Invoking John Lewis' Moral Authority in favor of an Accountable Judiciary

Dear Congressman Lewis –

 

The most enduring legacy that any President can leave is in the judges he appoints.  However, anyone who voted for this President with the expectation that he would leave a legacy of progressive judges is in danger of being sorely disappointed.

 

President Obama has the opportunity to appoint two judges to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and as many as four to the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, with the advice and consent of the Senate.  In previous years Georgia’s Senators have come to our community for input on the candidates being considered for federal judgeships. But that has not happened with Georgia’s current Senators under this President. Yet the  President has apparently decided that the only way he can fill any of these vacancies is to accept a slate of nominees agreed to by Georgia’s Senators.

 

What kind of people are they?  To paraphrase Dr. King, the ultimate measure of a man of woman is not where he stands in times of comfort and convenience but where she stands in times of challenge and controversy.

 

Where did Mark Cohen stand in times of challenge and controversy - when the State asked him to defend Georgia’s voter ID law?  He could have said – this law hurts people - this is a law that the State shouldn’t try to defend - He could have said my conscience won’t let me defend it.  Instead he took the case and defended the law and succeeded in having the law upheld.

 

Where did Michael Boggs stand in times of challenge and controversy - when he had the opportunity as a member of the General Assembly to vote for or against removing the Confederate battle emblem from the State Flag – the opportunity to make a statement about whether Georgia’s government was going to represent all of its citizens or just some of them?  He  voted to keep the confederate battle emblem on the state flag.

 

There are those who may say that Mark Cohen’s work on the voter ID bill was "just business" – that he was just representing a client - and the type of clients that he represents Is not something that should be held against him.  I would ask those people to tell that to Natasha Perdew Silas - whom the president previously nominated to the Northern District of Georgia, whom the senators rejected, apparently because of the types of clients she represented – people who were accused of crimes.  Unlike Mark Cohen, Ms. Silas was a public defender and was not in a position to pick and choose her clients.

 

There are those who may say that Michael Boggs was only one of 82 legislators who voted against changing Georgia’s flag and that, in doing so, he was merely representing the views of his constituents.  I would ask those people if they are saying that Michael Boggs is someone who makes decisions on the basis of anything other than what he thinks is right?  I would ask them, who were his constituents, anyway?  Actually, they were the citizens of Waycross, Georgia, in Ware County, in the Southern District of Georgia.  Someone who actually lived in the Northern District of Georgia – someone who actually represented the views of people who live in the Northern District of Georgia – might have voted differently.  This illustrates the importance of having judges who are representative of the communities that they serve.

 

There are those who may say that there are other persons who are part of this deal whom they like.  To them I would say that what is being proposed is a package deal – that, under this deal, the price for having any new judges at all is having  judges included in the package who have already shown us where they stand.

 

The President is apparently being advised that this deal is worth the price, but I strongly disagree.

 

Congressman Lewis, you may be the only person who has the moral authority to convince the President that he shouldn’t accept a package that rewards a champion of voter suppression, having so famously risked your life to enhance voting rights for all citizens.

 

In this time of challenge and controversy, I urge you to do more than simply to protect the President from criticism by your constituents.  I urge you to use your moral authority to convince the President to leave a legacy in Georgia of judges of whom we can all be proud.  Ask the President to reject this deal and embrace a more traditional process of judicial selection – a process in which the voices of your constituents, and the people of the Northern District of Georgia, are heard.

 

 

Charles Johnson | Holland & Knight
Partner
1201 West Peachtree Street, N.E., One Atlantic Center, Suite 2000 | Atlanta GA 30309
Phone 404.817.8530 | Fax 404.881.0470
charles.johnson@hklaw.com | www.hklaw.com

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30-Acre South Atlanta Retail Development Announced

By Caroline Peek       

 

Sep 16, 2013       

 

EAST POINT, GA – RH Ledbetter Properties, LLC, a third-generation family-owned real estate development and management firm headquartered in Rome, Ga.; assembled a 30-acre site along Cleveland Avenue to transform a blighted, residential development into a $35 million, modern retail amenity for East Point.  Situated just west of Interstate 85, Cleveland Avenue Crossing is a 173,000-square foot retail development located in the heart of the East Point Corridors Tax Allocation District (TAD) and represents the first retail project to receive TAD financing assistance along the Cleveland Avenue corridor.  Ledbetter Properties closed on the final parcel on July 31 marking the commencement of the demolition of the existing structures.

 

“It’s been over a decade since the success of the award-winning Camp Creek MarketPlace, East Point’s first TAD initiative,” states Wright Ledbetter, chief operating officer, RH Ledbetter Properties, LLC.  “Cleveland Avenue Crossing will benefit the City of East Point and its neighborhoods tenfold by creating hundreds of new jobs and thousands of dollars in tax revenues.  It exemplifies our focus on improving the communities in which we invest, and we are confident that this new redevelopment will become a popular retail and service destination in South Atlanta.”  Upon acquiring the property, Ledbetter Properties paid approximately $1.1 million in outstanding property taxes to Fulton County and the City of East Point.

Construction of Cleveland Avenue Crossing is expected to begin in December upon completion of the demolition and remediation.  The retail center includes a 153,000-square foot Walmart Supercenter along with 20,000 square feet of shop space and four outparcels that front Cleveland Avenue, ideal for restaurant and service tenants.  The center is expected to be complete by November 2014.

The East Point Corridors TAD, which was established in 2006 to facilitate investment in East Point’s commercial core, is providing financing assistance valued at an estimated $2.5 million to Ledbetter Properties to cover a portion of the project’s redevelopment costs.  The development, approved earlier this year, is the first retail project along Cleveland Avenue to be approved for this public financing tool. 

“The East Point Corridors TAD was established for projects like Cleveland Avenue Crossing,” explains The Honorable Earnestine D. Pittman, mayor, City of East Point.  “Not only has Ledbetter’s attention to detail as well as the needs and concerns of the City of East been forefront throughout this process, the shopping center is set to reshape the Cleveland Avenue corridor and enhance the quality of life for residents of the surrounding neighborhoods – the ultimate goal of the TAD initiative.”

On this site starting in 1946, South Towne Apartments and Suburban Court Apartments were opened as premier housing communities along Cleveland Avenue, then a burgeoning South Atlanta commercial corridor.  Now, the property consists of 58 condemned, asbestos-filled duplexes with a long-term vagrancy problem.  Ledbetter Properties acquired the majority of the property that was already rezoned C2 commercial from Mayberry Partners, LLC under a short sale agreement with its lender Colony Capital, a Los Angeles-based, privately-held independent global real estate investment firm.  The development team further secured the TAD financing assistance and negotiated a roadway abandonment with the City of East Point in an effort to bring its redevelopment plans to fruition. 

“It took a knowledgeable, diligent and exceptionally cooperative team to navigate the TAD compliance, roadway abandonment as well as the zoning modification process to make this redevelopment possible,” concludes Pittman.  “I’m not sure anyone but Ledbetter could have made this a reality.”

Tax allocation districts are a form of tax increment financing, a tool that is widely used by local governments to serve as a catalyst for private investment into areas that are economically depressed or underdeveloped.  Local governments increasingly utilize this tool, in part, because federal and state funds have become scarce.  More information is available at www.eastpointcity.org.

About RH Ledbetter Properties, LLC

Now in its third generation, R. H. Ledbetter Properties, LLC is a family-owned real estate development and management firm headquartered in Rome, Ga.  Ledbetter focuses on retail, medical service and medical office developments.  With a portfolio of 1.8 million square feet in three states, Ledbetter Properties provides services in development, asset management and acquisitions.  More information is at www.ledbetterproperties.com.

 

 

Postscript

Charles S. Johnson counseled the City of East Point in establishing the Camp Creek TAD and the Corridors TAD and structuring the incentive packages for these developments.

Georgia Bar Recognizes Efforts to Make the Judiciary More Accountable and Representative

The State Bar of Georgia’s Committee to Promote Inclusion in the Profession presents its Commitment to Equality Awards to persons who have shown a strong commitment to promoting diversity in the profession and who are committed to providing opportunities that foster a more diverse legal profession for members of underrepresented groups.  This year the Committee has selected Charles S. Johnson to received its Randolph Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of forty years of work to secure a more accountable and representative judiciary.  The award will be presented at the Bar's Annual meeting in Hilton Head in June.

 

Georgia’s constitution provides that most of the State’s trial and appellate court judges are chosen by popular election, and that mid-term vacancies are filled by gubernatorial appointment.  However, many members of the public know very little about the qualifications of prospective judges and are disengaged from the process of judicial selection.  In the 1970s, the leaders of Atlanta’s the historically Black Gate City Bar Association decided to take on the task of working to make the judiciary more accountable and responsive. This decision stemmed from the belief that judicial accountability requires that the courts be representative of the communities that they serve; that judicial diversity also promotes impartiality by ensuring that all viewpoints, perspectives and values are part of the decision-making process.  Accordingly, these leaders began to erect an infrastructure which enabled them to directly engage with the judicial selection process while educating the public on the importance of judicial selection.

 

In 1974, the City of Atlanta adopted a new charter which gave the Gate City Bar equal status with the Atlanta Bar Association in recommending candidates to the Mayor for vacancies in the City and Municipal Courts.  In 1977, Gate City formalized its involvement in the process by which Georgia’s Governor made appointments to statewide judicial positions and to the local courts of Fulton County.  As part of this involvement, the Association regularly polled its members on the relative qualifications of judicial candidates, and it also met with the Judicial Nominating Commission (the “JNC,” created to screen candidates and make recommendations to the Governor) to share the Association’s views.

With the Presidency and Congress both in Democratic hands for the first time in several years, the Gate City Bar played a leading role in a community–wide effort to influence the implementation of the Omnibus Judgeship Bill of 1978, which ultimately resulted in the creation of five new judgeships in the Northern District of Georgia.  This effort included a study of the lack of diversity among federal judges in the Southern states, as well as meetings with representatives of the Senate, the Justice Department, and the American Bar Association, and it is regarded by some as playing a role in the nomination and confirmation of Horace T. Ward as Georgia’s first federal district judge. 

The Association also served as a forum for the discussion of judicial elections.  For example, in 1980 a position became vacant on the Superior Court of Fulton County, requiring a county-wide election.  Five candidates stepped forward for this vacancy, including one who was a sitting member of the Atlanta City Council and another who was a prominent figure in the Atlanta Bar Association.  Both the Atlanta Bar and the Gate City Bar polled their members as to the relative merits of the candidates, and the results of both of these polls were highly publicized.  Predictably, the highest ratings in the Atlanta Bar’s poll went to the candidate who was one of its most active members.  In the poll conducted by the Gate City Bar Association, the highest ratings went to Clarence Cooper, who had previously served as Staff Attorney for the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Assistant Fulton County District Attorney, and Judge of the Atlanta Municipal Court.  The candidate who received the highest ratings in the Atlanta Bar’s poll went on to obtain the endorsement of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  However, following an energetic and ground-breaking campaign, it was Judge Cooper, who had received the highest ratings in the Gate City Bar poll, who was ultimately chosen by the voters, becoming the first African in Georgia history to take office by county-wide election.

The election of Judge Cooper showed that, given an appropriate level of public engagement, the electoral process afforded the opportunity to select – in the first instance, rather than to merely re-elect - highly-qualified judges who were also representative of the communities they served.  This lesson was further illustrated by the subsequent popular election of judges such as A. L. Thompson, Leah Sears, and Kimberly Adams.

A number of bar leaders played critical roles in this process.  Among them was Tom Sampson who, as Gate City’s President in 1977, urged the creation of a judicial selection initiative within the Bar.  To carry out this initiative, Sampson chose Charles S. Johnson.  Johnson served for twenty years as Chair of the Atlanta Judicial Commission, where he worked with Mayors Maynard Jackson, Andrew Young and Bill Campbell to create a highly-qualified and broadly representative Municipal Court bench.  He founded Gate City’s Judicial Nominating Committee, oversaw the Association’s judicial polls, and served as the Association’s liaison with the JNC.  He and others raised the filing fee for Clarence Cooper’s successful campaign of 1980, and he also served as Judge Cooper’s Campaign Treasurer. He also played a key role in the campaign of A.L. Thompson.

More recently, Johnson has worked with other bar leaders (including past Presidents of Gate City and the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys) to reverse the recent erosion of diversity in Atlanta’s judiciary.  This group’s efforts have included frequent “op-eds”, alliances with community-based organizations, and engagement with public officials (ranging from local legislators to the White House Counsel). The group has also sought to inspire a new generation of advocates who will take the lead in recruiting, vetting, encouraging and supporting highly-qualified and diverse candidates for elevation through the elective and appointive processes.

Faith and Future

Draft of Remarks to be delivered at Fisk University Commencement

May 6, 2013

By Jeh Charles Johnson[1]

 

Thank you for this invitation and the honor you bestow on me today, on behalf of myself and the other members of the Johnson family here today. 

 

My grandfather was president of Fisk from 1947 to 1956.  Charles S. Johnson was a forward-thinking man.  Two generations before it had become popular for African Americans to do so, he bestowed upon his son, my father, the African name Jeh -- J E H – in honor of his African heritage. After accepting the administrative duties of president of this university, Dr. Johnson did not leave the field of sociology.  In October 1956, as the civil rights movement in this country was in its infancy, Dr. Johnson wrote an essay published in the New York Times Magazine entitled “A Southern Negro’s View of the South,” for which he received many letters of congratulations and praise.  One was from the 27-year old pastor of a small church in downtown Montgomery, Alabama:

“Dear Dr. Johnson:

This is just a note to say that I have just read your article which recently appeared in the New York Times.  It is the best statement that I have read in this whole area.  You evince a profound grasp of the whole subject.  I am sure that the more this article is read it will bring about a greater understanding of the Negro’s point of view as he struggles for first class citizenship. You combine in this article the fact finding mind of the social scientist with the moral insights of a religious prophet.”

Sincerely yours,

M.L. King, Jr.”

My grandfather did not live to see the great civil rights revolution the 27-year-old pastor was about to lead.  He died two weeks after receiving this letter, in Louisville, Kentucky, on his way to a board of trustees meeting in New York City --a man with honorary degrees from Harvard and Columbia died a second class citizen in this country, in fact and in law. 

A few yards from here sits my grandfather’s greatest legacy, the art collection he assembled for the benefit of this University, which, I’m told, is today the most valuable college art collection in the southeast. 

A few more yards in that direction is the small brick house on 18^th Avenue that the Board of Trustees built for my grandmother after Dr. Johnson’s untimely death, the backyard in which I played as a small boy 50 years ago. 

For a Johnson, any visit to the Fisk campus is a trip down memory lane. 

But we are not here today to dwell on my past; we are here to celebrate your future.  But, out of my heritage can be found lessons about your future.  Today I want to talk you 55 graduating seniors about faith and future. 

Dr. Johnson’s last surviving child is here today -- Jeh Vincent Johnson.  He was born in this city 82 years ago, and he grew up on this campus.  He was your age 60 years ago.  And, 60 years from now, when you are 82, like Jeh Vincent Johnson you will have seen and achieved things in  your life that are beyond your present comprehension.   

To know this is true about the next 60 years, think about all that has happened in the last 60 years. 

Sixty years ago, there was no Supreme Court decision called Brown v. Board of Education; it hadn’t been decided yet. Separate schools and separate water fountains were still considered equal. 

Sixty years ago, if my father wanted to tell his parents “I found a job!” after graduating college, he would write a letter and get a congratulatory response from them in the U.S. mail, in an exchange that took one to two weeks.   

Fifty years ago, when I played in my grandmother’s backyard, interracial marriage was still illegal in some states in this country, there was no Civil Rights Act of 1964, no Voting Rights Act of 1965, and no Fair Housing Act of 1968.  That summer the Negro citizens of Birmingham who marched for integrated access to public accommodations were met by repression, tear gas, attack dogs, fire hoses and jail, care of their own city government. No man had landed on the moon, or even left the Earth’s orbit.    

Forty years ago, Jeh Vincent’s son was a C and D student in high school.  On a regular basis, I received numeric grades in the 50s and 60s.  A grade in the 70s was a gift.  I did not successfully complete math beyond the 10^th grade: I flunked 9^th grade math, took 9^th grade math again in 10^th grade, took 10^th grade math in 11^th grade, took 11^th grade math in 12^th grade and flunked.  My father and my mother were told by my high school guidance counselor: you should not think about four-year college for your son. 

Today, forty years later, Jeh Vincent Johnson has seen his son -- who never completed a math course beyond the 10^th grade – become a partner in one of the preeminent law firms in this country, and appointed by the President to a position of great sensitivity in national security.  He has read lectures on war and peace delivered by his son, who was not supposed to go to four-year college, delivered at Oxford, Stanford, Harvard and Yale.   

Today Jeh Vincent Johnson’s daughter -- my sister – lives in what used to be an all-white neighborhood of Birmingham, and her husband anchors the top-rated newscast in the city, which is under the leadership of its fourth black mayor.   They have a close friend who is the grandchild of a Klansman.        

Today, our President is another black man with an African first name, and the product of an interracial marriage.

Today, if Jeh Vincent Johnson wants to write his grandkids and ask “did you get a job yet?” he pulls out his iPhone and sends a text message, and can count on the response – “I’m still working on it”  -- in about one to two minutes, not one to two weeks. 

And, today Jeh Vincent Johnson is present to see his son finally get a degree from the four-year college he has always wanted me to attend.  

The United States military is filled with even more remarkable stories that defy the imagination: 

Twenty-one months ago Navy Lieutenant Brad Snyder was a member of an ordinance disposal unit in Afghanistan.  An IED he was attempting to defuse exploded in his face, severely injured him and blinded him for the rest of his life.  Lieutenant Snyder recovered from his injuries, made the best of his reduced physical abilities, and one year later won several gold medals at the 2012 Paralympics. 

For about a year while I was General Counsel of the Defense Department I regularly received intelligence briefings from a 38-year-old Army major.  Before that, this major had been on 16 deployments, and in six separate incidents (i) broke his back and neck when his parachute failed to open, (ii) lost part of his leg from an RPG, (iii) was shot in the back, and (iv) has been the victim of three separate IED attacks in Afghanistan.  Today that same soldier competes in triathlons and runs in 50-mile races. 

I heard recently that somewhere on this planet is a man or women alive today who will live for 200 years. 

The God-given capacity of the human mind, body, and spirit to achieve great things is astounding.  Progress is amazing.  And it represents your future.      

Those of you who sit here today have already demonstrated the character and ability to persevere and to complete the mission.  You have survived attrition, kept your eyes on the prize, met your academic and financial obligations to this University, and have crossed today’s finish line.  Now, carry on.    

Carry on, but don’t forget to look in the rear-view mirror once in a while.  Today you leave this school, but do not leave it behind.  Fisk needs its alumni to continue.  It has supported you, and you must support it.  You are indebted to it, like the parent who raised you.  For the rest of your life, Fisk is part of who you are.     

This brings me to my last point.  Perhaps the best example of perseverance through adversity, survival against all the odds, is this very University.  For decades, and on occasions too numerous for me to count, Fisk University has been counted out. My senior year in high school, 38 years ago, there were rumors that the school would not open that fall.   Yet, Fisk refuses to give up; she refuses to bow down. Year after year, she marches on, armed with a proud heritage in her veins, her head high and her back erect.     

As an honorary degree recipient, I am proud to call myself, like you, a member of the Fisk class of 2013.  And to set the example which I hope others will follow, Mr. President, I will be the first alumnus from the class of 2013 to offer my support to the continued future of this great institution.

Fisk Forever. Congratulations classmates!

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[1]Partner with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP; General Counsel of the Department of Defense (2009-2012); General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force (1998-2001); Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1989-1991); B.A., Morehouse College (1979); J.D. Columbia Law School (1982).

The Shared Heritage of a Georgia Church and a Tennessee College

1865 was a momentous year for the United States.  Robert E. Lee surrendered the army of Northern Virginia.  Jefferson Davis was captured, effectively dissolving the Confederate government.  By this year, Erastus Milo Cravath had arrived in Nashville as a field agent for the American Missionary Association.

During this same year, Atlanta was attempting to rebuild itself from the ruins of Sherman’s army.  An AMA missionary by the name of Frederick Ayer secured a Confederate commissary, which was transformed into a 32 by 80 foot chapel.  Following an appeal from AMA Field Secretary Edwin P. Smith, A Cincinnati congregation led by Rev. Henry Martyn Storrs contributed $1,000, which was used to build a two-story addition with four 32 by 20 foot rooms on each floor, and resulting complex was given the name the Storrs School. 

In January of the following year, Fisk College and Normal School opened for classes in Nashville as a result of the efforts of Erastus Milo Cravath, Edwin Smith, and a man named John Ogden.   In August of 1866, President Andrew Johnson declared that there was peace in the United States and that the Civil War was over. In December of 1866 the Storrs School opened as a center of social services, educational classes, and worship for Freedmen and their children.

In May of 1867, a committee affiliated with the Storrs School voted to organize a Congregational Church, the Storrs Church, which eventually developed into the First Congregational Church of Atlanta. The first church service was held the following week in the chapel of the Storrs School and was led by Erastus Milo Cravath.  In August of 1867, the Fisk School was incorporated as Fisk University. 

In 1875, Cravath became the first President of Fisk University. That same year saw its first graduating class of eight students, including two women and two Caucasians.  Cravath spent much of the next several years time touring with the Jubilee Singers.

In 1888, after 11 years in the chapel of the Storrs School, First Congregational Church erected a building of its own.         

Cravath served as President of Fisk University for more than 20 years, and he lived until 1900. Among those who graduated during his presidency were W.E.B. DuBois (1888) and Henry Hugh Proctor (1891).  In 1891, Proctor obtained his Bachelors of Divinity from Yale University.  In 1894, Proctor became pastor of First Congregational Church. Proctor became a major civic leader in Atlanta.  As if to dispel any doubt as to Proctor’s admiration for Erastus Milo Cravath, one need only consider that he named one of his children Roy Cravath Proctor.

In January of 1909, under Proctor’s leadership, formal ceremonies were held for the opening of the current building, claimed to be the first fully equipped institutional church for colored people in the world. It was furnished with a gymnasium, model kitchen, sewing room, library, kindergarten, reading room, bath room, and a Sunday School room. William Howard Taft is said to have stopped by.

Not all of the current windows were installed at the time of the dedication.  Eventually, though, a window was filled in with a collection of hand-painted panels known as the Arch of Law.  The center panel is an image of Moses the Law Giver, above a panel reciting that it is  in memory of Erastus Milo Cravath, President of Fisk University, by Friends. These central panels are flanked on the right by an image of Fisk's Jubilee Hall and on the left by a portrait of Erastus Milo Cravath.

What Everyone Should Know About Fisk University

Founded in 1866, Fisk University is the oldest institution of higher education in Nashville, Tennessee, and will celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2016.  Fisk received a charter for the first chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society on a predominantly black campus in 1953.  Fisk’s outstanding faculty and students continue to enhance the University’s national reputation for academic excellence that is validated year after year by the leading third party reviewers, as well as by the pool of talented applicants and the large percentage of alumni who complete graduate or professional degrees and become leaders and scholars in their fields.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Programs

Fisk’s longstanding legacy of excellence is reinforced by its accomplishments in the 21^st century, especially in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Business disciplines. Fisk remains the only historically black college or university (HBCU) ever to win the prestigious R&D 100 award, and to date has one three.

The Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D Bridge Program has produced five Ph.D. graduates in the past three years in physics, astronomy, and materials science, disciplines in which African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented.  As of 2006, no U.S. institution awards more master’s in physics degrees to African-American U.S. citizens than Fisk, which is also one of the top ten U.S. institutions awarding master’s in physics degrees to U.S. citizens of any ethnic background.  In 2012, the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program graduated five Ph.D. recipients in the physical sciences and is on track to graduate this number each year.  This is ten times the national average for physical science Ph.D. programs.

Department of Business Administration

The Department of Business Administration has a reputation for producing alumni who hold top positions in their fields.  These include entrepreneurs George Russell Curtis, Sr. ’56, Karl Turner ’77 and Jacquelyn Denton Alton ’66, sports agents and executives Carl Poston II ’77 and Kevin Poston ’81, Music World Entertainment Founding CEO Mathew Knowles ’75, hospital system executive Mark Chastang ’74 and American Hospital Association Chairman John W. Bluford III ’71.

Among the many young alumni who have begun to make their marks are risk analysts Jenise Burks ’11 and Jordan West ’10, financial services professional James Horton ’06, accunting executive Dominique D’Antingnac-Bell ’97, social media strategist Rob Wingfield ’00, foreign services officer William Campbell ’07, and human resources professional Johnathan Montgomery ’99.

The department’s Entrepreneurial Action by University Students (ENACTUS) organization (formerly known as Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) regularly regional competitions for their innovative projects that make a difference in the Nashville community while developing them into socially responsible business leaders.  Fisk holds membership in the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). The Department of Business Administration offers a B.S. degree with concentration in music business through a collaborative agreement with Belmont University.  In addition, Fisk offers a joint program with the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.  In five years, students earn a Fisk baccalaureate degree and a Vanderbilt Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree.

National Rankings

Fisk ranked in the top 20 percent of 650 higher education institutions and is the highest ranked HBCU on Forbes’ 2012 Top Colleges List.  Fisk also ranked #119 among all private institutions and #34 among all institutions in the South.

The 2013 U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges and Universities” ranked Fisk in Tier One at #145 of more than 1,400 Liberal Arts Institutions in the United States.  Only three HBCUs are ranked in Tire One.  Fisk is ranked #5 on the list of “The Best Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)”.

The Washington Monthly, September 2012, ranked Fisk as the “#1 Liberal Arts HBCU in Research” in its “Top Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities.”  Fisk ranks in the top 6 percent of the 254 leading liberal arts institutions based on social mobility, research and service.

For the 20^th consecutive year, the Princeton Review included Fisk on the 2013 list of “The Best Southeastern Colleges.”

Fall 2012 Enrollment

Enrollment is 620, a 16 percent increase over last year and the largest growth in six years.  The average GPA for the Class of 2016 is 3.33, which is higher than the average GPA of 3.15 for the previous class.

Fisk’s entering students’ average SAT score is 1622, which is higher than the national average SAT score of 1500 and of 1272 for African American college entrants.[1] Students’ average ACT score is 21, which is higher than the national average of 17 for African American college entrants.[2]

Among Fisk’s Class of 2016, biology is the most popular major, followed by business, psychology, physics and chemistry.

Fisk’s Fall-to-Fall persistence rate is 84 percent.  The national average persistence rate is 57 percent, and the average persistence rate at other Tennessee institutions is 51 percent.

Fisk’s six-year graduation rate is 59 percent. The national graduation rate was 56 percent in 2009, which is the latest available number from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

Over 17 percent of Fisk students are selected for internships, which is above the 9 percent national average for internship placement on college campuses.[3]

Sixty-one percent of students who earn a Fisk degree enter graduate or professional school within one year of their graduation, ahead of the national average of 23 percent.[4]

Fisk’s 2012 graduating class included five students who were inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Cultivating Scholars & Leaders One By One

Source: Office of Institutional Advancement

February 15, 2013

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[1] College Board (CEEB), 2012

[2] The ACT Profile Report, 2012

[3] National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2012

[4] National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2012

 

Holland & Knight Secures More Than $100 Million in Financing for Second Phase of Mixed-Use Redevelopment Project

The CityMarket at O is poised to revitalize the Shaw neighborhood of D.C. while preserving key historical elements from the 19th century.

 

 

A team of attorneys and professionals from across the firm successfully secured more than $100 million for the second phase of the CityMarket at O project in the heart of Washington, D.C. The closing was finalized on April 4. The team coordinated the funding from a wide range of nontraditional commercial lending sources. The funding included tax-increment financing from the District of Columbia, EB-5 financing for the hotel construction, low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) investment funds, bond financing and additional funding from the District of Columbia for the affordable senior housing building.

 

 

This second phase involved a Cambria Suites hotel, an eight-story affordable senior housing building, a Giant grocery store, additional retail space, two eight-story multifamily towers and a condominium building with a four-story underground parking garage. Both phases of this deal totaled more than $300 million of financing.

 

 

Holland & Knight has represented this client since the business was founded in 1998 for the majority of its legal work. Many different groups within the firm contributed to this success as this deal took more than 10 years from start to finish. Numerous talented attorneys pitched in to get this deal done, including: Partners Leila Batties, Carolyn Brown, Kyrus Freeman, Chip Glasgow, Paul Kiernan, La Fonte Nesbitt, Tara Scanlon, Janis Schiff and Joe Whitebread, Director of Zoning/Land Use Services Steve Sher, Associates Kate Bagwell, Michelle Hess, Julia Lane and Ana Oza, as well as Paralegals Candace Evans and Dianne Holmes (all WAS); Partners Doug Clapp and Jim McDermott (both BOS); and Senior Counsel Tara Vance (NYC).

4/11/2013

Town Hall with H. James Williams, 15th President of Fisk University

 

 

 

 

The Atlanta Friends of Fisk Committee and The Fisk Fund National Steering Committee Request the pleasure of your company at  The Welcoming Reception for Dr. H. James Williams 15th President of Fisk University   Sunday, April 21, 2013 2:30 to 5:00 p.m.   First Congregational Church, UCC 105 Courtland Street Atlanta, Georgia   Please RSVP to mdromgoole@fisk.edu by April 17th   Atlanta Friends of Fisk Committee
Gwendolyn Campbell Antonio Grissom Charles Johnson  P. Andrew Patterson  William Settle Charles Smith	Bette Graves Thomas  Linda Gulley Francene Mangham Mary Sams  Robyn Jefferson Sims  Jessie Sydnor
Stephanie Wanza