Trumpet Awards, Syndicated, To Air on TV One

Samuel L. Jackson and his wife, actress LaTonya Richardson hosted the 16th annual Trumpet Awards which aired in syndication in March and will air on TV One Sunday April 13 at 8 p.m. EST. The Trumpet Awards is often referred to as “the Oscars for Black America”. More than 20 of the best and brightest achievers in the Black community were honored during the show which was taped at the Atlanta Civic Center.

Among the honored were Halle Berry (Entertainment & Pinnacle Awards); Danny Glover (Humanitarian); Najee (Arts); and Ludacris (Usher Ramond Altruism Award). Black achievement was saluted in every field including law, business, medicine, politics and public service. “The audience basked in the success stories of some very great African-Americans,” said Xernona Clayton, the founder of the Trumpet Awards and president and CEO of Trumpet Awards Foundation. “This year’s television program was syndicated for the first time and broadcast around the country, in addition, to being aired in 177 countries around the world.”

Other 2008 Trumpet Award honorees were: Sheila C. Johnson (Entrepreneur); Shareef Abdul-Rahim (Community Service); Dr. T. B. Boyd III (Business); the Honorable Judge Paul L. Brady (Legal); Brian O. Jordan (Athlete/Developer); twin brothers Dr. Vance and Dr. Vincent Moss (Medicine) and Don Thompson (Corporate Executive). This year’s Tower of Power honorees were Georgians and included Thurbert Baker, Georgia Attorney General and president of the National Association of Attorneys General; Representative Sanford Bishop Jr; Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr; Representative Hank Johnson; Khalil Johnson, COO, Georgia World Congress Center Authority; Representative David Scott; State Representative Georganna Sinkield; State Representative Calvin Smyre, president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators; Michael Thurmond, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Labor and State Representative Al Williams.

India.Arie was among the performers and among the presenters were Usher, Representative John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Representative Maxine Waters and former U. N. Ambassador Andrew Young. Michelle Obama was also on hand to address the audience.

BET Honors

The first annual celebration of the BET Honors, which aired this passed Friday night, was truly a celebration. The event was hosted by Cedric “The Entertainer, and included an all star line-up including such notables as Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Gladys Knight, Wyclef Jean, Jill Scott, Brian McKnight, Ne-Yo, Raheem DeVaughn, Blair Underwood, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Idris Elba, Hill Harper, Vivica A. Fox and Kiesha Cole.

Friday’s broadcast showed the inaugural celebration of the BET Honors, which was held on January 12 at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. The show recognized six honorees across a range of achievements. The honors went to Dr. Cornel West, (noted Princeton University professor at the Center for African American Studies), for education; Tyra Banks, (producer, reality-show host, talk-show host, model, actress), for media; Janice Bryant Howroyd, (the chairman, chief executive officer and founder of Act 1 employment services corporation that she started out of a storefront and now has 90 offices across the nation and $500 million in 2007 revenue), for entrepreneur; Alicia Keys (musician, actress AIDS/HIV activist), for entertainment; Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board of Time Warner), corporate citizen; and The Honorable Maxine Waters (who is serving her ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives), for public service.

It was a wonderful event but while they were having fun inside, on January 12, the date of the actual taping, a crowd of a couple hundred protesters shouted from behind police barricades across 14th Street. A group called Enough Is Enough led the protest saying the show was an expensive fig leaf to mask the corporation’s sins of exploitation. Signs in the crowd read “I Am Not a Pimp” and “I Am Not a Gangster.” I wonder if “The Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder, who over the years has had his comic-strip characters ridicule BET for its programming content, most notable for its habit of profit-pushing thuggish rap videos. The protesters have to admit that BET has aired much more family oriented programming lately.

Each honoree received an introduction, then a video bio and then a musical tribute. Wyclef Jean pitched in a foot-stomping take on "She's a Bad Mama Jama." Brian McKnight crooned "One." Wonder came out and ripped up "As," dedicated to Keys. It had the horn section dancing, the ushers keeping time in the aisles and the crowd rocking. Debra Lee, BET's chairman and chief executive, pointed out that each recipient has also "given back to the community in a significant way."