The national plan urges individuals from all across America to open an account with Black-owned banks in their communities on the same day. Ballentine announced that the mission of the campaign is to galvanize consumers, business & thought leaders, social groups and individuals all across America to actively get involved in empowering and transforming their own communities.

Through active partnerships with his listeners, sponsors and supporters, Ballentine uses the power of media and communications to promote change and positively influence the lives of others and continues to be a leading voice on issues and challenges facing Black America. Continuing to spotlight issues such as racial injustice, financial literacy & economic prosperity, criminal justice, and other topics that promote social change, “The People's Champ” recently talked to Hip-Hop Wired about his campaign for African-Americans to start investing in Black Banks.

HipHopWired:  So what's the premise behind “National Community Reinvestment Day?”

Warren Ballentine: It's about economics.  The reason the Civil Rights Movement was able to jump start and spark so quickly was because they stopped riding the busses.  When they stopped riding the busses, they stopped making money for the city and when the city started losing that money, what did they do? They caved in.  So I looked at it from a historical point of view and where we are today and how do we get some leverage.

HipHopWired:  What are you calling for people to do during that day?

Warren Ballentine: I want people to put some money in a Black owned bank.  You don't have to leave your other bank.  You can put $10, $20, $100, whatever you want.  But I'm trying to get people in the mindset of targeting their money.  We don't target our money and I'll give you a perfect example.  In Chicago where I grew up, they're zip codes, about 100 there but one in particular is a poor zip code and maybe one of the poorest in the country.  Last year they spent $24 million on lottery tickets.  Imagine if they would have saved that money for one year and took that $24 million and at the end of the year they could have had a better education for their kids, paid off all their homes.  All of them would have been debt free as far as home ownership.  They could have gotten more police in their communities.  So I'm trying to get us in the mindset and really get the culturally conditioning changed from spending to targeting.

HipHopWired:  Now the term Black bank.  Many Black people are apprehensive to just that term alone.  Unfortunately , we've been conditioned that white is better and always right when from years of experience from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement, we know that is far from the truth yet we stay on that treadmill.  How do you break pass that?

Warren Ballentine: I mean the reality is this.  We've been so culturally conditioned to believe that anything you do with Black people is wrong that it's ridiculous.  Even when I was actively practicing law, these boys would catch cases and the first thing they run and do is go hire a white boy or Jewish lawyer and then when they run out of money they come to me and I save them.

Now it's the same thing with these Black banks.  Let's take One United Bank out of L.A. and Boston and also one of the hugest banks on the Internet.  This bank was offering the highest interest rate in America last year to anybody who deposited in their bank.  Well this bank is FDIC approved.  It has the same standings as a Chase Manhattan bank but we as African-Americans are not told about this so we put our money on what we see on T.V. and hear on the radio.  One of the biggest problems that Black banks have and most Black businesses have is advertising.  They don't advertise enough about what they are doing and what they can do in the community and that's one of the reasons why I'm telling people, “You ain't got to take all of your money out of all these other banks but put a little bit in the  Black bank and see if it works for you.”  If it works for you, then move all of your other money over.  If it doesn't, then stay with that.  I'm perfectly fine with that but let them show you that they deserve your business (and that their not entitled to it.)

HipHopWired:  After that day is over, what's next and how do we keep it going?

Warren Ballentine: One of the reasons why I'm doing this the way I'm doing it is because I want to show people that they can do it first.  Once I show that, then we need to take it to another level.  Now we need to be talking about blacking out “Black Friday” which is the day after Thanksgiving and when everybody makes their money in this country as far as sales.  Well if we don't spend no money… we spend over $800 million as a people.  We spend   more money than anybody else in this country, Black people.  If we don't spend any money on that Friday after Thanksgiving, that's a major blow to a lot of retailers out here.   And if we take that money instead of spending it on that Friday and invest the money we were gonna spend into something else, it changes the whole playing atmosphere at that point.

HipHopWired:  But couldn't that hurt the economy?

Warren Ballentine: Hurt the economy.  Come on now, if we gone be real… When America's catches a cold, Black folks got pneumonia.  Hell, we the ones that's unemployed and been unemployed.  Right now the unemployment rate is around 9.8% in this country and for African-Americans it's almost 18%.  It's almost doubled what it is for everybody else.  The economy is not our concern when you really look at it because we're spending money.  It's the other folks that ain't spending no money, that's why the economy is messed up.  It ain't because of us because we've been spending all along.  It's because of the other folks.

HipHopWired:  What can be done from a saving perspective?

Warren Ballentine: I wouldn't even say that we need to cut back.  I say we need to target, that's the key.  Targeting our money.  One of the things that I want people to understand… the community I just told you about out of Chicago that spent $24 million on the lottery.  When you break that down in numbers, everybody in that neighborhood spent $5,200 a household.  $5,200 a household for the whole year.  So $5,200, if everybody would have said that we'll put $5,200 up, they would have had $24 million to pay off all their homes, get their schools better and make everything better for them.  And that's' all I'm trying to get people to understand, let's target our money.  When we target our money… you know the old saying, ‘Money Talks, B.S. Walks.'  If we got the money talking, then everyone is gone listen.

HipHopWired:  So could the Black banks have helped decrease these mass foreclosures in the housing market?

Warren Ballentine: When you look at what's going on with the federal banks, that's another reason we need to look at investing in Black banks.  When the subprime industry hit, a lot of Black people qualified for A-Paper loans which means that you qualify for the best of the best loans.  But because we were minorities, we were put into subprime loans.  And the subprime loans just basically worked in the way where for the first two years, you would be in arm of like a 4% interest rate but it would kick up after those first two years and keep kicking up from then on and you would be up to 9% by the end of the loan.   Well when you look at the banks that were doing this… it was the Wells Fargos, the Countrywides, Bank of Americas, Wachovias.  So why not take that money from them and put it in the Black banks who would have given us regular mortgages  and our homes wouldn't  be devastated and lost at the rate that they're getting devastated and lost right now.

HipHopWired:  How are you spreading the word about this economic agenda?

Warren Ballentine: I'm doing various interviews across the country and I will be down in Orlando but what's sad about this is I have personally contacted The Tom Joyner Morning Show, The Rickey Smiley Show, and The Michael Baisden Show and have gotten no response from them.  And it's sad that we are like this.  Honestly if we all just came together, we could fix a whole lot in our community but the problem is everybody wants to be the chief and nobody wants to be an Indian.

HipHopWired:  So what makes you willing to support other platforms though they don't support yours which makes a lot of economic sense?

Warren Ballentine: For me, it's not about Warren Ballentine, it's about us as a people.  What I'm doing, I ain't trying to be famous or rich, I'm just trying to help my people.  If I'm not the one out front, that's fine with me.  I can be a general but in order to be a general you have to be a soldier first.    I don't mind being a soldier because it's not about the glory for me, it's about the glory for all.  If we all thought like that, imagine what we could get accomplished.  Me helping somebody else out on what they're pushing ain't a problem to me because I ain't got to be out front.  As long as it is for the good of the people, that's the most important thing for me.

“For more than 140 years, HBCUs have released the power of knowledge to countless Americans. Graduates of HBCUs have gone on to shape the course of American history-from W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, to Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall. Today, in twenty States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin_Islands, these colleges and universities are serving hundreds of thousands of students from every background and have contributed to the expansion of the African American middle class, to the growth of local communities, and to our Nation's overall economy…”

Obama also made note that with the help of HBCUs he expects America to have the highest proportion of college graduates 11 years from now, saying that HBCUs will help “employ new, innovative and ambitious strategies.”

“This week, we celebrate the accomplishments of HBCUs_and look to the future with conviction and optimism. These institutions will play a key role in reaching our ambitious national education goals, including having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. As our Nation strives toward this goal, we invite HBCUs to employ new, innovative, and ambitious strategies to help the next generation of Americans successfully complete college and prepare themselves for the global economy. During National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week, we recommit ourselves to never resting until equality is real, opportunity is universal, and all citizens can realize their dreams.”

While Obama is busy singing the praises to Black Colleges and Universities, others are too but they do see the area for some improvements and drastic overhauls if they intend to survive in the 21st century. Accomplished Black scholar and Syracuse University professor, Boyce Watkins told HipHopWired he thinks HBCUs no longer “exist” and are being taken over by non-Black professors.

“We still need them. I think HBCUs are a critical part of the Black community but the problem with HBCUs right now is that if you go on most of these campuses, the HBCUs have become plantations. Just like the prison system, just like the school system. A lot of these HBCUs don't have a lot of African-American professors. If you go to most of these HBCUs and you major in something like engineering, you might go to school for four years and never have an African American teacher. What happened is we think these schools are standing up for the Black community where you learn to be Black and all that and to some extent you're learning it because you got Black classmates and you have some Black administrators, but many of these HBCUs are not hiring Black professors. A lot of prominent Black scholars get criticized because they don't teach at HBCUs but the untold story is that a lot of them can't get jobs at HBCUs because when they go to apply for the job, there's an Asian man or an Indian man who puts that person's name at the bottom of the list for applicants because they want to hire somebody else from China.

So that's what people need to look at when it comes to HBCUs is the fact that Black people don't control them anymore. (Laughs) So the question is what is an HBCU anyway? I don't even think HBCUs exist anymore. There really are no HBCUs. There are a couple of them that have a Black presence like Morehouse has a little bit of a Black presence, Spelman, some of the top schools absolutely. They're still there, it can't be denied but people need to go look at the numbers. Go do a tour of the HBCUs, go to the science department and see how many African-American professors you find. When I looked at a lot of HBCUs for example in the field of business, there were a lot HBCUs I saw that did not have one single African-American male professor in the entire business school. Out of 80 faculty, not one of them was an African-American male. So what's the point of even going to an HBCU if you're not even being taught by African Americans?”

By contrast, political activist and radio talk show host, Warren Ballentine, offered a different opinion, saying that HBCUS are less expensive and more accepting of Black students than predominantly white institutions.

“Man we need as many as we can get because we have a lot of HBCU's that are accepting children to go to college that big universities will simply not accept. The price of the education is so much cheaper, you have a faculty and staff that want the student to do well, you're not just a number. When you go to these big universities, and you go to a biology class, there may be 160 people in there. If you go to a Black college there may be 25 in there including you and your professor. You know your professor and your professor knows you and that makes a world of difference. Now some of these HBCU's are failing academically so they need to uphold their end of the bargain, but this memo that everything is post racial after Barack became President, I didn't get that memo. We are fools if we believe that we need to get rid of HBCU's. I'm a strong supporter of HBCU's and I think we need to be popping up with more of them than trying to get rid of the ones that we have.”

Despite opposing views on their relevancy, HBCU attendees and Alumni can revel in the national spotlight they'll receive this week. It should be duly noted however that his is not the first National Historically Black College Week in history. In 1987, Ronald Reagan declared September 21 through September 27 National HBCU Week and Bill Clinton deemed September 19-25, the same in 1994.

In keeping with the celebration of the week, BET is kicking off its annual Black College Tour. The tour is sponsored by Microsoft, Microsoft X Box, Verizon Wireless, Def Jam Recordings, The U.S. Air Force and Sierra Mist. The tour begins Wednesday September 5 at Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama and will give HBCU students a chance to compete in games like a 2 on 2 basketball tournament and catch performances from celebrities like Ace Hood and Playaz Circle.

The Black College Tour schedule is as follows:

Miles College Wednesday, September 2
Delaware State University Wednesday September 9
Morgan State University Friday, September 11
North Carolina A&T State Friday, September 18
Alabama A&M University Friday, September 25
Jackson State University Friday, October 2
Fayetteville State University Wednesday, October 7
Winston-Salem State University Friday, October 16
Florida A&M University Wednesday, October 21
Grambling State University Friday, October 30
Xavier University Wednesday, November 4
Southern University Friday, November 6
Texas Southern University Wednesday, November 11
Prairie View A&M University

Activist and front line soldier Warren Ballentine is about fighting for the rights of African-Americans. The syndicated radio host and attorney spoke with Hip-Hop Wired's “Michael Ice-Blue” Harris about several plagues affecting the African-American community and the importance of giving back and inspiring hope into our Black Youth. Here's the first installment of several interviews with “The People's Champ.”

HipHopWired: How did you make it despite coming from the streets of Chicago and what makes you give back? So many turn their back on the communities and neighborhoods once they make it out.

Warren Ballentine: It was just God Man. God kept his grace on me. I group up on the Southside...the projects. Most of my uncles, boys, cousins, were gang affiliated and drug boys. I played a little ball, and I was just lucky to that I could use that to get a scholarship and get out. God blessed me to be able to get out but as soon as I did something with my life I went back. Because I used to be one of the kids who thought that there was no way out. I thought you had to be a ball player or rapper, but in all honesty, my shot to be a ball player or rapper was a lot smaller than me being a lawyer. So I go back to try to reiterate that message to all the young men and women in ghettos across the country because they are brilliant, and they don't understand that they could take that brilliance and street knowledge to become successful businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and other outstanding citizens in the country and make a legitimate living and a good living without being a ball player and a rapper.

HipHopWired: So with that said, what made you have that insight to come back and give back? Because there are so many people who can say that they made it out of the hood but you actually went back and serve as a visual that they can actually touch. Where did that come from?

Warren Ballentine: It really just came from me growing up like that and asking, ‘Why is it when people come from the hood, they act like they didn't come from the hood?' I caught a gun charge at 19 and I made it through that case. After I made it, I said that I was going to go to school and make something with my life. I went to school and stayed there until I became a lawyer, and once I became a lawyer, I was just like I'mma go back where I came from and let everybody know that you can be anything that you want to be. It doesn't matter if you came from the ghetto. What matters is if you can take that determination and that street hustle and using that in a different avenue. Not a drug related avenue.

I remember my first day of law school, it was 150 of us sitting in a room and there were 7,500 people competing for these 150 seats. They went around the room and asked all of these people, and they wanted to know why all of us wanted to be lawyers. Some people were saying that there Dad was a lawyer or their Mom was a judge or they knew someone who was a Senator . . . When they got to me, I told them that I knew of three professions that you can make as much as you want to make. One is a drug dealer, and I already did that and I didn't want to go to jail, the other was a pimp and that can send you to jail, and the last one is a lawyer. I used what I learned on the streets on the educational side.

HipHopWired: From listening to your radio show, I respect the fact that you never run from your past?

Warren Ballentine: You can't run from the past man. Your past is who you should be embracing because that's who you are as a person. My closest friends are my people that I grew up with in the hood. When I go somewhere and I need security, I got them cats with me; (laugh) I ain't got no security team. I got them with me because I know if something jumps off, if I swing, they swing. It ain't no question about it. They won't ask, “What's going on?” And those are the people that I put around me to keep me leveled because as God uplifts me and blesses me, sometime, we get the big head. We think we've made it and that we are better than folks. And my cats that I grew up with, they ain't got no degrees, they ain't no educated folks, but they are the cats that I've been with since I was five years old. They are gonna tell me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear.

I would never cut myself off from where I come from. I love how I came up and I thank God for where I come from. I would never trade in that experience because there are so many of us who did not have that experience and because of that, they cannot relate to where people have come from. And I think that is one of the biggest qualities that I have, because I come from that… Was a part of it, and because I continue to be a part of it, it keeps me grounded and makes me understand what everyday people are going through.

HipHopWired: So how do you feel that we can inspire hope in the younger generation and keep them motivated?

Warren Ballentine: Well I think you hit it right on the head. How you inspire hope to that generation is not to just go there and give speeches. What you have to do is go there and show them that you lived that life, and that is one of the things that I talk about. When I go holla at these young cats, I don't go as a lawyer; you see me out there and I'm gonna have on some Timbs. I'm gone have a throwback, I might be out there with a 40 with them. I might shoot some dice with them. I talk to them on a level where it shows that I am not just talking; I have lived your life, and I understand why you're hustling. Even if you're hustling, I'm not gonna condemn you for hustling, But think the bigger picture. Think long term. Think how can I get out of this hustlers mentality or how can I take this hustler's mentality and make it legal. Because if you stay in the grind of the hustle mode, on the drug avenue, or the drug lane, you're gonna end up in one of two places. Dead or in jail. I don't care how nice you are or how large you are. So you gotta take that mentality and say I'mma take this drug money and make and flip it into some legal stuff, so I can be able to pull myself out and pull other people around me out.

I know how it is standing in the government line with my momma. I know how it is to go to the Salvation Army to get my school clothes. I know how it is to pass clothes between siblings. So I tell cats, I've lived your life; I've lived exactly what you're living now and I am proof that you can get out of this and not end up dead or in jail. Because honestly, I tell the drug boys this all the time, if you're gonna be in the game then the first thing you need to do is sit down at a courthouse. Sit down at a courthouse and learn the law. Learn how much you can be caught with to get a felony charge and learn how much you can get caught with to get a misdemeanor charge. Learn what you can and can't do.

Why get into a game you know nothing about? And when I say know nothing about; I'm not talking about cooking and chopping' it up. I'm talking about the consequences of the game. See a lot of cats use the game and don't know the consequences of the game. That's why when I talk to kids who're looking for that hope I always tell them that I understand what you're doing, why you're doing it, and why you're thinking about doing it. But understand it's consequences to everything you do so at least know the consequences for what you do before you jump in the game.

HipHopWired: From a Hip-Hop perspective, what do you feel is wrong with rap music?

Warren Ballentine: The only problem with Hip-Hop today is that no one is stepping up like the Chuck D's and KRS One's. Hip-Hop today…I mean, I've met many cats who people look up to and think that cat is a straight gangster and these cats aren't. They are businessmen. They're not living in the ghetto. They're not raising their kids in the hood. Some of these cats who be rapping about how they smoke and drink don't really smoke or drink. The only reason that they do it is because it is moving records for them. We need these artists to be honest and be like look man, “I may have done that in the past, but that ain't what I'm doing now. Or even I've never done that.” One of the things I love about Kanye is that Kanye is from the suburbs of Chicago; Kanye never tried to act like he was a gangster from Chicago because he never lived that life, so he never raps that life, and that is the kind of honesty that we need in our Hip-Hop music. See that the thing, if these kids knew the truth about some of these artists, they wouldn't be out here toting guns, thinking this is cool because my favorite artist totes a gun.

Some of these artists have never even seen a jail. I know they are trying to make money. I know they are trying to move records, but you can't portray yourself to be a thug when you've never lived that life as a thug. And that's what we need to teach these kids. Have the artist who did used to live that life come out and say yeah, “I did used to live that life because I was forced to live that life, and I'm not living like that way anymore. And I'm happy I'm not living that way anymore.” If the kids heard that they would understand that toting a gun and killing somebody is not cool. That ain't cool at all. Getting shot 10 times and surviving . . . that ain't cool. I'm sure 50, Pac, or anybody else who has been shot could go back in time and take those bullets out of them and would've never gotten hit, I'm sure they would tell them that you don't want you get hit. And I think that's the message that these kids need to hear. The music is always gonna change; that's generational. But the artists, if they would be true, that's what would change a lot of what's going on in our communities, Man.

For more information on Warren ballentine, log on to www.Thetruthfighters.com.