- Malcolm X stated, "The most disrespected person in America "is the black woman.

"The most unprotected person in America is the black woman.

"The most neglected woman in America is the black woman."

Since Africans were brought to the Americas, black women have had to bear the burden of being abused, physically, mentally and sexually.

Their bodies were used for playthings by slave traders, plantation owners, some of America's founding fathers, like Thomas Jefferson.

Black women have had to endure horrific atrocities at the hands of their oppressors.

They were sold as property, made to cook, clean and become nannies to their abusers' children, as they watched their own children being sold like cattle.

At the same time, they had to deal with men who were broken because of slavery, Jim Crow slave codes and white supremacy.

According to recent reports, though, black women are close to being the most educated demographic in America.

Despite the oppression of the past, black women continue to rise to unimaginable heights, like the two guests that are with me today.

They exemplify the iconic words of poet Maya Angelou - "And still like dust, we rise."

I'm Phillip Davis, the host of Courageous Conversations.

Joining me to talk about being successful black women in America today are Teri Williams, the president, COO and co-founder of OneUnited Bank, the largest black-owned bank in America, Nona Jones, the head of Global Faith Partnerships at Facebook.

She's a pastor, executive and author and the creator of Faith and Prejudice.

I want to take time to thank you both for joining me.

I know you have ridiculously busy schedules.

I want to jump right in.

Teri, Madam President, who inspired you with the entrepreneurial spirit to dream big enough to become a bank president?

- Well, first of all, Phillip, I want to thank you for having me.

This is really an honor.

And who inspired me was my great-grandmother.

My great-grandmother owned a barbecue pit, a juke joint, a penny candy store and some apartment buildings.

And I used to follow her around in this little town called Indiantown, Florida.

You know, black people lived on one side of the railroad track, white people lived on the other, and she was an entrepreneur and businesswoman before the term was even coined.

And I learned as I've gotten older that her impression on me is really what led me to business and led me to do the work that I do, which is to combine business with a community service mission.

- That's so exciting.

And considering the fact that you're talking probably in the '40s and '50s when she was doing this work, or before?

- Even before that, yeah.

So, yeah, no, it's pretty amazing.

And I didn't even realize it.

She was just my great-grandmother, you know?

And I used to just follow her.

I didn't realize the impact not only that she had on our family, but on the entire Indiantown community.

And it wasn't... You know, I have to say this because I talk to young people all the time, and I explain to them they have a Ma Honey in their life.

I didn't realize the impact.

I had...

If you had asked me that question even ten years ago, I would have said, "Well, you know, I went "to Brown University and I went to Harvard Business School "and I worked in corporate America.

"You know, that's what inspired me."

And it wasn't until someone really pressed me about why I do what I do and how did I get here that I realized the impact that my great-grandmother had on me.

- How powerful is that to think about it?

And you're an author, too.

You know, you wrote a couple of books, but the one that stood out to me is I Got Bank!

: What My Grandparents Taught Me About Money.

What was that about?

Is that about inspiring young people?

- Yes, absolutely.

- Because growing up, I didn't know why...

I didn't even know we lived on one side of town and white folks lived on another.

I didn't know, you know, like, where money sort of came from and why there were these differences.

And I decided once I sort of went on this journey that no child, particularly no black child, should not know sort of the basics of money.

And, you know, I tell parents as well as children that if you read that book, you'll know everything that you need to know about money.

- Yeah.

And so often, we are not informed, right, when it comes to money?

So therefore, we can't build wealth.

Now, Nona, last year, right around the incident with George Floyd - and now, of course, the court case is going on right now - you started Faith and Prejudice, and in six months, you reached over 6 million people with a message of dismantling systemic racism.

Can you talk a little bit about Faith and Prejudice and what you were able to accomplish?

And while you're doing that, explain to our folks what systemic racism actually is.

- Sure.

Well, first of all, I agree.

Thank you so much for having us.

This is truly an honor to get to spend some time with you.

Let me first say that I had no intentions of launching a new social justice organization at any point.

So had a very full schedule.

My husband and I pastor at a local church, in addition to the work that I do at Facebook, I have an itinerant ministry.

Last year, I released two books.

Like, I was not looking for something else to do.

But after George Floyd's murder, I was in a space of prayer, I was in a space of contemplation.

And I really asked the Lord.

I said, "Well, how can I bring the unique assets "that I have, given the work that I do, "to this conversation?"

Because what I was noticing... You know, because I also am a preacher, I get to preach in various cultural contexts.

And so I had several white pastors reach out to me, and they said, "Listen, will you send us a sermon on race?"

or "Will you be part of a panel on race?"

or "Will you do a podcast on race?"

And, you know, I certainly have a perspective as a black woman in America.

However, I also am a student of African-American history.

And as a result, I know that there are civil rights leaders, theologians, scholars, the advocates who have dedicated their lives to these issues that the white community en masse was unaware of.

And so after praying about it, I decided to just host a week of Facebook Live conversations with these incredible people who were very gracious to join me, people like Ambassador Andrew Young and Bryan Stevenson and Dr Tony Evans and just all these incredible people.

And my intention was just to have that be the thing.

But what ended up happening, to your point, is by the end of the week, there were so many people - in particular, we partnered with about 150 churches, many of which were predominantly white churches, very large churches - we reached so many people whose eyes were opened to the real true history of race in America that the resounding question was, "Well, what are y'all going to do next?"

I was like, "I'm going back to my life!"

"I don't know what you mean, "'What are we going to do next?'"

- I know that feeling.

Yeah.

- Yeah, but I sensed that God wanted to do something big.

And so the reason for that is a lot of times, conversations about race deteriorate into political corners.

But if you look at the data, 30% of Americans identify as Republican, 31% identify as Democrat, but 65% identify as Christian.

And that's more than both major political parties combined.

And so I think what we can deduce from that is that change will not happen in the halls of Congress until it first happens in the heart of the church.

The church has to lead this.

And to your question, what is systemic racism?

Well, systemic racism is a system of policies and decisions and attitudes and behaviors that exists to maintain the idea that black people are fundamentally and biologically inferior to white people.

And you see this in all types of empirical research that shows black people are - I don't know how many times - I think it's like ten, 12 times more likely to be stopped by police.

And the funny thing is white people are actually more likely to have drugs and drug paraphernalia on them, and yet black people are more likely to be stopped by police.

Similarly, a black man, a black person, is six times more likely to be shot by police while unarmed.

That speaks to a system, that speaks to an idea, that speaks to a mindset that says black people are deficient by nature.

And so that has really been the foundation upon which policies have been passed in order to disadvantage black people.

And I think the last thing I'll say - and this is really, I think, picking up on Teri's point - you know, I'm so inspired by my grandmother, who actually died before I was born, because she lived her life as a domestic house servant, which is also a euphemism for a "free" enslaved black person, simply, cleaning white people's homes and raising their children.

She never experienced luxury.

She never experienced what she should have had access to simply because she was born with black skin, because of policies and laws that kept her from opportunity.

And so that's why I'm dedicated to this work, because she is the legacy that I'm trying to live up to.

- Thank you so much for that.

It's so true.

And you hit on so many different points.

And so, Teri, as President and COO of OneUnited Bank, you're very passionate about closing the wealth gap.

You actually said something earlier when you were talking about Florida and where you grew up at.

You spoke about living on the other side of the railroad tracks, which is really akin to redlining, right?

So why is it that, you know, there's such a wealth gap that exists in America?

And how is OneUnited taking steps to really address the wealth disparity within our communities?

- So first of all, OneUnited Bank, we're the largest black-owned bank in the country, and I do own the bank with my husband, who is also black, I just want to say.

And our focus is on closing the wealth gap.

And I think it's important for our community to understand that the wealth gap is/was actually due to systemic racism, exactly what Nona Jones was talking about.

There are all these hurdles that were put in place, including living on the other side of the track and not being able to get a mortgage and... You know, I mean, all the things that, you know, from slavery to Jim Crow to redlining to predatory lending.

I can go on and on to talk about the policies that were put in place to stop us from building wealth.

And so this is something that we did not do to ourselves.

This is something that was done to us.

And I think that's important because we have a tendency to say, "Oh, you know, we don't have wealth "because we spend too much" or "We spend it on the wrong things."

And none of that is true.

None of that is true.

And because of that, we need to vote, you know, and we need to vote with people that support our Christian values.

And so that is something that is important.

But what we also need to do is to focus on, as we call it, the one transaction that will close the wealth gap for our family.

So public policy needs to change, but also what needs to be done is that each of us need to focus on the one transaction, and that could be savings and investment, it could be having a will, it could be having insurance, it could be in home ownership, it could be a profitable business.

We have identified all these things that improve credit score.

We've identified six things and we're asking our community to focus on one transaction in 2021 that will close the wealth gap for your family.

And I just want to add that we have this wonderful conference on Juneteenth.

It's from 1-6pm, Eastern Time, on Juneteenth, where we have all these experts from our community.

You know, it's for us by us.

So we have Tiffany Haddish, Daymond John, Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche, Michelle Singletary.

I mean, I can go on and on.

Sharon Epperson.

I mean, we have these wonderful speakers that are going to talk to our community about what we need to do to achieve those one transactions.

And I just want to say one plug.

If everyone could go to oneunited.com/onetransaction.

We have limited space, so sign up.

It's free.

We're already at something like 17,000 attendees.

- Wow!

- So we really need people to hurry up and sign up before we have to close the conference.

- And it's virtual.

- And that's the nice part about it.

You know, one of the things that I think about, you know, as a pastor - I'm a pastor as well, and Nona can attest to this - that many times in our community, there is no life insurance.

So when somebody in the family dies, right, you know, we got to wait for people to send money from down south or bring their money to be able to... And so being able to execute the one transaction, whether it's home ownership or life insurance, right, or investment... Whatever it is, we have to be able to educate our community.

So, you know, I applaud the work that you're doing to really bring information and education to our community to help build that generational wealth.

You know, I read something, Teri, that there's about 19 Black-owned banks in America.

And it may be an old statistic, but OneUnited is the biggest of them all.

How did the bank come about?

What inspired you and your husband to do this, right, to leave corporate America and launch OneUnited Bank?

- Yeah, so we ended up buying four Black-owned banks, one in Boston, one here in Miami, which is where I am now, and two in L.A., all Black-owned, and then, combined them into one and changed our name to OneUnited.

And we also launched an online platform about 15 years ago.

So, not only are we the largest Black-owned bank, we are also the first and only Black-owned digital bank.

So, a lot of our customers actually open up an account with us online and bank with us completely online.

And our focus, like, you know, I worked at American Express, Bank of America.

My husband worked in investment banking and served financial institutions.

And we found our work very, very rewarding.

But we really wanted to bring our expertize back to our community and figure out how we could help our community build wealth, how we could educate our community, and how we could dispel the myths that our community had about wealth-building, and about why this wealth gap occurs, or has occurred.

So, for us, it is a life passion, as well as a job.

- Yeah, that is, I mean, just to be able to make that kind of impact and leave that kind of legacy, that is so amazing.

And, you know, when I met Nona a few years ago, she was just getting ready to launch this next phase of what God has called her to.

Nona, how did you end up at Facebook, and what exactly that you do... what exactly do you do there?

Because it's having a global impact, right?

You're impacting the whole world as a part of the Facebook brand.

So, can you share a little bit about your journey and how you ended up at Facebook?

- I will.

I will make a very long story short.

The answer is one word.

I ended up at Facebook because of God.

And when I say that, people think I'm being facetious.

But let me just tell you, prior to Facebook, I was in a job that I loved.

I was helping lead a statewide network of alternative schools for girls here in Florida.

I was actually working to scale the program outside of Florida for the first time in its 30-year history.

I was building its resource development arm.

The organization was, like, 90% reliant on public funding.

I was building up a private funding infrastructure, just loved what I was doing.

And then, I have a, you know, my personal story is I am a survivor of childhood physical and sexual abuse.

And so, I really saw, in the girls we were serving, me.

So, that really fueled me.

But I was about four years into that and thought I would do it for the rest of my career.

And I was in prayer one day, and the Lord said, "This assignment is over," which caught me very much so off guard, because that was not my plan.

So I prayed again a few days later, because I figured I heard incorrectly, but I heard again, "This assignment is over."

And so I asked God, I said, "Well, what do you want me to do next?"

And all He told me is to resign at the end of the fiscal year, which would have been June 30, 2017.

So, I had about two months to put my resignation letter together.

And so, that day came, and I met with my boss at 1pm.

I gave her my letter of resignation.

And of course, she was like, "Well, what are you going to do next?

"I have to be able to tell the board something, like, "you can't just say you're leaving."

And I told her, "I'll tell you soon," because that's all I could say!

I didn't know.

Well, we finished talking at 1:40, and I got in my car, I was driving home, and at 2:05, my cell phone rang, and it was a 650 area code.

It said "San Francisco, California".

I figured it was a telemarketer, so I wasn't going to answer.

And the Spirit told me to take the call.

So, I picked up the phone and I answered it and, I said hello.

And the woman on the other end said, "Hi, is this Nona Jones?"

And I said, yes.

And she said, "I'm calling from Facebook."

And I was like, "Facebook doesn't call people.

"Who is this?"

And she proceeded to tell me she was calling from Facebook, and she explained that the week before I resigned, Mark changed the entire mission of the company to focus on community-building.

And he, at the time, was an atheist... - Mark Zuckerberg?

- Mark Zuckerberg, yeah.

- Yeah, he was an atheist, but he had had some research done to try to understand what are all the different types of communities that exist in the world, this is going to be our mission.

And he was shocked to learn that the largest community that was actually the most meaningful to the people who were in it was the faith community.

And so he said, "Well, I don't know what to think about this."

He was like, you know, like, "Who's going to lead this for us?"

And it just so happened, God, that a friend of mine was in the meeting and he said, "You know, I think I know "who would be perfect for this, but I don't think we could get "her to leave her job because she loves what she does."

And he had no idea that God had already told me to resign.

And so, that's quite literally how I ended up on Facebook, and what I do from day to day is a dream, because we work with houses of worship and influencers all around the world to make sure that the platform is meeting the needs of people of faith.

But then, there's another team that I lead that focuses on communities in general and making sure that Facebook is a foundational resource for building thriving and healthy communities for people to make a difference in the world.

So I love what I get to do every day.

It truly is a gift from God.

- That is - when you talk about being led by the Spirit, I mean, you are the perfect example of what it means to just be obedient and trust.

Now, the time, of course, is running out.

I knew that both of you guys could have been in show all to yourself, but I wanted to paint a picture to the world of what it looks like to be a Black woman in America and successful.

Nona, you mentioned something that plagues our community so greatly.

You talked about childhood abuse, and how did you overcome that, and what strength, intestinal fortitude did you have to exhibit to be able to press through that?

And to arrive at the place that you are today?

- Two very quick observations I would make.

One is that I don't believe it was me.

I don't believe it was my intestinal fortitude.

I really believe that I was graced by God, because I have friends who experienced less than I did who are either in jail or dead.

And so, here I am having this amazing conversation with you all today by nothing but the grace of God.

I think the key, and this is what I encourage people whenever I speak in corporate or ministry settings, I encourage people to know that when you see someone acting out, don't say, "What's wrong with you?"

Ask, "What happened to you?"

That is an important question.

And not many people ask that of me.

But for the few who did, they made the difference.

And I think that question is healing.

And so, I do believe that we have to look beyond the behavior of a person and see their need, their need for love and affirmation, because that's really what set me on the path to freedom.

- That's amazing, because, you know, I was talking yesterday to some folks about the power of empathy.

Sympathy is feeling bad for someone.

But empathy is really being able to walk in their shoes and get an understanding of their journey, so that you can empathize and feel their pain and sense... Because people are not born bad, right?

Many times it's the experiences that they go through that cause them to develop their own personality traits.

Thank you for that.

I'm sure that it was inspirational to some other folks.

Teri, I want to ask you a question.

As we are getting closer to the end, you know, how do you ensure that that OneUnited stays a Black-owned bank 100 years from now?

To be able to address some of the inequities within our community?

Is there a plan for that?

And what is the vision of you and your husband?

- Yeah, there's definitely a plan, and that is the vision that it remains Black-owned, you know, we currently own it, but we're just holding it for the next generation.

And I think it is so important, Black ownership is so important, particularly in banking.

But I think in business in general, like, we are unapologetically Black, we focus on the wealth gap and the services that we provide are targeted to our community.

And so, it is important that we remain Black-owned and remain focused on our community.

And what that means sometimes is to sacrifice opportunities, in this building I'm in now, in Miami, has become incredibly valuable because they built a Wal-Mart across the street, and they built a housing, you know, down the street.

And this whole area has developed, and we've gotten a lot of offers, you know, for it, for the real estate.

But we're like, "Mm, nah.

"We're going to continue to own it, this this land is going "to remain Black-owned."

And so, sometimes we have to make those decisions to ensure that we own a piece of the pie.

- If I can just kind of chime in here, you know, one of the things that is so important is for, because our viewing audience is very diverse and they hear things like Black-owned, and why is it important, and isn't that reverse racism?

Can you got to speak to that a little bit about why it's important to educate the folks that are watching?

- Yeah.

So first of all, I always say, you don't have to be Black to paint Black.

- That's good.

- And that we have customers of all different ethnicities.

But it really is a matter of being what we call anti-racist.

That it's not enough to not be racist.

It's important to be anti-racist.

And, when you think of banking, there's a long history of racism in banking.

And, in fact, you mentioned, there's only 19 Black banks.

There's only 3-4 of us that are actually Black-owned.

And some other Black banks are there.

They're Black, but they're Black-led, as opposed to Black-owned.

So if you are banking, which most of your audience is, you are banking probably with a white-owned institution.

A lot of people don't even know that.

They don't know that people own banks.

I mean, you know, you have the big national banks that are publicly traded, but the community banks are largely owned by families, and they're white now.

And the difference is, you know, we circulate our dollars in our community.

Only 2% of national banks lending goes to Black people.

- Wow.

- 2%.

We make up 13% of the population, only 2% of their lending.

Whereas for Black banks, 70-80% of our lending goes to Black communities.

So, that's the difference.

And, by depositing your dollars, as I say to people, you deposit dollars with us, it's still your money.

And I'm not asking for a contribution.

You know, you deposit your dollars, but those deposited dollars allow us to lend.

And so, you know, I think that one of the things that we all need to really figure out is how we can help each other get through this systemic racism that exists in America, and get to the other side of it.

And that's by us and our allies being anti-racist.

- Well, listen, thank you so very much.

We could do it now and, I hope if I call you, you'll come back on again, to continue talking about the amazing work that you're doing.

You know, when we started Courageous Conversations, our goal was to change the narrative, to paint pictures for our viewing audience, to help them see that what they have seen on television and what comes through the media is not a true depiction of the African-American community.

And the two of you truly exemplify the heart of strong Black women who have persevered in the face of many challenges and have arrived at a place - and I know that you're reaching back and bringing people along with you.

I want to take time to thank you both for taking time to come and have a conversation with me here on Courageous Conversations.

There are many people in the Lehigh Valley doing courageous work to engage and enhance the lives of others.

And we would like to put them in the spotlight.

If you would like us to highlight the courageous work of someone in your community, let us know by going to... Make sure you stick around for Counter Culture, with one of my favorite people, Grover Silcox.

His show is coming up right after this program.

I'm Phillip Davis.

On behalf of everyone here at PBS39, thanks for watching.