---Go to www.UnityFirst.com for----
1) African Americans needing organ transplants increases by 225 Percent, new campaign responds to crisis
2) Census highlights Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: May 2003

---The Black Enterprise Business Report---
BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine, the nation's award-winning business news publication for African Americans, has collaborated with United Stations Radio Networks, an independent leader in network radio programming, to create The Black Enterprise Business Report, a radio series providing business news and segments on personal finance, career development, and entrepreneurship. Launched on April 14, 2003, the three daily reports are produced for broadcast during morning-drive, midday, and afternoon-drive times, Monday through Friday. The Black Enterprise Business Report is being offered to all stations but is primarily targeted at urban and urban adult contemporary formats. United Stations Radio Networks Inc. is the nation's largest independently owned and operated radio network, offering stations and advertisers a variety of programming for urban radio. For more information about The Black Enterprise Business Report, send email to: dickd@blackenterprise.com.

---Washington, D.C.: A Vision of Justice: Beyond 9-11---
A historic follow-up to the United Nations' World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance will be held May 1-4 at George Washington University, Marvin Center in Washington, D.C. Hundreds are expected to attend "Movement Beyond Borders, After Durban: U.S. Communities Building a Racial Justice and Human Rights Vision," which boasts a coalition of indigenous peoples from across the United States united to fight racism and related intolerance. Movement Beyond Borders seeks to analyze the implications of US domestic and foreign policy for the racial justice movement while providing opportunities for alliance building and solidarity at the local, national and international levels. Immigrant and refugee communities, people of African descent, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities, low income and working people, and their allies from all over the United States are expected to participate. Workshops, including a youth summit, will probe how racism, xenophobia and intolerance pervades health, education, religion and environmental issues, particularly affecting women, youth, gays and communities of color. "Despite important advances in the fight against racism, the dream of a world free of racial hatred and bias remains only half fulfilled," said Shweta Parmar, organizer of the conference. "Instead of justice and equality, we see a world filled with not only the erosion of civil rights but also increased fear or hatred of people and traditions that are unfamiliar."

---Detroit: NAACP's 48th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner---
The Detroit Branch NAACP has announced that the world-renowned political scientist and historian Manning Marable, PhD will be the keynote speaker for its 48th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner at 6 p.m., Sunday, April 27th at Cobo Hall. Marable is a professor of history and political science at Columbia University. He is also the university's director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies. "There is no one better than Manning Marable to capture the spirit of our dinner's theme -- The Souls of Black Folk 100 Years Later," said Reverend Wendell Anthony, NAACP Detroit Branch President. Marable's remarks come in a time where the highest court in the land is once again debating the question of civil rights with affirmative action. The irony of the affirmative action debate is that 100 years from the time when W.E.B. DuBois first identified race relations as the major issue of the 20th century, it has already become the major problem of the early 21st century as well. The issue is defined by DuBois' most famous quote, "The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line -- the relations of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia, Africa, in America and the islands of the sea." The Detroit Branch NAACP also released highlights of the 2nd Annual Freedom Weekend held April 24 - 27th at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. Freedom Weekend includes a national town hall meeting, introduction of a new African-American Think Tank, a hip-hop summit, a rhythm and blues concert, a comedy awards night, and comprehensive workshops on economics, business and health.

---No Digital Divide Among College-Bound White, Black Students---
A national study released by Art & Science Group proves the so-called digital divide -- the disparity in Internet access by income and race -- has disappeared among college-bound high school seniors. In all major measures of technology equality -- access to and ownership of hardware, Internet access, and frequency of Internet use -- there are no differences between Caucasian and African-American students planning to enroll in 4-year colleges. These findings are being released in studentPOLLTM, a periodic, online research report that helps colleges and universities understand the attitudes and habits of college-bound students. Results from the national survey indicate that access to and use of the Internet is nearly universal among college-bound students planning to attend four-year colleges. For example, 94 percent of blacks and 97 percent of whites have access to a computer at home. An equal proportion of whites and blacks own their own computer at home (52 and 50 percent respectively). The findings also show that black students tend to use the Internet more frequently than their white counterparts. Nineteen percent of black students reported that they used the Internet 11 or more hours per week compared to 14 percent of white students.

---Chicago: Conference to examine race and employment in the Chicago area---When similarly qualified Black and White applicants vie for entry-level managerial jobs in retail companies in Chicago's suburbs, white applicants have a 21 percent higher chance of being contacted for an interview, according to the findings in a study titled "Racial Preference and Suburban Employment Opportunities: A Report on 'Matched-Pair' Tests of Chicago-Area Retailers." In other words, when the resumes of qualified black and white job applicants were sent to employers who advertised positions, employers contacted nearly one-third of the white applicants for interviews but only about one-fourth of the black applicants. Those and other significant findings concerning race and jobs will be the center of attention at a conference titled "Race and Employment in the Chicago Area." The conference will be co-hosted by The Chicago Urban League and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago on Wednesday, April 23 at the Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan Ave. In a study jointly authored by the League and the Legal Assistance Foundation, titled "Racial Preference and Suburban Employment Opportunities," rare insight is provided into what employers actually do and say. In an extended field experiment, matched pairs of female black and white job seekers had the appropriate qualifications and experience for the positions they sought. Race and not skills, education or geography was isolated as the salient difference between black and white job seekers. When matched pairs of black and white women applied for jobs in person, whites received job offers 81 percent of the time, while blacks received offers 70 percent of the time, giving whites a 16 percent higher chance of getting a job offer. The Chicago Urban League will also release "The Color of Opportunity: Race, Place, Policy and Labor Market Inequality in the Chicago Metropolitan Area," a study analyzing the significant extent to which racial inequality in the Chicago-area labor market reflects entrenched segregation, which allocates housing, education/skills development, and job proximity along racial lines.

---Avlon Industries releases new 'multicultural perm' and CD featuring hair styles ---Avlon Industries, has re-introduced its FERM Conditioning Curl & Body System, including the new Ferm Controlled Reshaping Lotion that allows the system to produce beautiful hairstyles on virtually every type of hair and client, ranging from African American to Caucasian to Hispanic. "We were interested in taking a good product like our Ferm system and making it even better so it would perform perfectly on women of all races," stated Ali N. Syed, President and Master Chemist. "Our chemists' first objective was to develop a more technically advanced formula that would be perfect for every client from every ethnic background who wants more full body, curls or wavy styles. With the new improved Ferm system, we are now able to give all women with every kind of hair texture, the hairstyles they want to have." For more information or to learn more about the CD of hair styles, send email to: Nalcopr@aol.com

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