Hm “What Ken and I want to emphasize is that you have to learn how to start a company, grow a company and manage the company and have a legacy. Even if you build a brand and sell a brand, let that brand continue on,” said Dr. Hoskins. Blacks must learn how to build something, hold on to it and pass it on. The businesswoman hopes the tour will help spread that message. Dr. Hoskins said the biggest issue now is that Blacks do not spend their $1 trillion with each other. Once Black-owned businesses are identified, Blacks must then see the value in spending their money with those businesses. If Black people see the value of Michele Foods products as opposed to the maker of Aunt Jemima which is not a Black-owned company, Ms. Hoskins said it would enable her to hire “multitudes” of Black employees. Mark Allen, chairman of the Chicago branch of National Black Wall Street, U.S.A., said the powerful message of unity is an image Black people need to see reflected in Black leadership, particularly now. Mr. Allen, said the historic 1966 photograph of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holds weight, even today. “So, whether it was Dr. King’s (Operation) Breadbasket campaign or whether it was the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s Economic Program, despite your religious differences, they both were telling their members and supporters the importance of how to use their economic power to do more for self in the Black community,” said Mr. Allen. Operational unity in the 1960s was the catalyst for building Black businesses and jobs which increased economic and political growth. “That promise is even more so present today than it was yesterday,” he added. This is one reason Mr. Allen supports Minister Louis Farrakhan’s call for a meeting with national Black leaders and started a petition on Change. org in support of that meeting. In Chicago, National Black Wall Street has partnered with the city treasurer’s office in a campaign to help 1,000 children open savings accounts at a local bank. “You have to start investing into the mindset of our children. When you take thousands and thousands of children and show them the example of what it means to start saving and have a banking relationship instead of going into a relationship with the Currency Exchange, that’s going to grow into something significant,” said Mr. Allen. The busy activist said the organization is also spearheading efforts to reestablish a community location where people can come and learn economic and financial principles and how to create and sustain Black businesses in their communities.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 16:50:24 +0000
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