John Mitchell drove to Tuscaloosa hoping for a part-time job to help pay for law school. Bear Bryant asked him one question: “If I offer you a job as a full-time coach on my staff, would you take it?”

In Episode 7 of Keep Looking Up: History and Hope, Dr. Ray Minor and the team welcome Coach John Mitchell. He was one of the first Black players in Alabama football history and the program’s first Black assistant coach. He then spent nearly three decades coaching with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In this episode:

• The phone call, the office and the job offer that changed his plans
• Recruiting Ozzie Newsome, and the night he slept on the sofa
• His Alabama roommate Bobby Stanford, and a friendship that has lasted more than 50 years
• Lessons from parents with a seventh- and a ninth-grade education
• Riding to the airport with Mr. Rooney
• His art collection
• A coach’s view on paying college players

Keep Looking Up: History and Hope is produced by RLG Productions for Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.

What does it mean to "be finer"? Calandra McDonald, international co-director of Zeta Amicae affairs and a Zeta Phi Beta member for 35 years, joins Dr. Ray Minor and Dr. Horace Huntley for this Divine Nine conversation.

She tells how a "Saturday at 3 p.m." invitation from a woman she called her aunt turned into a sorority meeting, and how that "yes, ma'am" grew into leadership at the state, regional and international levels. She walks through Zeta's core values (scholarship, service, sisterhood and finer womanhood), its youth groups and international reach, and the Power of XI: social, health and economic justice, from the March of Dimes and the Stork's Nest to a community food pantry in the Birmingham area.

Her closing message to the Divine Nine: "We are stronger together."

Keep Looking Up: History and Hope is a production of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Emmy-winning journalist Art Franklin joins Dr. Ray Minor and Dr. Horace Huntley for the Divine Nine series, speaking for Omega Psi Phi.

Franklin traces his path from a Detroit childhood shaped by his Mississippi-born mother, Annie Franklin, to the Birmingham anchor desk, where he recalls becoming the city's first Black male prime-time anchor. He shares the newsroom moment that tested whether he would keep pushing for the stories his community needed told; how Omega Psi Phi serves Birmingham through scholarships, mentoring and a planned multi-purpose community center in Ensley; why he wrote a book for young men after losing a nephew to violence; and what he felt on a recent trip to Ghana.

His through-line: "God blesses you so you can be a blessing to someone else."

Keep Looking Up: History and Hope is a production of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.