---Happy New Year---
UnityFirst.com wishes you and yours a prosperous New Year. Remember that January 1 is not just a celebratory time of ringing in the New Year…but also a reflective time of acknowledgement that just 140 years ago, on January 1, 1863, many slaves were just beginning their long journey to freedom, and with the eventual passage of the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, even more slaves embarked on that path. Make 2003 a great one by taking note of your freedom to choose success, despite the obstacles, and your ability to do the right thing in working together and respecting people, when these changing time get even more challenging.

---ABC News "Nightline" and PBS's "P.O.V." to produce a Town Meeting on race in America and preview the documentary "Two Towns of Jasper (Check local listings)---ABC News "Nightline" and PBS's P.O.V. announced a partnership to broadcast a series of programs focusing on race in America. A new PBS documentary by filmmakers Whitney Dow and Marco Williams on the 1998 murder of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas, is the focus of the programming initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The program include a live town hall meeting anchored by Ted Koppel from Jasper, and broadcast by ABC and PBS. When James Byrd, Jr. was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged to his death by three white men, the town of Jasper was forever altered. The murder shocked the nation, and news outlets around the country reported on the violent hate crime. Now, ABC News "Nightline" and the PBS program P.O.V./American Documentary are returning to Jasper together to examine the crime, its antecedents and aftermath with programs airing on PBS and ABC. "If ever the differing perceptions of an event by members of the black and white communities in one town underscored the continuing racial divide that exists in this country, it is the murder of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas," said Ted Koppel.
*January 21 (Tuesday) (11:35 pm. E.T.): ABC News "Nightline" will preview TWO TOWNS OF JASPER on the ABC Television Network. The broadcast will feature a conversation with filmmakers Dow and Williams, and lengthy excerpts of the documentary, a study of Jasper in the aftermath of the Byrd murder.
*January 22 (Wednesday) (9:00 p.m. ET on PBS, check local listings) P.O.V. will broadcast the documentary TWO TOWNS OF JASPER. In TWO TOWNS OF JASPER, two film crews, one black and one white, set out to document the aftermath of the murder by following the subsequent trials of the local men charged with the crime. The white crew covered the trials as it was seen by whites, the black crew through the eyes of African-Americans.
*January 23 (Thursday) (PBS (9 pm. E/T.) Ted Koppel will anchor AMERICA IN BLACK AND WHITE: JASPER, TEXAS, a live town meeting on race in America from Jasper, Texas. The 90-minute town meeting will be broadcast live and in its entirety on PBS at 9:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). ABC News "Nightline" will broadcast one hour of the town meeting beginning at 11:35 p.m. ET on the ABC Television Network. The town hall meeting will be held with the citizens of Jasper, many of whom were interviewed for the documentary.

---On PBS: Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin: airs on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.---The compelling new film "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" chronicles Rustin's complex life story. Long before Martin Luther King, Jr. became a national figure, Bayard Rustin routinely put his body -and his life - on the line as a crusader for racial justice. Rustin's commitment to pacifism and his visionary advocacy of Gandhian nonviolence made him a pioneer in the 1940s, and captured King's imagination in the 1950s. In 1963, with more than 20 years of organizing experience behind him, Rustin brought his unique skills to the crowning glory of his civil rights career: his work organizing the historic March on Washington, the biggest protest America had ever witnessed. Rustin was openly gay during the fiercely homophobic era of the 40s and 50s; as a result, he was frequently shunned by the very civil rights movement he helped create. In 1963, Rustin was tapped by A. Philip Randolph to organize the historic March on Washington. Although Rustin remained a controversial figure, movement leaders agreed that he was "the only man who could have pulled off that March," as former civil rights activist Eleanor Holmes Norton - now a U.S. Congresswoman - notes in the film. The film contains rare archival footage, including impassioned debates between Rustin and Malcolm X as well as Rustin and Stokely Carmichael. Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin premieres on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 20, 10 p.m. EST (check local listings) on PBS. The program is also an official Documentary Competition selection of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, January 16-26. For more information, send email to: povpublicity@pov.org.

---Call for speakers---
UnityFirst.com and African American Newswire invites speakers (keynote or panel), businesses owners, entrepreneurs, motivational speakers, professionals in various fields, and others with key presentations, to participate in UnityFirst's Speaker's Bureau. This service will connect speakers with potential opportunities for addressing a wide range of groups. Send in the basics: your name, address, phone, fax, email, web, top three topics that you speak on, and top three attributes (credentials), Fee range, travel expectations, and electronic photo, book jacket, and 400 word (maximum) press release/bio. For more information, please call 413-734-6444 or send email to jfondon@unityfirst.com.

---Call for action on African AIDS crisis---
The Global AIDS Alliance said it hoped incoming Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), would help make US policy on global AIDS one that truly takes into account the magnitude of the crisis. "With clear and strong leadership from Dr. Frist, the US could begin to provide the kind of support to programs to fight AIDS in Africa and other regions desperately need," stated Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "Whether Senator Frist's selection really indicates an openness to compassionate approaches to Africa will be tested very soon, when we see whether the Senate prioritizes the global AIDS issue in its budgetary decisions."Together with Senator Kerry (D-MA), Senator Frist was the author of the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria Act of 2002. The bill would have provided a roadmap for significantly increased U.S. appropriations as well as action to relieve debts of countries struggling with the epidemic.

---D.L. Hughley to host Turner Broadcasting's 2003 TRUMPET AWARDS---
Comedian D.L. Hughley will host Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.'s 2003 TRUMPET AWARDS ceremony, to be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta Monday, Jan. 6, at 6 p.m. Also announced today were performers and presenters for the ceremony, which honors African-American achievements in fields as diverse as law, politics and entertainment. Turner Broadcasting flagship entertainment network TBS Superstation will present coverage of the event Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. (ET)/8:30 p.m. (PT). Pop star Chaka Khan, celebrating 30 years in show business, will perform, as will jazz artist Al Jarreau and Trumpet Award recipients Destiny's Child. Gospel performers Donny McClurkin and Mary Mary will sing a special song with a local Atlanta youth choir.

---Pepsi-Cola names Spike DDB Multicultural advertising agency of record---
Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA) named Spike DDB its multicultural advertising agency of record. Spike DDB is a minority-owned, full-service advertising agency founded by world-renowned film director Spike Lee and DDB Worldwide. The agency's first commercial work for PCNA will be a TV ad starring music and film sensation Beyonce Knowles. The new TV ad is scheduled to air sometime in early 2003. BBDO New York, Pepsi's longtime agency of record, continues to handle general market advertising, while Dieste Harmel & Partners, based in Dallas, is responsible for Pepsi's Latino advertising.

---Prudential Financial resolves race-based underwriting claims---
Asserting that race-based underwriting should never have occurred in the life insurance industry, Prudential Financial announced it will equalize the 201 remaining life policies it uncovered that were affected by race-based underwriting decades ago, and donated $500,000 each to the United Negro College Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "The fact that life insurance was ever priced based on a person's race was unacceptable not only by today's standards but by any standard of fairness," said Prudential Financial Chairman and CEO Arthur F. Ryan. Prudential ended the practice of using race-based underwriting in 1950 and substantially eliminated the inequities in its life policies in ensuing years. A recent exhaustive search of company records identified 201 policies that had not been corrected. These policyholders will receive funds with interest or an increase in coverage, as appropriate. Prudential also plans to run advertisements in African-American and minority publications to locate any other individuals who might have been affected but were not identified through company records. The ads will include a toll-free number (1-800-778-3282).

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