Good Morning and welcome to Our Issues Milwaukee.
I'm your host Andrea Williams.
Our focus this morning is on Education.
It was the late great Nelson Mandela who said "Education is the most powerful weapon which
you can use to change the world."
My first guest represents an organization that has served as the nation's leading
advocate when it comes to the education of minority students.
The United Negro College Fund has raised more than $4.7 billion since 1944 and has helped
more than 430,000 students and counting.
It's my pleasure to welcome to the show, Mr. Michael J. Cox who is the Regional Development
Director for UNCF.
How are you?
Well thank you very much.
I'm great, Ms. Williams.
How are you?
I am so glad to have you here.
And as I mentioned, for more than seven decades, the UNCF has been providing financial support
to 37 historically black colleges and universities that are referred to as HBCUs.
So if you would right off the bat, tell us more about the UNCF and all the things you
do for students.
Well certainly.
Thank you very much.
This opportunity is great for us.
We're very proud of the fact that we've been in existence since 1944.
And as you said, we raised over...almost $5 billion to help students go to college, and
support the schools that are member institutions.
Those private HBCUs that don't get federal funding, don't get state funding, we support
those schools directly.
But we also support students at 1,000, almost 1,200 institutions across the nation.
So we really are the engine that helps propel students to and through college, especially
low income students and minority students.
But not just low income and minority students.
We really do administer scholarships that transcend race, ethnicity, as well as religion.
That is outstanding.
And as I mentioned, you're the Regional Development Director, so your responsibility is to advance
that mission in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, and here in Wisconsin, so you've got
quite a bit on your plate.
Quite a bit!
I run around quite...quite often, but I love the Midwest.
I grew up here, so it is a joy for me to work in this part of the country.
The salt of the Earth people.
Straight Forward.
Honest and direct.
And more importantly, they really support young people, and it's a great history here
in Milwaukee for our relationship with UNCF and the Milwaukee citizens.
I would agree.
And since we're focused on Milwaukee and the things that happen here, let's talk about
the impact that UNCF has had.
Well, how about the most immediate?
This past year, I was looking this up a little bit because I'm always preparing for speeches
and shows, etc., and I always have to do a little research to catch up.
Last year, we gave $1.3 million to students in Wisconsin.
That's awesome.
About 120 or so scholarships crossing about 50 or 55 different students.
That's a lot of money in one year.
You can say that again.
$1.3 million, that's a lot of money.
Yes.
But I'm very happy about that because it means number one, the citizens of Wisconsin, in
particular Milwaukee, really care about their young people and education.
If you can have a community support young people to that degree and that fashion, it
means really the shy's the limit.
I love it.
And we talk about that positive thing that has happened in the past year, but there is
an unfortunate statistic to keep in mind.
For every scholarship UNCF awards, there are nine other deserving students who are turned
down due to a lack of resources.
And with that said, it is a must, I repeat, a must that ways are found to close that gap.
So that leads us to some outstanding fund raising events that take place every year
in order to accomplish that goal.
Yeah.
Milwaukee is a...and Wisconsin in general is a unique place for us.
Education I said is the bedrock of this community in a lot of ways, and so we started out years
having the Milwaukee Walk for Education.
And the wonderful thing about having that walk, and I don't know if most residents know
that it's the second largest UNCF Walk in the entire nation.
Wow.
I did not know that.
Yeah, we'll have easily a couple thousand people out at Veterans Park on July 22nd,
I think, and it's a wonderful time, wonderful opportunity.
The churches are out, the corporate leaders are out, the corporations are out, the mayor
comes out.
We have a wonderful time, and it is one of the best events of the summer.
Yes, and speaking of the mayor, there is a huge event coming up on March 18th.
It's another fundraising event and it's at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Tell us more about that.
This is our second annual Mayor's Masked Ball in Milwaukee.
Okay.
And you're talking about a fun night.
It is a wonderful night.
Milwaukee comes out in their finest.
It's a black tie affair with masks. if you don't have a mask, we'll sell you one when
you come in the door.
Goes to scholarships.
That is...exactly.
And what you do with the mask after the event is up to you, but it it's a wonderful, wonderful
time.
It's a fund raiser, but it's also a time to dance and celebrate.
We'll feature one of our students, you'll get to know her a little bit.
It...it's...it's just an awesome time.
There will be a best mask award, and a parade of masks.
It's a great time.
Oh, wow.
And so people need to take a little time and find that right mask then.
Well, if you want to win the prize.
If you're into that competitive kind of thing.
Yes, yes.
And this is going to be my first time actually attending the masked ball.
Yes, I'm looking forward to it.
So I'm looking forward to it as well.
You didn't know you were going to be working with me on that night, did you?
Oh, well I know now, so...
We're getting along just fine now so I think we'll be all right.
And you have actually stated that this is the second year, and there are outstanding
individuals that you have honored not only last year, but you'll do it again this year.
Right.
I think we...we did Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Harvey last year, and this year we have three outstanding
individuals, one I know that you're very close to, was close to, and that's Eric Von.
Yes.
And we'll be honoring him posthumously of course, and then Dr. Debra McGriff we will
also be honoring, and then Howard Fuller...Dr. Howard Fuller.
Yes.
And Dr. McGriff is with the New Schools Venture Fund.
Yes.
And then of course Dr. Howard Fuller.
He's at Marquette.
Former Milwaukee Public School Superintendent and distinguished professor of education and
the director of the institute for the transformation of learning at Marquette.
And he has been on this show a couple of times.
Awesome.
To talk about the outstanding work that's being done there.
So well deserved, that's for sure.
Absolutely.
All three of those.
And I wanted to talk a little bit about the mayor, who is going to be in attendance, and
some of the other people that have been invited.
Well, all the corporate leader, all of our sponsors, many of their CEOs will be presents,
or certainly their C-suite level people.
So Johnson Controls, Rockwell Automation.
In fact, I was on the phone with both of those companies earlier today, they're fantastic
supporters.
We've got some new sponsors.
Town Bank will be present; we're really excited about their participation.
Northwestern Mutual is coming back this year.
They were there last year and they were so enamored that they raised their level of sponsorship
so they could continue to be engaged.
That's wonderful.
So so many companies from the Milwaukee area, Potawatomi is in this year, We're excited
to be partnering with them.
Just a lot of fantastic stuff.
But the best time I had last year, the best time last year, was sitting with the mayor
and his wife.
She's an awesome dancer!
She is fantastic!
I think she had the best time of all of us last year, and this year we're looking forward
to it.
We have Teresa Griffin who is performing, she appeared on The Voice, she was a finalist
from The Voice from a few years ago.
We're excited about having her.
But my best part of this is my surprise we pulled last year that we will do again this
year.
Okay, so...
We awarded without anyone's knowledge., we kept is secret, recipients of the Wisconsin
Student Aid Scholarship.
So I think five young people last year were awarded a scholarship.
They didn't know, their parents didn't know, their neighbors didn't know, and when you...you
should have seen their reaction from the crowd when names are scrolled up on who was getting
that award.
So this year, and we promise them it's not a secret this year.
But they still don't know their name is going to come up or not.
They don't...no one knows whose names are going to come up.
Wow.
Chill bump effect.
I have the envelope, and I promise you I won't read off the wrong names.
Okay!
And so this is the thing, there's somebody at home who's interested in being a part of
this, so how would they go about getting those tickets?
Just give us all those details.
Certainly.
There are several ways.
You can call 414-372-6000.
That would be one way.
The tickets are $175 each.
or you can go online and purchase your ticket at uncf.org/milwaukeemmb.
Okay, that's uncf.org/milwaukemmb.
Correct.
Got it.
And if someone s unable to attend the Mayor's Masked ball or any of the other events that
take place across the calendar year, there is still the option for them to make a tax
deductible donation.
Absolutely.
Or they can also volunteer at some other events that come up over the calendar year.
Yes, because we still have two more events this year, and they can go on our website.
The Milwaukee/Wisconsin office is housed in my Chicago location.
We have a coordinator for our campaign here in Milwaukee, that's Julietta Henry.
Everybody knows Julietta.
Everybody knows Julietta.
Everybody knows her.
She's an awesome, awesome lady.
But they can go on to uncf.org/chicago, and there they can donate and they can also contact
our office.
All the information about how to contact and volunteer is on there as well.
All right.
And Mr. Cox, you too are a graduate of an HBCU.
You are a Morehouse man.
Yes, ma'am.
And that says a whole lot.
Everybody knows that Morehouse has a distinction to it because the late, great Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. was a graduate of Morehouse.
You have Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, the list goes on and on and on.
Talk about the pride that you have in being a graduate of an HBCU.
It is enormous.
It really would take up your entire show to talk about it.
But I will say this, it changed my life.
Going to Morehouse, I was both an academic and athletic scholarship recipient.
But going to Morehouse opened my world.
I was an inner city kid growing up in Chicago and had not been away from any Chicago area
other than going to visit my grandmother in Tennessee when I went to college.
Had not flown on a plane.
Sat in an auditorium full of Morehouse students my freshman year.
Spike Lee was one row away from me.
Next to me was Martin King III.
Jay Johnson, a former Homeland Security Chief was in our class.
An endless number of Wall Street people.
Samuel L. Jackson was two classes ahead of me.
Wasn't he a cheerleader?
Samuel...we wouldn't call him a cheerleader; we would call him a ...
A man leader?
A crowd leader?
No, no....a yell captain.
oh, okay.
That would be more appropriate.
But a...but Morehouse, we brought in the best speakers across the nation to talk to us,
to speak to us about the trends and things that were going on in the nation, challenging
us to be bigger, better, brighter and lead the nation, and I think that Morehouse has
a legacy of doing that.
In fact, if you know there's a Milwaukee Morehouse Scholars connection.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We're very, very proud of the young men and the companies who have supported them in their
endeavors to academically...we honored them last year with a video.
They were part of the video at the gala last year, was awesome.
Yeah, one that I watched grow up, Nicholas Stokes.
Yeah!
His father, Earl, works with me at Jammin' 98.3, and I mean he used to be really into
basketball, went to Morehouse, and that just kind of left his mind and he was really fixated
on just academics and being the best that he can be, and he's graduated and doing great
things.
So it's just awesome to watch these young men go away and really just become all that
they can be.
Well Nicholas was in last year's video, so he was featured in last year's ball.
Awesome.
He's just indicative of not just Morehouse, which of course I'm very proud of, but all
HBCUs do an incredible job of helping young people to grow in an environment, especially
if you come in a little bit shy, a little bit bashful, a little bit homesick, your professors,
your administrators, they put their arms around you and encourage you.
Yes, and I am also a graduate of an HBCU.
I attended Central State University, which the great jazz singer Nancy Wilson, and then
you have the great opera singer Leontyne Price.
And then also one of the Little Rock Nine, Elizabeth Eckford.
So you've got a long list of outstanding individuals who have gone through HBCUs and really shown
what type of products come out of these schools.
And as we wrap up, I just want to kind of shine a light on why the schools are called
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, because of course right after the Civil War,
you had universities where African-American students were not allowed to attend.
And then you had the mindset of building your own schools, and today those schools are absolutely
open to every student of every color, race, religion, whatever is the case.
But I always like to explain to people that is where the Historic Black College and University
tag comes from.
Absolutely.
Those universities, you know, the land grant schools where started first, so many of your
Jackson State University, Tennessee State University, all those schools...Alabama State,
those wonderful schools where started because, as you said, the desire not to have African-Americans
attend the same schools as whites.
but later on, shortly thereafter, our faith-based organizations, the Methodists, the Baptists,
the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Catholics all started institutions to help
educate African-American in a country that did not want to see them educated.
And so those historical black colleges and universities, all of them coming up to 150
years, or close to 175 years, were born back then with the designation are significant.
In fact, you know, as we know, they were all invited to the White House recently.
Absolutely.
Well thank you so much for stopping by.
Looking forward to seeing you soon at the Mayor's Masked Ball.
Absolutely.
Don't forget your mask.
I will not!
Michael Cox is again the Regional Development Director for the United Negro College Fund.
You can keep in mind; the Mayor's Mask Ball is coming up on March 18th at the Milwaukee
Art Museum.
For more details, you can go to uncf.org/milwaukeemmb or call the local office at 414-372-6700.
When we return to Our Issues Milwaukee, we'll continue our focus on education and find out
more about UW-Milwaukee's pre-college academic program for high school students known as
Upward Bound.
We'll meet its Program Director Donald Singleton right after this.
For more infomation >> Ghost in the Shell
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