Helping Doesn't Have a Season   By: Shannon Mouton     From Thanksgiving to Christmas, the downtrodden, the less fortunate and the those generally in need find themselves the beneficiaries of kindness, care and generosity. They receive traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas meals; they receive gifts and their children receive toys. Many people give during the holiday... Read More

Local rapper Head-Roc has a message for Walmart Diversity: Keeping DC Walmart Free   By: Tamara Braunstein   Local rapper Head-Roc released a new track last week calling out the social justice issues of allowing Walmart to infiltrate some notoriously impoverished neighborhoods in DC.   The video, produced by Empower DC, is shot in black and white... Read More

'Freedmen' Still Fighting for their Dream    Excitement and pride have been justifiably juxtaposed with calls to action throughout the blogosphere as media anticipation for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. monument reaches a climax.   Just three days from now, on the anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech... Read More

Welcome to Comm In The Storm   This is my inaugural foray into the Blogosphere.  I’m arriving with an eagerness to promote public relations with a conscience.  We call this space Comm In The Storm… We will give myriad reasons, much like the forces of nature, that explain why we do what... Read More

Public Relations Strategist and advisor to civil rights champions to receive prestigious award from alma mater. Public relations executive Gwen McKinney will be honored on January 26 with the Drum Major for Justice Award by the Frederick Douglass Society of West Chester University. The award is given to an alumnus each... Read More

Today GOP presidential candiate Mitt Romney said, "I'm not concerned about the very poor."    In December former Gov. Romeny said cutting programs that support the poor and "giving money back to the states" won't hurt the poor.  He's not concerned about the very poor because... Read More

Last week I stopped by the H Street Country Club for a quick bite. I have been here a few times and although it sits in the middle of a predominantly Black neighborhood, the bar staff, servers and clientele tend to be majority white. Point of clarification, this is not in... Read More

For the next couple of weekends the Atlas Performing Arts Center is hosting INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival (it started on Feb 23rd). Needless to say, there is a lot of dancing, singing and acting happening on H Street NE. One of the performances I attended last week was 360º... Read More

We are less than 9 days away from the official launch party for Voice Matters: An Anthology of Public Relations with a Conscience.  McKinney & Associates wanted to mark the 20th Anniversary of its founding with more than a party. So we wrote the book on PR for Progress. Part essay, part memoir,... Read More

This blog post is part of series introducing McKinney & Associates’ new book Voice Matters: An Anthology of Public Relations with a Conscience. For the next two weeks, we’ll profile the book’s contributors, giving readers an inside glimpse into the lives of voices that matter. In the first chapter of Voice... Read More

Diann Rust-Tierney has been one of the nation’s foremost advocates against the death penalty. In the second chapter of Voices Matter, she shares her reflections on the campaign to save Gary Graham from the electric chair. Although Graham was executed, she cites the case as a turning point in the... Read More

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to tackle an affirmative action case for the first time in nearly ten years. Affirmative action refers to a set of policies and initiates designed to eliminate discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, or nationality. But the elimation of such policies could... Read More

Michelle Alexander, an attorney, author and criminal justice advocate, wrote the third chapter of Voice Matters. The essay is a sharply drawn and incisive condemnation of our criminal justice system, and the racial and class disparities that lurk at the core. “By the millions, people are arrested and marched into courtrooms... Read More

In the third chapter of Voices Matter, CNN Top 10 Hero Susan Burton writes a deeply personal and honest account of how she reversed her personal trajectory from sex abuse victim, drug dependency and prison to transform her life and that of other formerly incarcerated women. The founder and director... Read More

As McKinney & Associates’ Art Director, Richard Montgomery writes in the fifth chapter of Voice Matters about the creative and collaborative process from an artist’s perspective, from campaign conception to execution. A long-time McKinney partner tasked with bringing messages to visual life, Montgomery also shares his tips for establishing winning... Read More

Candice Francis’ Voice Matters essay is a thoughtful exploration of the ways in which historic and persistent racial bias discourages women of color from valuing their own well-being. The book’s brief sixth chapter is both elegant and provocative. Francis is a gifted communicator with expertise in many communications disciplines. Her consulting... Read More

As the author of the seventh Voice Matters chapter, Michele Renée Brown evokes warmth and humor in describing the details of running a grassroots field operation on a tight budget and tighter deadlines. Brown is the founder of WordPlay Consulting, a boutique consulting firm based in Oakland, California, specializing in... Read More

With the launch of our new book quickly approaching, our office has been buzzing with literary anticipation. But for those who have to wait until Thursday to get their hands on Voice Matters, we found five inspiring books to get you through the week and beyond. Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women... Read More

Voice Matters’ eighth chapter brings a dialogue between McKinney Associates' Pamela Taylor and Tamara Braunstein (pictured) on the salience and value of social networking in the world of public relations and advocacy. The two consider the impact social media could have made on past campaigns, and the continuing value of... Read More

Health disparities play a significant role in keeping our health care system ranked among the lowest of developed states. In the eleventh chapter of Voice Matters, Larry Adelman writes passionately about the challenges of health equity in the world’s richest nation. Spelling out common myths about health and health equity,... Read More

In the world of PR, tragedy can strike at any moment. During those times, it is critical for leaders to take charge and at times defend against false accusations that serve to damage the reputations of their organizations. In the tenth chapter of Voice Matters, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local... Read More

Diane McKinney-Whetstone is an award-winning author and Gwen McKinney’s sister. She offers a warm and evocative introduction into how McKinney’s personal character and history have shaped the trajectory of McKinney & Associates. As the author of the introduction for Voice Matters, Whetstone writes of McKinney’s passion for the firm’s core... Read More

In the foreword of Voice Matters, Bob Herbert, an award-winning former New York Times columnist, describes the deepening abyss of income inequality in America that has transformed the American Dream into a nightmare. He writes movingly of the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and the erosion of the middle class in... Read More

Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.* Absolute poverty refers to the one who lacks basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter.* Relative poverty refers to lacking a usual or socially acceptable level of... Read More

Photographs courtesy of ColorLines. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that African Americans and whites have starkly different ideas about the Trayvon Martin shooting. According to the poll, 80 percent of blacks believe the teenager’s death was unjustified whereas 38 percent of whites believe the same. “The findings reflect a basic... Read More

Two months after Trayvon Martin was shot to death in Florida, 29-year-old Daniel Adkins Jr., who had the mental capacity of a 13-year-old, was shot outside an Arizona Taco Bell. The shooter, who has not been charged, said he acted in self-defense. These two cases highlight the controversy surrounding Florida’s... Read More

Video: A Quick Minute with Gwen on Walmart We're back with a new episode of our "A Quick Minute with Gwen" series. In this episode, our President Gwen McKinney takes a minute to discuss the recent controversy regarding the Walmart bribing scandal in Mexico and how it relates to our own local... Read More

As 11 FAMU band members face charges in the hazing death of Robert Champion, several organizations, most notably the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), suspect that his sexuality played a role in his murder. NBJC "is urging the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS) and Civil Rights Division,... Read More

In 2010, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University student, jumped from the George Washington Bridge after having an intimate encounter with a male student broadcast over the Web. Now Dharun Ravi, the student who secretly filmed Clementi, could face 10 years in prison and deportation to his native India. According to... Read More

By Llenda Jackson-Leslie Activist Betty Friedan leads a group of demonstrators outside a Congressional office in 1971. Photograph courtesy of Veteran Feminists of America. In honor of US Women's Equality Day on August 26, we bring you this special post on women's rights. The war against women isn’t limited to control of our... Read More

By Ryan Duncan In this episode of "A Quick Minute with Gwen," our President Gwen McKinney sits down to discuss the controversy surrounding voter ID laws in the United States. With the upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions calling attention to democracy in action, Gwen highlights how the recent adoption of... Read More

By Ryan Duncan With the recent RNC and DNC conventions, both parties and both candidates have been actively trying to highlight their differences while painting a picture of what a Romney vs. Obama presidency would look like. But perhaps the clearest portrait of the dissimilarities between the two candidates was captured... Read More

By Hassan Naveed Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual event on November 20 to honor the memory of those whose lives were lost to transphobia. Thousands of supporters across the United States will come together in their places of worship, local LGBT community center and parks to read the... Read More

By Hassan Naveed A sign asking for help from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is seen in the BroadChannel section of the Queens borough of New York November 2, 2012. Photograph courtesy of Reuters. There was an unfamiliar knock at the front door. Sahar* immediately stopped cooking and nervously stepped away from... Read More

Hero (hir’o)/Heroine (her’o-in) n. 1. a figure in mythology and legend renowned for great courage, strength and daring; 2. person celebrated for special achievements and attributes; 3.one revered for noble courage, gallantry, prowess. Imagineer (i-maj’e-neer) n. 1. One who uses the mental power of forming images or absent objects; 2.One who... Read More

We continue our salute to this year's Heroes & Imagineers with, Alden M. Landry, MD and Kameron Leigh Matthews, MD, JD, co-founders of Tour for Diversity in Medicine. Alden and Kameron, former medical student leaders, knew recruitment fairs often missed students who looked like them. Their answer: Tour for Diversity, a... Read More

We continue our salute to this year's Heroes & Imagineers with Michelle Alexander, JD, Associate Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University. Michelle's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, took explosive aim at punitive drug laws that have trapped African Americans in... Read More