John’s Blog
Published in TIME: Why Growing the Economy From the Bottom Up Is America’s Best Bet
May 30, 2025TIME published my essay on where America’s next wave of growth can come from: the bottom third of the country. Give those Americans real financial access and opportunity and you can add meaningful growth to GDP every year while easing the pressure on the federal balance sheet. The GI Bill and
Published in TIME: We Need a Farm System for American Jobs
May 29, 2025America is brilliant at developing athletes. We scout early, coach constantly and build a pipeline from Little League to the majors. We have nothing close to that for the jobs that will decide our economic future. That was the argument of my essay in TIME. I called for a national K-12-to-career path
Recognized by the Los Angeles City Council
May 9, 2025Los Angeles is where I was born and where Operation HOPE was born, in the aftermath of the 1992 unrest. So it meant a great deal to be recognized by the Los Angeles City Council, with Councilwoman Heather Hutt leading the honor. The recognition came alongside news I was proud to share: up to $1.25 [
The Black Money Tree: Why So Many People Never Build Wealth
May 8, 2025I spent an hour on The Black Money Tree going through the basics most of us were never taught at home: credit and how to repair it, good debt versus bad debt, homeownership and business ownership. Most people don’t fail to build wealth because they aren’t smart. They fail because nobody
The Future Is Bold: Why Financial Literacy Must Evolve With the Times
April 30, 2025Let me be clear—this is bigger than a pair of green socks. From John Hope Bryant’s Unlocking Success newsletter.
Black Enterprise: Rent-to-Own as a Pathway to Homeownership
Black Enterprise wrote about the ideas I have been pushing to make renting a path toward ownership instead of a dead end. Black homeownership still trails the national rate by nearly 20 points. The whole experience around homeownership is tied to aspiration, economic growth and wealth creation. We s
Birmingham’s Financial Literacy State of the Union with Mayor Randall Woodfin
April 29, 2025Birmingham opened IMC Financial Freedom Project Week with a Financial Literacy State of the Union at the historic Carver Theatre, and I was glad to share the stage with Mayor Randall Woodfin and Dr. Sullivan. When a mayor makes financial literacy a citywide priority, it changes what families believe
John Hope Bryant Joins Bloomberg to Elevate Financial Literacy as a National Priority
April 25, 2025Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman, and CEO John Hope Bryant recently joined Bloomberg for a powerful conversation on why financial literacy is the defining civil rights issue of our time. In …
Forbes: Financial Literacy Is the New Civil Rights Movement
April 24, 2025Jabari Young, senior writer at Forbes, sat down with me for a 45-minute conversation during Financial Literacy Month. The headline Forbes chose says it plainly: financial literacy is the new civil rights movement. My grandparents’ generation fought for the right to sit at the lunch counter. Th
Teaching at West Point
April 22, 2025It was a true honor to be invited to the United States Military Academy at West Point. I joined Don Peebles, Tracy Maitland and Kneeland Youngblood in a class led by Frank Luntz to talk with cadets about leadership, business and building wealth. These young men and women are being trained to lead un