Background
Bakewell was born and raised in New Orleans, graduating from Saint Augustine High School.
Bakewell was born and raised in New Orleans, graduating from Saint Augustine High School.
He is the owner of The Bakewell Company, which includes among its holdings the New Orleans radio station WBOK and the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper. He is currently Chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. At the age of 21, he dropped out of college and decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue his career ambitions.
He also served as President of The Brotherhood Crusade, a civil rights advocate organization, for over thirty years, before stepping down to focus on his other projects.
In recent years, Bakewell has been focused on expanding and diversifying his firm The Bakewell Company, which is the largest minority-owned development firm on the West Coast. He purchased the Los Angeles Sentinel, the city"s oldest and largest Black newspaper, in 2004.
Soon after, in 2007, he purchased the New Orleans radio station WBOK. In 2009, Bakewell was elected Chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.