Historical Marker honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In April 2017, a historical marker, also inspired by Bryant, working alongside friend and HOPE board member Bryan Jordan, CEO of First Horizon Bank in TN, to honor the final flight of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis on April 3, 1968, was installed at the Memphis International Airport 49 years to the day that Eastern Flight 381 arrived from Atlanta.
Renaming of the Treasury Annex Building to the Freedman’s Bank Building
On December 9, 2015, Bryant became the only private American citizen to inspire the renaming of a building on the White House campus in the nation’s history, when the U.S. Treasury Annex Building was renamed the Freedman’s Bank Building, in honor of former slaves who put their savings into the Freedman’s Bank after the American Civil War.
First-Ever Presidential Meeting on Financial Literacy in America
April 25, 2007, John Hope Bryant joins U.S. President George W. Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulson, Education Secretary Spellings, HUD Secretary Jackson, U.S. Treasurer Cabral and six financial literacy experts in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a first-ever Presidential meeting on financial literacy in America. The President called the meeting in response to a leadership request around financial literacy from Bryant and Operation HOPE
Received Oprah’s Use Your Life Award
On May 7, 2003, John Hope Bryant was selected by Oprah Winfrey and the Oprah’s Angel Foundation to receive the Use Your Life Award, along with a $100,000 gift, donated to the work of Operation HOPE in Chicago, on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Operation HOPE
On May 4, 1992, immediately following the worst urban riot and civil unrest in U.S. history, the Rodney King Riots of April 29, 1992, and inspired by his pastor and spiritual father the Reverend Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray, John Hope Bryant founded Operation HOPE as America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization.