Final Research and visual

Deborah Derozin 

Prof. Cacoilo 

Acts of Resistance 

Importance of the Growth of small businesses in urban communities

For my midterm project I want to propose the importance of the growth of small businesses in African American communities. As the world's population continues to increase, the population density in urban cities is rising much more quickly than in the suburbs. This phenomenon, known as urbanization, is playing out across the globe and has implications for agriculture, the environment, politics and energy use. Yet it also impacts new businesses. 

Emancipation and civil rights have allowed for businessmen to operate inside the American legal structure beginning in the Reconstruction Era and continuing forward. During the 1890s, thousands of small business operations started to open in urban areas. This was influenced by Booker T. Washington’s, college president, commitment to agricultural and industrial education which was the basis to his approach “The Problem of The Color Line.” The most drastic growth of urbanization came in the early 20th century, as the increasingly rigid Jim Crow system of segregation moved urban Blacks into a community large enough to support a business establishment. The National Negro Business League which Booker T. Washington, promoted largely opened over 600 chapters. It reached every city with a significant Black population. Booker T.  believed that black men and women who had mastered skills acquired at institutions like Tuskegee and Hampton would be recognized, if not welcomed, as productive contributors to the southern economy. He also believed that economic acceptance would lead to political and social acceptance. One of the things that was very significant about his approach was that Black people should not permit their grievances to overshadow opportunity. 

African Americans have operated virtually every kind of company, but some of the most prominent Black-owned businesses have been insurance companies, banks, recording labels, funeral parlors, barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, soul food restaurants, record stores, and bookstores.

American cities in which blacks constitute a majority of the population, also called “black-majority cities” are on the rise. These cities include and are not limited to the core cities of metropolitan areas like Detroit, Baltimore, and Memphis as well as smaller suburban municipalities like East Cleveland, Ohio, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and Ferguson, Mo. According to a report published on Brookinkgs.edu by David Hashbarger and Andre M. Perry in 2019, “Black-majority cities (which include cities, towns, and other census-designated places) numbered 460 at the 1970 census, and 1,148 by the 2010 census”. And, as of the latest 2017 census estimates, “there are now 1,262 black-majority cities, an increase of more than 100 such cities during this decade alone.” Which means if this predication is correct, as of 2020, there would have been an increase of 100 black majority cities. 

Black owned businesses play a crucial role in the development of black communities.  Over the last few decades, Cities of mostly black populations have been burdened by high rates of unemployment, significant population losses, and concentrated poverty. According to an abstract published on research gate by T.D. Boston “Central-city unemployment and poverty are concentrated heavily in the low-income Black inner-city communities.” It has also stated that “These neighborhoods have been abandoned by businesses once located in and around the central business district and have been largely sidestepped by investors, who have favored developing businesses in more suburban locations.” As a result black communities seem to always be struggling due to lack of resources, abandonment and separation. 

Ignoring small businesses would be like ignoring the possibility for growth and change in urban communities. First, the growth of small black businesses allow for black business owners to be able to give back to the residents of distressed Black communities. Second, Black-owned businesses have allowed for more employment in urban cities. Third, Black owned businesses provide superior quality of the average job for black workers than those who work for white owned firms. Finally, it celebrates black culture and serves communities. 

To begin, urban business owners help to support the less fortunate in their communities. Substantially, blacks are underrepresented among business owners, but nonetheless there are a sizable and growing source of employment for Blacks. The term Talented Tenth was populated by W.E.B Du Bois, a powerful figure in the advancement of black people, for the educated elite of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The upper ten percent was supposed to assume responsibility for the leadership and advancement of the remaining 90 percent of African Americans. The emergence of the club movement among black women and other self-help organizations enabled more prosperous black people to aid those suffering from poverty and prejudice.

Secondly, Many African American business owners fund their own businesses due to the lack of capital which means a lot of the time they hire people from the community in which they can afford to pay. This would cause of the rapid growth of these businesses and more tendency to employ Black workers. These communities lack many of the attributes and capacities that typically are necessary for economic development but that brings forth room and possibilities for change. 

Lastly, Black owned businesses provide superior quality of the average job for black workers than those who work for white owned firms. We can trace the origins of today’s racial wealth gap to Jim Crow-era practices which segregated African Americans from higher paying jobs and homeowner ownership opportunities that ultimately prevented wealth building. A large portion of the workforce in Black-owned firms is drawn from low-income inner-city neighborhoods.  If more black businesses hire black people the wage gap can become decreasingly less significant. 

Entrepreneurship is nothing new in the Black community. Black people have historically worked hard to establish, maintain and grow their own businesses to cultivate an economic base in providing goods, products and services to consumers. The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey through his Universal Negro Improvement Association taught economics is a key component of Black survival and prosperity in America. He taught Black America to “spend your money among yourselves, build an economic system among yourselves and unite to pool your resources.”

Despite obstacles including lack of access to capital, resources, connections and at times inconsistent support from the public, the entrepreneurial spirit continues to be alive and well in Black America. According to a recent survey of more than 2,700 small businesses conducted near the end of last year by small business financing company Guidant Financial and online credit marketplace LendingClub Corporation, African American businesses grew by more than 400% in 2018 as compared to 2017. The pleasant surprise, That growth is being fueled by women.  The number of Black female-owned firms climbed 66.9 percent, from 900,000 in 2007 to 1.5 million in 2012, noted the Census Bureau. Additionally, these 1.5 million Black female-owned businesses accounted for 58.9 percent of the nation’s 2.6 million Black or African American-owned businesses, the bureau reported. Of these 2.6 million in 2012, 109,137 had paid employees. 

In conclusion, The economic problems of the Black community can never be solved while spending most of our money with the people that live outside of it and neither would we be able to obtain control over our community as long as others own most of the businesses in it. As a Black women, entrepreneur I have witnessed importance of the growth of small businesses  in my community and how much of a difference it can make in the process to financial freedom. I want to encourage my people to buy black and consume black and that is the essential theme to my midterm proposal. 

Citations

Hine, Darlene Clark, et al. The African-American Odyssey. Pearson, 2018.

Harshbarger, David, and Andre M. Perry. “The Rise of Black-Majority Cities.” Brookings, Brookings, 28 Feb. 2019, www.brookings.edu/research/the-rise-of-black-majority-cities/.

JOHN BERGER - Ways of Seeing WAYS OF SEEING. waysofseeingwaysofseeing.com/ways-of-seeing-john-berger-5.7.pdf.

Thompson , Nato. Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century ...www.amazon.com/Seeing-Power-Activism-Twenty-first-Century/dp/1612190448.

Submitted by sreid on February 14. “6 Reasons to Support Black-Owned Business.” Green America, www.greenamerica.org/blog/6-reasons-support-black-owned-businesses.