Vision and Hope Existed Long Before 1992’s Riots

Some of us have long forgotten our African culture, where life is sacred, where there is respect for elders, where there is a powerful sense of community that offers security and identity. In African communities, individuals are obligated and responsible for ownership and relationships.

While there is a new, cooperative business effort in the wake of last year’s riots, there have always been African-American business people whose perseverance provides a legacy of vision and hope.

In 1981, actress and community supporter Marla Gibbs founded Crossroads National Education and Arts Center to provide the inner city with arts and educational programs and to preserve African-American contributions to our culture. Crossroads is an outlet for creative expression and individual development, which is needed for our youth to grow into responsible, contributing adults.

Avril Harris, the executive director of Crossroads, puts in some long hours along with Gibbs. “God has a way of putting you in check,” Harris said. “You have to examine yourself with the question: ‘Am I doing this to get the credit, or am I doing this simply because it needs to be done?’ ”

Down the street is the city’s first black-owned radio station, KJLH-FM 102.3, which has been in operation for more than 25 years. During last year’s riots, the station changed its format from music to all-news. General manager Karen Slade faces the day-to-day challenges of surviving in the intensely competitive L.A. radio market.

She stresses to clients the financial responsibility of supporting the communities in which they do business. “Many companies sell products and make profits from minorities who purchase their products and services, yet fail to reinvest into those communities,” Slade said.

Cookies by Connie may be the cookie company of the ‘90s. It grew from a home-based business 30 years ago to a shopping center outlet, downsized because of financial challenges, and now has plans to expand again. Owner Connie Bass recently received a loan from FAME Renaissance, an unconventional funding source established after the riots by the First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“I don’t know how to quit,” said Bass, “plus I’ve invested all my retirement money into this business.” You probably have seen Bass in Bank of America’s “Banking on America” advertising campaign; that’s her in a chef’s hat and jacket, smiling at you from billboards all over town.

Veteran photographer George Gray went through a mountain of paperwork to become certified as a disadvantaged business enterprise and hired by Metro Rail, where his photographs are used in corporate brochures and newsletters. “Time has a way of exposing what we are truly made of,” Gray said. “Anything worthwhile takes time to acquire or develop.”

There’s a synergism building. We’ve been challenged to discover new ways, yet remember the old ones as we make something special from the ordinary. And it takes dedicated, persistent and spiritually strong people--just like these, all living examples of an African proverb: The prosperity of a single person does not make a town rich, but the prosperity of the town makes its people rich.