I met Herman Cain at Godfather's Pizza when it was located Around Lenox over 15 years ago. I remember asking him if he was the owner and he said, "Yes." He was a very friendly man and a role model in my sight. Have you had any encounters with Herman Cain in Atlanta?"

Great reporting on this, Dr. Minor!! People forget Cain's Atlanta connections and many did not know he went to Archer High School!!!

Many people didn't know he attended Morehouse College. Great article.

Thank you, Ceci and Janita. We all need to know our roots and connections. Atlanta is a powerhouse of dynamic African-American leaders that have been born and raised here. It gives testimony to the outstanding parenting, the magnificent education of Atlanta Public Schools, and the unrelentless perservernce within each of us to achieve our goals. Also, I can not forget to mention the excellent education provided by the powerhouses of the Atlanta University Center: Morehouse, Morris Brown, Clark-Atlanta University, and Spelman. We are Atlanta's Success Stories !!!

It's interesting that you do not list Governor Romney in your poll? what's with that??

Govenor Romney is there. Check again.

I don't think anyone has questioned whether he is nice or not. I do not recall him being rude to callers on his radio show. But the question for any candidate isn't whether he is friendly, it is whether his policy recommendations will help or hurt the majority of his constituents. The office he is seeking is powerful and influential around the world but let's not forget the President does not create laws. That's the job of our locally elected congress. So get out and vote! Every ballot cast matters and all Americans have ancestors (back to the American Revolution through the Sufferage Movement and the Civil Right Movement) that literally died for us to have this right.

Great reporting Dr Minor! Thanks.

Nice background information, Dr. Minor.

Back in the Spring I received a poll from the Democratic National Committee and they asked me to select the likely Republican candidate for president. Mr. Cains' name was not among this list. The survey then asked who else could possibly be the GOP nominee and I listed Mr. Cain. Two months later the DNC perhaps thinking I did not understand the survey send the same survey and I gave them the same answer and noted that they should keep their eyes on Mr. Cain. I kept the survey and will post it soon. I wanted to have a record of my pick before Mr. Cain began to pick up steam.

Mr. Harvey. So, you had insight about Mr. Cain before he made headlines. Too often, I think the media and other sources try to guide who we are to pick and only provide the information they want us to hear. In highschool, I studied "Propaganda" and did not really have a good understanding of it. However, as I have become an adult in this political climate, I truly see "Propaganda" at work within our Media context. It is so important that we study the facts for ourselves and then make an informed choice for 2012.

Dr. Minor, it just occurred to me that Mr. Cain would be the perfect back handed slap from the GOP, similar to the back hand the black community is still feeling from the appointment of another Georgian, Clarence Thomas, to the Supreme Court. What better way to counter the progressive insurgency of President Barack Obama. It is almost as if the GOP Is saying we will accept a Negro, but not that Negro. A Herman Cain Negro is more to our liking because he sounds the same rhetoric that we do. Moreover, when former Vice-President Dick Cheney was on Meet the Press three Sunday's ago, if you recall he sounded the clarion call for Mr. Cain, by telling the host there might be a dark horse to emerge from the current pact of contenders. Within five days Mr. Cain, a true dark horse in every sense of the word, wins the Florida Straw Poll. The White House best prepare for a black on black election in 2012.

Iris and Mr. Harvey, I think it is going to happen, as well. I can't wait to see the end of this race !!!

Thank you, Mr. Gulley and Mr. Harvey for your comments.
Mrs. Jackson, I agree with you 100%. A candidate's character and their ability to recommend and deliver appropriate policies for the people that they serve should be involved in our decision making for 2012. A well informed choice is the best choice of them all.

FANTASTIC story. More like these please!!!! Great research and reporting Yolande.

Nice article, but I, for one, would like to know more about Mr. Cain's political education. Many don't know this, but Condoleezza Rice grew up in Birmingham where her father organized Blacks to defend their neighborhood from the KKK with shotguns. Clarence Thomas led a black student strike at Holy Cross. I attended both Howard and Hampton in the 1960s and I'll bet real money that any brother with a trendy afro studying at Morehouse in those days wasn't any Goldwater Republican! There is always a first time, but I have never met anybody like that of my generation. In those days on campus you were considered a "moderate" if you insisted on non-violence.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not looking to "get dirt" on Mr. Cain. On the contrary, I think evidence of his humanity -- including appropriate outrage over segregation and racism -- would help move America beyond 40-year-old clichés about "Liberals" and "Conservatives."

I love Herman Cain! My mother pointed him out to me MONTHS before anybody else heard about him! While I will not commit to any candidate at this point (because no candidate or even any elected official should ever take any votes for granted!), Mr. Cain, IMHO, ROCKS!

Thank Mr. Walker and Mr. Chadwick for your comments.

I'm from Atlanta, and I'm an HBCU grad (Howard)....for those two reasons alone, I'm pleased (maybe even proud) to see that Herman Cain is in the race to become president. However, I won't be voting for him simply because he went to Morehouse, or because he's from Atlanta. Just as we shouldn't vote for Obama because he's black...we shouldn't vote for Cain because we share home towns. I don't believe he's the best person for the job - because his 9-9-9 plan is unrealistic and inadequate; because of his views on immigration; and because I don't feel he best represents me or the middle class. I sincerely hope everyone takes a strong look at his politcal philosophies before jumping on board as a Cain supporter.

Lyndsey, I agree. We must study our candidates carefully right now and make a well-informed decision.

This is one of those times when I am glad to a native Atlantan, a fourth generation native with roots in Atlanta back to Reconstruction. I could not have dreamed up a better scenario. I told a friend of mine--who shall remain nameless--back in early 2008 that if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for president, and then the presidency, that the rules would be altered for all of us. Now, let's be honest, the whole issue of "race" still matters but the nuances are certainly different in this new post-Obama setting. Personally, I think Herman Cain is going to win the Republican nomination for the presidency. And as much as I disagree with Mr. Cain on most policy issues, I cannot wait for that once-in-a-lifetime moment when two Black men compete against one another for the highest office in the land. Who would have thought it would come to such a peculiarly delicious moment!

Mrs. Allen, I am excited about this moment, as well. The turning point of a prejudice nation. From the old film "The Birth of a Nation" to "The Birth of a New Nation". Truly Historical Events taking place. I can't wait to see what the end will be !!!

Leslye Joy!!!

Thank You, Ms. Allen !!!

Herman Cain is being interviewed by Piers Morgan right now (9:00pm EST). Lyndsey, I agree with you completely. I hope it takes more than a shared skin color and neighborhood to earn our vote.

For me, I will take serious consideration of all the facts of "my political gain in this government" for any of the candidates to earn my vote.

Great information. I didn't know the particulars of Herman Cain's southwest Atlanta roots.

Thank you, Jamie!

So you think Cain is honest. I guess you can want to put up an electricfied fence to kill immigrants, blame the unemployed for being laid off, shamelessly distort economic information to within a hair of outright lying, call people socialists if they want affordable healthcare and do it all for political gain and its OK if he's a black native Atlantan. I hope these are not the principles being taught in all of those schools you seem to be so proud of.

Dr. Minor, you should be applauded for the find work you have done in shedding light on the life and times of the young Herman Cain. I'm sure the national media will read your report when they began to look deeper into his past for some understanding of the man. I in no sense got the impression that you were pushing the candidacy of Herman Cain for President. I appreciate your scholarship, research and the absence of bias in your reporting and in your comments to responses to this piece. I look forward to other articles in this series.

Harold Michael Harvey, J. D.
www.paperpuzzle.net

Thank you, Attorney Harvey. You are right, I am reporting the news within my community.

wow, I guess if right wing extremist says its so then it must be so! Ms Patti try picking up an political science text, a macro economics book or an accounting class before talking real substantive issues. There is no way any one can argue political propaganda as facts and i refuse to legitimize it's lack of creditability by engaging in an exchange.
I guess we just have two different ideas on what honesty is. Distorting facts repeatedly, playing to the worst impulses of human nature (racism, greed, outright disdain for the poor) and all for political gain is not an honest man at my church.
I guess I am one of those "brainwashed Black people" that Cain insults as a group. I just know something about integrity.
Ms Minor, I just want our commuity that I moved into in 1967 to have higher standards that skin color, HBCU alumni status and being fron "the West" .
We must critically analyse just who want to make as an example for our children to emulate. and politically it is definitely not that cain guy. He may have other redeemable traits worthy of publicity but politics is not it. His policies would be devastating for all of America.
PS I hope you were not susguesting that I needed to learn about "other cultures" that are black or republican. I obviously know about both
DON'T BE BLINDED BY YOUR BLACKNESS!
Emory Jr

Emory Jr. DON'T BE BLINDED BY YOUR BLACKNESS !!! WE ARE ENTITLED TO OUR OWN OPINIONS. YOU VOTE FOR YOUR CANDIDATE. I WILL VOTE FOR MINE. DO NOT TRY TO JUDGE ME FOR REPORTING NEWS. I have a right to account for the news. I am not telling anyone who to vote for. I only stated to study the facts and make your decision from there. What part of this did you misunderstand? This is the last time I will address you in this forum. You can continue to spew your bitter taunts with someone else.

Dr. Yolande Minor, Ed.D.
Cascade Patch Correspondent

I think some have missed the point from the article I wrote on Herman Cain. As a reporter, I have acknowledged his earlier and former education and his neighborhood he grew up in Atlanta. I have not endorsed any candidate. I have reported neighborhood news. Study facts and policies for yourselves. Make a well-informed decision from your knowledge of how the candidate will benefit you.

Dr. Yolande Minor, Ed.D.
Cascade Patch Correspondent

Nothing I have said is hateful, meanspirited or taunting you to display any type of anger. I have nothing to be bitter about. I am not judging you in that you have not endorsed anyone. I have not attacked you. It takes a lot of work to do what you do and have accomplished. I just question a puff peice on a Southwest Atlanta "favorite son" that is not a person black people should hold in any political esteem whatsoever.
As a professional writer/ correspondent/ reporter you can't be so sensitive as to read sinister things into how the public responds to your work.
I apologize if I pricked a spot somehow

:-D

Cain and I were apparently at English Ave. Ele. School around the same time. I did not personally know him, but I met him several years ago when we held an English Ave. school reunion. Cain was our speaker. At the time we were just proud to know that he was a successful businessman. From what I have heard from him since then, I doubt if I could vote for him. Still, I would love to see him run against President Obama. What an entertaining race that would be!