I was glad to be back in Huntington, West Virginia. On August 27, Marshall University welcomed me to the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center as part of the Marshall Artist Series for an evening on Capitalism for All, in conversation with my friend President Brad D. Smith.
I told the audience where my story starts. When I was nine years old, a banker came to my classroom in Compton. I had never seen a banker in my neighborhood. He explained how a person could borrow money and build something with it, and that one visit gave me a picture of a life I had never seen up close. It is a big part of why Operation HOPE puts financial coaches in the communities that have never had one.
Brad has believed in this work early and often, and Marshall made the evening free to the public so anyone in the community could come. My thanks to the whole Marshall family, and to Matthew Young of Black By God for writing up the night.
Event: An Evening with John Hope Bryant, Marshall University, August 27, 2026. Coverage: Black By God, August 30, 2026.
