The End of An Era, But Not the End of the Struggle Black Issues In Higher Education Transitions to DIVERSE
By Kendra Hamilton
For Frank Matthews, publisher and editor in chief of Black Issues In Higher Education, and Bill Cox, president and CEO, the journey from Black Issues to DIVERSE began more than 20 years ago — with an idealism informed by both men’s roots in the civil rights movement.
Matthews was active in the Fairfax, Va., chapter of the NAACP. So was Cox’s wife, Lee.
“What with his wife being from Alabama and my wife being from Alabama, we just hit it off,” recalls Cox about his business partner.
“We had some of the same interests,” adds Matthews. “We were both in the education field” — Matthews as a newly minted faculty member at George Mason University; Cox as a civilian educator with the military, running educational counseling services worldwide for the U.S. Air Force — “but we were also interested in entrepreneurship.”
The young entrepreneurs got off to a promising beginning — making a small profit off of a videotape sales.They discovered during that project that they had business “chemistry” and really enjoyed working together, so they decided to plow their profits into a bigger venture: a bid for a piece of the Fairfax County cable television franchise.
Matthews chuckles as he remembers their early optimism. As he explains it, Cox approached him with an opportunity to invest in Fairfax Telecommunications, one of the groups vying for the franchise. The owners of the company believed “that they would strengthen their proposal by having minority participation, but they were picking our brains to such a degree that we realized we needed to get organized — because there would be lots of business opportunities if this company were to get the franchise.
“Of course we didn’t get the franchise — we lost our money, the money from the Walter Williams debate,” Matthews adds. “My share was $1,500 — I’ll never forget it.”
