ADVISORY/The Reverend Al Sharpton, Senator Art Torres and the National Action Network Launch the West Coast Truth-Hamer Initiative: One Million Women Voter Registration Drive, Sept. 5, 2002.

News Editors

ADVISORY...for Thursday (Sept. 5)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

WHAT:       The Reverend Al Sharpton, Senator Art Torres and the
            National Action Network (NAN) will launch the West Coast
            Truth-Hamer Initiative's One Million Women Voter
            Registration Drive, a non-partisan effort to register one
            million women to vote in the 2004 general election.
            Chairperson and NAN executive director, Marjorie Harris
            Smikle will also be honored at the event.

            Founded by Sharpton in 1991, NAN is a not-for-profit
            organization focused on civil rights in the spirit of
            Ghandi and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The
            outspoken political and civil rights leader is
            contemplating running for President in 2004. He is most
            noted for his stand on police brutality and racism in the
            advertising industry.

WHERE:      Beverly Hilton Hotel, Stardust Ballroom, 9876 Wilshire
             Blvd., Beverly Hills

WHEN:       Thursday, September 5, 2002 from 7-10 PM

BACKGROUND: More than 36 million women of voting age were not
            registered to vote in the November 2000 presidential
            election, which meant their voices and issues were not
            heard. Women and people of color still face unfair
            obstacles in business and in education. 70 percent of
            schools are not in compliance with Title IX, which
            guarantees equal opportunities in areas of education.
            There are still glaring discrepancies in wage earnings
            between women and men in the 21st century. There must be a
            reasonable health care provision for the nation. Women
            must set the tone and pace for these issues to be
            addressed. The need to register women voters is immediate
            and paramount.

            The Truth-Hamer Initiative, the brainchild of Harris
            Smikle, is a movement to address and accommodate those
            disenfranchised women and empower them in the democratic
            foundation of this nation with the power of the vote.
            Endorsed by Gloria Steinem, noted women's rights advocate,
            the Honorable Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be
            placed on a presidential ticket, Representatives Carolyn
            Cheeks Kilpatrick and Cynthia Ann McKinney, and Senator
            Torres, chairman of the California State Democratic Party,
            the campaign will focus on the mass numbers of
            unregistered women in nontraditional situations.

            Named for Sojourner Truth, the civil and woman's rights
            activist who consistently spoke out on behalf of women's
            rights and the suffragist movement, alongside Elizabeth
            Cady Stanton, and Fannie Lou Hamer, a staunch advocate for
            women's health care, and major voice encouraging President
            Lyndon Baines Johnson to enact the Voter Registration Act
            of 1965, the Truth-Hamer Initiative was born in New York
            City on April 4, 2002 under the leadership of Harris
            Smikle.

            As executive director of NAN, Harris Smikle is not only
            responsible for overseeing the organization's daily
            operations, but for seizing opportunities to give voice to
            the disenfranchised. She has organized community forums in
            New York City featuring leaders such as U.S. Senator
            Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Schumer, Mayor Michael
            Bloomberg, and Ralph Nader. A graduate of Howard
            University, Harris Smikle received her J.D. from the
            Catholic University School of Law.