Wealth in the CommunityBoss: The Black Experience in Business highlights the entrepreneurial drive and business acumen of African Americans in America. Directed and produced by Peabody and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson, the film examines more than 150 years of African Americans who, from the country’s earliest days, have embodied the qualities of innovation, risk-taking, and determination to forge a path toward a better life. The film features the stories of entrepreneurs Madam C.J. Walker, publisher John H. Johnson, Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Cathy Hughes, Vernon Jordan, and many more
Time: Doors Open @ 5 p.m. – Film Starts @ 5:30 p.m.
Location: Student Center, Ballroom (4200 Connecticut Ave. NW)
Entrepreneurship for African Americans has incorporated ownership as a means to manage and disseminate information for the betterment of the community as well as a means to gain economic opportunities. African American religious publishers were the first entrepreneurs to represent African American interests using print media. This led the way for a variety of businesses and products.
As the United States began to take shape, a number of people of African origin were successful in their attempt to carve out an economic stake for themselves. Anthony Johnson, who accumulated substantial property in Jamestown, Virginia, is believed to be the first person of African descent to have become an entrepreneur in America. Jean Baptist DuSable, a wholesaler and merchant who established the first settlement in Chicago in the early 1770s, was another pre-Civil War era entrepreneur.
Prior to the Civil War, however, slavery defined the existence of most African Americans. Thus, two categories of business persons were able to develop and sustain business enterprises. The first group was composed of free African Americans, numbering approximately sixty thousand, who could accumulate the capital to generate business activity. They developed enterprises in almost every area of the business community, including merchandising, real estate, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and extractive industries.
The second group consisted of slaves who— as a result of thrift, ingenuity, industry, and/or the liberal paternalism of their masters—were able to engage in business activity. Although the constraints of slavery were such that even highly skilled slaves could not become entrepreneurs in the true sense of the word, slaves did, during their limited free time, sell their labor and create products to sell.
The promise of freedom and political enfranchisement held out by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 was soon undermined by racist judicial rulings. In 1878, in Hall v. DeCuir, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state could not prohibit segregation on a common carrier. In 1896, with the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, “separate but equal” became the law of the land. Following these decisions, a pattern of rigid segregation of the races was established that remained the norm until the advent of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
During the early 1900s, although services continued to be the cornerstone of the black business community, blacks found it easier to raise capital and ventured into more entrepreneurial endeavors.
The civil rights movement prompted the development of legislation and a number of government agencies to ensure the social, political, and economic rights of African Americans. Perhaps the greatest boost to black entrepreneurship came in 1967 with the establishment of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Section 8 (a) program. Under that section of the Small Business Act Amendments, the SBA is authorized to enter into contract with federal agencies on behalf of small and disadvantaged businesses. Entry into the program is contingent upon SBA approval of the business plan prepared by prospective firms. The total dollar value of contracts processed through Section 8 (a) has grown from $8.9 million in 1969 to $2.7 billion in 1985. Through the program, many small and black-owned businesses have been able to stabilize and grow.
Historically, African American businesses have been restricted to the narrow range of service enterprises. They have tended to establish businesses that require relatively limited capital and technical expertise, such as personal services and small-scale retailing. These firms have had to rely heavily on the African American community as their market for goods and services. In 2002 four out of ten black-owned firms provided health care and social assistance, personal services, and repair and maintenance. These services still remain as a key basis for African American businesses. Of the 10,727 African American-owned firms in 2002 with individual revenue of $1 million or more, total revenue for this group has increased to $49 billion versus $40 billion in 1997. Overall African American-owned firms account for five percent of all non-farm businesses in the United States.
The location of corporate headquarters in urban areas has provided increased business opportunity for black business service enterprises. Large cities have become areas where administrative and service functions are the dominant economic activities. The growth in corporate and government administration in central-city business districts has created a need for complementary advertising, accounting, computer, legal, temporary secretarial, and maintenance business services.
Access for qualified African Americans as leaders in a broad range of businesses and corporations has seen an increase. In 1988 there were twenty-five corporate managers but no black executives. By 1993 there were twelve African Americans who were presidents and two CEOs. In 2005 there were eighteen African Americans as CEOs including three women, showing an increase of 300 percent, but still less than one percent of the senior-level positions of America's one thousand largest firms. In 2006 Harpo Inc.'s Oprah Winfrey and RLJ Development's Robert L. Johnson were the first African Americans to be recognized as billionaires, and Reginald E. Lewis became the first CEO of a billion-dollar company.
Entrepreneurs. (2012). In L. Bracks, African American almanac : 400 years of triumph, courage and excellence. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press.
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