Say Brother; Black Business (1976); 619

Good evening and welcome to say brother. My name is Thomas Hardy and tonight we're going to be talking about businesses businesses in the Boston area particularly black businesses. With us this evening are Albert bishop. Who is the director of the southwest quarter land of element coalition. And Charles Cal the owner of Cal these jewelers and the president of the deadly terminal Merchants Association. And this evening gentleman I'd like to talk about. The good points about the black community about the economy that is currently functioning in the black community from from your point of view from both your points of view. What is what is good about about Roxbury good about deadly that a terminal about north or Chester what are the good points about the economy there. Well I can say that Dudley the deadly terminal has always been a good place to shop it's easy to get to. We have a

we have the Dudley Station which is. People can come in from. Madame pan and Columbia Point all the places the been coming in for years. And we've got five major banks. We've got supermarkets dime stores. We got a new civic centers going in and we would like to encourage people to still take advantage of all these and we are in process now of getting better parking we got a new parking lot that's being built now. Between Washington Street and Schama DAV and we have plans to build a parking lot is land become available. And we have a lot of plans to build the station we got a lot of face lifting programs going to go on we're going to have key.

We're going to have the new lighting going in with the new contract London on Warren Street. So it should be. A good place a good place to live. And we don't want people to have to forget about Dudley just because of the image that you know it's developed over the past years. Albert bishop you were put into rector of the southwest quarter correlation and I know you do have a planning background you've worked as an urban planner you've done some some work in terms of the long range aspects of the economic development questions in the deadly terminal area and also in the middle a Roxbury area of the South in Jamaica Plain. What kinds of what kinds of things are going to be happening in terms of the positive aspects of of the economy for for those areas. I think all three of the neighborhoods are going to see a tremendous boost in terms of the investment that's gone on by the city of Boston over the past 10 years. About one

hundred fifteen million dollars worth of school including a 40 million dollar campus high school fire stations the kinds of things that are part of the public amenities and make a place a pleasant place to live. So Roxbury the south and in Jamaica Plain both have had the benefit of a lot of investment over the past 10 to 15 years. It's kind of hard to to when you're involved in day to day kinds of things you think 10 15 years down the road. But certainly the last 15 years have given an economic base for building the next 15 to 20 years I think that area is going to be the growth area for the city. There aren't too many other directions in which the city can expand if it wants to stay healthy. So I think we can look forward to possibly struggle might be as better as the one in the south then as people try to find ways to divert the growth that's coming into an area to make it their own benefit. But the areas I think are growth areas for Boston the neighborhoods there over the next 10 15 years are going to be the places where people want to live

who want to live in the city. And that presents a lot of problems but it's a lot of promise there too. And what about we're going to black businesses we know that one of the one of the images that most black communities around the country have is affected with the image of white businesses coming into the area controlling the area taking the money out of the area and moving it out to the suburbs. What ways in which what ways are there rather that that black businesses can can move in and develop and actually have some kind of controlling interest in the local community. Mr. Calvert is is are there any things that you as a member of of a business organization currently in the black area. Is there anything that you know or any way that you see to help black businesses come in. Their best thing I see would be to encourage black businesses in a black community to people shop in their own community. If a person goes out of their community to shop and it doesn't encourage any business to

stay in the community. It's best for them not to think negative where their community is concerned we are our community is only as good as we make it and the people who are. Who want to see things better things come about they have to be a part of it. Business can't prosper any more than white business. If if if if we have a declining clientele and and that's what we try and avoid it. Lee at the Dudley terminal we try and do. We have a program now to uplift the the area. You know in facelift the year you are going to begin the beautifier stores we got a street beautification program but we'll still need the community people to come in and take advantage of all this. We have every thing to offer. We have every

type of stored you know it's rather than go out and drive off somewhere to a shopping mall and get. Deal in the supermarket with less expertise we have merchants in the area which it is it's able to give them much better service and that's the type. That's what made Dudley Station one of the things that made deadly deadly station deadly terminal. It is the fact of Transportation the deadly terminal is a major transportation stopping point transfer point for the area. But I know one of the things that Albert bishop is working on is part of the Orange Line redevelopment program the project that will eventually move one major aspect of Delhi terminal that the Orange Line itself will be moving it over to the current Penn Central tracks. How do you think the movement of the actual moving of the tracks from from Dudley Station as it is now to the Penn Central tracks will affect the businesses that are currently there.

I think it's just depends on how they respond to the some of the new things that we're doing if we can provide adequate parking and maintain the services that we've done in the past I don't think we. We would lose the clientele I think the new development would add to the area rather than make the area decline. Well one of the one of the other factors is jobs jobs are the foundation for any economic and economic development in the economic planning. We have to have jobs and I know there's a lot of money coming into the area as a result of transportation planning and a lot of that money is going to hopefully stay there. But I think I should direct this question to Mr. Bishop. The question of the the amount of money how much money is coming in what kinds of jobs are coming in and how is this going to affect. The the deadly merchants. I think that the Department of Transportation has already announced a 40 million dollar grant to Massachusetts to start work on the southwest corridor. That's about fifteen hundred to two

thousand jobs that could start in September when the engineering is done. The whole Southwest cargo project is 400 million dollars. Upwards of 400 million dollars of course that doesn't include the cost overruns when the project is finished. But it's one of the largest projects that the state has ever undertaken. And that's going to mean that with the set aside of jobs that the black community is guaranteed and with 30 percent of those jobs it will be a lot of cash flowing into the community from people working on the projects. And I guess we think that the Southwest Carter is a long way off but we'll start talking about beginning construction on the south coast tunnel in September. Of this year which is in the in the South am. So that's a lot of money to be invested in the community and transportation. We hope also that one of the station will be new line called the rock for placement service which will line off the Orange Line to Grove Hall and then the matter which should be a boost to Dudley we hope.

Another quick other question the whole question of black vs. white businesses. We know that we know that generally most of the business most of the economy economic foundation for this country has been white businesses. We know that lately through President former President Nixon and others there's been a push towards black capitalism. But how does this affect the local communities what how do local communities begin to support people who want to start businesses who want to develop new businesses who want to basically move into an area and help to provide a solid economic foundation for it. How do you do that and not create animosity with the white businesses that you have for the last few years been wanting to move out. How do you go about doing that. Well that's one of the problems we've had in this area. We started out with less than 2 percent black businesses I think all over the country and dudly terminal was no exception. I can remember a

time when I was the only black businesses business at the Dudley terminal but now we it's different times now. We are. I think the statistic is that four out of five businesses fail normally. So black people with all the other hang up they have they have they have. And there were no exceptions. So so we just have to keep black businesses coming in at the rate that it was coming in and the right type of black people. If we go in many because that was a. Boom for black businesses and big encourage meant for black businesses to go in I don't think we got the right type of people into businesses. We should have gotten. If we get the right type of people in the business some of them will succeed. The people who is willing to make sacrifices you know are people who's willing to

pay themselves less. You know I mean you're right. There is a break even point in business and some time when people get the idea of business they don't know that there is such a thing as a breakeven point. They do everything the what they always wanted to do with the money and that's what happened. So if we get the right type of people in business I think we're going to see that change we're going to begin to get more black people in business. Mr. Bishop what about what about the government level what about the governmental supports that can be used to help out black businesses to create that initial working capital that you need to to buy a store to begin to rent a store to buy your initial stock. What governmental systems are set up now for anybody out there who wants to start a business who wants to develop a business. Well they want to call venture capital operations and we're fortunate to have one in Roxbury the circle venture capital fund which is now called the Greater Roxbury Development Corporation.

But they provide investments to start people up and in businesses of various kinds. I think their investments are geared toward larger businesses because they will not invest under $50000 in the business. There's the Small Business Administration of the federal government. Well there are a lot of criticisms of these programs and they work in some cases and they don't work in other cases but at least there's a range of resources the Community Development Corporation of Boston is another group for example that assist businesses so that there are a range of groups out there. I don't think the federal sources though or state sources are as important as all of us trying to well finding some way to identify the young entrepreneurs in our community. And since I've been working on the past two years on the southwest car I would start to see a number of people who've grown up in Roxbury to south and who've gone to school maybe a B U of Boston College who've taken business and who want to go into business for themselves. They may have a textbook approach to how to go to business go into business in other words if you sit down you do your cash flow statement that's enough

without realizing you know that you've got to have a lot of hard experience. Maybe what we need to do is to find ways to make connections between people who've gone into business in our community and some of the young entrepreneurs that are coming up. But they've got a lot of good ideas. Mr. Kelly would what do you mean Mr. Bishop just talked about. People who want to come into businesses what are the right types of businesses we I think we've defined with the right types of people are people who have a stake in them in the local area. What kinds of businesses are the right type. What kinds of are the ones that are actually going to make it. The businesses that perform a service to the people that you're trying to are trying to attract to add what something that Mr. Bishop said. I think when I said we need to attract the right type of people in the business I mean that. If somebody is operating a department store. For a company well it's very hard to attract just person to business because any would have to take the risk as

long as he's getting a job. You know he's got a job will he have no wrist so he might be the right type of person who could make this business succeed but he has to take this risk. And so there were there for you. You'll get the type of person that going to business who don't. Who don't. Who doesn't necessary take a risk. You see so his chances of succeeding is very poor. So Sue we're talking about the kind of person is going to take that risk who's going to spend that extra time is the person who lives there was live there all his life he's going to be there for for an extended period of time. Not a person who's going to come in and will say rip off the money and leave. Yeah I think people are getting more sophisticated. That point because one of the criticisms made about a lot of the development activity whether it's community sponsored or otherwise is going on in Roxbury and I'm at a pan and Dorchester is that. If we don't take enough time to really think about what we want to do and we don't find ways to open up

opportunities for each other when we know that there are opportunities that are there. But I think we see a number of people that are coming on got some really fine ideas and we've got to find ways to encourage them to help them find the capital to get started to point out opportunities for them because a number of us know where the opportunities are. And I think that we can point out some of those we can help people put the packages together they need to get started. Nobody's going to start out with a multimillion dollar project. You know so some fortunes can be made in small embrace and you know we need the point is to start. I think that might be the key note in which we have to we have to close. But I thank you for coming and talking with us and Charles Kelby and I thank you very much. And I'd also like to thank all of you for watching. And good evening to say rather. Black businesses will have a tough time this year trying to recover from America's worst recession since the 1930s. Inflation has cut deeply into the already

meager incomes of many black Americans and spending on consumer goods has dropped by 13 percent. With black unemployment running at a rate twice as high as the general population black businesses will be maneuvering in extremely difficult waters in the coming here. None of our businesses have made the prestigious Fortune 500. But here is a look at the names of the top ten black businesses in America. Listed in order of. Sales. Then said the business is one of the things that makes the world go round. That's an area that relatively few women have become involved in this country

probably more and more of us will become involved in it. And this evening I thought we'd take a few minutes to talk with Mrs. Bunny Jackson. From Atlanta Georgia who has just begun a business. That is you have to get up your nerve to do that. Well not really because I've sort of been. In business. Book. For a long time. Business is my area of specialty I have a. Basic degree in business and. Even though when I went to college. I went to college during the era where everyone said you must get a teacher's certificate is an insurance policy. And so I went to a business college or business school at a college and I took a course in business. But I have a degree. In education. As well as a degree in administration. You know so we had the. Parents told us to take an education get a teacher's did if you can always teach.

But I found that I was more interested in the accounting courses of the modeling courses or the insurance courses or just the general administration courses. Even though I had the typing in the shorthand I won't admit to anybody that I can type. That's one mistake I didn't know first for a start and I lied and I don't know why you have to do this. And unfortunately you know they put you right in front of a typewriter and there you are. But that's a way to move up. I really believe that if you're if you're on the ball if you can move into a company as a secretary and make yourself indispensable. You have an automatic entree. I taught business for years and been in college and greens a bar. And used to try to tell the students that taught. Make yourselves indispensable. Yes through the whole sale a bonanza something were to. Have been remote from the people I think because of the math partly because of the mathematics we were

afraid of it. I was terrified. Well we don't have to be experts in there. We can always hire an accountant. Then I get out of there. You know you surround yourself with expertise that you don't have. All you have to do. I think the new terminology is assertive. So obviously would you recommend to go ahead and get a degree outside of the social sciences. Really I really believe that I'm prejudiced toward going toward that field but you can move into so many areas from business. How does one begin a business. How did you how did you decide. To just say I'm going to do it. And you go out and you do it. And in terms of deciding what do you do. Well it was a long thought process for me. I knew that it had to be a

flexible kind of thing that I went into. I couldn't go and work for somebody because I have three children a husband who is very active and I want to be able to been some time with him and the kids. So there are many times that I'll get to my office until 11 o'clock in the morning or. I just didn't want to punch the clock. I didn't want that kind of a thing so it had to be my own business. And so I started a one woman person public relations company in my basement. I would do a job one month and maybe get involved and then realize that I had to do something with the kids next month and get out of it for a while. And wasn't I wasn't going anywhere I wasn't moving in the basement. Besides you nobody believed I was serious with the office in the basement. So one day I was just talking to some of my girlfriends who were. Just as qualified as I think I am. About

how much time we spent volunteering. Not it is anything Roland being a volunteer for us it's a very rewarding thing to do. But we were talking about look you know we had planned a dozen conventions as a volunteer we've taken on a million tourists around the city as a volunteer we've done this we planned this party we've planned this reception. Let's put it together. Let's let's do something with it plus there are other tool companies popping up across the country. And in Atlanta they were showing us black people. Well who knows more about me than me. Who can tell more about the black community in Atlanta than a black person so why should there be a tour bus coming down my street with the white to a company. So we started off as a tool company and we said well we go plant tools we might as well plant conventions we've done it before so then we expand it to planning conventions and planning too. But public relations

will still mask the heart. I like getting out there. I like meeting people I like moving around I sort of like to be behind the person in the front. So I said well I'll continue to do the PR and sort of merge my basement company with our new cover which is first class. And we tried to come up with a name that was an all encompassing name that really didn't identify. Tours or convention planners. So that we could do a number of things in a number of places like we on Atlanta hostesses or whatever we first class or whatever we do we do it first class. I don't live in Atlanta I mean maybe Boston maybe Atlanta and maybe anywhere. But so now we are a basic public relations agency. We specialize in grand openings that we do print meals that we handle private citizens individuals what I like to call personal public

relations as opposed to a product. We like to promote the person. We do local tuna rary playing in Atlanta because that's where our major contacts. We do. Let me ask you something. Do you think it's important for people to have a broad base of contacts already established or whatever it is about what you're going into really know. You mentioned we had no fun. We were encouraged really to go to a bank and get a loan. We didn't want to do that fortunately and this is not what happens to most people but we consider ourselves fortunate in that we weren't the bread winners of a family. There were four of us four black women. Mrs. Billy Aaron who is Hank Aaron's wife Mrs. Lynn the goalie is a Sam goalie as well as a dentist. Mrs. William Allison and Allison has one is with the local anti-poverty agency he is the administrator of that and me. You are Maynard Jackson's work for

ideas. So we decided that this was our time. No one was depending on us to put a roof over their heads or to feed them. We didn't have to get a bank loan we could put in $500 a piece or whatever we felt like we needed to get a telephone and get an office and Bassam supplies. And then get on the phone and get out on the street you know telling people what we heard and we have been in business for two months as a company we have never been without.