Coalition Declares April Black Business Month : Consumers Urged to Give Support to Entrepreneurs
A coalition of black business organizations and companies owned by African Americans has declared April to be Black Business Month and on Monday urged consumers to spend money at businesses owned by blacks.
The drive is centered on Southern California this year, but its organizers hope to take Black Business Month nationwide.
“This is a launching of a new era of supporting black business,” said Muhammad A. Nassardeen, chief executive of Recycling Black Dollars, an 8-year-old Inglewood-based organization devoted to promotion of black-owned enterprises. “There are a lot of black businesses, and they deserve our support,” Nassardeen said at a news conference Monday.
The creation of a month to focus on black businesses is designed to build on the spirit of October’s Million Man March in Washington and the success of Recycling Black Dollars’ Change Bank Program, which has brought about 1,400 new accounts and more than $7 million in new deposits since January to Los Angeles’ four black-owned financial institutions.
The concept of economic self-sufficiency has been dear to black activists for decades; indeed, Monday’s news conference in front of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper building in the Crenshaw district featured a blow-up from a 1934 front page emblazoned with the headline “Don’t Spend Where You Can’t Work” over a story detailing the jailing of Sentinel Publisher Leon H. Washington Jr. for protesting in front of a store that wouldn’t hire black people.
Developing color-conscious buying habits is an important step toward gaining “true economic power,” said Carlton Jenkins, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Founders National Bank, the state’s largest black-owned bank. “To those who would look at the community askance, who would find, for whatever reason, the ability to drive by and not stop . . , I can assure you that our community is full of energetic, hard-working people who are committed.”
Los Angeles County was home to 32,645 black-owned companies in 1992, and they generated receipts of $3.6 billion, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent tally of minority-owned businesses. New York and Washington have more black-owned firms, but each of those cities had less than half the revenues produced in Los Angeles.
“Black business does not just consist of barbershops and hairdressers. We’re doing major business in this community,” Nassardeen said, pointing to black-owned insurance companies (Golden State Mutual Life Insurance and United Health Plan Insurance), a long-distance company (Clearnet) and even a printing firm run by 14-year-old Lemuel Solomon (We Print Business Cards Co.).
“Let’s wrap our arms around all the black businesses and make them successful this month,” Nassardeen said. “We invite members of the majority community and other minorities to come to our community.”
April was chosen because Black Business Expo has been held at the Los Angeles Convention Center each April for eight years. This year, more than 400 black entrepreneurs are expected to showcase their products and services on April 20 and 21.
Nassardeen, whose organization has grown to 2,000 members, said Black Business Month is a time to deposit money in black-owned financial institutions, eat at black-owned restaurants, subscribe to black publications, patronize black cleaners and join black organizations, among other things. Consumers seeking black-owned businesses can call a referral service at (800) UNITEUS, which also publishes a directory.
Recycling Black Dollars will also begin a Black Dollar coupon program, which provides a 10% discount for customers paying with special “Black Dollars” at participating businesses, Nassardeen said. Businesses advertise on the back of each coupon, and consumers are allowed to combine one coupon with $9 for each $10 purchase, he said.
