Dr. Gloria Latimore-Peace believes in empowering her community through access to knowledge, and she believes knowledge begins with education. Countless years of study culminated in several degrees, including a Ph.D from Northwestern University. 

Dr. Latimore-Peace taught in the Chicago Public School, and before becoming a professor at Northeastern Illinois University’s Center for Inner City Studies, she was an administrator for City Colleges of Chicago.

She realized that empowering the community with knowledge meant reaching beyond the classroom. She tells us, “I got the notion that I needed a radio show to bring people the information that our community needed to have access to and was not present in mainstream media.” beyond what mainstream media presented in our communities.” Thus began her venture into broadcast media. Dr. Latimore-Peace began broadcasting from WBEE, a local radio station with studios in Harvey, Illinois. “It was quite an expensive venture,” she recalls. “I didn’t know much about getting sponsors, nor did I have time to do more than organize and host the program.”

Later on, she decided to publish a newsletter, which turned out to be much more than a newsletter. “Someone I met in New York sent me a tabloid, an actual newspaper,” she says, “that turned out to be quite a challenge, but I was delighted.” So, for about 10 years, she published a newspaper called “Mo Better News.” At that time, she also had a prison ministry, and so she was actually able to publish the writings of inmates. She would go to correctional centers like Dixon, Statesville, Danville, and some of the correctional centers for women. “I found that there was a lot of talent wrapped up behind those prison walls, and I was able to give voice to many of those people.” Besides publishing the writings of the inmates, she also discovered there was a cartoonist who came out of Statesville. “I published many of their essays and poems, and I published an editorial myself. I also had a friend who contributed articles to the newspaper,” she said. The newspaper was free. She would place stacks of papers in public places, such as the post office, libraries, and schools. “I noticed that when I placed a stack somewhere, the next day they would all be gone,” she said, “and I found that the homeless people were picking up stacks of our papers and selling them along with the Streetwise Paper.”

Still seeking ways to get out her messages, to empower the community, she was eventually introduced to the Cable television station, Chicago Access. In order to produce and broadcast shows on Cable Access, people have to go through a training program. Dr. Latimore-Peace finished the training and started broadcasting with a show initially called ICAN, which stood for Inner City Alumni Network. She explains “The Chicago was originally going to be a vehicle for students who came through Inner City Studies to share and talk about their studies and work.” However, even though there were a number of illustrious people who studied there, there were not enough alumni presenters for the plan to work. She then turned to the history makers and movers and shakers in the community, and the rest is history.