Los_angeles_035_2It is with great, great sadness that I share with some, and announce to others, that our friend in the "silver rights" movement,our community partner at HOPE, and my dear friend personally, Muhammad Nasserdeen (pictured second from right here, in a group photo with visiting civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young), founder of Recycling Black Dollars, passed late last week from heart failure.

Muhammad was a one of a kind human being, and I truly admired his humanity, his sincerity, his sense of giving, and his friendship — toward others. In 15 years, he never once called me for himself. Even my assistant Leslie Alessandro told me, when she first got to Los Angeles and was interested in photography, it was Muhammed who reached out to her and arranged her first job. Wanted nothing for it; just did it because, well that is the way he was built. A lifetime giver. I will miss Muhammad’s ready smile, his warm hug. I will miss, well, him.

Read the Los Angeles Times profile on his life, and work here. Let’s all make sure his legacy lives on, by being the change we want to see in the world.

Operation HOPE will soon dedicate our redecorated Baldwin Hills HOPE Banking Center conference room in his honor.

Onward with HOPE

John Hope Bryant

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