Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 12-18-18

Obama And MLK News
Barack And Michelle Obama Are ‘Becoming’ A Billion-Dollar Brand
The Obamas are becomng a billion dollar power couple.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Childhood Home Sold To National Park Service
Martin Luther King, Jr. and his childhood home.
Barack Obama is re- portedly on his way to be- coming the first ex-president billionaire. Matter fact, as the cash keeps rolling in for Barack and Michelle Obama, it may not be long before they become a billion- dollar brand.
The latest example of this comes with the former first lady’s new memoir, “Becom- ing,” which was released last week, and was part of a $65 million book advance for the Obamas
Per New York Post:
In addition to a $65 mil- lion book advance and an es- timated $50 million deal with Netflix, both of which she shares with husband
Barack Obama, the former first lady is poised to rake in millions from appearances on her 10-city U. S. tour and sales of merchandise con- nected to her autobiography.
And like her husband, Michelle Obama is cur- rently in demand as a speaker for corporations and nonprofits, commanding $225,000 per appearance, The Post has learned.
And when it comes to the cash they are raking in for public speaking...
Barack Obama currently rakes in $400,000 per speech. The fees come on top of his $207,800 annual pres- idential pension, which he began receiving as soon as he
left office.
Mrs. Obama will also
reap the benefits of her book sales and the merchandise connected to her bestseller “Becoming”.
Mr. Obama earned a combined $8.8 million for “The Audacity of Hope,” published in 2006, and his 2010 children’s book. He also made nearly $7 million from “Dreams from My Fa- ther.”
In addition to their multi- million-dollar literary em- pire, the couple inked a multi-year creative produc- tion deal with Netflix worth $50 million.
The couple are now worth more than $135 million.
The childhood home of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. now be- longs to the National Park Service.
The two-story home on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta was sold to the National Park Service on November 27, 2018.
The organization “facili- tated through private philan- thropy the purchase of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth home and its immediate transfer to the National Park Service,” according to a state- ment from the National Park Foundation.
Neither the organization or the King Center for Nonvi- olent Social Change con- firmed the sale price amount, but CBS 46 reports that the 1895 home was sold for $1.9 million.
Built for a white family,
the home was purchased for $3,500 in 1909 by King’s maternal grandfather, ac- cording to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitu- tion. King was born there on Jan. 15, 1929.
AJC reporter Ernie Suggs writes: “King’s younger brother, A. D. King and his family moved back into the house for a brief period be- fore leaving in the early 1960s when he was called to take over a church in Birmingham. They were the last family members to live there, as the family then used it as a rental property.”
Dan Moore of the African-American Panoramic Experience believes that the transaction is ultimately a good move for the national landmark. The museum is lo- cated just blocks away from King’s childhood home.
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