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They’re entertainers, media moguls, elite athletes, music artists, tech tycoons, and investors.

Stacker compiled a list of the 10 richest Black Americans using data from Forbes. Individuals were ranked by their overall wealth ranking, with the richest person taking the #1 spot.

America’s Black billionaires represent an array of industries and business ventures; however, over half of those on this list made the bulk of their wealth in the sports or entertainment industries. The people on this list are worth $27 billion combined, which is a lot of money—but that’s just one-eighth of the net worth of the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, at an estimated $218 billion.

The United States is home to the most billionaires of any country represented on Forbes’ list of 2,640 billionaires in 2023. And yet, of the 1,000 wealthiest people in the world, only two are Black Americans. This wealth gap results from long-standing practices in the United States that denied Black Americans the ability to accumulate wealth while their labor often contributed to the wealth of white Americans. This dates back to slavery and continued with discriminatory practices in the housing and labor markets that have never been fully redressed.

Despite these barriers, America’s Black billionaires have risen to the top tiers of financial success.

#10. Tyler Perry

– Net worth: $1 billion
– Global wealth rank: 2,593
– Age: 53
– Source of wealth: Movies, television

Tyler Perry is a director, actor, producer, and writer who built his empire from movies and television. He owns 100% of his content, including the popular “Madea” franchise. Perry lives in Atlanta, where his 330-acre, 12-stage Tyler Perry Studios is located.

#9. LeBron James

– Net worth: $1 billion
– Global wealth rank: 2,537
– Age: 38
– Source of wealth: Basketball

Considered one of the all-time greatest basketball players, LeBron James is the first active NBA player to make Forbes’ billionaire list. James started his NBA career at 18 years old with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he went on to play for the Miami Heat and his current team, the Los Angeles Lakers. Beyond basketball, James makes money through endorsement deals with Pepsi, Walmart, and Nike and has equity in Beats by Dre and Blaze Pizza.

#8. Tiger Woods

– Net worth: $1.1 billion
– Global wealth rank: 2,505
– Age: 47
– Source of wealth: Golf

Tiger Woods is considered one of the best golfers ever and is tied for first in PGA Tour wins. He is the second active athlete—after LeBron James—to make the Forbes billionaire list. Beyond golf, Woods makes money through his investments in real estate, a golf course design business, a high-end mini-golf chain, and TMRW Sports, a tech and sports venture he co-founded with plans to launch a new golf league.

#7. Tope Awotona

– Net worth: $1.2 billion
– Global wealth rank: 2,303
– Age: 42
– Source of wealth: Software

Tope Awotona is the founder and CEO of Calendly, a software company that automates meeting scheduling. Born in Nigeria, Awotona and his family immigrated to Atlanta when he was a teenager. He has a background in sales for tech companies and founded Calendly in 2013.

#6. Alexander Karp

– Net worth: $1.8 billion
– Global wealth rank: 1,700
– Age: 55
– Source of wealth: Software firm

Alexander Karp is co-founder and CEO of Palantir, a software company specializing in big data analytics driven by artificial intelligence. Palantir does contract work for the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the Danish National Police, which use the platform for defense and intelligence strategy. Karp is originally from New York and grew up in Philadelphia; Palantir is headquartered in Denver.

#5. Michael Jordan

– Net worth: $2 billion
– Global wealth rank: 1,528
– Age: 60
– Source of wealth: Charlotte Hornets, endorsements

Michael Jordan is considered one of the all-time greatest basketball players alongside LeBron James. Jordan won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. Today, his wealth comes from owning the Charlotte Hornets NBA team, co-owning a NASCAR team, investing in DraftKings, and endorsement deals with Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade.

#4. Jay-Z

– Net worth: $2.5 billion
– Global wealth rank: 1,256
– Age: 53
– Source of wealth: Multiple

Jay-Z, whose name is Shawn Carter, is a multihyphenate and hip-hop’s first billionaire. He is a rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur married to singer Beyoncé. Jay-Z’s wealth comes from his fine art collection, music catalog, the Roc Nation entertainment company he founded, and various brand investments, including liquor, clothing lines, music streaming, a chain of sports bars, and more.

#3. Oprah Winfrey

– Net worth: $2.5 billion
– Global wealth rank: 1,254
– Age: 69
– Source of wealth: TV shows

Oprah Winfrey was the first Black woman billionaire in the U.S. and is the only woman on this list. The foundation of her wealth is her nationally syndicated talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which aired for 25 years starting in 1986. Winfrey leveraged her talk show into a media empire that now includes the OWN cable channel and Harpo Productions. Winfrey, born in Mississippi and raised in Milwaukee and Nashville, also has made money as an actor and an investor in WeightWatchers.

#2. David Steward

– Net worth: $6 billion
– Global wealth rank: 431
– Age: 71
– Source of wealth: IT provider

David Steward is the founder of World Wide Technology, an IT provider that helps large companies with digital strategy and technology and supply chain solutions. Steward also co-founded Telcobuy, a spinoff of World Wide Technology that provides enterprise networking services and data security. He was born in Chicago and grew up in Missouri.

#1. Robert F. Smith

– Net worth: $8 billion
– Global wealth rank: 266
– Age: 60
– Source of wealth: Private equity

The richest Black American is Robert F. Smith, who founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software companies. Smith grew up in Denver and worked as a chemical engineer before earning his MBA. He started Vista Equity Partners in 2000, and it has posted annual returns of 30% every year.

Data reporting by Elena Cox. Story editing by Jeff Inglis. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Abigail Renaud.

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Resolution of the long-pending legal case challenging ‘community preference’ set-asides could reframe which applicants get affordable housing — including a relative of the judge hearing the case.

This article was originally published on Aug 21 5:00am EDT by THE CITY

Mayor Eric Adams’s law department is in settlement talks in a landmark federal lawsuit charging that the city’s longstanding practice of giving neighborhood residents preference in affordable housing lotteries promotes racial segregation.

The outcome of the case could redefine who can snag a coveted new apartment where rents are subsidized and set in line with a tenant’s income, including in some of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods.

Just how wide is the potential reach of the decision in Noel v. New York City? Among the hundreds of thousandsof people trying their luck in the Housing New York lottery is a close relative of the judge in the case, Laura Taylor Swain.

Judge Swain has been handling Noel since civil rights lawyer Craig Gurian filed it in 2015. In May she cleared the case to go to trial on the plaintiffs’ core allegation: that a “community preference” setting aside half of lottery apartments for residents of local community districts violates the federal Fair Housing Act by intensifying existing patterns of racial separation.

At the same time, Swain urged both sides to reach a settlement, and in July Adams’ law department and Gurian exchanged offers. Subsequently the city’s lawyers notified the judge that they “needed time to consider” plaintiffs’ settlement offer and were “determining whether to make” a counter-offer.

Connected to the Case

The judge’s connection surfaced in a May 19 letter from the court clerk for the Southern District of New York to lawyers in the case, revealing that Swain had recently learned that one of her “close family members has entered the City of New York’s affordable housing lottery program.”

The relative, the letter states, lives in the same community district as an affordable housing project that they applied to get into. “Because at least one of the family member’s applications is for a property in a Community District in which both the family member’s address and the housing project are located, the family member will benefit from the City’s community preference policy,” the letter states.

Judge Swain does not “anticipate that the circumstance will affect or impact her future decisions in this case,” but circumstances may be grounds for recusal “because the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” the letter from clerk Ruby Krajick states.

Swain offered to recuse herself from the case she has presided over for eight years, unless all parties in the case agreed she could stay on, the clerk communicated.

In response, lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the city waived the recusal. She remains on the case and has ordered both sides to prepare for trial if they can’t reach a settlement before then.

“We don’t think there’s any problem with the judge deciding it,” said Gurian, who represents two Black housing applicants contesting the protocol.

He contended that the application by the judge’s “close relative illustrates our point” regarding how community preference discourages integration.

Gurian said applicants such as the judge’s “close relative” are both rewarded and punished by community preference protocol that he dubs an “outsider restriction” policy: “Sometimes when the close relative applies, that close relative gets an advantage. Sometimes when the close relative applies, the close relative is disadvantaged.”

Previous analysis by THE CITY showed that in neighborhoods where very little affordable housing is built, chances of its residents winning a lottery unit are quite low. Community preference gives a big leg up to people living in districts where affordable development is relatively plentiful.

‘History of Segregation’

Noel is not Gurian’s first ambitious anti-segregation legal case. In 2006, he filed a federal lawsuit charging that Westchester County took in millions of dollars in federal aid but failed to make the required effort to get affordable housing built in the county’s exclusive suburban communities. In 2009, Manhattan federal judge Denise Cote found Westchester County had “utterly failed” to meet its fair housing requirements, and Westchester settled by agreeing to reforms aimed at increasing affordable apartments within its borders.

Gurian then focused his attention on New York City, which has an overall racially diverse population but is extremely segregated by neighborhood.

“New York has a long and ugly history of segregation,” Gurian said. “It was obvious that the outsider-restriction policy built on that history instead of fighting it. It was long past time to recognize that all our neighborhoods should belong to all of us, regardless of where we might be moving from.”

Community preference began in 1988 as a way to mollify local elected officials who advocated that neighborhood residents should get first priority for affordable housing built in their neighborhoods. Under Mayor Ed Koch, the rule required that 30% of affordable housing go to residents of the neighborhood where a development project was located. It expanded to 50% in 2002 under Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Tough Odds

The odds of hitting the New York City housing lottery are daunting, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) data shows. Between 2014 and 2020, more than 27.2 million applications were filed for affordable units, including from individuals who filed multiple applications. Of those, tenants signed 27,819 leases.

Analyzing millions of HPD application records from those years, THE CITY found that higher-income tenants have the greatest chance of securing an apartment, and lower-income tenants the least.

Community preference has given applicants seeking housing within their own neighborhoods a major advantage among the 18 million applications in lotteries that included set-asides of apartments for local residents: While only 5% of the applications came from individuals living within the targeted community districts, leases signed went 50-50 to those within and without, according to HPD’s data.

The Noel plaintiffs are two Black New Yorkers who entered city-run lotteries for apartments located outside the community districts where they lived and failed to get housing.

The suit alleges that this policy violates the federal Fair Housing Act because it perpetuates racial segregation and works against integration.

The plaintiffs contend that because the insider pool within a community district is “typically less diverse than the outsider pool, it has a race-based disparate impact.” 

Gurian has presented data showing this tilt: Black applicants make up 34% of apparently eligible applicants from outside districts, but make up only 10% of apparently eligible applicants from inside districts. White apparently eligible applicants make up 10% of outside applicants, but 27% of inside applicants.

Viewpoints Vary

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, city lawyers fought the suit aggressively, asking Swain to throw it out. His top housing officials asserted that affordable housing could not be built without the local political support that constituent set-asides help ensure.

In April the judge granted City Hall’s request to dismiss the argument that community preference had a disparate impact on Black and Hispanic housing lottery applicants. But Swain also rejected the city’s argument that because some neighborhoods are integrated, community preference does not have the overall impact of perpetuating segregation. 

“The court is not convinced, however, that a municipality cannot be held liable for perpetuating segregation as long as its policy or practice results in some integration, no matter how minimal,” she wrote. The judge declared that the plaintiffs “may be able to prove that the community preference policy causes a discriminatory effect” if they provide “sufficient evidence demonstrating that the policy has a significant effect on inhibiting integration.”

Speaking with THE CITY, Gurian said that under the de Blasio administration, the city argued that people want to stay in their own communities and should therefore get preference for much-sought-after affordable units.

But in arguing his case, Gurian has presented data showing that in three out of four lotteries, 85% of applicants for housing come from outside the community district.

“That’s true for all racial groups, which indicates people are not wedded to staying in their own neighborhoods with their own racial group,” he said. “People just want affordable apartments.”

Ready for Trial

Gurian has asked Swain to reconsider her rejection of their disparate impact argument and said he is preparing to go to trial. He declined to discuss the status of ongoing settlement talks. A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department did not respond to THE CITY’s questions. 

If Adams rejects the plaintiffs’ settlement proposal, a trial is set for early next year.

While de Blasio fought aggressively to continue the practice of community preference, it’s not entirely clear where Adams stands on this issue.

During his campaign for mayor, Adams was split. In a list of promised reforms he dubbed “100+ Steps Forward for NYC,” he called for encouraging more middle- and lower-income housing to be built in more affluent neighborhoods by eliminating community preference in those areas. But he appeared to support its continued use in lower-income neighborhoods.

“The mayor should take a decisive step away from the policy of his predecessors and settle this case, especially as he is already on record as recognizing that the current policy is not in the city’s interest,” Gurian said. “But if he chooses instead to own the policy, we’re confident that a jury of ordinary New Yorkers will see the overwhelming evidence of racial discrimination and rule for the plaintiffs.”

Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.

THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.

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* This article was originally published here

With 32% of Black families needing help feeding school-age kids, organizations like Connecting Kids to Meals pick up the slack when the school year ends.

Ryan Geske no longer hears “I’m hungry.”

As the director of operations at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Toledo, Ohio, this is no small feat.

The change came around 2007 when the Boys & Girls Clubs partnered with local organization Connecting Kids to Meals, which provides free, hot, and healthy meals to kids under 18.

“Kids would come and they would be hungry, and there wasn’t much that we could do 20 years ago,” Geske says. “Now we have that resource of a delicious hot lunch to serve.”

In just the first half of 2023, Connecting Kids to Meals has provided 37,000 dinners and 32,000 snacks across eight Boys & Girls Club sites. 

And, with three additional sites, they’re on track to significantly surpass totals from the last two years: 51,000 dinners and 45,000 snacks in 2022, and 30,000 dinners and 27,000 snacks in 2021.

“It helps bridge that gap for parents that are relying on us after school” and in the summertime, Geske says. “I can’t undersell the importance of this program to us.”

Community-Wide Benefits

In the Northwest Ohio region that Connecting Kids to Meals serves, about 55% of the kids who come to eat are Black, 30% are white, and 11% are Hispanic, says Wendi R. Huntley, Esq., president and CEO of Connecting Kids to Meals.

And, as a Black-led organization, they understand the importance of what they’re doing.

“It means a lot to be able to support families and to really serve the kids in our community,” Huntley says.

And, unlike other programs, kids don’t need to show identification or other proof in order to eat. They just need to show up.

“It’s the site that has to be deemed eligible for our programs that we’re running,” Huntley says. Sites are designated by the USDA based on a number of factors, including whether at least 50% of the student population qualifies for free or reduced meals.

While Connecting Kids to Meals feeds kids 18 and under, the benefits have a ripple effect throughout the community.

It eases the financial burden on families and helps foster a sense of safety, security, and belonging. Aside from getting hot and healthy meals at these locations, kids can socialize and see their friends.

“It really helps to establish a healthier mindset, along with a healthier lifestyle for our kids in our communities, which will reap benefits down the road,” Huntley says.

Connecting Kids to Meals After School and All Summer Long

That reality is what makes the work of organizations like Connecting Kids to Meals so necessary.

Now in its 20th year, the organization continues to serve free and healthy meals to students under 18 in “low- to moderate-income areas, as well as underserved areas of Northwest Ohio,” Huntley says.

They partner with schools, summer sites, libraries, community centers, Boys & Girls Clubs, after-school programs, YMCAs — “anywhere kids are gathering, we want to make sure that we are there to create an opportunity for access to healthy foods,” Huntley says.

At the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, 13% of Black families nationally were picking up free meals, and 21% were using EBT cards to buy groceries, according to a Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey taken in June 2023.

And heading into the summer months, 32% of Black families nationally reported their kids getting free meals during the school day, and the number of EBT card users was slightly lower, at 14%, but the number of families picking up free meals plummeted to 2%.

The summer meal program is their flagship program, giving out between 5,000 and 6,000 meals per day. And there’s also the after-school meal program, which has been running for 14 years. And weekend meal boxes are given out on Fridays and going into holiday breaks.

Over the last few years, Connecting Kids to Meals has given out hundreds of thousands of free meals every year. In the 2021-2022 cycle, they served 675,403 meals across 151 summer sites and 80 after-school sites.

“This work is critically necessary,” Huntley says. In the community they serve, the largest school district has high rates of students who receive free and reduced-price meals.

“When we look at all of these things, our role is critically important in our community to make sure that, with all the stressors, all the things that kids have to deal with these days,” Huntley says, “finding and getting access to a healthy meal should not and cannot be something that they have that is added to their plate — no pun intended.”

Connecting Kids to Meals is a sponsor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meaning they get a certain amount of federal funding and meet specified requirements that ensure the meals are healthy. To fill the funding gap, Huntley writes grants and asks for other contributions.

In 2023, Connecting Kids to Meals currently works with 146 summer sites and is adding more. Huntley describes the process as a “hodgepodge” — sites operate at different times during the day, and for different durations during the summer. 

But each location has the same monthly menu.

The kitchen coordinator and operations manager work together to come up with fun meals that meet the nutrition requirements. The ideas come from various places, like trade shows, other programs, and No Kid Hungry — but also from surveys the kids fill out. It’s important to get their feedback to know which meals they liked and didn’t like so Connecting Kids to Meals can make adjustments.

“We want it to be kid-friendly and things that kids will eat,” Huntley says, while still being nutritious.

And what consistently comes in as the top pick? “Every year,” Huntley says, “it’s walking tacos.” 

The Amazon of Food Distribution

Connecting Kids to Meals is now back in growth mode, Huntley says. They’ve purchased additional vehicles for the fleet, along with a new box truck, and are studying the feasibility of expanding.

“I really felt like Connecting Kids to Meals could be like Amazon,” she says. “We could be the food distribution center for Northwest Ohio for kids’ meals.”

However, she wants to be careful and intentional about growth. While some urge the organization to spread statewide, Huntley doesn’t want to “duplicate efforts” — or step on the toes of other organizations they have relationships with.

Plus, there’s enough work for them to do in Northwest Ohio. Huntley wants to continue impacting the lives of kids and families in the area and do more in their radius.

“I tell my staff every day, ‘All I ask of you is not perfection, what I ask of you is to do your best every day,” Huntley says, “‘and then for us to come back the next day, and to do our best each and every day thereafter.’”

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The Black Panther veterans came together Sunday to co-name 122nd Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard Black Panther Way.

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DETROIT (AP) — A team of divers have been trolling the deep, cold waters of Lake Huron off Michigan’s Thumb for several weeks each of the past few years searching for scattered pieces of aviation — and Black military — history.

Their target is the wreckage of a World War II-era fighter plane flown by a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen that crashed during training nearly 80 years ago near Port Huron, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Detroit.

So far, the plane’s bullet-riddled propellor and hundreds of other pieces have been recovered. Organizers this week hauled the P-39’s 1,200-pound (544-kilogram) mussel-encrusted engine from about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface of the the lake which is home to scores of sailing vessels, tankers and other ships that have sank over the past several centuries.

Once restored, the engine, like other parts of the plane, eventually will be exhibited at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum at the Coleman A. Young International Airport on Detroit’s east side.

“We’re doing some finalizing of mapping things in terms of what all is there,” said Carrie Sowden, archeological and research director at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio. “As we prepare for these major lifts, we’re finding all these small pieces. When we’re done we’re going to have a complete understanding where every single piece came from.”

The airmen were the nation’s first all-Black air fighter squadron. They trained and fought separately from white fighter units due to segregation in the U.S. military. Their unit was based in Tuskegee, Alabama, but Michigan served as an advanced training ground during the war.

On April 11, 1944, 2nd Lt. Frank Moody, 22, of Los Angeles was flying over Lake Huron. It’s believed his machine guns were not in sync with the rotation of the P-39’s propellor. When Moody fired the guns, the slugs struck the propellor, causing the plane to crash into the waters below.

His body washed ashore a few months later, but the plane’s wreckage lay scattered along the lake bottom, only disturbed by the movement of the waves and water until 2014 when it was discovered.

In 2018, the state issued an archeological recovery permit to the museum. Later that year, dive and recovery teams began mapping and bringing pieces of the plane up, including the tail, guns, gauges and munitions.

“The aircraft is largely disarticulated,” according to Wayne Lusardi, Michigan’s state maritime archaeologist with the Department of Natural Resources and organizer of the recovery effort.

“It’s broken, spread out over almost a half-a-mile underwater and consists of thousands of pieces,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday after the engine was lowered into a chemical solution inside the Tuskegee Airmen museum’s hangar. “There’s still a good amount of the plane that’s still on the bottom.”

The Detroit News reported Tuesday that divers also located part of the plane’s landing gear wheel well and wing flap motor.

Depending on the condition of the artifacts, restoration could take years, according to Isis Gillespie, the museum’s conservator of the P-39.

“Because the engine is intact, you know it crashed very shallow in the lake … and it was in fresh water so it helped preserve it a lot more,” Gillespie said. “This find is so important for Black history to find out how Tuskegee airmen fought for this country and how they fought a war at home,” Gillespie said Thursday.

Moody’s sacrifice in Lake Huron also should be remembered, added Lusardi.

“It’s sometimes very easy to forget that this was a place where a young man died who gave his life for this country,” Lusardi said. “It really is going to be a memorial to the African American airmen that died here, that trained here in Michigan.”

Fifteen Tuskegee airmen were killed while training in Michigan, including five pilots lost in Lake Huron and one in the St. Clair River, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

At least three other planes flown by Tuskegee Airmen remain in Lake Huron, according to Diving With a Purpose, a Tennessee-based group that focuses on the maritime history of Black Americans.

A monument dedicated to Moody and other Tuskegee Airmen who died in Michigan during World War II training was unveiled in 2021 near the international Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.

Tuskegee Airmen and their aircraft have been referred to as “Red Tails” for the red-painted wings of their airplanes. Hollywood producers used the name as the title of a 2012 film showcasing the unit’s struggles and its accomplishments.

President George W. Bush awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in 2007.

The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum is working to start a capital campaign to raise funds for a new building with room to display aircraft flown by the airmen, said Brian Smith, the museum’s president and chief executive.

“Tuskegee airmen are known for their valor and excellence in fighting the Germans in the air war over Germany in World War II,” Smith said. “That story is being told, and has been told, but what we haven’t heard are about the accidents in training that the airmen suffered. This is an exhibit that’s when it’s conserved can tell the story of African Americans — the complete story — from training, combat then what they did after the war.”

___

Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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