Kinzie/King Breakfast to Feature Chair of Black Chamber of Commerce
African-American Business Leader Frank Bass is Speaker for Annual Lincoln College Event

 

[January 08, 2019] 

Frank Bass, the Chair of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Illinois will be the featured speaker for the 11th annual Joyce Kinzie/Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast at Lincoln College, set for Monday, Jan. 21. Tickets are now available for the event, which will be held in the Davidson-Sheffer Gymnasium on the Lincoln College campus. The doors will open at 7:00 a.m. with the program beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The annual event raises funds exclusively for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Minority Student Scholarship. It was co-founded in 2009 by Rev. Glenn Shelton and Lincoln businesswoman Joyce Kinzie, who passed away in 2010. The scholarship assists a Logan County minority student while attending Lincoln College. Since Ms. Kinzie’s death, the annual breakfast has continued at Lincoln College, honoring her accomplishments and wishes to provide academic assistance to students.

The event features a buffet breakfast and remarks by this year’s MLK Scholarship recipients, Jessica Jackson and Aurora Board, as well as keynote speaker Frank Bass.

Bass is a member of a family that has been active in Chicago African-American businesses since the mid-1960s. The family is known for its business acumen, owning an array of businesses including real estate, grocery stores, dry cleaners and laundromats, funeral homes, and more. His uncle, Rev. James Bass, once had one of the largest churches on the west side of Chicago at 700 S. Pulaski Road and was instrumental in bringing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the west side of Chicago.

In keeping with the Bass family legacy, Frank Bass is a small business owner based in Chicago. He owns a political consulting/government affairs firm and has been involved in politics and government in Illinois and Georgia since 1984, and has over 20 years of campaign and public policy experience at the local, county, state, and federal levels. Bass is also the Chairman of Strategic Human Services, a not-for-profit that produces the North Lawndale Newspaper in Chicago and provides services such as job training for Veterans and mentoring to at-risk youth.

Tickets are $10; seating is limited so reservations are recommended. Call Jen McMillin at Lincoln College (217-735-7210 or [e-mail]) to reserve tickets to pick up at the door. Tickets for the event are also available at the Lincoln Heritage Museum (1115 Nicholson Rd, Lincoln, IL 62656), or from committee member Rev. Glenn Shelton. Tickets will be sold at the door if seating is still available.

[Mark Gordon
Public Relations and Media Manager
Lincoln College]