In Memoriam of Dr. C. Diane Howell

Dr. C. Diane Howell-We Miss You!


Condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Howell



Dear Friends,

It is with a heavy and astonished heart that I send you this sad news. Please forgive any oversight or error, as I am forwarding this to you in a state of unbelief and pain.

Dr. C. Diane HowellDr. C. Diane Howell will be dearly missed. Having just read the email you see below about 45 minutes ago, I know I am not saying all that should be said about Dr. Howell. I feel she has gone too soon. This is a shocking reminder to us that we must engage those we love and respect on a constant and on-going basis and stop looking for the perfect moment or next time. The time is always now!

I had such admiration and respect of Dr. C. Diane Howell. She was a trailblazer! She was concerned about people and community. Dr. Howell's work with the Black Business Listing and the Black Expo, "the biggest minority event of its kind in the Bay Area" as I told her couple of years ago, have benefited the Bay Area tremendously.

I shared with Dr. Howell my concerns that there were not enough projects like hers in the Bay Area. As I talked about media and the often portrayal of Blacks and other minorites in a negative light, I expressed to her how important her work was as she gathered people of all races to promote the positive activities in the Black community.

When people only see the violent crimes and the negative news over the airwaves without the balance of the people promoted in Black Business Listings and the Black Expo, they have a short-sighted and distorted perspective of Black and minority communities. Dr. Howell's work was a light piercing through the darkness of ignorance that benefited the Bay Area economically, socially and spiritually.

Dr. Jerry Kang of UCLA Law School talks about what happens when television news focuses on mostly negative stories about minorities in "Trojan Horses of Race."

Hopefully, Dr. Howell's work will continue because it is much needed. Hopefully, the community will rally around her mother Doris Howell, who comes from Chicago every year to help with the expo, and the staff of BBL and Black Expo. Businesses, politicians, and the community all should rise up and give Dr. Howell's projects the support they did in the past and increase the support. Dr. Howell expressed her work as "God's work." Let's keep her work alive as a tribute to her life's work---"The Dr. C. Diane Howell Black Expo" must go on and bless the lives of others.



I feel this may all be too fresh for me to comment, but I recall the way, Dr. Howell immediately honored fellow journalist Chauncey Bailey as she wrote a story in honor of him within hours of his passing that appeared in the Oakland Post and across the nation. Click on this link to see her article.

I miss Dr. Howell so much already... for all the times I didn't pick up the phone to say hello or slow her down enough for a cup of coffee or lunch. I missed the Expo this year as I was working the Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament. I whimsically thought oh, I'll make it next July, not knowing that it would not be the same and not thinking of the reality that "tomorrow is not even promised to me."

I miss Dr. Howell's beauty. I miss her strength. I miss her straight forwardness. I miss her big smile. I miss her laughter. I miss her crying at the drop of a hat. I miss her big vision. I miss the fact that she didn't have more time to fulfill more of her vision. I miss the way she loved and cared for her mother. I miss the respect I saw her give her staff. I miss the fact that I did not spend more time around her. I miss her!

All I know is the information you see below sent to me by Lynnette White via email. (Mrs. White and artist husband Eugene White, are among the community giants that bring so much to our culture. They are always doing good work here at home and around the nation as they keep an artistic aspect of Black culture alive.)

I saw this report The Black Hour News: Dr. C. Diane Howell Dies and that's it.

All I can say is that this is one of the moments that one must trust God in His timing in allowing Dr. Howell to be "called home."

During this Holiday season let's enjoy the moments with our family and friends and uphold those who may be experiencing a hard time. Surely, this is a time the rain and the sunshine are visiting our day. May we seize this and every day with the purpose and passion of Dr. C. Diane Howell and others like her. Let's get behind those of passion and purpose that are still with us in tribute to Dr. C. Diane Howell and like spirits ( People like President-Elect Barack Obama and people who are the change they want to see.) Dr. Howell, January 20, 2009 you'll witness the change you helped make happen from the vantage point of "such a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1)."

Missing my sister,

Jackie
December 26, 2008



Black Expo 2004 Dr. C. Diane Howell presented award to Jackie Wright of UPN Bay Area (former public affairs manager).

Photo Courtesy: Black Expo Corporate Photographer, Auintard Henderson:
Photographers@Large/510 938-8141