Mark Fisher is the former BLM Rhode Island Chapter Co-Founder, & now, he is the Founder and executive director of BLM Inc, which is “…A pro-entrepreneurship education and financial empowerment non-profit company for African Americans and their communities”, based in Maryland. He is also an author, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and a former community organizer. He’s also the founding partner of “The Black Block” in which his team has bought an entire business block in downtown Pawtucket and dedicated it to supporting and elevating black-owned businesses in Rhode Island. This project also includes extremely affordable housing for people who are going through challenging times.
Mark was born and raised in a tough neighborhood, and like so many growing up in poverty, he had begun to travel a familiar road that doesn’t end well for so many. While this was just one of many challenges he overcame, though so many of the kids he grew up with didn’t make it past their obstacles, Mark did. He started out in life going quickly down a felonious wrong path as a wayward youth, heading toward a life of criminality, but he turned his life around with the help of family and his faith in the Lord. (As the son of a pastor perhaps it was fate that he graduated from Bible college in his mid 30’s, with a double major bachelor’s degree and making the Dean’s List!) And so now, he is dedicated to helping others realize no matter where they are in their journey, they can turn their lives around too.
While many may think that Mark, by way of being of “BLM”, might be somehow partisan – he really isn’t. He is an original and analytical thinker with a mind of his own, who wants what is best for everyone in America at large, and for their communities locally. His message is one of unity, of coming together to help unify a fractured country. In fact, Mark participates in weekly prayer session of the J6 “Political” prisoners, seeing them as equally oppressed and victimized as any marginalized group. As he once said in an interview about the J6 prisoners: “”They’re lambs led to slaughter, to be sacrificed as an example for all who might want to dissent in the future,” and “This is what the government does to those who express independent thought and want to stand up for what they believe.”
One of Mark’s greatest and most people-empowering projects was the creation of the first-ever African-American Library in New England called “The African American Innovation Center” to help youths not just to believe in their dreams, but also, to acquire the work skills to achieve them. He’s most proud of this particular initiative, as it teaches coding to people from the inner-city, who get paid $300 a month to learn, and then graduate from the program with the job skills to be able to earn a $50,000 annual salary. Mark has been featured recently in a number of different media outlets and podcasts, as well as having made numerous appearances on MSM outlets like NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, as well being interviewed by The Epoch Times and profiled by the Boston Globe – everyone likes to hear his message of hope and empowerment, as well as how the country needs to vote in order for the African-American community to continue to move forward. His answers might surprise some, which is why Mark is such an important keynote speaker for this new era.
