ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Black Faces in White Places has truly been a team effort. This five-year project has embodied the core principles of Strategy 4: Build Diverse and Solid Relationships and Strategy 6: Find Strength in Numbers by involving the coordinated and dedicated efforts of many different people. Without their assistance, support, and guidance this book would never have been possible. First and foremost, we commend the outstanding work of Philana Patterson, a friend and talented journalist who brilliantly helped transform our prose into words and concepts that will hopefully inspire the Black faces in white places who read this book.

Our public relations and strategic efforts have been capably led by April Peters, senior public relations and business affairs manager for Randal, as she has done anything and everything necessary to shape this project in a way that will resonate with its intended audience. Sakina Spruell-Cole from Cole Media, Renau Daniels, and Renee Warren from Noelle-Elaine Media have been instrumental in orchestrating the book’s national tour. Sakina also provided valuable input to the book’s first incarnation, which significantly shaped this final published work. We would also like to recognize our colleagues at BCT Partners, especially Darlene Harris, Lawrence Hibbert, and Vasya Dostoinov, for their ongoing administrative, editorial, and moral support.

We are grateful to our literary team, including David Vigliano from Vigliano and Associates, and Adam Korn, who represented us; Regina Brooks from Serendipity Literary Agency, who represented Philana; and the entire team at AMACOM books, including Ellen Kadin, James Bessent, William Helms, Alice Northover, Irene Majuk, and Lauren Johnson, all of whom signed-on to bring this book to the market when several agents and dozens of publishers rejected it. Thank you also to our graphics and website design team, which included our former creative director at BCT Partners, Rodney Frederickson; our interns, Quaison Carter, from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Robert Dambreville, from Christ the King High School; and Frankie Gonzalez and Rob Monroe at 3rd Edge Communications, who helped design the iconic “10 Strategies” diagram.

We are eternally thankful to the dozens of prominent African Americans who agreed to interviews for this project, including the following: Roland Martin, Hill Harper, Jeff Johnson, Cory Booker, Benjamin Jealous, Angela Glover-Blackwell, Kevin Powell, Don Thompson, Deborah Elam, Gabriella Morris, Dudley Benoit, Anthony Jerome Smalls, Gwen Kelly, Lawrence Jackson, Majora Carter, Dr. Cheryl Dorsey, Rey Ramsey, David Steward, Zackarie Lemelle, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Marnie McKoy, Darryl Cobb, Dr. Treena Arinzeh, Alonzo Adams, Wayne Winborne, and Ralph Smith.

Nikki Hopewell was invaluable in helping conduct, transcribe, and edit the hours of interviews conducted for this book. Brittany Alston, a Rutgers University student, Clifford Joseph, a Rowan University student, and Vic Carter from Lee-Com Media Services, provided editorial and research assistance at various points in the development of this book. Roland Martin was gracious in agreeing to furnish a superb foreword.

We owe a great debt to our wives, Zahara Wadud-Pinkett and Valerie Mason-Robinson, who not only encouraged us but also carried the extra weight of family life when we were sequestered away researching and writing this book during evenings and even entire weekends. Without their love and support, it would have been impossible to find the time and space needed to bring this project to fruition.

We would like to thank our parents, the late Leslie and Eleanor Pinkett and the late Ronald and Doreen Robinson, for the foundational lessons that they gave us when we were growing up. Their unconditional love and support has made us the men we are today and the “game changers” we endeavor to be tomorrow. And last, but certainly not least, we thank our entire families, friends, and above all, God, with whom all things are possible.

Randal Pinkett, www.randalpinkett.com
Jeffrey Robinson, www.jeffreyrobinsonphd.com
Black Faces in White Places website, www.redefinethegame.com