Twenty-three years ago, I published my first book with Beacon Press — Dr. King’s publisher.
That was not an accident.
Dr. King began a Poor People’s Campaign that was cut short before he could finish the economic chapter of the Civil Rights Movement.
I believed then — and I believe now — that civil rights without economic rights is incomplete.
So I started where real change starts.
At the kitchen table.
Teaching families how to open checking accounts.
Teaching parents how to talk to their kids about money.
Teaching saving.
Teaching dignity.
I didn’t start with Wall Street.
I started with families.
Then I realized something:
The problem wasn’t just families.
The system itself was excluding millions.
So I wrote How the Poor Can Save Capitalism.
Then I wrote The Memo — because people needed rules for economic independence.
Then Up From Nothing — because America had lost its storyline.
Then Financial Literacy for All — because this work had to scale.
And now:
This is not a pivot.
It’s a culmination.
The mission hasn’t changed.
The scale has.
John Hope Bryant — founder of Bryant Group Ventures, Operation HOPE, Inc, publisher of the Bryant Journal and author of his coming book Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America.
