By Doni Glover, Publisher
(BALTIMORE – September 30, 2023) – There’s a reason many people still reflect on the accomplishments of Washington, D.C.’s “Mayor for Life,” Marion Barry. He was first the jobs man. He helped people get gainful employment long before he entered the political realm. When he finally got into politics, he had a long track record of serving the people. So, helping to create new Black millionaires merely continued his career-long efforts to help empower the Black community.
Atlanta had Mayor Maynard Jackson. Many reflect on how he ensured that Black businesses got a piece of the pie during the construction of Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Names like Herman J. Russell, the late construction magnate, come to mind.
In Baltimore, we’ve also had some giants—like Congressman Parren J. Mitchell. The Congressman helped create the federal 8-A program, which provided Blacks and other minorities with the opportunity to become millionaires.
Such efforts were and are needed because America is a capitalist country where the Black community has historically been on the periphery of development and economic activity – relegated to the caste of “super-users.” That is, the Black community is widely known to out-shop everybody. The unfortunate part of that problem is our poor productivity. In terms of manufacturing, we are grossly failing.
And that’s what’s so special about having a Citywide Youth Development in the 2100 block of West North Avenue. Thanks to bipartisan support, the efforts of former Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, state Senator Antonio Hayes, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, and now Gov. Wes Moore have helped create an expanding manufacturing hub right in the heart of West Baltimore. This is unprecedented in modern times.
With the urging of Sen. Hayes, Gov. Moore alone has invested $28 million in the restoration of West North Avenue. The West North Avenue Development Authority is a unique conglomerate of communities along West North Avenue from Mt. Royal to Hilton – working together to revitalize a significant thoroughfare. It has the potential to breathe life into an otherwise forsaken part of town.
But, trust me – such efforts result from years of advocacy that seemingly fell on deaf ears for a long time. Despite the efforts of our Black elected officials, there have been people who lived to impede such progress. These people felt they were heirs of superiority and often blocked Black economic progress. They were bullies who, in my honest opinion, had long outlived any usefulness for Black progress in a 30% Black state that is 2-to-1 Democrat. It should be noted that it was the Republic Party’s efforts to help empower the Black community that prompted the Maryland Democratic Party to up its efforts to strengthen the Black community in Maryland. Names like Rutherford and former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele come to mind. The expansion of Coppin State from Baker Street to Gwynns Falls Parkway also pop up in my head. Sharon Pinder’s economic empowerment efforts as Special Secretary of the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs also emerge to the forefront of the brain.
This ongoing effort to help empower the Black community economically also required the help of people outside of government. The late attorney Arnold Jolivet, Esquire, and the construction titan Robert Lee Clay are potent reminders of the blood, sweat, and tears our ancestors have poured into Black economic empowerment efforts. And we can’t forget the dynamos out of Prince George’s County, like Wayne Curry. Ervin Reid reminds us of Curry’s politico-economic prowess and how he helped create opportunities for the county’s African American business community. State Senator Tommie Broadwater was another; he clearly understood the need to help empower the community from a business standpoint. There was also Hank Arrington. The Prince George’s County Sheriff wrote:
Never one to be idle or let the grass grow under his feet, after retirement, Hank established a construction company, PMA Associates, which has designations as 8 (a), Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, and MBE-DBE Certifications. Through PMA Associates, he has provided services to government clients such as Ft. Meade, Ft. Belvoir, and the Naval Research Laboratory. Currently, PMA is negotiating to manage the construction of two condominium buildings in Washington, DC. Always a forward thinker, his recent focus resulted in creating a team that will ensure the completion of these projects.
Wayne Frazier’s efforts at the Maryland-Washington Minority Companies Association are another example. A protégé of Jolivet’s, Frazier and his wife, Pat, have presented the most enormous minority-owned business breakfast of the calendar year at Martin’s West every spring for the past two decades. Everybody and their momma show up for his events, including politicians. Frazier is intent on breaking the glass ceiling and ensuring increasingly more African Americans get not only a seat at the table but an opportunity to buy the damn table.
According to the Book of James, we have not because we ask not. What is our ask?
Over the past 22 years at BMORENews.com, we have asked for more attention on Black businesses, public education, formerly incarcerated individuals, affordable housing, and universal access to healthcare. We have made some progress, but so much more is needed. And it will take all of us if we are to successfully go from super-consumers to super-producers.
That is a central part of our Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards mission at BMORENews. Besides the goal of spreading the news about the many “Black Wall Streets” across America, we also aim to increase entrepreneurship in the Black community. Given $1.6 trillion in annual disposable income, we believe that no Black-owned business worth its salt ought to have any problem thriving in business. We believe that when we work together, the individual fingers can become a mighty fist whereby increased progress can be made. On the other hand, if we do not find a way for Blacks to work together better cohesively, we are all doomed.
One of the Black community’s main issues is a lack of economic cooperation. I think too many of us get a couple of degrees and a house in the ‘burbs and come to think we don’t have to fight for what’s ours anymore.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As long as we are Black and in America, there will be a fight for a long time to come simply because of the racist elements that still permeate the very fabric of this nation – going back to its original sin (slavery). There are too many people, white and Black, who are stuck in a 1940s movie where racism is acceptable. And it is not.
And that is precisely the point behind this column. We should have hundreds of successful business owners like Bishop Barry Chapman of Bishop Barry’s Pest Control and Robert Harrington of R. E. Harrington, the largest minority underground conduit contractors in Baltimore. Instead of being the exception, they should be the norm.
You see, we need more than sub-contracts from white prime businesses. We need more Blacks as prime contractors. Bishop Barry shouldn’t have to go to Philadelphia to become a prime. That should be happening right here in his hometown.
Maryland has the most prominent Black Caucus in America. We have a Black governor (Wes Moore), a Black Attorney General (Anthony Brown), and a Black Treasurer (Dereck Davis). We also have four significant leaders from both chambers: House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County), Speaker Pro Tem Sheree Sample Hughes (D-Lower Shore), House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s), and Senate President Pro Tem Malcolm Augustine (D-Prince George’s). Baltimore City has a Black mayor (Brandon Scott), a Black Council President (Nick Mosby), a Black State’s Attorney (Ivan Bates), and a majority Black City Council. And Northwest Baltimore County has its second Black county councilman, Julian Jones.
Given all of these political resources, if we cannot make Black progress, then it’s our own fault.
With a Presidential election coming quickly in early November and the next Maryland General Assembly convening in January, it is high time the Black community—including politicians, preachers, and community leaders—came together to form that fist.
If we do not master ‘the ask’ given all of the resources the good Lord has bestowed upon us, then it is our fault, and we will become – in the words of Kweisi Mfume – “beggars sitting on bags of gold.”
Get involved in your community. And get a neighbor to join you.
P.S.
By the way, nobody is coming to save us. If we don’t do it, it won’t get done.
