Henry G. Parks Jr.; Entrepreneur, Elected Official

Henry G. Parks Jr., who sold real estate, beer, soda pop and even cinder blocks before finding fame and fortune in the sausage business, died Monday of complications of Parkinson’s disease.

The entrepreneur, who formed what is considered the first black-owned business to raise money by selling stock to the public, was 72. Baltimore-based Parks Sausage makes scrapple, sausage and other meat products for sale in stores from Massachusetts to Virginia. The company’s slogan, “More Parks Sausages, Mom,” is well-known throughout the East.

Parks founded the company in 1951 in an abandoned dairy in Baltimore. He took it public in 1969.

“That’s so significant,” said Raymond V. Haysbert, chairman of Parks Sausage. “Public financing of companies is what America is all about. Underlining that achievement is that only three or four other black firms have followed Parks into public financing since 1969.”

Parks Sausage was one of the largest black-owned companies in the nation when Parks sold his interest in it in 1977 for $1.58 million.

Parks also served on the Baltimore City Council from 1963 through 1969 and pushed bills opening public accommodations to blacks and easing bail requirements for people accused of crimes.

“I think that I proved that black businessmen not only can be successful but that they can be successful on the same terms as anybody else,” Parks once said.