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February 22, 2021309 | ‘Stay the Course’: Kathleen Bertrand recalls hospitality career focused on growth through diversity
Kathleen Bertrand believes Atlanta is a city where dreams can come true. A jazz recording artist, she served at the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau for more than 30 years, finding new ways to promote to the world the best things about the city she calls a “melting pot” of races and cultures. In Episode 309 of Lodging Leaders podcast Bertrand gets vocal and tells her story of rising through the ranks as one of the few Black women in leadership in the tourism industry. This session is part of Long Live Lodging’s special report commemorating Black History Month and the hospitality industry’s impact on the Civil Rights Movement.
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February 15, 2021307 | ‘A National Story’: Black travel in America evolved with the Civil Rights Movement
Noelle Trent is director of interpretation, collections and education at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The museum is in the historic Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The venue is hosting the Smithsonian Institution’s The Negro Motorist Green Book exhibition, which tells the history of Black travel in mid-20th-century America. In this report, Long Live Lodging explores how African Americans travelers learned to safely navigate the nation’s highways and byways during the age of segregation. We also feature the Lorraine Motel and its enduring significance to racial equality in America.
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February 08, 2021305 | ‘Traveling on Hospitality’: Andrew Young remembers life on the road toward civil rights
Andrew J. Young Jr. became a civil rights activist 65 years ago, starting as a Baptist minister in Georgia. For more than a decade he traveled alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in pursuit of racial equality in America. Young, 88, has a storied career of public service. He served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a U.S. congressman and mayor of Atlanta. In this special report, Young shares his remembrances of hoteliers and private homeowners showing hospitality to civil rights workers in mid-century America. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s special project commemorating Black History Month and how the hospitality industry impacted the Civil Rights Movement.
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February 03, 2021304 | ‘This is Huge’: Choice Hotels makes history with Black-owned multi-unit deal
As a former analyst with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fred Washington knows commercial real estate development, if done with the community in mind, can change residents’ quality of life. Washington wants to do the same thing with the six hotels he’s building in Florida. A new hotel investor, Washington recently made history when he signed Choice Hotels International’s first minority-led multi-unit franchise development deal. This report kicks off Long Live Lodging’s special series commemorating Black History Month when we explore the impact the hospitality industry has had on the Civil Rights Movement. This report also is part of our ongoing coverage of the state of diversity, inclusion and equality in hospitality leadership.