculation.

MARTA has already transferred $19.37 million from the MARTA Reserve Account to the More MARTA Atlanta Reserve Account. Under the settlement, MARTA will transfer another $32.63 million in monthly installments, with the full amount transferred no later than Aug. 31, 2028.

The $52 million represents the full and final resolution of the disputed amounts involving More MARTA sales-tax proceeds used for enhanced bus service.

“This agreement puts a long-running dispute behind us and allows us to put our full focus where it belongs, delivering the transit investments Atlantans voted for,” Mayor Andre Dickens said in announcing the agreement.

Dickens credited MARTA General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt, MARTA Board Chair Jennifer Ide, Atlanta City Council Transportation Committee Chair Alex Wan and the staffs of both organizations with reaching the settlement.

“We can disagree, work through difficult issues and still find a way forward,” Dickens said. “This resolution protects Atlanta’s investment and gives us a stronger foundation to work together on the transit system our residents and region deserve.”

How Did $70 Million Become $865,630?

At the center of the dispute was not an allegation that MARTA spent More MARTA money on something unrelated to transit.

It was an accounting disagreement over how much of Atlanta’s More MARTA sales-tax revenue should have been charged for operating enhanced bus service and how much should have remained available for capital projects.

Atlanta voters approved an additional half-penny sales tax in 2016 to expand and improve transit within the city. Collections began supporting enhanced service in 2017.

As the program developed, MARTA charged More MARTA for service improvements above an established baseline, including increased frequency on bus routes.

Questions about those calculations eventually led the Atlanta City Council in 2023 to seek an audit of the program.

Accounting firm Mauldin & Jenkins examined More MARTA from its inception through June 30, 2023. Its report concluded that MARTA had charged approximately $70 million more than it should have for enhanced bus service.

MARTA strongly disputed the finding.

The transit agency argued that the methodology used to reach the $70 million figure failed to properly account for changes in transit service, particularly when MARTA reduced service throughout the system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A subsequent KPMG assessment examined the competing methodology.

KPMG concluded that the original approach to allocating enhanced-service costs worked during the program’s early years, when service was primarily being added in Atlanta. But that methodology became less appropriate after service reductions occurred throughout MARTA’s larger system.

Under the earlier approach, reductions elsewhere in the MARTA system could affect calculations involving Atlanta’s More MARTA operating fund even when those reductions were not caused by changes to Atlanta service.

KPMG recommended a proportional methodology designed to distribute service changes more broadly across the transit system.

Using that approach, the amount calculated as due to the More MARTA capital fund was approximately $865,630.

That left Atlanta and MARTA tens of millions of dollars apart.

City officials continued to stand behind the original audit.

MARTA maintained that the city’s calculation was based on a flawed methodology.

The settlement announced Thursday resolves that argument at $52 million.

No Declaration of a Winner

The numbers make the agreement noteworthy.

The settlement is approximately $18 million below the nearly $70 million identified in Atlanta’s audit.

But it is more than $51 million above the approximately $866,000 calculated under the later KPMG methodology.

The agreement does not say MARTA admitted that Atlanta’s audit was correct.

Nor does the settlement erase the competing conclusions reached during the dispute.

Instead, the city and MARTA describe the $52 million as the full and final resolution of all disputed amounts related to More MARTA sales-tax proceeds allocated for enhanced bus service.

That distinction is important.

The settlement resolves what MARTA will transfer to the More MARTA account. It does not necessarily resolve which accounting methodology should be considered correct.

Disagreement Spilled Into Public View

What began as an accounting dispute eventually contributed to broader tension between Atlanta City Hall and MARTA.

One of the most visible flashpoints involved the planned transformation of Five Points Station, the downtown hub connecting MARTA’s north-south and east-west rail lines.

In June 2024, Dickens asked MARTA to pause work on the approximately $230 million Five Points project while questions surrounding More MARTA and other concerns were being addressed.

Although MARTA and the city later announced plans to move the project forward, disagreement developed over permits needed for construction.

Records later reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed city officials telling MARTA representatives that resolving the More MARTA audit and moving the permits forward were linked. Dickens publicly denied that his administration was withholding permits because of the audit.

By March 2025, the disagreement had become unusually public.

Dickens appeared before MARTA’s board as city and transit officials offered conflicting accounts about permits, meetings and communications between the organizations.

The new settlement provides an opportunity to change that relationship.

“Resolving this matter provides greater certainty for both MARTA and the City and allows us to continue moving the More MARTA Atlanta program forward,” Hunt said.

Hunt was named MARTA’s permanent general manager and CEO earlier this month after serving approximately a year in the position on an interim basis.

“Our customers are best served when MARTA and the City are working together in a collaborative fashion,” Hunt said. “This agreement gives us an opportunity to turn the page, strengthen that partnership and focus on making meaningful improvements to our system while delivering safe and reliable transit for the people of Atlanta.”

Where Does the $52 Million Go?

Despite the size of the settlement, MARTA is not writing Atlanta a $52 million check for the city’s general budget.

The money is being transferred between MARTA-administered accounts.

MARTA previously moved $19.37 million from the MARTA Reserve Account into the More MARTA Atlanta Reserve Account. The remaining $32.63 million will be transferred through monthly installments by Aug. 31, 2028.

Those funds will then be available for future More MARTA projects and other program priorities.

The distinction matters because the settlement is ultimately about transit money and where within MARTA’s financial structure that money belongs.

It also raises a broader question.

Moving $52 million into More MARTA means those dollars will not be available for other MARTA purposes.

MARTA officials have indicated the agreement is not expected to affect the agency’s operating expenses, but it could reduce money available for systemwide state-of-good-repair projects. The agency could have to defer or reduce some projects, identify savings or consider financing alternatives.

Those decisions have not been finalized.

A Promise Made by Voters

For Atlanta residents, the larger issue extends beyond the accounting disagreement.

In 2016, voters approved the half-penny More MARTA sales tax to make a substantial long-term investment in the city’s transit system.

The program was envisioned as a way to expand transit and improve mobility throughout Atlanta. An initial collection of dozens of possibilities was eventually narrowed to 17 projects approved by MARTA’s board in 2018.

Those plans have changed over time as construction costs increased, priorities shifted and projects were reconsidered.

Progress has also been uneven.

The Summerhill Bus Rapid Transit project and the NextGen Bus Network have been among the most visible More MARTA initiatives moving toward delivery, while several other projects originally envisioned under the program remain years away or have changed significantly from their original concepts.

That history makes Atlanta City Council Transportation Committee Chair Alex Wan’s emphasis on accountability particularly relevant.

“Atlanta voters made a significant investment in the future of transit when they approved More MARTA, and we have a responsibility to make sure those dollars are accounted for and deliver the improvements residents were promised,” Wan said.

“This settlement provides needed resolution and allows all of us to move forward with greater accountability, transparency and focus on delivering projects.”

MARTA Board Chair Jennifer Ide similarly described the settlement as an opportunity to rebuild the working relationship between MARTA and the city.

“This settlement reflects the kind of responsible governance our customers and taxpayers should expect,” Ide said.

“The Board appreciates the work by both parties to reach a resolution that provides clarity, closes this chapter and creates an opportunity for a stronger working relationship between MARTA and the City of Atlanta.”

From Accounting to Accountability

The settlement answers a question that has followed MARTA and Atlanta for more than two years.

The amount is $52 million.

But resolving the accounting dispute creates another test for both organizations.

The settlement announcement does not specify which More MARTA projects will receive the additional money now being committed to the program.

That means the next phase of the story will not be decided by auditors.

It will be measured by what gets built.

Nearly a decade after Atlanta voters approved an additional sales tax to expand and improve transit, MARTA and the city have agreed on how much money will resolve their dispute.

Now they must show Atlantans what that $52 million will deliver.

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One Small Card, One Big Question That Changed a Life

A lung cancer summit taught Jacqui and Donel King about biomarker testing, helping them

By Milton Kirby | Old Hickory, TN | August 25, 2026

Jacqui and Donel King were attending a lung cancer summit in New Orleans when, near the end of the event, Jacqui stopped at an information table.

One card remained on the table.

It looked ordinary, about the size of a business card, folded like a small tent. There was nothing about its appearance to suggest that the information inside would soon become worth its weight in gold to the Kings.

Inside was information about biomarkers associated with lung cancer and questions patients could take to their doctors to get answers.

Jacqui picked up the last card brought it home and then took it to her husband’s next appointment with his oncologist.

What happened next helped change the conversation surrounding Donel King’s Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis.

The Kings walked into the appointment prepared to ask whether biomarker testing had been performed.

It had.

They just didn’t know it.

The testing had identified a KRAS G12C mutation in Donel’s cancer, a molecular characteristic for which a targeted treatment was available.

For Jacqui, the moment demonstrated something she now believes every patient and caregiver needs to know and understand.

“You don’t know how to advocate for yourself if you don’t know what it is that you’re looking for,” she said.

Before Cancer Took Center Stage

Cancer is now part of the Kings’ daily lives.

But that’s not where their story began.

Donel and Jacqui met in Houston more than three decades ago. Both were single parents, and their marriage brought together a blended family.

Jacqui’s life became increasingly centered on ministry and leadership in the United Methodist Church. Donel describes his role throughout much of their marriage as supporting that calling while pursuing his own entrepreneurial interests.

Their life together took them through Texas, Tennessee and Illinois.

They also endured major events long before lung cancer entered their lives.

While serving in Port Arthur, Texas, the Kings experienced the devastating 2005 hurricane season. Their church and community dealt with families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and then faced hurricanes that affected their own area.

Jacqui remembers the period as one of ministry, survival, rebuilding and prayer.

Donel brought another life experience to the marriage.

He is an Air Force veteran who served in air traffic control.

Donel would learn much later in life that he was dyslexic, finally putting a name to difficulties he had experienced years earlier. Decades later, cancer would confront him with another lesson about the power of knowing exactly what you are dealing with.

He also spent years as an entrepreneur and describes himself as someone who enjoys technology, business, gardening and community service.

He calls himself a “Renaissance man.”

And cancer was not completely new to him.

Donel was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009 and underwent removal of his prostate.

They were unaware that years later, another cancer was growing inside him.

A Fall Changes Everything

By 2025, Donel had experienced pain in his shoulder and hip. A simple X-ray had not revealed the cause.

He underwent regular physical examinations and was frustrated that nothing had identified the cancer earlier.

Then, in October 2025, while the Kings were living in Springfield, Illinois, Donel’s leg gave way while walking down a flight of stairs.

He fell. The fall fractured his femur and badly damaged his hip.

Further medical evaluation revealed something far more serious.

Stage 4 lung cancer.

The cancer had spread beyond his lung, metastasizing to his hip and shoulder. Donel could no longer walk.

Their lives changed almost immediately.

Physicians in Illinois told the couple Donel needed specialized orthopedic oncology care that was not available locally. They worked to get him back to the Nashville area, where he could receive care through the VA and other specialists.

After returning home, Donel entered rehabilitation while doctors simultaneously confronted the cancer and the severe damage to his hip.

The first biopsy in Illinois failed to provide enough tissue for all of the testing doctors needed, Jacqui said.

Then came major surgery.

Rebuilding a Hip While Fighting Cancer

On February 18, 2026, Donel underwent an operation to reconstruct his hip and pelvis.

He remembers an eight-hour surgery that would begin rebuilding the structure of an extensively damaged hip that might allow him to walk again.

Doctors also obtained additional tissue. That tissue would later become important to Donel’s cancer story

Meanwhile, Donel begin cancer treatment that consisted of radiation, chemotherapy and infusion therapy. Donel remembers what chemotherapy did to him physically.

His hair disappeared.

So did the black beard he loved.

Jacqui looked at him during the interview and offered a reminder of what mattered more.

“But he’s still here.”

Donel responded:

“I’m still here.”

But the treatments were difficult the cancer was not responding as they had hoped.

Jacqui was began her search for treatment options, something she knows how to do.

Jacqui Starts Looking for Answers

Jacqui had previously researched lung cancer resources after the wife of a colleague was diagnosed with lung cancer.

When Donel was diagnosed, she returned to that research.

This time, she searched specifically for organizations working with African Americans and lung cancer.

She found the HEAL Collaborative.

HEAL focuses on health education and advocacy, including efforts to provide patients and caregivers with information they can use to navigate cancer care. Its lung cancer resources include information about screening, treatment, clinical trials, biomarker testing and self-advocacy.

Jacqui contacted the organization and learned about HEAL’s annual Lung Cancer Patient & Caregiver Summit.

The Kings registered and began planning their trip to attend HEAL’s 2026 3rd Annual Summit in New Orleans.

The 2026 gathering was designed specifically to address the needs of Black communities affected by lung cancer. HEAL brought patients and caregivers together with healthcare professionals, researchers, advocates and community leaders for discussions about early detection, personalized treatment, clinical trials and patient advocacy.

For Donel and Jacqui, those subjects were not theoretical.

They were living them.

Getting to New Orleans was not automatic.

Donel had recently undergone major surgery and needed medical clearance to travel.

They got it.

And they went.

That trip would introduce the Kings to a word that would become central to their cancer journey:

Biomarker testing.

What Is a Biomarker?

Cancer is not necessarily the same disease in every person who receives the same broad diagnosis.

A biomarker is a biological characteristic that can provide doctors with information about a cancer. In some cancers, testing can identify specific molecular changes that may help physicians determine whether a targeted treatment is appropriate.

For a patient, the distinction can be simplified.

Biomarker Individual Results

A cancer diagnosis identifies the disease.

Biomarker testing tells doctors more about the particular characteristics of that patient’s cancer.

And targeted therapy acts against a particular target or characteristic.

The Kings did not understand that distinction before New Orleans.

The Last Card on the Table

At the Summit, the Kings attended a breakout session about biomarker testing.

The message they carried away was direct: patients with lung cancer should ask for a biomarker test that will provide information about the specific characteristics of their cancer, so their doctor can consider more personalized treatment options.

That was what sent Jacqui to the Amgen table, one of the pharmaceutical companies supporting the Summit.

There she found the wallet-sized card containing information about biomarkers associated with non-small cell lung cancer. Jacqui took the last one on the table.

She decided that when they returned home, the card was going with them to Donel’s next oncology appointment.

They were going to ask questions.

But the story took an unexpected turn.

The Kings did not return home, request biomarker testing and then wait for a laboratory to perform it.

The testing had apparently already been done.

They simply did not know it.

“An Awakening on Both Sides”

Additional tissue obtained during Donel’s hip surgery had been sent for laboratory analysis.

By the time the Kings walked into the oncology appointment with their card, biomarker testing had identified KRAS G12C in Donel’s cancer.

Jacqui remembers putting the card into the conversation and learning that the result was already there.

She called the moment “an awakening on both sides.”

NSCLC – Results

The Kings had arrived intending to ask whether the test should be performed.

Instead, the conversation became about what the completed test had found and what could be done with that information.

The KRAS gene helps regulate cell growth. Some cancers carry a particular alteration known as KRAS G12C.

That distinction mattered because medicines have been developed to target KRAS G12C.

One of those targeted treatments is Lumakras, or sotorasib, manufactured by Amgen.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Lumakras in 2021 for certain adults with KRAS G12C-mutated locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who have received at least one prior systemic therapy. The FDA labeling calls for patients to be selected based on the presence of the KRAS G12C mutation determined by an FDA-approved test.

That is the type of targeted treatment Donel’s biomarker result made possible for his physicians to consider.

The medication is not a cure.

Donel understands that.                                                                                                                     

But to him, it represented another option.

The “Silver Bullet”

Donel has his own name for the treatment.

He calls it his “silver bullet.”

He is quick to explain what he means.

He does not believe the pill simply makes Stage 4 cancer disappear.

His hope is that the therapy can stop the cancer from progressing or cause tumors to shrink.

Donel says he feels much better since moving away from chemotherapy and beginning the targeted treatment.

He is also being monitored.

Blood work is part of his routine. CT scans will help his physicians determine whether the tumors are shrinking, remaining stable or progressing.

Asked what he wants those scans to show, Donel did not give a complicated answer.

“My hope is that it’s not moving,” he said. “That’s my goal.”

Caregiving Wasn’t in the Retirement Plan

The story is not Donel’s alone.

Cancer changed Jacqui’s life too.

Her retirement was supposed to begin a different season.

Instead, she became caregiver, researcher, medical navigator, household manager and advocate while simultaneously dealing with grief and a major move.

Her mother had been ill and died during the same larger period of upheaval.

The Kings were also moving back from Illinois to Tennessee.

Donel was in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.

Jacqui dealt with packing, moving, selling a house, setting up their Tennessee home, arranging medical equipment and keeping track of appointments.

“Caregiving wasn’t on my retirement,” she said.

At another point she summed up the experience even more simply:

“There’s no script for this.”

Yet sitting with the Kings revealed something that a list of caregiving responsibilities could not.

After more than 30 years of marriage and 33 years as a couple, Donel and Jacqui still displayed the easy affection of people discovering each other. They finished each other’s sentences and sometimes started the same thought at the same time. They gazed at one another as the other spoke. More than once, Jacqui looked at Donel, smiled and seemed, for a moment, almost giddy.

It was an unexpected sight in an interview about Stage 4 lung cancer.

Their story was about biomarker testing, targeted therapy and caregiving. But sitting across from the Kings, another story was unfolding in plain sight.

This was also a love story.

The couple learned to accept help.

Friends and colleagues organized meals.

Neighbors helped with equipment.

The VA helped with transportation to medical appointments.

Their church and broader community prayed.

And Jacqui learned something caregivers sometimes resist.

“You can’t do it by yourself,” she said.

Information Is Only Half the Job

The Kings credit HEAL Collaborative with putting information in front of them that they did not previously understand and how to be your own advocate.

But Jacqui believes attending a conference is not enough.

“If you get the information, that’s half of the game because then you’ve got to follow through,” she said.

In the Kings’ case, the chain is unusually clear.

HEAL created the setting where they learned why biomarker testing mattered.

At an Amgen table, Jacqui picked up the last card explaining what they should ask about.

Back home, that question led them into a conversation about a KRAS G12C result already in Donel’s medical record.

And that result helped identify a targeted treatment option.

 But none of those steps happened in isolation.

Information had to reach the patient.

The patient and caregiver had to understand why it mattered.

They had to take that information back to the people providing Donel’s medical care.

And physicians had to determine the appropriate treatment.

That may be the central lesson of the Kings’ experience.

The laboratory had information about Donel’s cancer.

His medical team had access to that information.

The Kings had attended appointments.

What changed after New Orleans was their ability to participate in the conversation differently.

They knew the word biomarker.

They had a card.

They had questions.

And they knew they were supposed to ask them.

There is an important nuance.

The Kings’ account does not establish that Donel’s physicians had overlooked the biomarker result or would not have discussed targeted therapy without the card. Jacqui said the medical team appeared to be preparing to talk with them about what could come next.

What the Summit and the card clearly changed was the Kings’ understanding of the conversation.

They arrived knowing what to ask.

Tennessee Expands Biomarker Coverage

The Kings’ experience comes as Tennessee is changing its insurance rules surrounding biomarker testing.

Tennessee enacted legislation in 2026 requiring specified health plans to provide biomarker-testing coverage beginning with plans issued, amended or renewed on or after January 1, 2027. The law includes TennCare coverage when biomarker testing is medically necessary.

The law does not mandate biomarker testing to screen people without symptoms. Its coverage provisions address testing used for diagnosis, treatment, disease management or monitoring when applicable requirements are met.

The distinction is important.

Lung cancer screening and biomarker testing are not the same thing.

Screening is intended to identify lung cancer in people who meet established eligibility criteria before symptoms develop.

Biomarker testing can help physicians make treatment decisions after cancer is identified.

For the Kings, understanding those differences has become part of learning to navigate cancer.

The Losses Cancer Creates

Stage 4 cancer has taken more from Donel than hair.

It took mobility.

For months he could not walk.

It interrupted his businesses.

It pulled him away from volunteer work, gardening and the other activities of a man who describes himself as hands-on.

Donel calls those losses a form of grief.

He had been an active man.

Suddenly, much of his life required other people to do things for him.

“For the moment, I just said, well, I just got to step back and take my hands off of them and just kind of go with the flow,” he said.

Still, optimism comes easily to him.

He calls himself a “perpetual optimist.”

“When I see manure, I’m looking for the pony,” he said.

That optimism now has specific goals.

One is walking again.

Donel continues physical therapy and believes he is getting closer.

Another is traveling.

During one appointment, someone asked him a question he was not expecting:

What are you going to do with the time you have?

It stopped him.

Now he has answers.

He wants to take a train across the country.

He wants to travel.

He talks about Egypt.

Cancer has forced him to think about time differently.

Faith, Medicine and the Road Ahead

Faith runs through nearly every chapter of the Kings’ story.

Jacqui is a minister.

Donel speaks openly about God.

They describe prayer surrounding his surgery, treatment and recovery.

But their faith has not meant waiting passively.

Jacqui searched.

They traveled.

They listened.

They carried information home.

They asked questions.

Donel continued treatment.

Jacqui continued caregiving.

And both continued learning.

They see no contradiction between prayer and medicine.

For Jacqui, vulnerability also became part of the lesson.

When people ask how things are going, caregivers do not always have to say everything is fine.

Sometimes, she said, the answer needs to be:

Not great today.

I need help today.

Healing, she believes, sometimes requires letting other people into the struggle.

For Donel, the future remains uncertain.

Stage 4 lung cancer is still Stage 4 lung cancer.

The next CT scan matters.

So does the next physical therapy session.

So does the possibility of taking another step without assistance.

But he is no longer talking only about treatment.

He is talking about where he wants to go.

What he wants to see.

What he wants to do with the days in front of him.

Cancer has forced Donel King to surrender control over much of his life.

It has not taken his sense of possibility.

“I’m alive,” he said. “God has spared me another day. And I’m just going to get up and do the best I can with that day.”

And for now, he is waiting for the next scan with one straightforward hope:

“My hope is that it’s not moving.”

The HEAL Collaborative is based in Atlanta, GA. To learn more, please visit: www.healcollaborative.org.

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Jonathan Hunt Earns MARTA’s Top Job. Now Comes the Test of “Routine Excellence

MARTA names Jonathan Hunt permanent CEO after a national search, placing safety, transparency, accountability and his promise of “routine excellence” at center stage.

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | August 14, 2026

Jonathan Hunt did not initially want the job.

When Hunt stepped into the role of interim general manager and CEO of MARTA in August 2025, following the departure of Collie Greenwood, he said he was not interested in becoming the permanent leader of one of the nation’s largest public transit systems.

A year later, Hunt had changed his mind.

After a national search that reached across the transportation industry and identified and contacted more than 250 candidates, the MARTA Board of Directors narrowed the field to three finalists. On Thursday, Aug. 13, it selected the man who had spent the previous year doing the job.

Jonathan Hunt – General Manager & CEO – Photo by Milton Kirby

Hunt is now MARTA’s permanent general manager and chief executive officer.

“To be named general manager and CEO of MARTA is an incredible, incredible honor,” Hunt said following the decision.

But neither Hunt nor MARTA Board Chair Jennifer N. Ide used the occasion simply to celebrate.

Both acknowledged that MARTA still has work to do.

“I think that we are in a much better place than we were a year, 18 months ago,” Hunt said. “But we still have, you know, a ways to go.”

Ide was even more direct.

“How MARTA is operating today is good,” Ide said. “What we expect with Jonathan as the permanent CEO is we expect great. We expect exceptional.”

Then she raised the bar higher.

“Where we are today isn’t good enough for the city of Atlanta.”

For Hunt, the year-long audition is over. The challenge now is turning the accomplishments of his interim tenure into the everyday service riders expect from MARTA.

A National Search Ends at Home

Hunt’s selection followed what MARTA described as an extensive national search.

The Board retained Diversified Search Group following a competitive selection process. According to Ide, the firm and MARTA’s search committee cast a wide net across public transit, airports and airlines, freight and passenger rail, port authorities and logistics.

More than 250 potential candidates were identified and contacted.

Board members representing MARTA’s major jurisdictions participated in the process, developing the position description, screening and vetting candidates and conducting structured interviews.

Three finalists emerged.

Hunt was joined by Cleveland Ferguson III of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and Leroy Jones of Washington’s Metro system.

The candidates brought different experiences to the competition.

Jones came from one of the nation’s largest transit systems, with extensive bus and rail operations in the Washington metropolitan area.

Ferguson came from Jacksonville, a smaller transit operation without a heavy-rail system comparable to MARTA.

Hunt brought something neither outside candidate could offer: more than a decade inside MARTA and nearly a year already sitting in the chief executive’s chair.

Ide emphasized that the selection was not an indictment of the other finalists.

“The process gave us three exceptional finalists, and I didn’t say that lightly,” she told the Board. “Cleveland Ferguson, Leroy Jones, and Jonathan Hunt each brought something real to the table, and any one of them could have led MARTA well.”

But after final interviews and deliberations, the Board chose Hunt.

Jennifer Ide – MARTA Board Chair – Courtesy Photo

Ide explained why.

“What ultimately made Jonathan the most qualified candidate was not a single credential,” she said.

Instead, she pointed to Hunt’s leadership and the Board’s belief that MARTA is moving in the right direction under him.

Over the past year, Ide said, Hunt strengthened relationships with MARTA’s jurisdictional partners, business community, employees, stakeholders and riders.

His knowledge of the agency also mattered.

“He understands our operations, our finances, our capital program, and the complicated web of government and community interests that we answer to,” Ide said.

The Candidate Who Initially Didn’t Want the Job

Hunt’s path to the permanent position was unusual because he initially indicated he wasn’t seeking it.

But something changed during his year at the top.

Hunt has described the interim assignment as the most rewarding and purposeful experience of his professional career. He also said people within and around MARTA encouraged him after watching his leadership.

Eventually, the reluctant interim leader became a candidate for the permanent position.

The Board’s decision suggests his year in the job became something few outside candidates could duplicate: a real-world audition.

Hunt took over MARTA during a period of significant change.

During his interim tenure, the agency launched a redesigned bus network, replaced its Breeze fare-payment system and implemented Atlanta’s first bus rapid transit line.

He also oversaw MARTA’s operations, safety and customer experience during the FIFA World Cup, when the region’s transit system faced extraordinary demand.

Ide pointed specifically to the World Cup as evidence of Hunt’s leadership.

“For those few months, all eyes were on MARTA and on Jonathan, and he met the moment and delivered,” she said.

But Hunt’s permanent tenure will not be judged solely by how MARTA performed during a global sporting event.

The more difficult test may be what happens on an ordinary Monday morning.

From World Cup Success to “Routine Excellence”

Hunt has repeatedly used a phrase to describe what he wants MARTA to become: “routine excellence.”

His goal, he says, is a transit system that is safe, clean and reliable every day.

That distinction matters.

Moving huge crowds successfully during the World Cup demonstrated what MARTA can do when the system, its employees and the region are focused on a major event.

The challenge now is delivering that level of reliability when there are no international television cameras and no global event underway.

Ide made clear that the Board shares that expectation.

“We have a unique opportunity to carry the momentum of the World Cup into our everyday routine excellence of service,” she said.

Then she added an important promise.

The Board, she said, will hold Hunt to that standard.

That standard comes as MARTA continues to manage major projects and challenges.

The agency is rolling out a redesigned bus system, transitioning riders to a new Breeze fare system, implementing bus rapid transit and preparing new rail cars for passenger service.

At the same time, riders judge MARTA by more immediate concerns: whether the bus arrives, whether the train is on time, whether stations and vehicles are clean and whether they feel safe while using the system.

Those everyday experiences may ultimately determine whether Hunt’s “routine excellence” becomes more than a phrase.

Safety and Trust Remain Challenges

Safety remains particularly important.

During coverage of the CEO search, riders repeatedly raised security as one of their concerns for MARTA’s next leader.

That concern exists alongside MARTA statistics showing improvements in overall crime.

The distinction between statistics and perception is important.

An agency can report declining crime while riders still feel unsafe. A new CEO must address both.

Hunt appears to recognize that rebuilding confidence will require more than operational improvements.

In his remarks following his selection, he repeatedly returned to three ideas: transparency, accountability and trust.

He pledged greater collaboration across MARTA’s jurisdictions, with businesses and with community leaders.

He also called for “additional transparency as much as we possibly can in order to build back trust.”

“We started doing that in a major way this year,” Hunt said, “but we still have a long way to go.”

He described accountability as good for MARTA and good for rebuilding regional trust.

That acknowledgment may prove important.

Hunt is not taking over an agency that he describes as having completed its transformation. He is taking permanent responsibility for an agency whose shortcomings he openly acknowledges.

From Lawyer to Transit CEO

Hunt’s route to MARTA’s top job differs from the traditional image of a transit executive who spent an entire career running buses and trains.

He joined MARTA in 2014 and spent more than a decade in its legal department, serving as Chief of Corporate Law and Real Estate, Deputy Chief Counsel and ultimately Chief Legal Counsel.

But his professional background extends beyond law.

Earlier in his career, Hunt served as a Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Atlanta, handling aviation matters involving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He practiced law at Dentons and BakerHostetler and previously worked as a project engineer with Gilbane Building Company.

He also serves on the national board of the American Public Transportation Association and chairs its Legal Affairs Committee.

Hunt holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampton University and a Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Ide emphasized that Hunt’s years inside MARTA have given him an understanding that extends well beyond the legal department.

“He understands our operations, our finances, our capital program, and the complicated web of government and community interests that we answer to,” Ide said.

“He has been in the ring for all of it.”

A Leadership Transition MARTA Did Not Expect

Hunt’s rise began with an unexpected leadership transition.

Greenwood, originally from Canada, joined MARTA in 2019 and became CEO in 2022. He left the agency in 2025 in what MARTA described as an early retirement connected to immigration and personal matters.

MARTA said at the time that the immigration process had affected Greenwood’s personal and professional progress. Greenwood said he and his wife had decided it was a good opportunity to retire early and spend more time with family and friends.

His departure created the opening that eventually placed Hunt in the interim role.

There is also a historical similarity.

Greenwood served as interim CEO before receiving the permanent job. Hunt has now traveled a similar path.

But MARTA’s Board stressed that Hunt did not simply inherit the permanent position.

He had to compete for it.

The national search ultimately brought MARTA back to the executive already inside the building.

The Patron Experience

Perhaps the clearest indication of where Hunt intends to place his attention came near the end of his Board remarks.

He promised to work with MARTA’s leadership team to improve the agency and, “most importantly,” improve the experience MARTA provides its patrons.

That is where the Board’s decision will eventually be judged.

Not in the executive suite.

Not in a press release.

Not simply by the successful handling of one major international event.

But on buses, trains and station platforms across the region.

Can MARTA improve reliability?

Can it increase ridership?

Can riders feel safer?

Can major projects be delivered successfully?

Can the agency become more transparent and accountable?

And can the system provide the safe, clean and reliable service Hunt says riders deserve every day?

Ide has already made clear that “good” will not be enough.

Hunt appears to agree.

“I truly believe we do have the best transit agency in the nation,” he said, “and we need to live up to that mantra.”

For the past year, Jonathan Hunt had the opportunity to show MARTA’s Board what he could do as an interim leader.

The Board liked what it saw enough to give him the job permanently.

Now comes the harder part.

Delivering what Hunt calls “routine excellence,” not for a few extraordinary weeks, but every day.

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BronzeLens Enters a New Era with Expanded Festival, New Leadership and a Focus on Building Black Cinema

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | August 12, 2026

For 16 years, the BronzeLens Film Festival has served as a cultural cornerstone for filmmakers of color, bringing together artists, auFor more than a decade, the BronzeLens Film Festival has served as a cultural cornerstone for filmmakers of color, bringing together artists, audiences and industry professionals in Atlanta to celebrate stories that are often overlooked by mainstream Hollywood. This year, the Oscar-qualifying festival enters a new chapter—one marked by growth, transition and an expanded vision for the future.

Kathleen Bertrand – Courtesy Photo

At the center of that continued growth is Executive Producer Kathleen Bertrand, one of the driving forces behind the festival’s mission to celebrate stories created by and about people of color. Based in Atlanta, BronzeLens was founded to share and applaud the many stories of people of color told through digital moving images. Since its founding, the organization has screened films from creators across the African diaspora and beyond, building a reputation as both a cultural institution and an advocate for diverse storytelling. Bertrand has emphasized BronzeLens’ commitment to educating, enlightening and entertaining audiences while providing a platform for filmmakers whose voices deserve greater visibility.

For the first time in its history, BronzeLens will unfold across two weekends, providing festivalgoers with additional opportunities to experience screenings, professional development workshops, networking events and special programs. The expanded format reflects the festival’s continued evolution and growing impact within Atlanta’s thriving film community.

The festival also enters a period of transition. The 2026 event marks the first since the retirement of Founding Artistic Director Deidre McDonald, whose curatorial vision helped shape BronzeLens into one of the nation’s premier showcases for diverse storytelling. Under McDonald’s leadership, the festival became known for presenting films that explored culture, identity, social justice and the shared experiences of communities around the world.

As BronzeLens moves forward, Jason Gregory assumes the role of Interim Director of Programming, helping guide the festival through its next phase while maintaining the organization’s commitment to elevating underrepresented voices.

A Fashion Icon Takes Center Stage

The festival opens with the world premiere of Love, Patrick: Nothing is Impossible directed by The Horne Brothers. The documentary chronicles the extraordinary life of fashion designer Patrick Kelly, the first American admitted to the prestigious Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter in Paris.

The film explores Kelly’s groundbreaking impact on the fashion industry while examining themes of race, identity and perseverance. In tribute to the celebrated designer, festival organizers are encouraging attendees to arrive “Runway Ready” for opening night, creating a fitting celebration of a man whose bold creative vision reshaped the fashion world.

Spotlighting Emerging Voices

While marquee premieres help attract attention, BronzeLens has long built its reputation on supporting independent filmmakers and emerging talent.

Among this year’s notable selections is “The Text,” a short film written and directed by Kareemah, founder of Rare Maven Media. The film follows Tanya, an aspiring DJ who returns home for her best friend’s engagement party and finds herself facing a life-altering decision: remain in a troubled relationship or pursue the future she truly desires.

Produced by Rare Maven Media, “The Text” stars Zora Imani as Tanya and Cameron Bhola as Taj. The film is scheduled to screen Aug. 23 at the Tara Theatre, where audiences will have an opportunity to experience one of the independent projects representing the next generation of storytellers.

Projects such as “The Text” exemplify the role BronzeLens continues to play as a launchpad for creatives seeking visibility, industry access and meaningful audience engagement.

Building Careers Behind the Camera

BronzeLens has long distinguished itself by investing not only in completed films but also in the professional development of the people who make them. That commitment is reflected in this year’s Craft Day programming, designed to equip creatives with practical tools and industry knowledge.

Among the highlights is an Acting Master Class and Workshop led by acclaimed actress, director and producer Jasmine Guy.

Additional sessions include:

  • Get Funded: Producing, Financing and Crowdfunding
  • Blindsides, a blind table read presented by Black Script
  • Below the Line: Careers That Build Black Cinema
  • The ATL Effect: Capital, Culture and Craft
  • From Page to Screen: The Writers and the Crew Who Build Black Cinema

Together, the programs emphasize the collaborative nature of filmmaking while exploring everything from financing and production to writing, acting and crew development.

Looking Ahead

As BronzeLens embraces its first two-weekend format and navigates a significant leadership transition, its core mission remains unchanged. Under the continued leadership of Executive Producer Kathleen Bertrand, and with new programming leadership in place, the festival remains dedicated to creating opportunities for filmmakers of color to tell stories that inspire, challenge and connect audiences.

In a city that has emerged as a major center for film and television production, BronzeLens continues to offer something unique: a space where culture, creativity and community intersect. With expanded programming, industry-focused workshops, major premieres and emerging voices all sharing the spotlight, the festival appears poised to begin its next chapter while remaining true to the vision that has sustained it for years.

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When the Seasons Stop Making Sense: Climate Change Is Rewriting the Rules for Black Farmers

Black farmers across the South confront climate change, shifting growing seasons, drought, flooding and rising costs while fighting to protect land and livelihoods.

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | August 8, 2026

This reporting was made possible thanks to a grant from Grist.

For generations, farming required knowing the land and learning the seasons.

Farmers knew when the ground was usually ready. They knew when to plant, when rain normally came, when temperatures should begin to fall and how much grass cattle could expect from a pasture.

Weather was never completely predictable. Farming has always required risk.

But Black farmers interviewed across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia describe something different happening now.

The old assumptions are becoming less dependable.

They describe warmer temperatures, shifting planting dates, drought, intense rainfall, flooding, unexpected freezes and changing growing conditions. Some have altered what they plant. Others have changed when they plant. Cattle producers are watching pastures and hay supplies more carefully. Crop farmers are investing in irrigation, drainage, high tunnels and soil conservation.

And sometimes, after making all those adjustments, they still lose the crop.

Taken together, their experiences reveal something larger than a collection of bad weather events.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southeast Climate Hub describes agriculture in the region as operating under “increasing weather variability.” The Hub identifies drought, heat stress, excessive moisture and changing pest pressures among the risks confronting Southeastern producers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency similarly identifies changing temperature and precipitation patterns, changes in extreme weather and shifts in growing seasons among the evidence of a changing climate.

For the farmers visited, those scientific descriptions have practical meanings.

Climate change is a decision about whether to put seed in the ground.

It is a field planted twice.

It is a pasture without enough grass.

It is hay that has to be purchased.

It is soil washed away by heavy rain.

It is produce that never reaches market.

And for Black farmers, those pressures are landing on top of a much older struggle over land, capital and survival in American agriculture.

The Calendar Is Moving

Bobby Wilson has spent decades working in Georgia agriculture.

Long before Metro Atlanta Urban Farm took root in College Park, Wilson spent years in agricultural extension, learning how to help farmers succeed. Today, he and his wife, Margarett, are reshaping five acres into an urban agricultural campus, producing food, training families, and cultivating a new generation of growers.

The farm grows more than two dozen crops across warm and cool seasons and is Certified Naturally Grown.

Wilson has watched something fundamental change over the course of his agricultural career.

The planting calendar.

Dates farmers once regarded as relatively safe are no longer necessarily the dates they use today. Warmer conditions can tempt a farmer to plant earlier, creating the possibility of getting produce to market ahead of competitors.

But warmth in early spring does not guarantee that winter is finished.

A late cold snap can turn that advantage into a loss.

USDA says growing seasons are changing as temperatures rise. Earlier spring conditions and later first frosts can lengthen growing periods, but earlier plant development can also leave crops vulnerable when damaging cold arrives after growth has begun.

That is the contradiction farmers are learning to manage.

Dennis Dahmer Sr. has confronted it in Mississippi.

An unexpected freeze damaged sugarcane on his farm, forcing him to reconsider when he should plant.

But changing a planting date after one bad season does not eliminate the risk.

Next year may be different.

That uncertainty is becoming part of farming itself.

In New Orleans, Ashley Webb and her husband, Andres Barcelo-Sanchez, have learned a similar lesson.

They operate Barcelo Gardens in the Ninth Ward, where what began as a community garden grew into an urban farm, farmers market and fresh-produce operation serving an area with limited access to fresh food.

Webb teaches gardening according to growing zones and seasons, but New Orleans presents another complication: the city’s heat-island effect can create conditions different from surrounding areas.

The couple also learned quickly that crops they had grown in Los Angeles did not necessarily perform the same way in Louisiana. Corn and carrots struggled. They adjusted, turning toward crops including okra, long beans, cucumbers and hot peppers.

Adaptation began with paying attention.

Crate of vegetable from the Barcelo Gardens – Photo by Milton Kirby

Too Little Water. Then Too Much.

Water may be the clearest example of the contradictions farmers described.

Harry McCoy raises cattle at McCoy Ranch in Pell City, Alabama.

When rainfall declines, pasture suffers.

Cattle still have to eat.

When the pasture no longer supplies enough grass, it must be replaced with purchased feed or hay, turning a weather problem into an economic one.

Anson County, North Carolina, cattle farmer Keith Crawford understands that equation.

Crawford raises Black Angus and Hereford-cross cattle. He has watched the availability and cost of hay become a critical issue for livestock producers.

Crawford cuts hay and watches weather forecasts closely because producing feed requires its own set of weather calculations. Hay needs the right window for cutting, drying and baling. Rain arriving at the wrong time can damage what a farmer has already spent time and money producing.

Crawford described neighboring cattle producers selling animals when hay became difficult or too expensive to obtain.

For a cattle farmer, drought doesn’t just strike once. It can strike two or even three times. It begins with shrinking ponds and water sources, leaving livestock without reliable drinking water. Then it hits again when pastures wither, forcing farmers to buy hay or feed at inflated prices and driving up the cost of keeping cattle alive. By the time the third blow lands, through reduced weight and lower market value, the damage is already deep.

USDA’s Southeast Climate Hub notes that climate conditions can weaken both pasture and feed resources, pushing feed costs higher. Heat stress can also reduce livestock productivity.

Shawn Harris, a cattle farmer in Rockmart, Georgia, has built a sophisticated underground maze of pipes to keep water flowing to his herd when the pond runs low, a climate adaptation strategy born from necessity.

But several hundred miles away, other farmers are confronting the opposite problem.

Too much water.

At Belle’s Barn & Garden in Mississippi, the Rev. D’Andre Miles described periods of dry conditions followed by intense rainfall.

When large amounts of rain fall quickly, the water does not always soak gently into the soil.

It moves.

And when it moves, soil can move with it.

Miles’ approach is to work with the landscape. Vegetation around vulnerable areas can slow water and help hold soil in place rather than leaving the ground exposed.

That philosophy reflects Belle’s broader approach to agriculture: working with natural systems instead of constantly trying to overpower them.

Jesse Buie of Ole Brook Organics in Brookhaven, Mississippi, has also had to think carefully about water.

Buie has more than three decades of farming experience and grows certified organic vegetables, melons, ginger, turmeric, wheatgrass and microgreens.

Heavy rain can saturate growing areas and threaten crops.

His response has included changing how growing areas are configured so water can move more effectively through the farm.

USDA’s research helps explain how both stories can be true at once.

The Southeast can experience substantial rainfall and still suffer drought. Rainfall variability, heat and increased water loss through evaporation and plants can produce dry conditions, while rainfall concentrated into fewer, heavier events can create flooding and runoff.

For farmers, the question is not simply how much rain falls.

It is when it falls, where it falls and how quickly it arrives.

Foot Print Farm vegetables – Photo by Milton Kirby

When One Planting Becomes Two

Few interviews illustrate the economics of climate risk more clearly than Kara Boyd’s.

Boyd Farms operates about 1,500 acres across three farms in Virginia, giving this investigation a view of climate pressures on a substantially larger Black farming operation.

Boyd described having to replant roughly 200 to 300 acres after conditions contributed to poor germination.

Consider what that means economically.

The farmer pays for seed.

The farmer pays for fuel.

The farmer pays for equipment.

The farmer pays for labor.

The crop goes into the ground.

Then enough of it fails to emerge.

The farmer starts again.

But the second planting does not merely repeat the first expense. It also begins later, potentially shortening the crop’s growing window and affecting eventual yield.

Crop insurance can soften the loss.

It does not necessarily erase it.

USDA’s Southeast Climate Hub says changes in the timing and amount of precipitation can contribute to short-term crop failures and longer-term declines in production. Higher temperatures can also reduce yields, while climate variability can expose crops to damaging temperature fluctuations.

Boyd’s experience turns those scientific findings into a balance-sheet problem.

A failed planting has a price.

Metro Atlanta Urban Farm – Photo by Milton Kirby

The Same Storm Does Not Mean the Same Loss

Boyd’s operation also exposes one of the central questions in this investigation.

Climate does not distinguish between a Black farmer and a white farmer.

But farmers do not encounter climate risk with equal resources.

A large operation may have more acreage over which to spread costs, greater access to equipment, stronger cash flow and more ability to absorb a failed field.

For a small farmer, one failed crop can represent a much larger percentage of annual production.

Boyd described that difference vividly, saying an event that feels like a relatively small storm to a large operation can feel like a hurricane and an earthquake to a smaller Black farmer.

That is where a climate story becomes an economic story.

And where an economic story becomes a story about history.

A Crisis Built on an Older Loss

Black farmers did not enter today’s climate challenges on equal footing.

In 1920, USDA recorded more than 925,000 Black farm operators, representing roughly 14 percent of the nation’s farmers.

What followed was one of the most dramatic agricultural declines in American history.

Over subsequent generations, Black farmers lost millions of acres of farmland while the number of Black farmers fell sharply.

A USDA historical review, Black Farmers in America, 1865-2000, documents the racial discrimination and social and institutional barriers that restricted Black farmers’ ability to acquire land, operate independently and retain farms.

Discriminatory lending was part of that history.

So were foreclosures, unequal access to agricultural institutions and land passed between generations without clear title.

The consequences of that history remain part of today’s agricultural landscape. In a 2026 policy resolution, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators noted that Black farmers held more than 16 million acres of farmland in 1910, but just 4.7 million acres by 2017, a loss of more than 70 percent of Black-owned agricultural land.

The resolution identifies discriminatory lending, unequal access to credit and crop insurance, exclusion from grant opportunities and inequities in agricultural subsidies and assistance as continuing barriers facing Black farmers. NBCSL called on Congress, state legislatures and USDA to expand access to grants and loans, strengthen civil rights enforcement, provide legal assistance to protect inherited farmland and invest in food infrastructure and markets that can help Black producers remain economically viable.

Heirs’ property remains part of the discussion today.

When land passes to multiple descendants without a will or clear title, ownership can become fragmented. That can make property vulnerable and complicate efforts to borrow against the land or participate in programs requiring proof of control.

But Boyd cautions against making heirs’ property the entire story.

From her perspective, access to capital, participation in federal crop insurance and the ability to navigate agricultural programs can be equally important, if not more important, to the survival of Black farms.

Her argument adds an important complication.

The problem is not simply whether Black families own land.

It is whether they possess the financial tools needed to keep farming it.

Foot Print Farms – Photo by Milton Kirby

Who Can Afford to Adapt?

Dennis Dahmer knows irrigation could help protect crops during dry periods.

But knowing what would help and being able to justify the investment are different things.

For a farmer working a relatively small number of acres, a major irrigation system may never generate enough additional farm income to recover its cost.

For a producer farming hundreds or thousands of acres, the same investment can produce an entirely different calculation.

That exposes one of the most important climate-justice questions raised by this reporting.

Adaptation costs money.

Irrigation costs money.

Wells cost money.

High tunnels cost money.

Drainage costs money.

Replacing seed costs money.

Buying hay costs money.

Even participation in crop insurance requires farmers to understand the system, maintain records, meet reporting requirements and pay premiums.

Boyd said those requirements can become barriers for smaller producers unfamiliar with federal crop insurance or reluctant to enter a system they may not trust.

That distrust did not emerge from nowhere.

It exists against the historical record of discrimination Black farmers experienced within American agricultural institutions.

Learning to Work the System

Dr. Cindy Ayers-Elliott has taken a different approach.

At Foot Print Farms in Jackson, Mississippi, Ayers-Elliott operates a 68-acre farm producing specialty crops, vegetables and livestock while using agriculture as a tool for community and economic development.

Her farm trains young people and adults.

It also works with USDA and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Ayers-Elliott believes farmers must learn how the system works.

That means obtaining a USDA farm number, understanding conservation programs, keeping records and identifying resources that can help pay for infrastructure or improve production.

Her farm uses adaptation and conservation tools that include irrigation and protected growing.  But her larger contribution may be education.

A federal program is of little value to a farmer who does not know it exists, does not understand the paperwork or cannot determine whether the farm qualifies.

That gap between the existence of assistance and the ability to access it remains one of the central policy questions raised by this investigation.

One proposal before Congress attempts to address some of those structural barriers.

The Black Farmers and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers Increased Market Share Act, introduced in the U.S. House by the late Georgia Rep. David Scott and other lawmakers, would create a USDA grant program supporting food hubs designed to increase market access for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. The legislation would authorize $100 million for the program in fiscal year 2026, with grants available for infrastructure, processing, storage, transportation, equipment and marketing. Recipients would not be required to provide federal matching funds.

The bill would also direct USDA to prioritize purchases from socially disadvantaged producers for domestic food assistance programs and strengthen accountability for discrimination and other civil rights violations within the department.

The legislation does not solve the climate problem confronting farmers. But it speaks directly to another question raised repeatedly during this reporting: whether farmers already absorbing greater weather risk will have the capital, markets, infrastructure and institutional support necessary to adapt.

Rev. D’Andre Miles – Bells Barn & Garden – Photo by Milton Kirby

Building Resilience From the Ground Up

The farmers interviewed are not waiting passively for someone to rescue them.

They are experimenting.

They are adapting.

And in many cases, the techniques they are using mirror practices recommended by USDA.

At Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, Wilson emphasizes the soil itself.

Cover crops, compost and organic matter help restore nutrients and improve the ground rather than simply extracting from it season after season.

At Belle’s Barn & Garden, Miles emphasizes natural systems and protecting the landscape.

At Ole Brook Organics, Buie adapts drainage and production methods to conditions on his particular farm.

At Foot Print Farms, Ayers-Elliott combines infrastructure, conservation and education.

Ricky Davis, founder of Sowing Seeds Farms in Bessemer, Alabama, incorporates water conservation, controlled growing systems and agricultural education into the operation.

The operation was established not simply to grow food but to create a community gathering place for farmers and entrepreneurs, promote economic development and teach healthier and more sustainable ways of living.

USDA identifies many of the same approaches, including cover crops, conservation tillage, efficient irrigation, improved soil-water retention, erosion control and water-management infrastructure.

The important lesson is that adaptation is not one machine, one crop or one federal program.

It is local.

What works on one farm may not work five miles away.

Boyd sees that even across her own acreage. Rain can fall on one section of a farm while missing another.

A county line cannot tell a farmer whether enough rain fell on a particular field.

The land itself decides.

When Farming Is the Paycheck

At Fountain Heights Farms in the Birmingham area, climate risk carries another dimension.

Farming is not supplemental income.

It is the livelihood.

That distinction matters.

Many small farmers maintain outside employment because the farm alone cannot consistently support the household. Fountain Heights does not have that secondary income cushion.

A lost crop is therefore not merely a disappointing harvest.

It is lost household income.

The operation also exists within a larger community food system, making affordability and access part of the farm’s mission.

That means climate pressure can travel beyond the property line.

When a community farm produces less food, the people depending on that farm can feel the loss too.

Climate Change Does Not Stop at the Farm Gate

Barcelo Gardens demonstrates that connection particularly clearly.

Webb and Barcelo-Sanchez began growing food after realizing their Ninth Ward neighborhood lacked convenient access to fresh produce.

Their garden eventually grew into a market that also obtains food from other producers.

Among them is Jubilee Justice, a Black-led agricultural organization based near Alexandria, Louisiana, that works on sustainable farming practices.

Ricky Davis – Sowing Seeds Farm – Photo by Milton Kirby

That creates a chain.

A farmer loses a crop.

A market has less produce.

A neighborhood already lacking grocery options has fewer sources of fresh food.

The climate event may happen in a field miles away.

Its consequences arrive in the city.

The same principle applies elsewhere in this investigation.

Metro Atlanta Urban Farm teaches families how to produce food.

Foot Print Farms trains future farmers and entrepreneurs.

Sowing Seeds combines food production with community education.

Fountain Heights works to keep food available and affordable.

These operations are more than businesses occupying acreage.

They are pieces of community infrastructure.

Protecting the farm can therefore mean protecting more than the farmer.

Science Catches Up With What Farmers See

The experiences documented across these farms are consistent with risks identified by the USDA Southeast Climate Hub.

When I described the farmers’ observations to Dr. Mac Callaham Jr., director of the Hub, including warmer conditions, changing growing seasons, flooding and precipitation problems, his initial response was direct.

“Yeah, absolutely.”

Callaham pointed specifically to shifting growing seasons, variability in precipitation and increasing temperatures among the issues agricultural producers are confronting.

His program’s public materials go further.

The Southeast Climate Hub says farmers and land managers are dealing with drought, heat stress, excessive moisture, changing pest pressures and increasing weather variability.

Its crop research warns that changes in temperature and the timing and amount of precipitation can affect yields and contribute to crop failure.

Its livestock research identifies heat stress and changes in pasture and feed resources as risks to producers.

Its growing-season research describes earlier spring conditions, later frosts and the possibility that earlier plant development can leave crops exposed to damaging cold.

The science does not mean every failed crop, flooded field or expensive roll of hay can individually be blamed on climate change.

Weather still varies naturally.

But taken across regions and over time, the conditions farmers described fit a larger pattern agricultural scientists are already studying.

Callaham also acknowledged that the language surrounding the federal government’s work has changed.

He said his program previously focused more explicitly on climate literacy and climate education, but priorities shift between presidential administrations.

The current emphasis, he said, remains on helping farmers, forest landowners and grazing-land managers improve productivity and resilience to risk.

The terminology may change.

The farmer still has to plant.

Mother Nature Has the Final Say

Kara Boyd summed up the limits of adaptation in a few words.

“We’re trying to adapt to Mother Nature,” she said. “But she has the final say.”

That may be the central truth running through every farm visited.

Farmers can move planting dates.

They can build high tunnels.

They can improve drainage.

They can install irrigation.

They can rebuild soil.

They can capture rainwater.

They can buy crop insurance.

They can change crops.

They can study forecasts.

They can learn government programs.

But none of those decisions gives them control over the weather.

For Black farmers, the question is not whether they know how to adapt.

They have been adapting for generations.

The harder question is how many additional costs, failed plantings, droughts, floods, freezes and changing seasons a farmer can absorb before adaptation is no longer enough.

Across the South, the farmers interviewed are still planting.

Still raising cattle.

Still rebuilding soil.

Still feeding communities.

Still teaching the next generation.

But they are doing so while some of the seasonal assumptions inherited from previous generations become less dependable.

Climate change is altering the conditions under which they farm.

History has shaped the resources they have available to respond.

The future of Black farming may depend on whether the institutions surrounding these farmers can adapt as quickly as the farmers themselves already have.

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Keisha Lance Bottoms Appeals to Georgia Voters, Especially Black Men: Record Turnout Could Decide Georgia’s Governor’s Race

With 99 days until Election Day, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms urged Georgia voters, especially Black men, to deliver record turnout during a town hall at Atlanta’s Gathering Spot.

At Atlanta’s “Mandate” town hall, the Democratic nominee made a direct appeal to Georgia voters, particularly Black men, arguing that grassroots organizing, not campaign spending, will determine who becomes the state’s next governor.

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 28, 2026

With just 99 days remaining before Georgians choose their next governor, Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms walked onto the stage at The Gathering Spot Monday evening carrying a message that has become the foundation of her general election campaign.

She isn’t asking voters to be impressed by campaign spending.

She isn’t asking them to be persuaded by carefully choreographed social media moments.

Instead, she is asking them to participate.

Speaking before a packed audience at “The Mandate,” a town hall organized by The Gathering Spot and moderated by co-founder Ryan Wilson, Bottoms repeatedly returned to one central theme: Georgia’s next governor will not be chosen by the candidate with the biggest advertising budget or the most viral campaign photographs. The election, she argued, will ultimately be decided by ordinary Georgians willing to organize their communities, encourage their neighbors and show up to vote in record numbers.

“Turnout is key. Turnout is key. Turnout is key,” Bottoms told the audience, emphasizing that participation—not complacency—will determine whether Democrats can reclaim Georgia’s highest office for the first time in more than a quarter century.

The message came at a pivotal moment in one of the nation’s most closely watched gubernatorial races.

Earlier Monday, Republican nominee Rick Jackson’s campaign announced an $87 million statewide advertising buy, underscoring the enormous financial resources fueling his campaign. Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive who has already poured more than $100 million into the race, has paired that media strategy with a series of highly publicized visits to Black-owned businesses, churches and community gathering places throughout metro Atlanta.

Bottoms acknowledged the financial disparity but dismissed the notion that money alone will determine the outcome.

“We’re going to do what we need to do with what we have,” she told reporters after the event. “Whatever that amount is, we are still going to take our case directly to the people of this state.”

A Race That Could Reshape Georgia Politics

The stakes extend well beyond the two candidates.

No Democrat has won Georgia’s governor’s race since Roy Barnes was elected in 1998. Yet the state’s political landscape has shifted dramatically over the past decade. Georgia has twice elected Democratic U.S. senators, and razor-thin statewide contests have transformed the state into one of America’s premier political battlegrounds.

Those changes have elevated turnout from a campaign tactic to a governing strategy.

Political analysts from both parties agree that victory in November will depend less on persuading large numbers of undecided voters than on motivating reliable supporters to cast ballots. That reality has placed Black voters and particularly Black men at the center of both campaigns, although the candidates are pursuing markedly different approaches.

Monday night’s town hall reflected Bottoms’ strategy.

Rather than delivering a traditional stump speech, she spent nearly two hours answering questions about affordability, education, healthcare, economic opportunity and voting rights while repeatedly encouraging attendees to become ambassadors for civic participation within their own families and neighborhoods.

Answering a Personal Call to Serve

Bottoms told the audience that seeking the governor’s office was never part of a carefully crafted political roadmap.

After completing her four-year term as mayor of Atlanta, she said life had become comfortable. Returning to elected office was not part of her immediate plans.

That changed after the 2024 presidential election.

“The day after the presidential election, I cursed and then I prayed,” she recalled, explaining that she spent considerable time reflecting on whether she was being called back into public service. The decision, she said, required conversations with her husband and children because campaigns demand sacrifices from entire families, not just the candidates themselves.

“It was really about what am I called to do?” Bottoms said. “What can I offer? And is it worth me getting out of my comfort zone? Because life was comfortable. And the answer was yes.”

That sense of purpose shaped much of the evening’s discussion.

Rather than focusing primarily on partisan attacks, Bottoms framed her candidacy as an effort to build on opportunities created by previous generations while creating new ones for the next.

“I want to be able to look at my kids in their faces and say in this moment I did everything that I could do on behalf of us,” she said.

The Issues She Says Georgians Raise Everywhere

As Bottoms has campaigned from metropolitan Atlanta to rural South Georgia, she said the conversations have remained remarkably consistent.

Whether speaking in barbershops, churches, community centers or small-town gathering places, Georgians repeatedly raise the same concerns.

Unidentified Black men listen with intensity – Photo Milton Kirby

The rising cost of groceries.

Housing affordability.

Gas prices.

Healthcare expenses.

Mental health services.

Support for small businesses.

Educational opportunity.

“These are some of the issues that have been generations long,” Bottoms said. “And they are coming up everywhere I go.”

Healthcare emerged as one of the evening’s most frequently discussed topics.

Bottoms argued that many Georgians are facing increasing insurance costs while others have lost coverage altogether. She connected those concerns to broader questions about affordability, describing healthcare as inseparable from the financial pressures confronting working families across the state.

Education also occupied a prominent place in the discussion.

Bottoms criticized Georgia’s long-running struggles to fully fund public education, she stated that the last time the state consistently met its funding commitments she was still a member of the marching band at Frederick Douglass High School.

Her point drew laughter.

It also underscored her broader argument that many of Georgia’s biggest challenges did not emerge overnight but have persisted across generations.

A Direct Conversation With Black Men

Although “The Mandate” welcomed a broad audience, organizers intentionally focused much of the evening on Black men, a voting bloc both political parties increasingly recognize as critical to statewide success.

Wilson challenged the narrative that Black men have become disengaged from politics, noting that conversations inside barbershops and neighborhoods often center on the same economic and quality-of-life concerns shared by other Georgians.

Bottoms agreed.

Drawing from conversations with her own sons and young men she has met while traveling the state, she said Black men are asking practical questions about employment, housing, public safety and whether higher education still guarantees economic opportunity.

“They’re concerned there won’t be jobs,” she said. “They’re concerned whether they’ll be able to afford a home. They’re concerned about interactions with public safety. They’re concerned with mental health.”

At the same time, she rejected suggestions that Black men alone bear responsibility for civic participation.

“I think it’s an unfair burden for Black men to have to carry,” Bottoms said. “This democracy is about all of us.”

Instead of singling out one demographic, she encouraged every eligible voter to recognize that participation extends beyond casting a ballot. It also includes helping neighbors verify voter registration, reminding family members about Election Day and serving as trusted voices within their communities.

That appeal to transform supporters into organizers became the thread connecting nearly every answer she gave throughout the evening.

Policy Versus Political Theater

One of the evening’s sharpest exchanges centered not on taxes, healthcare or education, but on a series of campaign photographs that have fueled debate across social media in recent days.

Republican nominee Rick Jackson has made highly publicized visits to several minority-owned businesses throughout metro Atlanta, including Toast on Lenox, Big Daddy’s Dish on Old National Highway and a Mexican-owned restaurant in Doraville. The visits generated widespread online discussion, with some business owners finding themselves unexpectedly drawn into Georgia’s increasingly heated gubernatorial campaign.

Bottoms said she takes no issue with candidates supporting local businesses. What she questioned was whether highly publicized campaign stops accurately reflect a candidate’s policies.

“I support small businesses. It’s what I do,” she said in a video posted before Monday’s town hall. “What I take exception with is when we let ‘a thing become the thing.’ The theatrics are nice, but what is the real worth? What are you actually doing?”

For Bottoms, the issue is also personal.

She traced her family’s entrepreneurial roots back more than a century, recalling that her great-grandmother operated a business on Atlanta’s west side during the 1920s. Her grandfather and aunt later owned businesses in Vine City and English Avenue, while her mother spent more than three decades operating a beauty salon that served neighborhoods across southwest Atlanta.

Those experiences, she said, shaped her understanding of what neighborhood businesses mean to families and communities.

“I live in southwest Atlanta, and I am surrounded by Black businesses,” Bottoms said during the town hall. “I don’t have to have a camera crew with me every time I walk into one.”

She also questioned what she described as contradictions between Jackson’s outreach and his policy positions, pointing to his criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and his support for stricter immigration policies while simultaneously visiting minority-owned businesses.

Her closing line in the Instagram video became one of the week’s most widely shared political remarks.

“Don’t allow people to piss on us and then tell us that it’s raining.”

Defending Her Record as Mayor

Keisha Lance Bottoms – Photo by Milton Kirby

Jackson has frequently criticized Bottoms’ four-year tenure leading Atlanta, particularly on crime and public safety.

Monday night, she answered those criticisms directly.

Bottoms reminded the audience that she served the full four-year term voters elected her to complete despite receiving multiple invitations to join the Biden administration before leaving office.

“I served every single day,” she said. “I was asked three times to join the Biden-Harris Administration, and I said no because I wanted to complete my time.”

She then walked through what she considers some of her administration’s defining accomplishments.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlanta maintained balanced budgets without laying off employees or furloughing city workers. The city increased financial support for police officers and other frontline employees while continuing major economic development initiatives, including the redevelopment of the Gulch and expanding opportunities for minority-owned businesses to compete for city contracts.

Rather than arguing she governed during easy circumstances, Bottoms suggested her administration demonstrated stability during one of the most difficult periods in the city’s history.

“If you want to say something about me, fine,” she said. “But don’t lie on my name.”

Competing Against a Billionaire

Bottoms acknowledged that this campaign presents challenges unlike any she has previously faced.

Jackson, a wealthy healthcare executive making his first bid for elected office, has already invested more than $100 million of his own money into the race. His campaign’s announcement Monday of an additional $87 million statewide advertising buy underscored the financial gulf separating the two candidates.

Bottoms said she is less concerned about Jackson’s wealth than about how it is being used.

“I’m not mad about him being a billionaire,” she told the audience. “What I am mad about is the way that he is manipulating the narrative with money.”

She added that one friend’s advice continues to resonate throughout the campaign.

“If you can be bought,” she said, “you can be sold.”

Her response reflected a broader strategy that has become increasingly central to her campaign—meeting voters directly rather than attempting to match Jackson’s advertising dollar for dollar.

Looking Beyond Metro Atlanta

Although much of the discussion focused on metropolitan Atlanta, Bottoms repeatedly returned to the importance of rural Georgia.

She described communities where factories have disappeared, broadband access remains limited and young people often leave after graduating from high school because economic opportunities are scarce.

“Some communities look like time has forgotten them,” she said.

Bottoms noted that while residents across Georgia want many of the same things, good schools, quality healthcare, stable jobs and safe neighborhoods. The path toward achieving those goals differs dramatically between urban and rural communities.

Bottoms also addressed the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers across Georgia, calling for a deliberate review of their long-term impact on utility costs, environmental resources and economic development before embracing additional growth.

Rather than opposing the projects outright, she said state leaders should ensure communities receive tangible benefits while avoiding unintended burdens on residents.

Building a Campaign One Conversation at a Time

Perhaps the evening’s most consistent message had little to do with campaign advertising or partisan politics.

Bottoms repeatedly encouraged supporters to become what she called “trusted voices.”

She acknowledged that some people may have time only to cast a ballot on Election Day.

Others, she said, can do more.

Call ten friends.

Help a neighbor verify voter registration.

Knock on doors.

Volunteer.

Encourage family members to vote.

“Put your oxygen mask on first,” she said. “For some people, the most you can do is show up and vote. For others, it’s calling ten people in your phone. Whatever you can do—do it.”

She also warned that misinformation and confusion surrounding elections have become significant obstacles to civic participation, particularly among younger voters trying to distinguish fact from political rhetoric.

Her challenge to supporters was simple: become reliable sources of information inside their own communities.

The Road to November

As the formal program concluded, the campaign did not end.

Bottoms remained inside The Gathering Spot well after the town hall was over, moving deliberately through the room as supporters waited for photographs and reporters gathered for follow-up interviews. She answered questions from members of the media one by one before turning her attention to attendees, posing for photographs and greeting everyone who wanted a moment with her.

There was no rush toward the exit.

No effort to shorten conversations.

The evening closed much the way it had begun; with Bottoms engaging voters one person at a time.

Only after every reporter’s questions had been answered and every attendee seeking a photograph had the opportunity to take one did she leave the venue.

The scene reflected the strategy she had described throughout the evening.

Rather than measuring success by advertising dollars or viral campaign moments, Bottoms repeatedly argued that elections are won through personal relationships, neighborhood organizing and direct conversations with voters.

Before stepping away from the stage earlier that evening, she had summarized her confidence in a single sentence.

“I don’t have to introduce myself to people,” she said. “I just have to earn their vote.”

Whether that strategy can overcome a billionaire opponent’s unprecedented advertising campaign will be answered in November.

The outcome will determine more than who occupies the Governor’s Mansion. It will also test two competing theories of modern campaigning.

One relies on extraordinary financial resources, saturation advertising and carefully orchestrated public appearances. The other is built on conversations, community relationships and the belief that ordinary Georgians, especially if they turn out in record numbers, still possess the greatest power to shape the state’s political future

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The Road to Los Angeles: How Soul Country Music Star Is Showcasing the Next Generation of Black Country Artists

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 26, 2026

The stage in Atlanta will introduce only one new regional champion, but the story of Soul Country Music Star stretches far beyond a single performance or a single city.

Across the country, artists are stepping onto stages with different voices, different life experiences, and different reasons for making music. Some are seasoned performers. Others are chasing opportunities they have spent years praying for. All share a belief that country music has room for stories that have too often gone unheard.

Three artists have already secured their places in the Soul Country Music Star Finals, scheduled for October 31 in Los Angeles. Brenda Guy earned her victory in the Fort Worth-Dallas Regional. Silas Reed captured the Memphis Regional title. Glenn Stanton advanced by winning the Los Angeles Regional. Their journeys through the competition are complete, at least for now, as they wait for the remaining regional champions to join them on the national stage.

The spotlight now turns to Atlanta.

On August 1, at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, five artists will compete for the chance to become the next regional champion and earn a coveted spot in the Los Angeles finals and Festival. The competition is part of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo’s Soul Country Rodeo Experience.

OG NARD, Angela Roundtree, Da’Rell Sims Jr., Reggie Stacy, and Jacqueline Merrill each bring distinct musical styles, backgrounds, and aspirations. Yet, after speaking with each of them, one thing became remarkably clear.

This competition is about far more than selecting the next winner.

It is about discovering artists who are redefining what Soul country music can be.

Some draw from gospel traditions that first shaped their voices in church pews. Others blend country with Southern soul, hip-hop, Americana, or contemporary storytelling. Some speak openly about grief, redemption, and perseverance. Others see music as a bridge connecting generations, cultures, and communities.

Together, they represent a movement that is steadily expanding both the sound and the story of country music.

As the road to Los Angeles continues, The Truth Seekers Journal spoke with three regional winners from Memphis, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Los Angeles who have already secured their places in the finals, as well as the five Atlanta regional contestants preparing for their opportunity. Their conversations reveal not only why they sing, but also what they hope their music will leave behind long after the final note fades.

More than a competition, Soul Country Music Star has become a window into the next generation of Black Soul Country artists, each carrying a unique story to the stage.

More Than a Singing Competition

For more than four decades, the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo (BPIR) has celebrated the often overlooked history and legacy of Black cowboys and cowgirls, preserving a chapter of the American West that many people never learned in school. Alongside the excitement of rodeo competition, the organization has steadily expanded its cultural programming to showcase the music, traditions, and creative voices that have long been part of that heritage.

One of its newest and fastest growing programs is Soul Country Music Star.

Far more than a traditional talent competition, Soul Country Music Star provides emerging performers with a national platform to showcase their artistry before live audiences while introducing new voices to one of America’s oldest musical traditions. Regional competitions are held across the country, with each winner advancing to the national finals and festival, where one artist will ultimately earn the title of Soul Country Music Star, a $10,000 cash prize and a chance to tour with the BPIR in 2027.

This year’s journey has already produced regional winners in Memphis, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Los Angeles. Atlanta will select its finalist on August 1, followed by the final regional competition on September 19 at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The four out of state regional winners will then travel to Los Angeles for the Soul Country Music Festival & National Finals, taking place October 31 and November 1 at the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park.

The competition is also helping reshape public perceptions of country music.

For generations, Black artists have played a foundational role in the evolution of country music, from its earliest influences rooted in gospel, blues, and folk traditions to today’s expanding blend of Southern Soul, Americana, and contemporary country. Yet many of those contributions have remained underrecognized.

The artists participating in Soul Country Music Star are helping change that narrative.

Some arrive with decades of performing experience. Others are taking their first major step onto a national stage. Their musical styles differ widely, but each brings an authentic perspective shaped by family, faith, hardship, perseverance, and community.

After speaking individually with the three regional winners, and the five Atlanta Regional contestants, one theme surfaced again and again.

None of them spoke first about winning.

Instead, they spoke about purpose.

For some, music became a way to preserve family traditions. For others, it offered healing after personal loss, redemption after difficult seasons, or the freedom to express themselves without being confined by expectations. Nearly every conversation returned to faith, perseverance, and the belief that music could touch lives beyond the stage.

That may be the competition’s greatest achievement.

Before judges score a single performance, audiences are introduced to artists whose stories are every bit as compelling as the songs they perform.

The Road Already Traveled

Long before the Atlanta Regional contestants step onto the stage, three artists have already secured their places in the Soul Country Music Star Finals. Their victories came hundreds of miles apart, in different cities and before different audiences, yet their stories reveal that there is no single path to success.

Brenda Guy earned top honors in the Fort Worth-Dallas Regional by doing what she has always believed music should do: bring people together.

Her performances are rooted in connection. Whether singing before longtime country music fans or audiences experiencing Soul Country for the first time, Guy believes every performance should create a relationship between the artist and the listener. That ability to connect has become one of her greatest strengths and helped carry her to a regional championship.

In Memphis, Silas Reed took a different road.

A musician, educator, and student of Black musical history, Reed views every performance as an opportunity to preserve a legacy that stretches across generations. His appreciation for country music is grounded in research, faith, and a deep understanding of the Black artists whose influence helped shape the genre long before many of them received recognition. Rather than simply entertaining audiences, Reed hopes every performance encourages listeners to better understand the music’s history while inspiring the next generation of artists to carry that tradition forward.

Thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, Glenn Stanton emerged from a very talented pool of Soul Country artists at the California Regional with yet another perspective.

An actor, Americana artist, and storyteller, Stanton speaks openly about music as a source of healing. His songs often reflect life’s difficult seasons, reconciliation, and hope. Rather than separating country music from personal experience, Stanton embraces both, believing that authentic storytelling has the power to comfort people who may be carrying struggles of their own.

Although their musical styles differ, Guy, Reed, and Stanton share something larger than a regional title.

“Promotional Artwork Courtesy of Soul Country Music Star”

Each views music as a calling rather than simply a career.

Each spoke about faith, purpose, and service before discussing trophies or recognition.

And each now waits for October 31, when regional champions from across the country will gather in California to compete for the Soul Country Music Star national title.

Their journeys have reached the next chapter.

Atlanta’s is just beginning.

A New Stage. Five New Dreams.

When the Soul Country Music Star competition arrives in Atlanta on August 1, five artists will step onto the stage carrying very different stories, but sharing one common goal: to become the next regional champion and earn a place alongside Brenda Guy, Silas Reed, Glenn Stanton, and the other regional winners awaiting the national finals in California.

For some, the competition represents the culmination of decades spent performing before live audiences. For others, it is an opportunity to introduce audiences to a new sound or to share deeply personal stories through music. Together, they represent a cross-section of today’s Black country music landscape, where gospel harmonies, Southern Soul, Americana, traditional country, and contemporary influences exist side by side.

Their names are Bernard Stephens aka OG NARD, Angela Roundtree, Da’Rell Sims Jr., Reggie Stacy, and Jacqueline Merrill.

Over the course of several conversations with The Truth Seekers Journal, each answered the same basic questions about music, inspiration, and purpose.

None gave the same answers.

And that may be what makes this year’s Atlanta Regional one of the most compelling stops on the Road to Los Angeles.

Five Artists. Five Different Dreams.

By the time the Soul Country Music Star competition reaches Atlanta on August 1, the judges will already know what a regional champion looks like.

What they will not know is whose story will emerge next.

The five artists preparing to compete in Atlanta come from different backgrounds, different musical traditions, and different walks of life. Some have spent years performing before live audiences. Others have built loyal followings while waiting for an opportunity to introduce themselves to a larger stage.

What unites them is not a common sound.

It is a common belief that country music still has room for voices that reflect their own experiences.

OG Nard (Bernard Stephens): A Story of Redemption

For OG Nard (Bernard Stephens), music represents something larger than entertainment.

It represents another chance.

The Atlanta artist openly acknowledges that life has included difficult chapters, but he refuses to allow those experiences to define his future. Instead, they have become the foundation of his music and his desire to encourage others facing similar struggles.

OG describes his music as “Trapp Kountry,” a style that blends country storytelling with the sounds and experiences of contemporary urban life. Rather than trying to fit into someone else’s definition of country music, he has created a style that reflects where he comes from, what he has lived through, and people he hopes to reach.

His music carries a message of perseverance.

During our conversation, OG spoke repeatedly about giving back to young people, helping others avoid mistakes he has already made, and using music to demonstrate that redemption remains possible regardless of a person’s past.

For him, the Atlanta Regional is more than another performance.

It is another opportunity to prove that second chances can become new beginnings.

Angela Roundtree: Singing from the Heart

If OG’s music speaks through redemption, Angela Roundtree’s begins with authenticity.

Raised in a family where gospel music was part of everyday life, Roundtree says she has been singing for as long as she can remember. Yet despite her remarkable voice and growing audience, she remains remarkably humble, often describing herself as someone who simply wants listeners to feel what she feels.

Her songwriting rarely begins with commercial trends or radio formats.

Instead, it begins with life.

Sometimes the inspiration arrives while driving alone.

Sometimes it grows from personal experiences that eventually become songs capable of touching complete strangers.

Roundtree admits she has battled self-doubt and even describes herself as someone who occasionally gets in her own way. That honesty may be one of her greatest strengths. Rather than presenting herself as a polished celebrity, she allows audiences to see both her confidence and her vulnerability.

When she steps onto the stage in Atlanta, she is not trying to become someone else.

She is simply trying to be herself.

And for many artists, that may be the hardest performance of all.

Da’Rell Sims Jr.: Building an Atlanta Sound

While some artists spend years trying to fit comfortably inside an established genre, Da’Rell Sims Jr. is focused on creating space for something new.

He calls it Atlanta Country.

Growing up in Atlanta with family roots that stretch into rural Georgia, Sims believes country music should reflect the places and experiences that shaped him. Rather than choosing between country, hip-hop, Southern Soul, or gospel influences, he embraces all of them, creating a sound that reflects the city he calls home.

“I’m the bridge,” he said during our conversation, explaining that his music connects traditions that many people mistakenly view as separate.

For Sims, authenticity matters more than stereotypes.

He has little interest in performing a version of country music that doesn’t feel genuine. His songs are built on real experiences, real people, and real emotions. Whether writing about relationships, everyday life, or personal growth, he believes audiences recognize honesty long before they recognize polish.

That same philosophy extends beyond the stage.

An entrepreneur as well as a musician, Sims thinks about music as part of a larger vision that includes education, branding, film, television, and community impact. He has even developed music designed to help children learn reading, mathematics, history, and life skills, demonstrating that entertainment and education can exist together.

His long-term vision reaches well beyond recording songs.

He wants to build something lasting.

If Atlanta Country becomes part of the national conversation, Sims hopes it will not simply introduce audiences to another musical style. He hopes it will encourage listeners to recognize that country music continues to grow because artists are willing to bring their own communities, cultures, and experiences into the genre.

For Da’Rell Sims Jr., the Atlanta Regional represents more than a competition.

It is an opportunity to introduce audiences to a new way of thinking about country music.

Reggie Stacy: Prepared for the Moment

If Da’Rell Sims Jr. is introducing something new, Reggie Stacy is building upon a foundation that has taken decades to establish.

Long before arriving at the Soul Country Music Star competition, Stacy had already built a reputation as a polished performer. He has appeared in singing competitions across the country, performed the National Anthem at sporting events, entertained audiences in restaurants and live music venues, and earned recognition as both Country Vocalist of the Year and Country Entertainer of the Year at a major competition in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Yet despite those accomplishments, he speaks less about success than preparation.

Every performance begins with prayer.

Every rehearsal is approached with purpose.

Every appearance is treated as an opportunity to represent himself, his band, and his faith with professionalism.

“It’s not on my timing,” he explained while discussing his career. “It’s on God’s time.”

That quiet confidence runs throughout his story.

Rather than measuring progress by trophies alone, Star believes every performance is another step toward the larger stage he has envisioned since childhood. He speaks openly about trusting the process, remaining patient, and continuing to improve while waiting for the next opportunity.

His musical influences reflect that same respect for tradition.

Inspired by artists including Charlie Pride and Chris Stapleton, Stacy embraces the soulful storytelling that has long defined country music while adding his own warmth and vocal style. His original song, Livin Life, celebrates the balance between hard work and enjoying the moments that make life meaningful.

As he prepares for the Atlanta Regional, Stacy is not trying to reinvent country music.

He simply wants to honor it through excellence.

For him, the greatest performance is not measured by applause alone.

It is measured by leaving the stage knowing he gave audiences everything he had.

Jacqueline Merrill: Music Without Boundaries

If there is one artist in the Atlanta Regional who refuses to be confined by labels, it is Jacqueline Merrill.

Singer.

Songwriter.

Rapper.

Performer.

Those titles describe what she does.

They do not fully explain who she is.

Merrill describes herself as an artist who refuses to be placed in a box. During our conversation, she spoke passionately about studying vocal techniques, listening carefully to the phrasing and breathing of legendary performers, and challenging herself to master different musical styles. That curiosity has made her one of the competition’s most versatile performers, comfortable moving between gospel, soul, country, and contemporary music without losing her own identity.

Her introduction to music began in church.

At just five years old, she led her first song in the Church of God in Christ, discovering both her voice and her confidence before a congregation that recognized her gift almost immediately. That early foundation continues to shape every performance today.

Faith remains at the center of everything she does.

Throughout our conversation, Merrill repeatedly described moments in her life that she believes were guided by God, from opportunities that appeared unexpectedly to doors that opened at precisely the right time. She views the Soul Country Music Star competition not as coincidence, but as confirmation that she is walking the path prepared for her.

For Merrill, Soul Country represents freedom.

Freedom to sing.

Freedom to rap.

Freedom to tell stories.

Freedom to express herself without allowing traditional genre boundaries to define her artistry.

She believes audiences should leave every performance feeling something.

Sometimes that feeling is joy.

Sometimes it is laughter.

Sometimes it is reflection.

The emotion matters less than the connection.

“If I made you feel something,” she said, “then I’ve done my job.”

That perspective has been shaped by life’s deepest challenges.

Merrill spoke openly about personal loss, health struggles, and the responsibilities of motherhood. Rather than allowing those experiences to silence her, she has transformed them into purpose. Her children remain her greatest motivation, inspiring her to keep moving forward and demonstrating through her own life that perseverance can outlast disappointment.

As she prepares for the Atlanta Regional, Merrill carries more than songs to the stage.

She carries a testimony.

One built on faith, resilience, and the belief that music has the power to change lives.

More Than Eight Voices

After conversations with three regional winners and five Atlanta Regional contestants, one conclusion became impossible to ignore.

No two artists described country music in exactly the same way.

Brenda Guy spoke about creating connections.

Silas Reed viewed every performance as an opportunity to preserve history.

Glenn Stanton found healing through storytelling.

OG embraced redemption through what he proudly calls Trapp Kountry.

Angela Roundtree sang with disarming honesty and vulnerability.

Da’Rell Sims Jr. envisioned a future shaped by Atlanta Country.

Reggie Stacy built his career on preparation, professionalism, and faith.

Jacqueline Merrill celebrated artistic freedom without boundaries.

Their musical styles differ.

Their life experiences differ.

Even their reasons for standing on stage differ.

Yet every conversation returned to the same foundation.

Family.

Faith.

Perseverance.

Purpose.

None of the artists spoke first about trophies, prize money, or recognition.

Instead, they spoke about making meaningful music, encouraging others, honoring those who came before them, and leaving audiences better than they found them.

Perhaps that is what makes Soul Country Music Star different.

The competition may crown one regional winner in Atlanta.

But before the judges make their decision, audiences will have the opportunity to hear five artists who represent five distinct visions of where Soul country music is headed.

And beyond Atlanta, three regional champions already await them in California, each carrying a different story but sharing the same dream of becoming the next Soul Country Music Star.

The Road Continues

When the lights come up in Atlanta on August 1, one performer will move one step closer to the national title.

But regardless of who advances, the competition is accomplishing something that reaches far beyond a single evening of music.

It is introducing audiences to artists whose stories challenge long-held assumptions about country music while celebrating the Black traditions that helped shape the genre from its earliest beginnings.

The Road to Los Angeles is about more than selecting a champion.

It is about discovering voices that deserve to be heard.

On October 31, another chapter in that journey will be written when regional winners from across the country gather in California for the Soul Country Music Star Finals.

By then, Atlanta will have added another name to that growing list.

Until then, the music continues.

The Road to Los Angeles

Regional Winners

Already qualified for the Soul Country Music Star Finals

Fort Worth-Dallas Regional
Brenda Guy

Memphis Regional
Silas Reed

Los Angeles
Glenn Stanton

Upcoming Regional Competitions

Atlanta, Georgia
August 1, 2026

Washington, DC/Maryland
September 19, 2026
The Show Place Arena
Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Soul Country Music Festival & National Finals

Saturday, October 31, 2026
Los Angeles, California

Sunday, November 1, 2026
12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Autry Museum of the American West
Griffith Park

National Finals & Soul Country Music Festival
October 31-Novemebr 1
California

Eight Conversations. One Discovery.

After speaking individually with each artist, one thing became increasingly clear. Although every conversation began with music, none remained there for long. Discussions quickly turned toward faith, family, perseverance, loss, healing, service, and purpose. The artists differed in style, personality, and performance, but they shared a common belief that music should leave people better than it found them.

That may ultimately become the lasting impression of this year’s Soul Country Music Star competition. While audiences will remember the performances, they may remember the stories behind those performances even more.

The Road to Los Angeles Continues

On August 1, one more artist will earn the right to continue the Road to Los Angeles. But regardless of who advances, every performer who steps onto the Atlanta stage will bring something that cannot be measured by judges’ scores alone: a story shaped by faith, family, perseverance, and a belief that music still has the power to connect people. In the end, that may be Soul Country Music Star’s greatest accomplishment.

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Ask the Archivist: Obama Presidential Center Opens Door to Presidential Research Through New Public Program

The Obama Presidential Center’s new “Ask the Archivist” program gives visitors direct access to National Archives experts, expanding public engagement with the Obama Administration’s digital presidential records.

By Milton Kirby | Chicago, IL | July 26, 2026

For many visitors, a trip to the Obama Presidential Center is an opportunity to experience the story of the nation’s first Black president through exhibits, artifacts, and interactive displays. Beginning this summer, it also offers something far less common: the chance to sit down face-to-face with the people responsible for preserving that history.

The Obama Foundation and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) have launched “Ask the Archivist,” a new public program that gives visitors direct access to professional presidential archivists inside the Obama Presidential Center.

The initiative reflects the continuing partnership between the Obama Foundation and NARA to make the records of the Obama Administration more accessible to researchers, students, historians, and the general public.

Bringing History Within Reach

Under the new program, a NARA archivist will be available every Thursday from July 23 through October 8, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time, at the Obama Presidential Center Branch of the Chicago Public Library.

Visitors can ask questions about presidential records, learn how to conduct research using the Barack Obama Presidential Library’s digital collections, and better understand how presidential archives are preserved and made available to the public.

Rather than simply viewing history behind glass, guests will have an opportunity to learn directly from the professionals who manage one of the nation’s largest presidential archives.

A Different Kind of Presidential Library

Unlike earlier presidential libraries built primarily around paper documents, the Obama Presidential Library represents a new chapter in presidential recordkeeping.

Approximately **95 percent of the Obama Administration’s records were created digitally**, making it one of the first presidential libraries designed around a predominantly digital archive.

That distinction has required an unprecedented effort to preserve millions of electronic records while also digitizing the remaining physical documents.

The Obama Foundation has committed more than $4.5 million to support NARA’s work digitizing those remaining materials, allowing more of the collection to become accessible online.

The result is a library model that extends far beyond a single building, enabling researchers across the country to explore presidential records through digital collections while still preserving original historical materials.

Continuing a Historic Partnership

Foundation leaders say the new program builds naturally on an already successful collaboration between the two organizations.

“The National Archives have been a tremendous partner to us as we work to illuminate the work of the Obama Administration at the Obama Presidential Center, particularly in the artifact lending program and digitization of records,” said Valerie Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer of the Obama Foundation.

Jarrett said “Ask the Archivist” represents another step toward making President Barack Obama’s administration accessible and transparent for the public.

Dr. Kenvi Phillips, Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library, said the partnership gives visitors a richer understanding of the presidential collection.

“We are excited to partner with the Obama Foundation to provide another avenue for public awareness and access to the records of the Obama Administration,” Phillips said.

He noted that visitors can now experience both museum artifacts and personal conversations with archivists who can explain how the Library’s digital holdings are organized and accessed.

Beyond Museum Exhibits

The new program expands the educational mission of the Obama Presidential Center beyond traditional museum experiences.

Numerous artifacts and historical records owned by NARA are already on loan and displayed throughout the Center’s museum, allowing visitors to encounter original presidential materials while learning about the policies, decisions, and events that shaped the Obama presidency.

The addition of on-site archivists transforms that experience into an interactive one, helping visitors understand not only what they are seeing but also how presidential history is documented, preserved, and researched.

For students beginning research projects, educators seeking classroom resources, genealogists, journalists, and historians, the opportunity to speak directly with a presidential archivist offers practical guidance that is rarely available outside the National Archives.

Preserving a Digital Presidency

As government increasingly conducts its work electronically, preserving digital records has become one of the greatest challenges facing modern archivists.

Emails, digital photographs, electronic memoranda, social media content, and other born-digital records require preservation methods very different from traditional paper archives.

The Obama Presidential Library has become one of the nation’s leading examples of how those records can be organized, protected, and eventually made available to the public while meeting legal requirements governing presidential records.

Programs such as “Ask the Archivist” help explain that work to visitors while encouraging greater public engagement with one of the country’s most significant historical collections.

A Living Institution

The program also reflects the broader vision behind the Obama Presidential Center itself.

Rather than functioning solely as a traditional presidential museum, the Center was designed to be an active civic institution that encourages public participation, lifelong learning, and community engagement.

Adding direct access to presidential archivists reinforces that mission by inviting visitors not only to reflect on history but also to explore it firsthand.

For anyone curious about how presidential history is preserved, or how to begin researching one of the most consequential administrations of the 21st century, the answer may now be as simple as asking the archivist.

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Warnock’s $35 Insulin Cap Bill Clears Senate Committee, Moves One Step Closer to Becoming Law

By Milton Kirby | Washington, D.C. | July 24, 2026

A bipartisan effort to make insulin more affordable for millions of Americans moved one step closer to becoming law this week as legislation led by U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock of Georgia cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

The Improving Needed Safeguards for Users of Lifesaving Insulin Now (INSULIN) Act of 2026 would cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per month for Americans with private health insurance while helping uninsured patients obtain insulin for $35 or less..

The committee approved the measure with bipartisan support, sending it to the full Senate for consideration.

For Georgia, where more than 12 percent of residents have diabetes and thousands more remain undiagnosed, the legislation could provide significant financial relief for families struggling with the rising cost of one of the nation’s most essential medications.

Expanding Affordable Insulin Beyond Medicare

The legislation builds on a major healthcare victory achieved in 2022, when Congress capped monthly insulin costs at $35 for Medicare beneficiaries through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Warnock has since worked to extend those protections to every American who depends on insulin, regardless of age or insurance status.

“After years of effort, my bill to cap insulin at $35 a month for everyone is one step closer to becoming law,” Warnock said after the committee vote.

“No one should be forced to put their health or life in danger because they can’t afford insulin or don’t know where to get it.”

If enacted, the INSULIN Act would apply the same $35 monthly out-of-pocket limit to Americans covered by private insurance, closing one of the largest remaining gaps in insulin affordability.

New Resources for Uninsured Patients

The legislation also addresses the needs of Americans without health insurance.

A provision negotiated by Warnock would establish a 10-state pilot grant program that provides funding to community health centers to supply affordable insulin while connecting uninsured patients with ongoing medical care.

The bill would also create a nationalinsulin resource center and hotline to help uninsured individuals locate affordable insulin programs, financial assistance, and healthcare providers.

Supporters say the additional resources recognize that affordability alone is not enough. Many patients also need help finding available programs and navigating the healthcare system.

Rising Costs Continue to Burden Families

The legislation comes as insulin prices remain a significant financial challenge for many Americans.

According to the Health Care Cost Institute, the average price of a 30-day insulin supply nearly doubled between 2012 and 2021, increasing from $271 to $499.

The American Diabetes Association estimates that diabetes-related medical expenses and lost productivity total$412.9 billion each year, with diabetes accounting for one out of every four healthcare dollars spent in the United States.

For patients with Type 1 diabetes and many living with Type 2 diabetes, insulin is not optional. Without consistent access, missed doses can quickly lead to serious and potentially life-threatening complications.

Years of Legislative Effort

Making insulin more affordable has been one of Warnock’s signature healthcare priorities since joining the Senate.

In 2023, Warnock partnered with Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana to introduce legislation extending the $35 monthly cap to all Americans. The two senators also released a report identifying what they called “Insulin Deserts,” counties where high diabetes rates overlap with large uninsured populations, making affordable insulin especially difficult to obtain.

The current legislation represents the latest step in that continuing effort.

Bipartisan Support Gives Bill Momentum

The INSULIN Act is co-led by Senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, John Kennedy of Louisiana, and Susan Collins of Maine and has attracted support from more than two dozen Democratic, Republican, and Independent senators.

At a time when healthcare legislation often divides Congress, supporters say the broad bipartisan coalition reflects growing agreement that access to lifesaving insulin should not depend on a family’s financial circumstances.

What Comes Next

The INSULIN Act now advances to the full Senate, where lawmakers will decide whether to send the measure to the House of Representatives.

If ultimately approved by Congress and signed into law, the legislation would represent the most significant expansion of federal insulin affordability protections since the Medicare cap took effect in 2022.

For millions of Americans living with diabetes, supporters say the bill is about more than lowering prescription costs.

It is about ensuring that no one is forced to choose between paying their bills and obtaining the medication they need to stay alive.

Six Blocks That Changed the Conversation About Lung Health

A walk through Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood reveals personal stories of lung disease, caregiving and fear, showing why community conversations about screening matter.

A walk through Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood revealed stories of resilience, fear and hope before a community lung cancer screening event even begins.

By Milton Kirby | Philadelphia, PA | July 12, 2026

Six blocks.

That was all it took to remind me why community journalism still matters.

On a warm Friday afternoon, I walked the neighborhood surrounding Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, where residents will gather on Saturday, July 25th 10:00am – 12:30pm, for the Lung Cancer Screening to Treatment 2.0: A Community Conversation.

I wasn’t conducting a formal survey. I wasn’t knocking on doors.

I simply walked.

Two blocks along Ogontz Avenue. A turn onto 18th Street. Two more blocks through a neighborhood where families relaxed on front porches, neighbors washed garbage bins after a delayed pickup, and others returned home from work or afternoon errands.

Nothing about the neighborhood immediately suggested that conversations about lung health would soon unfold.

Yet before I completed my walk, I had heard stories about a punctured lung, years of asthma, fear of cancer screening, and the quiet burden carried by caregivers who often neglect their own health while caring for others.

Those conversations reminded me that every neighborhood has stories waiting to be heard. Sometimes all it takes is slowing down long enough to listen.

Looking Beyond Statistics

Public health reports can tell us how many people develop lung cancer each year. Researchers can identify risk factors and explain who qualifies for screening.

But statistics rarely introduce you to the people behind those numbers.

That afternoon, the people of Mt. Airy did.

Each conversation revealed a different path to lung disease and a different reason why community education matters.

No two stories were alike.

RB’s Journey Through Trauma and Recovery

One of the first residents I met was RB.

His lung problems did not begin with smoking.

Years ago, he survived a gunshot wound that pierced one of his lungs. Later, exposure to mold triggered asthma complications and recurring respiratory infections that led to repeated hospitalizations.

“There were times I was in the hospital every month,” he told me as he reflected on years of treatment and recovery.

Today, he continues receiving regular medical care and says he is doing much better than he once was. His story serves as a reminder that lung disease can develop for many reasons. Trauma, environmental exposure, chronic illness and other health conditions can all leave lasting effects on the lungs.

His experience challenged a common assumption that every conversation about lung health begins and ends with smoking.

It doesn’t.

A Conversation About Caregivers

As our conversation continued, another topic emerged.

Sitting next to RB was his companion, who has accepted responsibility for managing RB’s care.

Watching the two of them together reminded me of another caregiver who has shaped my own life.

I shared the story of my cousin, who devoted years to caring for my mother until she passed away on June 19 at the age of 95.

I gently encouraged the caregiver not to make the mistake of neglecting her own health while ensuring that RB gets all of his health needs cared for.

People who care for loved ones often remind others to see a doctor.

Sometimes they need someone to remind them to do the same.

Fear Can Become Another Risk Factor

A few houses down the block, I met Andre.

He told me he has smoked for about 20 years.

He also shared something healthcare professionals hear every day.

He has never been screened for lung cancer.

As we talked, the reason slowly emerged.

It wasn’t because he didn’t know screening existed.

It wasn’t because he couldn’t find a hospital.

Like many people, he was afraid of what screening might reveal.

Fear has a way of postponing difficult conversations.

Sometimes it postpones doctor visits as well.

Rather than criticize his hesitation, I invited him to attend the July 25 community conversation.

“Just come and listen,” I told him. “Nobody is going to make you do anything.”

Community health events give people an opportunity to ask questions without the pressure that sometimes comes with a medical appointment. Physicians, survivors and healthcare advocates can explain who qualifies for screening, how the process works and why finding lung cancer early often provides more treatment options.

Whether Andre attends remains his decision.

But our conversation reflected something many healthcare providers understand.

People cannot benefit from screening if fear prevents them from taking the first step.

Every Porch Has a Story

By the end of my walk, I realized I hadn’t interviewed dozens of residents.

I had only spoken with the people who happened to be outside enjoying the afternoon.

Their stories cannot represent an entire neighborhood.

Nor should they.

But together they painted a picture that statistics alone cannot provide.

One resident was living with the lasting effects of trauma and respiratory illness.

Another admitted avoiding screening because of fear.

A caregiver quietly balanced another person’s health while risking her own.

Three conversations.

Three different experiences.

Three reminders that every family encounters health challenges differently.

Why July 25 Matters

Those conversations help explain why HEAL Collaborative, in partnership with Amgen, is bringing Lung Cancer Screening to Treatment 2.0 directly into the Mt. Airy community. Together, the organizations are working to remove barriers to information by connecting residents with physicians, survivors, patient advocates and healthcare professionals in a welcoming community setting.

The free event will take place on Saturday, July 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, 6401 Ogontz Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19126.

Participants will learn about lung cancer risk factors, who qualifies for screening, the importance of early detection, available treatment options and local resources that can help people navigate their healthcare journey.

Shenika Bond, Regional Director of Community Outreach and Advocacy Engagement for HEAL Collaborative, said the goal is for participants to leave with more than information.

“We want people to leave with the confidence to talk with their personal physicians, request screening if they qualify, and become strong advocates for their own healthcare,” Bond said.

That confidence begins with asking questions.

It grows through understanding personal risk factors, learning when screening is appropriate, and having informed conversations with family members and healthcare providers.

The message shared throughout the initiative is straightforward: Anyone with lungs can develop lung cancer.

While smoking remains the leading risk factor, environmental exposures, occupational hazards, family history and certain medical conditions can also increase a person’s risk. Understanding those risks and knowing when to seek screening can lead to earlier detection, more treatment options and better outcomes.

More Than an Event

As journalists, we often measure success by stories published, photographs taken or events covered.

Walking through Mt. Airy reminded me to measure something else.

Not how many interviews I completed.

But how many conversations had begun.

Through partnerships like the one between HEAL Collaborative and Amgen, organizers hope those conversations that begin on neighborhood sidewalks will continue inside churches, doctors’ offices and family living rooms, where informed decisions about lung health can ultimately save lives.

If even one resident decides to ask a physician about lung cancer screening because of a conversation that started on a neighborhood sidewalk or outside a local church, then that walk accomplished far more than filling seats on July 25.

It demonstrated what community journalism is meant to do.

Connect people with information that can improve lives.

Sometimes, it may even help save one.

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Philadelphia – Mt Airy Residents – Believe in lung cancer screening

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Part I – “Anyone With Lungs”: Understanding the Hidden Realities of Lung Cancer

Part II- “Your Lungs Are Talking”: How the Respiratory System Works – and What It Tells Us

Part III – “From Awareness to Action”: Communities Confront Lung Cancer Together

A Celebration of Hope Inspires Birmingham’s Community Conversation on Lung Cancer

Unapologetically Influential

Atlanta’s most influential Black women in television, radio, print, and digital media reflected on leadership, legacy, and mentorship during the “Unapologetally Influential” panel discussion.

The Women Who Built Atlanta’s Black Media Legacy

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 7, 2026

Atlanta’s rise as the nation’s capital of Black culture did not happen by chance. While the city’s influence is often measured through politics, business, music, film, and professional sports, another force quietly helped shape its identity for generations: Black women in media.

Long before podcasts, livestreams, and social media influencers, pioneering women walked into television stations, radio studios, and newspaper offices where few people looked like them and even fewer expected them to succeed. They earned the public’s trust one broadcast, one headline, and one interview at a time. In doing so, they helped transform not only Atlanta’s media landscape but also the way an entire city saw itself.

That extraordinary legacy came into focus during the Atlanta Cultural Exchange’s “Unapologetically Influential” panel discussion, a gathering that celebrated the women whose careers helped define Atlanta’s media culture while inspiring those who will carry it into the future.

The panel brought together legendary broadcaster Monica Kaufman Pearson, veteran radio personality Joyce Littel, multimedia journalist Rashan Ali, Atlanta Voice Publisher Janis L. Ware, media strategist and journalist Dawn Montgomery, and award-winning broadcaster Liz Smith, who served as moderator.

Although each woman followed a different professional path, together they represented more than two centuries of journalism, broadcasting, publishing, entrepreneurship, and community leadership.

The conversation quickly became about something much larger than careers.

It became a conversation about legacy.

Building Atlanta’s Media Legacy

Throughout the afternoon, panelists reflected on how dramatically Atlanta has changed during their careers.

Today’s Atlanta is home to nationally recognized news organizations, influential Black-owned media companies, syndicated radio personalities, digital content creators, filmmakers, and cultural commentators whose work reaches audiences across the country.

But those opportunities were built by pioneers who entered an industry where few opportunities existed for women, particularly Black women.

Rather than focusing on personal accomplishments, the discussion repeatedly returned to a common theme: every generation has a responsibility to leave the profession stronger than it found it.

Atlanta’s Media Trailblazers

Monica Kaufman Pearson – Broke barriers in 1975 as the first woman and first African American to anchor the evening news at WSB-TV, becoming one of Georgia’s most trusted journalists over a 37-year career.

Jocelyn Dorsey – One of Atlanta television’s pioneering Black journalists whose work helped open newsroom doors for future generations while setting a standard for public affairs reporting and community engagement.

Joyce Littel – A respected Atlanta radio personality whose decades behind the microphone have informed, entertained, and mentored aspiring broadcasters.

Janis L. Ware – Publisher of The Atlanta Voice, preserving one of the nation’s historic Black-owned newspapers while leading its transformation into the digital age and championing community development throughout Atlanta.

Rashan Ali – A multimedia journalist whose career spans sports broadcasting, television, radio, acting, and digital media, reflecting the versatility of today’s media professionals.

Dawn Montgomery – A journalist, strategist, and cultural commentator whose work demonstrates the expanding role of storytelling across journalism, marketing, podcasting, and social commentary.

Liz Smith – An award-winning multimedia journalist and executive producer representing Atlanta’s next generation of influential media leadership across radio, television, streaming, and live events.

Jovita Moore – Remembered as one of Atlanta’s most beloved television anchors, whose professionalism, compassion, and community commitment inspired viewers and young journalists alike.

Remembering Those Who Opened the Door

One of the afternoon’s most meaningful moments came when Monica Kaufman Pearson reminded the audience that history is never created by one person alone.

She acknowledged veteran journalist Jocelyn Dorsey as the first Black news anchor in the Atlanta television market, recognizing one of the women whose groundbreaking work helped expand opportunities for those who followed.

It was a fitting reminder that Atlanta’s media story has always been one of shared progress rather than individual achievement.

The recognition also underscored an important truth often overlooked in conversations about success: every trailblazer once followed another pioneer.

“When I Started, I Didn’t See Black Anchors”

Following the panel discussion, The Truth Seekers Journal spoke with Pearson about the remarkable gathering of women whose careers collectively span nearly every chapter of modern Black media in Atlanta.

Reflecting on the beginning of her own career, Pearson recalled entering an industry where representation was almost nonexistent.

“When I started, I didn’t see Black anchors,” she said.

Rather than accepting those limitations, she chose to become the example she never had.

In 1975, Pearson made history when she became the first woman and the first African American to anchor the evening news at WSB-TV, beginning a remarkable 37-year career that would earn the trust of viewers throughout Georgia.

Her success demonstrated that excellence has the power to change institutions.

Knowing When to Go

Pearson also shared one of the most profound lessons she learned during her decades behind the anchor desk.

“Know when to go.”

The audience grew quiet.

Her advice was not about retirement.

It was about leadership.

Pearson explained that truly effective leaders understand that their responsibility extends beyond personal success. They must also create opportunities for those who follow.

By recognizing when it was time to leave the anchor desk, Pearson helped create space for another respected journalist to become a familiar face in Atlanta homes.

That opportunity allowed viewers to embrace the late Emmy Award-winning anchor Jovita Moore, whose warmth, professionalism, and deep commitment to community made her one of Atlanta’s most beloved broadcasters before her passing in 2021.

Pearson’s lesson extended far beyond journalism.

Leadership is measured not only by the barriers we break, but by the doors we leave open for others.

Every Platform, One Purpose

Although their careers developed in different decades and across different media, each panelist illustrated how journalism continues evolving while remaining grounded in the same core values.

Joyce Littel built one of Atlanta’s most respected careers in radio, using her voice to entertain audiences while encouraging and mentoring young broadcasters.

Janis L. Ware demonstrated that community journalism remains one of democracy’s most important institutions. Under her leadership, The Atlanta Voice has successfully evolved from a traditional newspaper into a modern multimedia news organization while remaining deeply rooted in serving Atlanta’s Black community. Her work in affordable housing, economic development, healthcare, and civic leadership reflects the belief that publishers should help strengthen the communities they cover.

Rashan Ali showed how modern journalists successfully move between television, sports broadcasting, acting, podcasting, and digital media without sacrificing credibility. Her career reflects the versatility demanded of today’s media professionals.

Dawn Montgomery offered another example of journalism’s evolution. Her career has crossed modeling, sports journalism, marketing, strategic communications, podcasting, and cultural commentary. Throughout those transitions, she has remained committed to authentic storytelling and using media as a vehicle for meaningful conversation.

Moderating the discussion was Liz Smith, whose own career represents the next chapter of Atlanta media. As an executive producer, radio personality, television host, and multimedia journalist, Smith embodies an industry where storytellers increasingly move seamlessly across radio, television, streaming platforms, podcasts, and live events.

Together, the women demonstrated that while technology changes, the mission of journalism remains remarkably consistent.

Serve the audience.

Tell the truth.

Earn trust.

More Than Media Personalities

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the discussion was that influence is not measured solely by ratings, readership, or followers.

Each woman described careers deeply connected to community service, mentorship, nonprofit leadership, civic engagement, and advocacy.

Their influence extends well beyond the newsroom.

Collectively, they have served on nonprofit boards, supported educational initiatives, championed healthcare awareness, mentored aspiring journalists, promoted economic development, strengthened neighborhoods, and used their platforms to elevate voices often overlooked by mainstream media.

For these women, journalism has never been simply a profession.

It has been public service.

The Legacy Reached Beyond the Stage

The conversation resonated just as strongly among those seated in the audience.

As attendees gathered following the discussion, many reflected on lessons that reached beyond media careers.

Taylor Dunn summed up the afternoon simply.

“It was an amazing panel, and I really enjoyed it.”

For Atlanta licensed esthetician Tasha, one lesson stood above all the others.

“Know when it’s time to go. Know when it’s your time to leave.”

Moments earlier, Pearson had offered nearly identical advice while describing her own career.

For Tasha, the message applied as much to business and life as it did to broadcasting.

Great leaders do not simply achieve success.

They prepare others to succeed after them.

A Legacy Still Being Written

Looking across the stage, it became clear that this was far more than another panel discussion.

These were not simply accomplished broadcasters, publishers, radio personalities, journalists, and media strategists.

They were women who helped shape how Atlanta tells its own story.

Individually, each forged a unique path through television, newspapers, radio, and digital media.

Collectively, they built something much larger than themselves.

They helped establish Atlanta as one of America’s most influential centers of Black journalism and media excellence.

The applause that filled the room at the close of “Unapologetically Influential” was not merely recognition of distinguished careers.

It was gratitude for doors opened.

Barriers broken.

Communities served.

And generations inspired.

As Atlanta’s media landscape continues to evolve, the technology will change. New platforms will emerge. Different voices will capture public attention.

But the standard established by these pioneering women remains unchanged.

Tell the truth.

Serve the community.

And never forget to leave the door open for the woman coming behind you.

Truth Seekers Journal thrives because of readers like you. Join us in sustaining independent voices.

Kaiser Permanente Expands ‘Building for Impact’ in Atlanta, Connecting Minority Contractors to Growing Healthcare Projects

Kaiser Permanente’s “Building for Impact” initiative is reshaping Georgia’s construction market, signaling major healthcare expansion and new opportunities. Industry leaders stress that strategic preparation, strong relationships, and operational excellence will determine which contractors are ready to compete as demand and investment accelerate across the region. themselves for long term success.

By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | July 6, 2026

Earlier this spring, at The Gathering Spot in Atlanta, Kaiser Permanente convened contractors, developers, business leaders, and community partners to discuss what it will take to compete for more than $70 million in current and projected investments across Georgia. Although the meeting has ended, the message remains timely as healthcare construction and supplier opportunities continue to expand across the state.

As Kaiser Permanente grows its footprint in Georgia, its Building for Impact initiative is preparing businesses for more than the next construction project. It is challenging contractors to think strategically, strengthen their operations and position themselves for long-term success in one of the state’s fastest-growing sectors.

The central question echoed throughout the program was straightforward: Who will be ready when opportunity arrives?

According to speakers, the answer depends less on access and more on preparation.

A Growing Market with Real Stakes

Marc A. Love, Vice President of National Contracting Strategy for Kaiser Permanente, outlined more than $70 million in active and projected investments tied to construction, supplier development and facility expansion throughout the Atlanta region.

With more than 466,000 members in Georgia and continued growth expected, Kaiser Permanente signaled a steady pipeline of work tied to healthcare infrastructure and modernization. The organization is now serving the largest membership base in its Georgia history, driven by continued demand for its integrated model of care.

But speakers emphasized that access to those opportunities is not automatic.

“People buy from people,” consultant Reggie Williams told attendees. “They buy from those who bring value and meet performance expectations.”

Strategy, Not Just Survival

Earnest Ellis – Todd Gray – Jamila Veasley

Keynote speaker Earnest Ellis, president of the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) and CEO of FS360, challenged attendees to rethink how they approach the construction business.

Ellis grounded his message in personal experience -growing up in an entrepreneurial family shaped by resilience and work ethic. His father, who lost his right arm in a farming accident and could not read or write, still outworked everyone around him. That example, Ellis said, removed any excuse to avoid hard challenges.

After careers at IBM, Verizon, and MCI, Ellis founded FS360 in 2008, his sixth entrepreneurial venture. Today, the firm operates in Atlanta, GA and Dallas, TX, generating $35 million in net revenue in 2025 and delivering more than $270 million in completed work.

“Too many small businesses think tactically, just chasing the next contract,” Ellis said. “You have to think strategically. Pick your markets. Build expertise. Develop relationships that last.”

He underscored the urgency with industry realities:

  • 50% of businesses fail within five years
  • 65% fail within ten years
  • Underrepresented firms account for just 21% of construction companies despite representing 42% of the population

Still, Ellis framed the moment as one of opportunity.

“This is a $1.3 trillion industry,” he said. “And right now, it’s short more than 500,000 workers. There is more work than people to do it.”

He also emphasized purpose over pay, sharing that his Yale-educated son turned down a high-paying corporate career in favor of work he found meaningful.

“Excellence is what keeps us in business,” Ellis said.

Healthcare Construction Requires Precision

Elise Webster, Preconstruction Manager, WEBMyers Construction emphasized that healthcare construction carries a higher level of complexity than traditional projects.

“You’re building while people are being treated,” she explained. “That changes everything your schedule, your safety protocols, your coordination.”

Firms that can manage phased construction, infection control standards, and off-hour work schedules are better positioned for long-term opportunities in the healthcare sector.

Relationships Still Drive Opportunity

Despite formal initiatives like Building for Impact, speakers repeatedly stressed that relationships remain the foundation of the industry.

“It takes seven interactions to make an impression,” Ellis said. “One meeting won’t do it.”

Contractors were encouraged to stay engaged, complete Kaiser’s prequalification process, and remain visible even when contracts are not immediately awarded.

Persistence, not proximity, often determines success.

Community Impact Beyond Contracts

Kaiser leaders emphasized that the initiative extends beyond construction projects to broader community outcomes.

Jamila Veasley, Senior Director of Program Management and Strategy Execution, reinforced that vision.

“Who we build with and who we work with matters,” Veasley said. “What we do with Building for Impact supports more than individual projects – it supports economic empowerment, workforce development, and stronger communities.”

One example highlighted a project where a construction team used a local church as its operations base, renovating the space and paying above-market rent, leaving lasting value behind.

“This is what building for impact means,” Todd Gray said. “Not just projects, but community investment.”

Be Ready or Be Left Behind

The closing message was consistent across speakers: opportunity is expanding, but readiness will determine who benefits.

Contractors were urged to:

  • Strengthen internal systems and financial controls
  • Focus on specific market segments
  • Build relationships intentionally
  • Deliver consistent, high-quality work

Kaiser’s long-standing partnership with NAMC—spanning more than 15 years reflects a continued commitment to building capacity among minority contractors through training, networking, and strategic development.

As Georgia’s healthcare sector continues to grow, speakers agreed that success will belong to contractors who invest in relationships, build strong internal systems, and prepare long before opportunities arrive. For minority-owned businesses, the message was clear: the next major project may already be on the horizon, but readiness begins today.

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