On January 15th in Washington, a congressional luncheon was held as part of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council’s (MMTC) 5th Annual Broadband and Social Justice Summit.
This year’s Summit was entitled, Bridging the Gap: Infrastructure, Education, & Equity in the Digital Economy and tackled the complex issues stemming from the digital divide including media ownership and the economic opportunities created by tech.
MMTC President David Honig called the digital divide, “the greatest threat to first class citizenship since segregation.” He added that the divide, “represents the very real possibility that the vast opportunities of broadband won’t be available to everybody.
The three basic focuses of the conference were:
1. How policies that advance minority entrepreneurship can help stimulate economic opportunity and generate wealth,
2. How universal broadband adoption can create jobs and enable the creation of diverse content, and,
3. Special digital entrepreneurs’ boot camp
The congressional luncheon was attended by former Reps. Ed Towns and Cliff Stearns — both played an integral part in tech policy during their collective 54 years in Congress.
“What would Martin Luther King talk about today? He would talk about equal opportunity for a first class digital citizenship,” said former Rep. Stearns. “There are four and a half million American children who do not have access at home to the internet – depending on the school they go to they may not have high speed internet,” Stearns added.
Tennessee State Rep. Joe Armstrong who, as the owner of WJBE Radio station in Knoxville, Tenn., is one of few African Americans in the U.S. to own a radio station. Armstrong addressed a group of about 250 tech experts and entrepreneurs at the congressional lunch. He spoke on the importance of media ownership as a means of power in the community.
“It wasn’t until I got into broadcasting that my eyes were opened up to the true needs of our community and how important is that we have our own radio station — and give an opportunity to our young people,” Armstrong told the crowd.
Other speakers and participants who participated in the two day annual summit included, Ralph Everett, former President and CEO of the Joint Center, David Johns, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence, journalist Jeff Johnson, National Urban League President Marc Morial, Roland Martin, Navarrow Wright, President of #closethedivide, Maria Teresa Kumar of Voto Latino and several current members of the Federal Communications Commission included Chairman Tom Wheeler.