Description
Comprehensive survey of black business development, discussing the remarkable continuity and diversity of black business. Some of the featured enterprises include commercial real estate speculation, rural and urban land development, and construction. African-American involvement in finance and investment activities, corporate and municipal bonds, international trade, and hair care product manufacturing is also examined. Moves beyond vague depersonalized accounts of groups of nameless blacks, and tells the triumphant and moving stories of people like Madame C. J. Walker, the first female African-American millionaire, and Frederick Douglas Patterson, the first African-American automaker.
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Beginning with the commercial trading networks that existed in Africa before and during the slave trading days, the author offers a survey of the tradition of black entrepreneurship brought by slaves to the American continent and continued to this day. From slaves who accumulated capital to buy freedom for themselves and their relatives to African-American auto-makers, this study proceeds on the premise that the post-Civil Rights era of black business activity marks the continuation, rather than the beginning, of a historic tradition of business that had its origin in precolonial West and West Central Africa. The author explores why many black businesses remain small and service-oriented, and argues that for the 21st century the major issue for black business is how to overcome racism and learn how to produce for and develop both national and international markets. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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