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Who’s Who is an excellent resource for finding out exactly who is making moves in any given city. Phyllis Bailey, associate publisher for Who’s Who In Black Houston, takes great pride in providing that resource to the community. “It allows employers to publicly recognize their employees who never get public recognition,” she says. “Most [importantly], it lets our children see who they can be. Our whole goal is [to] make our children see that if they do the right thing on the front end of their lives, they’ll be great [on the] back end.”

A native of Pittsburgh, Bailey has been in Houston for 20 years and was named associate publisher of Who’s Who in 2006. The first book was published in 2007 and the second one is coming out this month. “It’s taken a while for it to get out, and last year when the book came out, people didn’t know what it was,” says Bailey. “Now that people have seen the book and know what it is, we’ve gotten a lot of responses.” Who’s Who is the nation’s largest annual directory targeting the African American market.

“I think sometimes my soul [was] sad when I saw the condition of many African Americans and in doing this book and seeing all of the different things that people have done and are continuing to do it gives me a sense of joy and pride,” Bailey notes. “We are doing a lot. And most of the cities that the books are in were built on the backs of black people. It’s about time for us to get our due.” -todd williams

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