found: African American National Biography, accessed September 14, 2014, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Smiley, Tavis; radio/television personality, social historian/commentator, social reformer; born 13 September 1964 in Gulfport, Mississippi, United States; degree in law and public policy, Indiana University, Bloomington (1986); ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council (1991) and lost; host and executive producer of BET Tonight (1996); inducted, Vanity Fair hall of fame (1996); formed The Smiley Group (TSG) (1998); founded Tavis Smiley Foundation (TSF); founded the event production company Tavis Smiley Presents (TSP) (2001); made history by becoming the first African American to host his own signature talk show on National Public Radio (2002); Texas Southern University announced the development of the Tavis Smiley School of Communications and the Tavis Smiley Center for Professional Media Studies (2004); hosted Tavis Smiley show on Public Radio International (2006); joined Cornel West on radio talk show for PRI, Smiley and West (2010); emerged as one of the most pointed African American critics of the Barack Obama administration)
