Marc H. Morial, the President and CEO of the National Urban League, one of the nation’s premier civil rights organizations, champion for racial justice and the former two-term Mayor of New Orleans, has written the epilogue to a new book set to be published in April and which provides a realistic prescription for how to engender hope and resilience in these challenging times in the nation.
The book, HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear by the nationally acclaimed Detroit journalist and standard-bearer for economic justice issues Bankole Thompson is already receiving glowing endorsements from leaders in academia, public policy and business, leading members of Congress as well as advocates for social change. It is a compendium of insightful and analytical essays expertly written by diverse individuals from around the country who are described as messengers of hope in the book on some of the most pressing issues facing the nation ranging from healthcare affordability including veterans care, the future of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, state of the news media to the debilitating housing crisis. It offers pragmatic and thoughtful solutions to end the nightmare of hopelessness that many are currently dealing with.
Morial, one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights leaders and former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, who described Thompson in the epilogue as an “award-winning journalist and public thinker,” called the book a “groundbreaking anthology,” while writing, “In a time of division, uncertainty, and urgent questions about the future of the American democratic experiment, HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear is a resounding call to courage, conviction, and collective purpose.”
Sister Simone Campbell, one of the most powerful voices for social and economic justice in the modern American Catholic Church and a 2022 presidential medal of freedom recipient, wrote the book’s foreword.
Morial is a leading voice on the national stage in the battle for jobs, education, housing, health, voting rights, equity, and entrepreneurship. His most recent book is titled, “Gumbo Coalition: 10 Leadership Lessons That Help You Inspire, United, and Achieve.” He is the host of the weekly syndicated television show, America’s Black Forum.
A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics and African American Studies, he has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential Black Americans by Ebony Magazine, one of the top 50 Non-Profit Leaders by the Non-Profit Times, one of the 100 Most Influential Black Lawyers in America and he has also been inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta, GA.
Bankole Thompson, one of the first Black editors to conduct a series of historic exclusive sit-down interviews with former President Barack Obama, is the founder and dean of the national anti-poverty and economic justice think tank, The PuLSE Institute, a twice-a-week opinion columnist at The Detroit News and the host of the podcast, Bankole’s Nation.
A member of the National Press Club of Washington D.C., Thompson is an accomplished author of several books, including Fiery Conscience, about his decades of speaking truth to power reviewed by Forbes and listed as a reference in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division of the New Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He has appeared severally on CNN and other major news outlets.
Thompson’s work which is defined by a rigorous focus on economic justice, racial equality and poverty is often linked to the tradition of Frederick Douglass speaking truth to power.
In January of 2018, the late civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., personally presented Thompson with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Let Freedom Ring Journalism Award for being a preeminent voice of conscience and courage during a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In a rare honor, the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library established the Bankole Thompson Papers in 2015 to preserve his work alongside the papers of Michigan governors. In 2018, he received the U.S. Congressional Record of Testimonial placing his body of work into the official record of the 118th Congress.
“I feel honored that Marc Morial, the successful and impactful president and CEO of the National Urban League wrote a timeless and very penetrating epilogue to HOPE: On The Mountain Of Fear. Marc is a frontline and battle-tested fighter for justice and equality. He understands what exactly is at stake in these times,” Thompson said. “No one could have clearly articulated with moral clarity the urgency of this book than Marc who is tackling these issues as leader of the nation’s largest civil rights organization.”
Thompson added, “Readers are invited to see this book as a lasting contribution to addressing some of the vexing questions of our time in the enduring quest for meaningful social change.”
As a champion for economic justice issues, Thompson’s advocacy has been partly centered on what has been called the Bankole Thompson Doctrine, which declares that business leaders have a moral and ethical obligation to invest in anti-poverty efforts.
HOPE: On The Mountain of Fear is his sixth book.