Crime
Exclusive: Larry Miller rose from prison to the President of the Jordan brand. His new initiative helps other people introduced to justice – essence

The photo should read Franck Fife/AFP through Getty Images)
When Larry Miller, the chairman of the Jordan brand in Nike, publicly revealed that he was imprisoned as a young man, it seemed that the weight was finally raised. However, Miller knows that few other people have resources to effectively introduce society. His Jump initiative, The Just Trust project goals to change this.
Miller pronounces this initiative-project of justice and mobility up-ahead of NBA All-Star Weekend, because he combines leaders of sport, entertainment and business community so as to support the development of workforce and economic mobility for people introduced to justice.
Essence talked to Miller and the managing director of Jump, Ken Oliver, who can be the foremost officer of the Just Trust innovation, about their new project, the second probabilities that helped them save them and the way Jump can affect people’s lives.
Miller’s story is amazing, but he has kept secret for many years.
Shortly after his dismissal, he realized that his criminal origin made him virtually unemployed, if he wanted skilled work, so he stopped reporting information to employers. After completing Temple University with distinction, he intended with the accounting company Arthur Anderson. The interview round passed when he finally reached the recruitment manager.

“I decided to share my story with him,” recalls Miller of Essence. “And when I say, I saw his face changing. And he said, “Wow, it’s an incredible story.” AND [the hiring manager] He reached his pocket and he pulled out the envelope, and he said: “I even have a letter with a suggestion that I used to be ready to offer you, but I can not offer you it. I can not hire you now. And at that moment I had some decisions. “
Miller, engaging a storyteller, finally (and literally) divided the tedious chapters of his life on his own conditions with the issue of his memories of 2022, JUMPwho co -author along with his daughter Laila Lacy.
“For 40 years in this way I built my career, fearing that it would come out somehow and lost everything I built. And for 40 years I wore this weight. I had migraines and nightmares. The people I worked with during this period had no idea about my origin – Phil Knight, Michael Jordan, none of them. “
This background andAs a young person, he joined the gang. To avenge the death of someone in his gang, at the age of 16 he killed one other teenager who incorrectly considered a rival, leading Miller to years at the amendments for minors.
After the release of memories, Miller says that “he was incredibly cathar” in order not to hide his past, and even his voice sounds lighter when he wonders about years since he published him.
“I don’t have nightmares anymore; I don’t have migraines anymore. Earlier, when I talked to young people and shared my career history, I always felt that I was deceiving them because I was unable to tell the whole story. And for me the most important part of this story is that I defeated [those challenges] To be able to do what I did, “he says.
What he did was construct it An awesome business professionAmong them, acting as the president of the Jordan brand and the president of NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. “It releases it definitely for me. It seems to me that it endured this amazing weight. “
Miller didn’t arrive here alone. Departing from Philadelphia, I thank the man he met in a prison in Gruterford, Pennsylvania. “It was called Wazir. He had a great influence on me and focusing on doing the right thing and acquiring my life. “
Ken Oliver, Miller’s collaborator in the Jump project, also had immunity and support to discover a new life after imprisonment, and due to this fact each men want others who were imprisoned to get a second likelihood.
Oliver was serving life imprisonment in the California State Prison “Law with three strikes.” In these years, Oliver spent almost a decade in a lonely closure after trying to organize other prisoners. After release, he gained importance as a political leader in the justice space, he continues to be organized outside the borders of the prison partitions.
A person named Ward Johnson, a lawyer at the Mayer Brown office, accepted Oliver, serving his time and went through the dispute process when Oliver submitted A lawsuit regarding civil rights, Later, winning the settlement for illegal placement in loneliness. “He saw more in me than probably anyone in my life,” says Oliver.
The chances are high arranged against the previously imprisoned, and Miller and Oliver hope to increase these opportunities thanks to the ankle project, named after Miller’s diary.
“There are thousands of my homies and friends with whom I grew up, who are in prison and elsewhere, who will never have Stanford University or Mayer Brown to support them from prison or go forward in their career, just like me,” Oliver divides myself. “So I feel that it is the duty to come back and give our community and support brothers and sisters and others who need light and path to reach the place where they must succeed.”
The number of people released from prison are tragic. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 60 percent are unemployed a 12 months after release. No wonder that recidivism, cases of people returning to prison, are high. According to almost 70 percent of the imprisoned people, he’ll commit again and return to prison US prosecutor Jacqueline C. Romero.
The jump goals to disrupt these patterns.
The project has 4 foremost pillars: education and employment, spokesman and politics, media and narrative in addition to constructing a coalition. As part of education and employment, JUMP goals to create “development and labor development programs that catalyze paths to employ wages and economic mobility for young people and adults who suffer from the involvement of the justice system.”
They have some partnerships in the queue for the project, including NBCuniversal, which Miller has agreed to hire some of their students. Work for the futureThe National Non-Profit organization also cooperates with the “model design, golden standard internship program” for its working initiative, notes Miller. In general, it says that their educational pillars and employment are geared toward “closing the gap in skills and work to put them in companies in sport, entertainment and business.”
The announcement of the project is timely. The event of the premiere of Jump, with the participation of the founder of Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson as the foremost speaker, is in San Francisco during the NBA All-Star NBA weekend and includes guests similar to Common, Lala Anthony, Soldad O’Brien and NBA leaders. Considering that the league is understood for promoting social justice, and this 12 months’s All-Star weekend is in a state that led most of the strict justice regulations in criminal matters that influenced the rest of the country, there may be a fertile basis to be used in an influential audience.
“We believe that Larry and I are things that prohibit people from reintegrating with the community – especially in terms of payroll employment, as well as in this capitalist economy [people need to] Increase access to apartments and food and care for your children – it consolidates a series of poverty. “In this connection, you might be essential for a jumping pay for a jumping.
“The system is designed to do exactly what it does,” notes Oliver. That is why each men want to help others move in it.
Citing Harvard Business School Case study Modeled after his experience, Miller notes that “if people were able to learn trade, skills, some kind of market skills, [recidivism rates of about 70 percent] fell to 30 percent. “Miller adds that the launch of Jump” consists in helping people find a vehicle that takes them to live, who want to live and should live. “
“I’m just one person,” says Miller. “There is a lot of Larry Miller and Ken Olivers if they receive resources and possibilities. What Ken and I was able to do was duplicated thousands and thousands of times if people had the opportunity to do it. “
Crime
Watch: MGM+”Godfather of Harlem” Season 4 [Trailer] – essence

Thanks to the kindness of MGM+
Today, MGM+ officially abandoned the primary trailer of season 4, which provides fans an exciting have a look at the subsequent chapter of Johnson’s bumpy reign. Starring Academy Forest Whitaker, a criminal drama recognized by critics, returns with greater struggles for power at high rates, explosive confrontations and the relentless struggle for Harlem’s future.
Season 4 begins when Johnson stands within the face of recent and dangerous opponents who threaten to dismantle every thing he built. Thanks to the changing tides and political tensions in history, he must move in treacherous alliances, protecting his community from determined forces to bring him.
The band’s star forged joins Whitaker, including Ilfenesh Hader, Lucy Fry, Antoinette Crowe-Leagacy, Erik Lray Harvey, Michael Raymond James, Elvis Nolasco and Erik Palladino. This season, he also introduces a brand new key character Lucas, presented by the award-winning Dayytime Emmy® and NBA Celebrity All-Star MVP Rome Flynn.
Seasons 1-3 at the moment are available for streaming to MGM+ and Hulu. Select your calendars – season 4 premiere on April 13, 2025.
Watch the official trailer of the series below.
Crime
Trump doubles divides the agenda in a speech to Congress, causing brave resistance of black leaders – essence

Photo by chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Six weeks after the presidency marked with mass fire in the federal government, attacks on Dei, demonization of immigrants and detachment of bonds with global allies, President Donald Trump gave his first congress address. At 1 hour and 29 minutes it was the longest joint speech to the speech of the congress, ever registered-a marathon of self-shaped, partisan stabs and sweeping guarantees.
However, even when Trump presented his vision of America, the resistance was already underway. While some democrats protested in the chamber, the leaders of the Black Civil Rights outside, journalists and politicians organized their very own answer with the inaugural People’s condition24-hour live broadcast designed to counteract Rhetoric and Trump’s disinformation.
Former MSNBC anchor and co -creator of the people of the people, Joy Reid, gave the tone the event, citing the speech of Martin Luther King Jr. from 1967 on the dismantling of the “triple evil” of racism, economic use and war. She created the presidency of Trump as a moment of destruction – but in addition a chance to construct something recent. “I believe we understand that there shall be debris on the road. And the query shouldn’t be: how to construct what we had before?
Inside the chamber, the Democrats found their very own ways of pushing. Some selected a quiet protest, maintaining black signs decorated with words similar to “false” and “theft of musk”. Others adopted a more loud approach-in the representative of Al Green (D-TX), whose fiery confrontation with Trump became one of the definition moments at night.

This moment caused Trump’s claim about a mandate together with his popular vote and winning at the Electoral College; When the democrats booed, Rep. Green got up and shouted repeatedly that Trump “has no mandate for cutting medicaid.” Republican Marshal of the House Mike Johnson ordered Rep. Green sit down, and when he refused, he was forced to leave the chamber. The 77-yr-old Congresmen spoke to fight. In the comments to C-SPAN he said he was Introduction of Impeachment articles against Donald Trump.
Several other democrats also decided not to stay for the rest of Trump’s speech. The representative of Jasmine Crockett, known for her sharp critics of GOP disinformation, led in the middle of the jump. Crockett and other members left the chamber in shirts decorated with the word “rely”, constituting a powerful statement against Trump’s rhetoric and policy.
In a highly biased speech, in which Trump threw a few stabs at the former president Joe Biden, called Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas”, and Decried Democrats as unfairly booed him, one Trump’s overture to the other side of the chamber asked them to join him for one night. Stole everlasting. Here are another significant moments from the longest common address to the Congress that has ever been registered:
Trump has doubled from division and attacks on Dei
Summing up his attacks on Dei, Trump said that the abolition of him from the government reflected his belief that individuals needs to be employed on the basis of “skills and competences, not breed or sex”, once more falsely throwing Dei as opposite of merits. ” He also gave a comprehensive time of speech on attacks on transgender identity and transgender athletes, describing his order as prohibiting “men in women’s sport” to “protect the integrity of sports athletics.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) received a special scream
Trump applauded Elon Musk and his elimination of many programs cut by Doge; Many of those he mentioned are programs in Africa or Latin America. He claimed that $ 8 million was spent on the support of LGBTQI people in Lesotho – as he said that nobody had ever heard – and that tens of millions of dollars were spent on making transsexuals of mice. The president also falsely claimed that there was a raging fraud in social insurance, and 4.7 million people over 100 years of age received social security advantages. In fact, About 89,000 people At the age of 99, he claims that social insurance advantages, that are in line with demographic data. At that moment, their speech Democrats maintained signs that said falsehood.
Trump compressed poor immigrants, promoting a recent gold card of $ 5 million for wealthy
Trump promised that when he throws “criminal immigrants”, he invites “brilliant, hard -working, working” immigrants with a gold card of $ 5 million, which is able to function a path to US citizenship (clear, wealthy people may also be criminals).
He also boasted of record-emergency illegal border crossings and rejected the need for laws to control immigration, saying: “Our friends from the Democratic Party said that we needed new regulations, we must have regulations to secure the border, but it turned out that everything we really need was a new president.” On this statement, he omitted the indisputable fact that he he deliberately slammed two -sided The border agreement developed under the president of Biden, in order that he can paint democrats as doing nothing about border control and have a higher likelihood of selecting.
Mutual tariffs have been announced around the world from April
Economists say that we should always prepare for the price of goods turn into dearer. He also promised constant tax reductions. In addition, Trump didn’t say much about how he would cut back prices for the whole lot, including eggs (which became dearer than the time of taking office).
The revenge of Trump swears that he’s here with the guarantees of broad changes in the Doj and FBI
They are still baking Six court cases He spoke against him, Trump condemned law enforcement agencies, which, he claimed, was “armed” against “political opponents” like him, and swore “to restore fair and impartial justice in accordance with the constitutional rule of law.” He also promised to tell “officers to police officers’ support, protection and respect so much.” He has I actually have already signed an executive order in order to adopt a compulsory death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer. Ironically, he pardoned all individuals accused of crimes related to January 6, including accused of crimes using violence against cops.
Because Trump will determine the aggressive program – including extensive DEI cuts, attacks on transgender rights and the promise of converting law enforcement agencies – only a few days are the next foremost test of democratic resistance. March 14 Congress must pass New funding account, A fight that may determine if Trump’s prank is unpredictable. President Naacp, Derrick Johnson, speaking during the “state of the people”, called the Democrats to keep the line regardless of what “is about saving and protecting our democracy and progress.”
Crime
Author Essence Spotlight: Vanessa Miller “The Filling Station” – Essence

“Author Spotlight” by Essence sheds light on the very best -selling writer of Vanessa Miller and her recent book “The Filing Station”
Author of the bestsellers Vanessa Miller He understands that a well -written and studied story has the facility to rework history. She is the writer of over 55 books, in addition to recognized bestsellers and. In her latest historical novel, which can be published on March 11, Miller pushes the layers from probably the most terrifying and hidden moments within the history of America, the Tulsa Race massacre. It gives insight into the resistance of black within the face of a destructive loss, emphasizes the displacement of black people from the estated land and the best way generational wealth has been systematically stolen from many communities for generations.
It is 1921, and the sisters Margaret and Evelyn have recently avoided devastation, which has just taken place in Greenwood, a black community in Oklahomie. They find shelter on a black station filling the threat On route 66 And it’s a paradise for them as black travelers to process their experiences during treatment and preparing for the reconstruction of their community. Miller recently talked to the term of this book and the heritage of making “safe spaces” in order that Czarni could have a spot to talk and breathe life back into themselves.
In the news recentlyThere has been more evidence in regards to the Tulsa breed massacre, and Miller understands the importance of proper archiving history for future generations.
Hazard -filling station It is an actual place positioned on the historic route 66 in Luther in Oklahoma and it was an actual place where many black found shelter when their homes, corporations, churches and libraries were burned to the bottom.
“I started to study Hazard -filling stationAnd I knew that I could connect with what happened in Greenwood with the “protected marinade” of the idea at the filling station. What do you [we all] I have to understand that when I examined this, I discovered that it was the most terrifying crime ever committed against black slaves in America. But we are resistant people and we still enter. “
During the research of the book, Miller was shocked by silence, which was practiced by each black and white communities. “Over two days, the white crowd burned houses and firms, killed over 300 people and left hundreds of homeless people. And the proven fact that it was a story that was not talked about. People were silent and I imagine that they were silent due to fear. Many people in a white crowd were replaced by a sheriff in Tulsa. When there’s a system that’s against you, it’s difficult to talk. And a lot of their children didn’t know what happened in Tulsa until they grew up. Miller continued to share that each black and white families were silent because they desired to protect their families.
There are sometimes narratives about deprivation of black civil rights throughout the history, but it is rather necessary to grasp that after providing the probabilities of black communities bloom and distinguished themselves perfectly. And although Black Wall Street can confirm this, Miller discovered black cities Wilmington, North Carolina– They prospered well and were mecca. For this reason, the cities were set on fire.
“Officials in Tulsa decided that they wanted to sell the land that belonged to native Americans, and decided that they no longer need this land that was promised native Americans because they want to earn money on it.” But officials who sold this land didn’t expect that the black people have a way of pondering to those areas, meet and construct their very own cities – they usually did. And the characters within the intimate will show these living people.
“There are only a few descendants of the live massacre, but when I created characters for this book, I received access Michelle Burdex and Greenwood Cultural Center to the archived interviews from Tulsa Massacre, which survived the massacre and their first person accounts. And they have these interviews on the wall while walking around the Greenwood Culture Center. And it was such a blessing to see them. ” Miller emphasized the importance of staying by heart, which is why each chapter and submission of the book incorporates a direct epigraph from the archives of the Greenwood Culture Center or Red Cross Relinal Report. These interviews and reports informed how Miller created every character and their experiences.
“It was very open. By reading the book, you will notice that the blacks have been forced to work with every relief received. The Red Cross Tulsa help report states that they provide relief for destructive tragedies, but this was the only time in which the city and officials did not do it, and it is important to understand why. “Miller said:” I really believe it was because they were black, and this report, as well as the mayor and other officials in Tulsa, said that Black were a servant of people class and that they would have to work on any financial relief. I thought that it is so important to place these epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter, because I wanted people who read them to see what was happening during this period. Not only the story I tell, but I want you [the reader] To see this in real time, the real reality of people. “
For those that wish to enter a historical novel, based loosely on real events, is a written work that immediately surrounds the reader right into a time and place that ought to never be removed. “This happened with Greenwood, but the beauty in this story is that every time they tried to stop them, they came back and arose.” Miller calls on a gene with and millennials in order that they don’t accept America’s history as a right.
“I really believe that those who do not know their history may be doomed to repeat it because they do not make contacts between what is happening in their daily lives and what has already happened in the past. And reading historical books and non-fiction books is a great way. “But his ability to present the tragedy of this terrifying incident with a flash of hope is distinguished. There isn’t any must fear the present generation, simply or vigilant.
“People gave us a plan if you just read what happened before. We already have a plan, which is why the book also has a message of hope. We have always looked at God. We have always believed on a better day and we fight for it. And that is why it was important to show Margaret’s fight with her faith in this book. After such devastation happened to you, it is easy to question your faith. And I needed her [Margaret] To leave this journey and start understanding God’s love for us, even in the face of man’s hatred for us. “
Vanessa is currently published by Harpercollins/Thomas Nelson. He lives in North Carolina along with her husband and family. She graduated from Capital University with an organizational communication diploma.
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