10 Development FROM PAGE 7


an effective way to circumvent the fact that they had little access to mainstream White establishments including banks, funeral services, insurance services, hotels, and many more aspects of daily business that we take for granted today.


Originally, instead of fighting


for acceptance by Whites, and an integration of business establishments, African Americans developed their own elaborate and thriving economies in the early 1900s. An example of one of these economies was right here in North Carolina, and was known nationally as “Black Wall Street.” Parrish Street, as “Black Wall Street” was officially named, was the location of institutions such as the nation’s largest black-owned insurance company, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, as well as Mechanics and Farmers Bank, and many real-estate, textile and other companies. W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington both visited the area, in the 1910s, and praised the manifestation of Black entrepreneur- ship (Durham's "Black Wall Street" , n.p.).


Black economies were sprouting


up all over the country, with Black credit unions, grocery cooperatives and other Black owned businesses that were supported almost exclusively by African Americans. For the first time, African Americans were growing wealth for themselves, and we saw the creation of many Black financial leaders and millionaires like Annie Malone, the founder of a for-profit


Volume 10 Number 10


beauty college for African American women. Malone created jobs for 75,000 women around the world, and is the first recorded African American female millionaire in the United States, with a reported $14 million in assets in 1920 (which would total $167 million today) (Barba n.p.).


This was a beautiful time in


African American history, but it was short lived. With the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, African American’s adopted the “Dream” set forth by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead of calling for the strengthening of African American economies, supporting of Black own businesses and promoting Black economic independence, the “Dream” called for integration, and called for Black people to fight for the right to patronize White businesses like lunch counters and banks. The 1960s, which brought the era of the Civil Rights Movement, also brought an end to most Black economies in the United States, including the demise of “Black Wall Street.”


There are many misconceptions


held by some African Americans, as well has the general public, surrounding economic development of the race. One misconception is “if only African Americans would work a little harder, and not rely on government assistance, they would be able to gain economic equality.” As Los Angeles Times writer David Horsey eloquently explains, “That assumption betrays a woeful ignorance of history and economics.” He goes on to say, “The economic toll on black people during the long decades of oppression was staggering. Many immigrants -- Irish, Italians, Chinese and others


Career and Business Opportunities


-- came to this country and suffered discrimination, too. Eventually, though, doors opened for all of them and bias withered away. They, or their descendants, were able to take part in the economic life of this society and build wealth over time. For black Americans, that opportunity came very late, if it came at all.” (Horesy, n.p.).


Fig. 1. Drawing showing that the


history of economic oppression still hinders African Americans. (Horsey, n.p.)


Slavery was the biggest economic


hurdle that African Americans had to face, according to a Newsweek report, reparations to African Americans for lost wages alone during slavery would be between $5.9 and $14 Trillion (Main n.p.). Figure 1 ironically compares the struggle of African Americans to their white counterparts in terms of a game that Black Americans can never win.


A misconception also exists that


the conditions of African Americans have been dramatically improved by government assistance programs and regulatory measures like the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which was to irradiate racial inequality and discrimination in the housing market. Data shows that the Act did not help African Americans, and it actually marks the point in which the black-white convergence in home ownership slowed to a halt (Collins, n.p.). In fact, the racial gap in home ownership (by household heads) was about the same in the year 2000 as it was in the year 1900 (Collins, n.p.).


Studies also show that the rise


of the welfare state in the 1960s contributed greatly to the demise of the black family as a stable institution. The out-of-wedlock birth rate among African Americans today is 73%, three times higher than it was prior to the War on Poverty (“How the Welfare State Has Devastated African Americans”, n.d.). Many attribute this to the fact that unmarried women receive more government benefits than married ones, and the more children someone has, the more money they will receive as a welfare subscriber. Welfare, however, is not a sustainable way to build wealth, it is a way to barely survive, and can be taken away at any time. The truth is, African Americans must not look to society or the government for action, we must look within our own communities for solutions to our collective economic condition.


There is also the misconceptions


that African Americans can not work together in a successful manner. As the book “Collective Courage” explains, “Ideas of community and pooling resources is a firmly rooted African tradition, and this legacy of collectivity has stayed with its diaspora in the Americas in a powerful and meaningful way” (Nembhard, n.p.). This can be seen most clearly, in the most strongest and most powerful African American organization on earth: The Black Church. Black spiritual organizations, like the


June 2016


African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) Church began forming just as Black economies did: as a response to racism and rejection they experienced in White establishments. And today, the Black Church is the strongest pillar in African American communities.


Also, whether we like it or not,


church has become big business. Tyler Media Services estimated that Black churches received revenue of more than $17 billion in 2006 alone. A single prosperity church, the Reverend Creflo Dollar’s World Changers, received $69 million in 2006 (Editor, n.p.). What if we do not stop at the Black Church? What if we uplifted our “Black Wall Street” industries in the same way once again? We would have an African American economy so powerful, it would not only command economic equality, but also equality in every other area of society. In 2015, African American buying power was $1.1 trillion (Kennedy, n.p,, this means that if African Americans' purchasing power equated to a country’s GDP, we would be the 16th largest country in the world, putting us above Canada, Australia and many other countries.


Our African American forefathers


knew the great economic power that we possessed, and believed that economic equality would bring about racial equality. Marcus Garvey, who was known for his belief in African American enterprise said it best: "Until you produce what the white man has produced, you will not be his equal.” If we can follow the path that our past leaders envisioned for us, we will reach the “promised land,” by returning to our cooperative roots.


Over the decades, frustrated


African American wishing to overcome racial inequality have turned to protests and riots, like the ones associated with the “Black Lives Matter” movement. However, this is not the best approach to combat injustice. In fact, studies show that rioting has a significant negative effect on African American wealth and employment. It has been found that, in cities that experienced historic rioting, the median African American household income dropped about 10% (Collins, n.p.). Instead of rioting, which only destroys our own communities, hurts us economically, causes legal trouble, and further divides the races, we must focus on well planned economic protests. We must vow to only spend our dollars with institutions that respect our “Black Lives.”


In the words of Min. Louis


Farrakhan at the Million Man March, we must “pledge that [we] will strive to build businesses, build houses, build hospitals, build factories and enter into international trade for the good” of ourselves, our families and our people. This is a prescription for a brighter future for African American generations to come. Though we have faced many obstacles as African Americans, history tells us that we are capable of lifting our race out of economic despair, and taking our rightful seat at the table of powerful economic contributors. Only then will we be truly be “free at last!”


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