Danny Bakewell

Civil rights activist and entrepreneur Danny Joseph Bakewell, Sr. was born in 1946 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Also raised in New Orleans, he graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1965, and went on to attend the University of Arizona.

At the age of twenty-one, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was hired as a community organizer with the Neighborhood Adult Participation Project. During this time, he also worked as the director of new careers at the University of California, Los Angeles before becoming involved with the Black Congress. In the early 1970s, Bakewell was named president and chief executive officer of the Brotherhood Crusade, a Los Angeles-based civil rights and community development organization, where he served until 2006. During his long tenure, he raised over $60 million for community initiatives. He also co-founded the National Black United Fund in 1974.

In 1982, Bakewell became chairman and chief executive officer of The Bakewell Company, one of the largest African American-owned development companies in the United States. In 1986, Bakewell was named president of the Cranston Securities Company, a national investment banking firm. Then, in 2004, he purchased the Los Angeles Sentinel, the oldest and largest African American newspaper on the West Coast. Soon after, in 2007, Bakewell purchased the New Orleans radio station WBOK and in 2009, he was elected chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

EVENT
Unity and Justice March
When: February 21st 10am
Where: Gathering at LAPD Southwest Division on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Denker Ave and ends at Leimert Park on Crenshaw Blvd.