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Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr.

Host

Dr. Chavis is an African American civil rights leader and icon, United Church of Christ (UCC) ordained minister, author, journalist, organic chemist, environmentalist, global entrepreneur, and currently President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) based in Washington, DC since 2014.
Dr. Chavis is the Executive Producer and Host of The Chavis Chronicles, www.TheChavisChronicles.com, broadcast weekly on PBS TV Network stations reaching over 90 million households throughout the United States.

  • The social determinants of public health is a well-known reality. Today there are more health scientists who attest to the fact that climate change and harmful environmental exposures also contribute to the degrading of public health in America. The GOOD News Dr. Sacoby Wilson is a professor at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health at the University of Maryland.
  • One of the enduring and most strategic alliances in the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement was the solidarity between Blacks and Jews in America. We are doing a conclusive series on the national leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement who championed and promoted Black-Jewish solidarity in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality. The GOOD News is the living legacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is being celebrated as one of the major theological leaders and influencers of the Civil Rights Movement.
  • One of the chief architects and organizers of the transformative 1963 civil rights March on Washington, DC was Bayard Rustin. The GOOD news is the legacy of the leadership of Bayard Rustin is today receiving a more detailed focus from historians and other scholars.
  • When there is a collaboration between academic scholarship and grassroots activism, there is an increase in social change. That fact is true for the emerging national environmental and climate justice movement. The GOOD News is Dr. Beverly Wright, a distinguished professor at Dillard University in New Orleans, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.
  • As a result of the increase today in weather related disasters across America, there is a growing awareness and acknowledgement of the reality of the weather-related consequences climate change. We are doing series on some of the leaders of the climate change and climate justice movement in the United States.The GOOD News is Mustafa Santiago Ali has emerged on the national stage as an effective advocate the intersection of climate change and social justice in America.
  • Across the nation there are many rural areas that do not get much national media attention until some awful disaster happens. In order for the environmental and climate justice movement to be effective, more needs to be done to amplify what is happening in rural America with respect to climate change issues. The GOOD News is Catherine Coleman Flowers today is one of the leading experts on rural climate and environmental issues.
  • The latest science research has confirmed that one of the major negative contributors to global climate change is the production and emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. This is just not an American problem. It is a global problem. The GOOD News is Tamara Toles O’Laughlin is senior climate strategist for the Climate Justice Movement in America.
  • Back in the early 1980s, there were a number of civil rights leaders who recognized that environmental and climate change matters are also civil rights issues. The GOOD News is today The Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley in Atlanta, Georgia was among the first nationally known civil rights leaders to help built the environmental and climate justice movement.
  • African America women leaders in the Climate Justice Movement are on the frontlines of this transformational social change movement. Since 1982 in Warren County, North Carolina, Black women have taken the lead in building a formidable national mobilization around climate change issues.The GOOD News is Heather McTeer Toney is the Executive Director of Beyond Petrochemicals as a component on Bloomberg Philanthropies’. McTeer is the former EPA Southeast Regional Administrator.
  • The Harlem Renaissance in the 1930’s and the 1940’s is still considered one of the most profound and prolific periods of African American literature. In fact, African American writings contribute to the heart and soul of America. The GOOD News the writings and books of Langston Hughes are considered the most profound of the Harlem Renaissance.