RAPPIN’RAPPIN’RAPPIN’RAPPIN’RAPPIN’Tommy WyattTommy WyattTommy WyattTommy WyattTommy Wyatt

Vol. 36 No. 45 Website: theaustinvillager.com Email: vil3202@aol.com Phone: 512-476-0082 Fax: 512-476-0179 April 10, 2009

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On April 17th, 2009, at theBiG Idea luncheon, JeannettePeten will pass the baton to a ca-pable person to lead the organi-zation she founded in 1995. Asfounder and President of Busi-ness Investment Growth(BiGAUSTIN), a not-for-profitmicro-lender, Peten has directedthe spectacular growth of thisorganization which has servedover 6,000 entrepreneurs in Cen-tral Texas.

After two decades in thefinancial sector, Peten left alucrative career and foundedBiGAustin. She has dedicatedher life to inspiring individu-als to start, expand, and growsmall business vehicles stra-tegically, and to move them to-ward self-empowerment andeconomic stability. The entirecommunity – not justBiGAUSTIN – has reaped thebenefits of Peten’s vision anddetermination. Her focus onjob creation and economicdevelopment resulted in thecreation of over 1700 jobs inCentral Texas and the distri-bution of $6M in loan or le-veraged capital. Small Busi-nesses served by BiG havegenerated over $18M in salesrevenue. Peten says, “Em-powering individuals to be-come economically self-suffi-cient through business own-ership is the most rewardingway to serve my community.”

One of the lessonsJeannette Peten learned fromher mother’s death in Octo-

BIGAUSTIN’S FOUNDERAND PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES

RETIREMENT

ber, 2007, was that life canchange in a moment. Petensays her mother was the big-gest influence on her life. Froman early age, she saw hermother fight battles from de-manding quality education tolater demanding fair treat-ment for all races in businesslending. Upon hearing of hermom’s devastating cancer di-agnosis, Peten says shelearned yet another vital les-son — that every moment isprecious and certain life goalscould no longer be put off. Asa result, Peten made a majordecision: To pass the baton toa new leader for BiGAUSTIN.

Peten wants to use ini-tial time away fromBiGAUSTIN to reflect, to re-group, and to rejuvenate. Onething she knows for sure isthat she will continue to con-nect businesses with commu-nities and to promote socialenterprise, which she calls the“double bottom line.”

A nationwide search tofill Peten’s position is inprogress. Reverend JosephParker, a Board member whois also on the selection com-mittee, said, “We are not seek-ing someone to fill Jeannette’sshoes; we are seeking some-one to stand on her shoul-ders.” Thanks to Peten,BiGAUSTIN will continue tothrive with a new batonholder. She leaves us herlegacy as she moves on to cre-ate new legacies.

BiGAUSTIN Founder and President Jeannette Peten

Local mall closingsends the wrong message tovisitors and perpetuatesnegative stereotypes –

Demonstration sched-uled for Saturday, April 11that 9:00am

On Saturday April 11,at 9:00am, the Austin NAACPwill organize a communityresponse against the racistand xenophobic behavior ofthe management at HighlandMall. The decision by officials

Austin NAACP organizes community response to

Highland MallClosing during the Texas Relays

Austin NAACP Presidnet Nelson Linder

to close the mall at 2:00pm onTexas Relays weekend, sendsa very negative and discour-aging message to AfricanAmericans who are visitingthe city. The behavior of High-land Mall management, alsoreinforces and fuels the nega-tive stereotypes that manyAfrican Americans have ofAustin, Texas around the na-tion.

Despite Highland Malldecreasing services and its

declining status in recentyears, African Americans inAustin have been loyal sup-porters. The purpose of thedemonstration is to encour-age African American con-sumers to spend theirmoney in retail establish-ments that treat them withdignity and respect. Theplan of action will also ex-tend to Emo’s Bar and Fla-mingo Cantina.

The demonstrationswill begin at 9:00am, on thesidewalk in front of the malland end at 12:00pm.

The demonstration on Sat-urday, April 11th will be the firststep in a concerted effort and longterm strategy, designed to en-courage African Americans tosupport retail establishmentsthat embrace the community’sgoal of mutual respect and mu-tual appreciation.

For more informationplease contact the AustinNAACP offices — NelsonLinder, President via telephoneat: (512) 695-6674 or email at:lindernelson@aol.com

The photos of President ofBarack Obama will continue tohang in Austin CommunityCollege offices until a meetingof the Administrative servicesCouncil of the college meets onApril 23, 2009. The Obama photos were re-moved from the Riverside Cam-pus Manager’s Office in lateMarch after President Dr. SteveKinslow received ananomious complaint from astudent of the college. After theremoval of the photos, a num-ber of employees of the collegeraised concerns over the action. A community meeting washeld on March 26 at the CarverBranch Library to discuss the

issue. Micahel Lofton coordi-nated the meeting. During thismeeting, an announcementwas made that stated that thephotos could be put back up“while internal dialogue oc-curs” occurs through em-ployee forums and a meetingof the ASC. According to Vice Presidentand Human Services DirectorJerri Tucker, a final decisionwill not be made until some-times this summer. The ASCmeets monthly. This group will decidewhether a policy will have tobe made about the issue in ac-cordance with statutoryprovidions and ACC practices.

Photos of President BarackObama will continue to hang in

ACC offices, temporarily

(NNPA) - Chicagoanstuning in to WVAZ-FM(102.7) over the past twoweeks have been greeted witha new voice. For 13 years, hostTom Joyner has been the voiceof the Windy City duringweekday mornings. But sta-tion executives have replacedthe longstanding host withcomedian and author SteveHarvey.

“Tom Joyner has been agreat partner with V103 forthe past 13 years, making itdifficult to part ways,’’WVAZ-FM program directorDerrick Brown told the Chi-cago Tribune. ‘’We appreci-ate all Tom’s hard work andwish him continued success.’’

Joyner has been a main-stay favorite on the Chicagoairwaves since the 1980s.Harvey, however, began hisradio career in 1996 at WGCI-FM and now boasts the No. 1syndicated radio show onBlack radio with a reported 7million listeners daily.major

market for years. Until now,the powerhouses co-existedin the same “Steve Harvey isan entertainment and market-ing juggernaut,’’ Brown toldthe newspaper. ‘’There arevery few entertainers whohave successfully tackled ra-dio, TV, film, stage, online andpublishing. ... Being a ‘Kingof Comedy,’ nobody can beatSteve being funny.’’

Tom Joyner released astatement saying he wasshocked by the chain ofevents, all which occurredwhile he was on vacation twoweeks ago. He also encour-aged Chicago listeners to visithis Web site.

“We always say thatwhen we come back from va-cation something big has ei-ther happened or is about tohappen. Well, this one toppedthem all,’’ he said in a state-ment. ‘’After 16 years, theTom Joyner Morning Showwon’t be broadcast on a localChicago radio station, at thistime.’’

Tom Joyner Show Booted for Steve HarveySpecial to the NNPA from

the Afro-American Newspapers

Tom Joyner

Steve Harvey

Saturday, April 25, 2009,at 11:00 a.m. Capital City Chap-ter of Top Ladies of Distinction,Inc. will showcase some twenty-two African American men andwomen in Austin, Texas. “AGrand Salute to Seniors” willbe at David Chapel MissionaryBaptist Church, 2211 East Mar-tin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., whereDr. Joseph C. Pastor is SeniorPastor.

“A Grand Salute to Se-niors ” had its beginning on Oc-tober 20, 1990 and has sinceshowcased 142 seniors at fivedifferent churches in the commu-nity under the leadership of fiveoutstanding ladies and commit-ted committee chairs. This obser-vance is an outgrowth of one ofthe five programmatic thrustsof Top Ladies of Distinction, In-corporated. This thrust is de-signed to enrich the lives of ourcommunit y’s senior citizens and

provide activities that are con-ducive to the optimal living ofour honorees, thereby assistingthem to more adequately enjoytheir golden years.

One of our founders, LadyRuth Payne Smith was a mov-ing force in all the earlychapter’s projects.

Capital City is proud torecognize those in our commu-nity blessed with the wisdomand experience that can only begained through a long and fruit-ful life. To our honorees whohave allowed us this opportu-nity to share highlights of theirlives, their careers, and theircommitment to service, we say“Thank you” for providing uswith a glimpse of their leader-ship acumen and unselfishdeeds in family, community,Christian and civic affiliations.

The public is cordially in-vited to attend.

Top Ladies to sponsor“A Salute to Seniors”

The Texas Association ofLocal Housing Finance Agen-cies (TALHFA) recently an-nounced the appointment ofMargaret R. Shaw to its Board ofDirectors. As a board member,Shaw will plan for and supportthe needs of local housing fi-nance agencies in their goal toincrease affordable housing inthe State of Texas.

Shaw is currently the Di-rector of the City of Austin’sNeighborhood Housing andCommunity Development Of-fice and Treasurer of the AustinHousing Finance Corporation.She oversees approximately $20million in annual Federal andlocal funds to create affordablehousing and job opportunitiesfor low and moderate-incomeresidents of Austin, Texas.

It is time tochoose our next

Mayor andCouncil

This is one of the moreunusual elections that Ihave seen in Austin. Oneof the unusual things isthat this is one of small-est field of candidates torun for council. There isalso an uncontested race.That never happens inAustin, even for an in-cumbent One thing that has notchanges is that Blacks arestill afraid to run in anyplace except place 6. Wehave accepted the fact thatwe can have only one Afri-can American on theCouncil at a time. We usually make ourendorsements a week be-fore the election, but thisyear we are doing that dif-ferently also. We thinkthat the voters need tohave a little more time tomake up their minds andget involved with the can-didates of their choice. After co-sponsoring twocandidate forums andlooking over the informa-tion from the candidates,we feel that these candi-dates will be the bestchoice to move us to thenext level:MAYOR--Carole KeetonStrayhorn has served asMayor of Austin and asState of Texas Comptrol-ler. She has the knowl-edge and experience tolead us out of our currenteconomic crisis;PLACE 1--Chris Riley, anattorney and former judgehas many years of work-ing in the political arena;PLACE 2--Mike Martinezdeserves to continue hiswork on the council forthe people of Austin;PLACE 5--Bill Spelman , acollege professor andformer council memberbelieves that his experi-ence would help us rightwhat is wrong with thecity. He is unopposed.PLACE 6--Sheryl Cole, at-torney and current citycouncil member, need an-other term to completecome of the things thathave been started on thecouncil. She is willing tolisten and work with any-one who has a solutionmany of the problems inour community. However,she will need us to tell whatthose issues are and whatwe believe can be done tocome up with the desiredresults. All of these candidatesneed our support to help getout the vote on May 9. Weneed to get out 50% of theeligible voters for us tohave a successful election.

Margaret Shawappointed to

TALHFA Board