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Home , Black capitalism, MOVE

Laura Warren Hill, Julia Rabig, eds.. The of : Community Development, , and Corporate Responsibility in Postwar America. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2012. 354 pp. $29.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-58046-440-6.

Reviewed by Shennette Garrett-Scott

Published on H-Business (March, 2013)

Commissioned by Tracey Deutsch (University of Minnesota)

In the subtitle of The Business of Black Power, Business of Black Power tackles just such an am‐ editors Laura Warren Hill and Julia Rabig tackle bitious project. what appears on the surface conficting models of To their great credit, the contributors mine economic power: “capitalism” and “community traditional and nontraditional business sources, development.” The essays in the collection wrestle such as annual reports, marketing materials, cor‐ with the relationship between these paradigms of porate memoranda and correspondence, commu‐ economic development by focusing on a specifc nity newsletters, and oral histories. They recover moment in US history: the Black Power era. As the oft-ignored economic ambitions of the ‐ broadly conceived by the new Black Power stud‐ ment, something that contemporaries openly con‐ ies, the era stretched from the late 1950s to the ceded but that historians have been slow to ac‐ early 1980s although the works here focus on the knowledge despite the movement’s professed mid-1960s to the late 1970s. commitment to economic development. The edi‐ The essays make signifcant contributions to tors critique as an ideology that the historiographies of business history and Black shaped black liberation eforts, as a principle that Power history. Issues of race, gender, and class, so guided government and corporate initiatives, and integral to understanding power, identity, and as a practice that worked within and outside of meaning in US history, reveal their analytic and the separate black economy. interpretive in telling these stories that con‐ The Business of Black Power focuses squarely ventional business histories often fail to grapple on those economic dimensions of Black Power. with or take the full measure of. The more ambi‐ Black Power activists and scholars alike certainly tious histories of capitalism remind us that race, critiqued capitalism and addressed issues of eco‐ gender, and class are not just incidental but fun‐ nomic justice, particularly through community- damental in exploring how business is done. The H-Net Reviews based activism to eradicate poverty and articulate raphy and recover the economic dimensions of welfare rights. However, labor and business cre‐ the . They describe the his‐ ation were also signifcant. Indeed, a Black Power toriography as refecting various periods when ei‐ advocate in late 1960s Rochester expressed the ther the separatist or integrationist orientation sentiment that “all power--political, social, and prevailed over the other: “when separatist civil--derived from economic power” (p. 53). The thought was strong, integrationist thought was present collection explores the complicated story weak” (p. 16).[1] For example, Hill and Rabig ar‐ of economic justice and reestablishes the place of gue that separatism peaked in the frst few black capitalism within the Black Power move‐ decades of the century because of transforma‐ ment. tions in the US economy, new patterns of con‐ The contributors complicate our understand‐ sumption, and the crystallization of Jim Crow. ings of Black Power--as an aesthetic, ideology, and Around World War II, however, an integrationist praxis--and, especially important, they also con‐ sentiment prevailed as African lever‐ test traditional notions of capitalism. As such, pri‐ aged the federal government and the postwar la‐ vate make limited appearances in bor boom. During the Black Power era, African the volume. Indeed, fve of its nine essays focus Americans came back full circle: “African Ameri‐ on community development corporations (CDCs), cans once again closed ranks to pursue Black because, as Rabig ofers, “CDCs represented the business” (p. 16). potential embodiment of the business of Black This is a very successful essay on many scores [P]ower because they combined the promises of but potential readers should be aware that this locally responsive decision making with seeming‐ neat chronology comes at a cost. Periodizing inte‐ ly vibrant models of economic development” (p. grationism and segregationism limits the ability to 246). CDCs are community-based, nonproft orga‐ thread together how historic actors operated cre‐ nizations that direct private and federal atively within and outside of structural con‐ funds to develop infrastructure, improve housing, straints and opportunities. Without a more self- do community planning, and provide social and conscious acknowledgement of the ways that the cultural services within specifc communities. In two ideologies are intertwined, the histories pre‐ many instances, CDCs also own and operate or sented here run the risk of being seen as mere iso‐ manage . In focusing on entities like lated incidents not essentially connected to events CDCs, the essays reveal the dynamism within def‐ in the past and having very little to do with the nitions of capitalism and the fexibility in consid‐ present. Indeed, separatism and integrationism erations of capitalists. Idealistic individuals and should be understood as fractious elements in groups hoped to turn the bittersweet and incom‐ tension with each other at the same time rather plete victories of the modern civil rights move‐ than as discrete ideologies that peak at various ment into more tangible benefts for people on historical moments. Some recent black business the lowest rungs of the US social and economic scholarship not only acknowledges both ideologi‐ ladder, like wealth building, adequate housing, cal orientations but also complicates their actual and community-based institutions. practice.[2] In the introduction, entitled “Toward a Histo‐ The two chapters in part 1 “Black Capitalism ry of Black Power,” Hill and Rabig achieve two in Pursuit of Black Freedom,” explore corpora‐ goals in their cogent survey of black business his‐ tions, CDCs, and an economic development corpo‐ tory from 1900 to the 1970s: they contextualize ration (EDC). In “FIGHTing for the Soul of Capital‐ black business within African American historiog‐ ism: Struggles for Black Economic Development in

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Postrebellion Rochester,” Hill highlights Rochester though admitting the biggest casualty was “the de‐ as an unlikely place for a race riot and for a pio‐ cline of Black-owned beauty ” (pp. neering partnership between Black Power and 116-117). Feitz outlines the evolution of Avon’s civil rights activists and major US corporations. three-part corporate social responsibility (CSR) Hill charts the contentious relationships between strategy in the early seventies; its partnership and among activists in FIGHTON and the execu‐ with black public relations frms and organiza‐ tives at Xerox and Eastman Kodak. Both sides em‐ tions like Operation PUSH (People United to Save braced the advantages of job training and place‐ Humanity); and the decline of black-owned beau‐ ment, especially for the “hard-core unemployed,” ty frms. Avon aggressively pursued CSR--not from but held competing notions of what black eco‐ a high-minded desire to address its lack of focus nomic development and ownership actually on women who fell outside of its white, suburban meant and the roles the other should play (p. 53). housewife business model but out of twin desires Nishani Frazier’s essay, “A McDonald’s That to increase its market share and to avoid govern‐ Refects the Soul of a People: Hough Area Develop‐ ment intervention. The visibility of the Black Pow‐ ment [HADC] and Community Devel‐ er movement, riots in urban cities, and calls for opment in Cleveland,” is the only one of the book national boycotts convinced Avon “that racism that focuses on an EDC, a type of CDC that focuses was an economic liability” (p. 122). more specifcally on business development. The The two chapters in part 3, “The Business of HADC experimented with communally owned Black Power in City and Suburb,” reconfgure the franchises as a way to “build collective wealth” relationship between power and capitalism out‐ and exercise “community control” (pp. 68, 72). side of either CDCs or private corporations. The Frazier’s is a fascinating story of internal dissen‐ works in this section most aggressively challenge sion: fundamental diferences in the goals and vi‐ the boundaries of what constitutes capital and sions of various Black Power factions within and capitalists. In “From Landless to Landlords: Black outside of the EDC rendered it vulnerable to criti‐ Power, Black Capitalism, and Co-optation of De‐ cism in the white press and provoked the very troit Tenants’ Rights Movement, 1964-1969,” David smothering oversight by the federal government Goldberg contends that direct action on the part that HADC’s leadership wanted to avoid. of tenants’ rights groups falls within the purview The two chapters in part 2, “Selling Women, of capitalism studies: “By shifting from landless to Culture, and Black Power,” turn to businesses fo‐ landlords, Detroit tenants’ rights movement ac‐ cused on women consumers. In “Black (Buying) tivists attempted to put community control and Power: The Story of Essence Magazine,” Alexis Black Power into practice by rehabilitating low-in‐ Pauline Gumbs reconsiders the economic motiva‐ come housing that would be collectively owned tions of the magazine’s founders and the tensions and managed by tenants themselves” (p. 158). between their desire to make the magazine a Goldberg focuses on the coalitions and contests proftable one, promote black feminist perspec‐ between slumlords, civil rights organizations, reli‐ tives, and advance the Black Power aesthetic and gious leaders, corporate liberals, and federal bu‐ its politics: “Essence became a project that both reaucrats. He uncovers the complex story of ten‐ exploited and empowered Black women” (p. 97). ants’ eforts to secure and mobilize private and In “Creating a Multicultural Soul: Avon, Corporate public funding for cooperatively owned low-in‐ Social Responsibility, and Race in the 1970s,” Lind‐ come housing. Andrea Gill’s essay “‘Gilding the sey Feitz recounts Avon’s more successful trajecto‐ ’ and Debates over Chicago’s Gautreaux ry of commodifying the Black Power aesthetic, Program” focuses on a series of lawsuits in Chica‐ go that challenged racial discrimination in federal

3 H-Net Reviews housing and sought solutions that ranged from re‐ of the three, capitalized on militant-minded location to rehabilitation of existing housing church activists and Catholic Church networks. stock. A constituency upon which the litigants ex‐ Rabig does a fne job of distilling the key experi‐ pected support, namely, successful black housing ences and personalities of each group. Michael O. developers and small business owners, fought West rounds out the volume with an essay that against the notion of cooperative capitalism and briefy comments on the works in the volume, evaded eforts to initiate the Gautreaux decision. and Robert E. Weems concludes the collection Although these historical actors stressed collective with an epilogue that ruefully ponders “Whatever ownership, they also engaged with more conven‐ Happened to the Business of Black Power?” tional capitalism in their desire to direct private The multiple essays in this volume that in‐ and public investment, utilize existing minority- volve CDCs are meditations on a common theme: owned construction frms and skilled tradespeo‐ the failure of these various groups to achieve ple, and build up an infrastructure of small busi‐ long-term fnancial success for themselves or nesses and social service agencies in the commu‐ their communities. (In this way, they echo the ex‐ nity. This section most vividly engages the editors’ perience of many businesses with less high-mind‐ broader purpose of exploring how business em‐ ed goals.) Indeed, the history of American busi‐ braced the Black Power paradigm rather than ness is more accurately one of failure than re‐ merely exploring how businesses operated during sounding success.[3] Small victories are pyrrhic the Black Power movement. ones, as activists and groups fnd themselves un‐ The fnal section, part 4, “Community Devel‐ able to overcome either the obdurate problems of opment Corporations and the Business of Black unemployment and poverty or the snares of Power Policymaking,” contains two essays that re‐ chronic underfunding and lack of political will. visit the CDC. In “‘What We Need Is Brick and Though dogged by failure to achieve their goals, Mortar’: Race, Gender, and Early Leadership of these rich, local histories refect that activists fully the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation believed they could wrest from large corpora‐ [BSRC],” Brian Purnell not only interrogates Black tions, national organizations, and local and feder‐ Power themes within a CDC about which a sub‐ al governments the tools they needed to combat stantial literature already exists but also draws poverty, build wealth, and secure the elusive out the dynamic processes of race and gender. “American Dream” for millions of Americans, es‐ Purnell highlights how gender-infected ideologies pecially people of color living in some of the na‐ shaped consideration of the problems--and solu‐ tion’s poorest areas. tions--for economic development in the New York My sorest point of contention with the collec‐ neighborhood. “‘A Fight and a Question’: Commu‐ tion is that, for a work that makes such signifcant nity Development Corporations, Machine Politics, inroads into understanding black capitalism, the and Corporate Philanthropy in the Long Urban most practical expressions of “black capitalism” in Crisis” by Rabig explores three CDCs in Newark, the form of black-owned businesses seldom ap‐ , that sprang from divergent ideologi‐ pear in the book. How did older and newer black cal sources and relied on distinctive strategies but businesses deal with the Black Power aesthetic shared a common vision. The Tri-City Citizens and increased with white businesses? Union for Progress relied on a hybrid black capi‐ How did the activities and demands of black-con‐ talism and labor union model; the Congress of trolled CDCs and EDCs afect black businesses’ ap‐ African People attempted to integrate cultural na‐ proaches to CSR? The defcit is due, in part, to the tionalist ideology and institution building; and the volume’s great strength: sources. The rich sources New Community Corporation, the most successful

4 H-Net Reviews are invaluable in telling the stories in the volume This collection merits the attention of many but, in their absence, vex the telling of others. business historians. The work enthusiastically en‐ More explicit connections with the long histo‐ gages eforts to unite complementary strains of ry of black business might address the absence of economic, social, and political histories. As a re‐ black-owned businesses. Indeed, the polarization sult, it makes business history more inclusive and of separatist and integrationist orientations out‐ accessible to a broader range of scholars and stu‐ lined in the introduction limit the ability of the dents. The Business of Black Power also refects works in the collection to connect with that longer the trend to embrace a broader range of institu‐ history. Many of the essays do highlight connec‐ tions and actors in studies of capitalism. The ac‐ tions between institutions tors are varied--federal and municipal agencies, and activists. But what about other legacies? How politicians, corporate executives, local business did these activists draw on the strategies and tac‐ owners, religious groups and leaders, and civic tics of previous generations of civic, religious, and and community groups. They also felt varying lev‐ business leaders seeking similar goals for eco‐ els of comfort with the insistent calls for race nomic justice? More specifcally, did these ac‐ pride, power sharing, and economic justice. In tivists rely on networks established through or highlighting activists’ eforts to bend capitalism to draw from family or community members in‐ the cause of black liberation, the work illuminates volved in earlier pro-black business organiza‐ a critical moment in both economic and cultural tions, like local branches of the National Negro history. Finally, it challenges conventional bound‐ Business League, Universal Negro Improvement aries around capitalism, encouraging scholars to Association (UNIA), or National Housewives’ see its presence in unexpected places. This collec‐ League (NHL)? The UNIA and NHL in particular tion is highly recommended reading for scholars experienced their largest bases of support and of post-World War II business, urban, and African greatest infuence in the very northeastern and American histories and for activists and policy‐ midwestern urban centers that animate these es‐ makers dealing with current issues of economic says.[4] Surely, these institutional legacies contin‐ development and empowerment. ued to infuence and inform activists less than a Notes generation removed. [1]. For an alternate periodization of black As a whole, The Business of Black Power re‐ business historiography, see Shennette Garrett, “A veals the allure and the challenge of striking a Historiography of African American Business,” tenable balance between ideology and praxis. The Business and Economic History 7 (2009): http:// desire to do good and to make a proft are not mu‐ www.thebhc.org/publications/BEHonline/2009/be‐ tually exclusive orientations. Rather than see the h2009.html. capitalist impulse as sullying the motives or un‐ [2]. Consider Tifany M. Gill, Beauty Shop Poli‐ dermining eforts for black liberation and eco‐ tics: African American Women’s Activism in the nomic justice, the essays reveal them as highly nu‐ Beauty Industry (Urbana: University of Illinois anced and complicated processes with competing Press, 2010). Assessing the early decades of the visions of how to achieve those goals. For all of twentieth century, Gill writes, “increased violence these reasons, Hill and Rabig certainly succeed in and hostility toward led the their stated purpose to uncover and analyze “the black community to look internally to create and multifaceted and wide-ranging strains of econom‐ sustain politically and economically independent ic development in the era of Black Power” (p. 1). families and communities, leading to an expand‐ ed role for black women who politicized their

5 H-Net Reviews roles as mothers and educators and a heightened Relationships, Financial Entanglements, and importance given to a nationalistic economic Small Business Failure in Nineteenth-Century agenda” (p. 11). However, she recognizes several Brooklyn.” factors that complicated just how internally or ex‐ [4]. Good examples of pro-black business ac‐ ternally oriented beauticians, beauty schools, and tivities within 1930s-era NHL locals include Victo‐ manufacturers actually were in practice, includ‐ ria W. Wolcott, “Economic Self-Help and Black Na‐ ing the complexities of , the con‐ tionalism in the Great Depression,” in Remaking tinued competition with white- and foreign- Respectability: African American Women in Inter‐ owned businesses, the reality that some black war Detroit (Chapel Hill: University of North Car‐ beauticians retained a whites-only clientele, and olina Press, 2001), 167-206; and Cheryl Lynn “the gendered rhetoric of economics and en‐ Greenberg, “‘Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work,’” trepreneurship within the racial uplift ethos” (p. in Or Does It Explode? Black Harlem in the Great 12). In addition, Juliet E. K. Walker’s revised and Depression (New York: Oxford University Press, updated survey of black business further high‐ 1997), 114-139. lights the tensions among integrationism and seg‐ regationism since enterprising Africans frst ar‐ rived on the North American continent. In their consideration of mid- and late twentieth century black business and the federal government, Robert E. Weems and Lewis A. Randolph also cap‐ italize on the integrative theme of “self help” in black business development and utilize an institu‐ tional focus to highlight complex intersections within and between the two ideological orienta‐ tions. See Juliet E. K. Walker, The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, En‐ trepreneurship, vol. 1, To 1865 (Chapel Hill: Uni‐ versity of North Carolina Press, 2009); Juliet E. K. Walker, The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, , vol. 2, Since 1865 (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998; rev. ed., Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming 2013); and Robert E. Weems and Lewis A. Randolph, Business in Black and White: American Presidents and Black En‐ trepreneurs in the Twentieth Century (New York: New York University, 2009). [3]. See Scott Sandage, Born Losers: A History of Failure in America (Cambridge: Harvard Uni‐ versity Press, 2005); Patrick Fridenson, “Business Failure and the Agenda of Business History,” En‐ terprise and Society 5, no. 4 (December 2004): 562-582; and Jocelyn Willis’s forthcoming, tenta‐ tively titled “The Gilded-Age ‘Smash-Up’: Personal

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Citation: Shennette Garrett-Scott. Review of Hill, Laura Warren; Rabig, Julia, eds. The Business of Black Power: Community Development, Capitalism, and Corporate Responsibility in Postwar America. H- Business, H-Net Reviews. March, 2013.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38386

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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