Black Capitalism Research Articles

Black power in the board room: Token or reality?

In relative terms, the recent increase in the number of blacks elected to boards of directors represents only about one-tenth of 1 percent of the directors of our thousand largest businesses. Certain ethnic groups seem to have achieved dominant positions with patience and hard work. Blacks, however, feel an urgency to make up for lost time. The revolutionary route is not timely or promising; step-by-step progression is very difficult; and black capitalism has as many cons as pros. More promising are the new dimensions in the structuring of the corporate board. The recent selection of a dozen or so black Americans is evidence of this change. Hopefully, it is not tokenism; the author feels that a continued rise is indicated.

The Role of the Negro Business School in Promoting Black Capitalism

(a) To develop and execute a program of higher education which will enable its graduates to perform effeotively in managerial and administrative capacities in government, industry, business, and related fields. (b) To stimulate entrepreneural activities, especially among minority groups, and promote greater participation in the business community by providing varied and broad programs of community service and technical assistance. (c) To participate in research activities which are designed to provide information concerning business and economic conditions and to improve business practices.1

Book Review: The Myth of Black Capitalism

Book Review: The Myth of Black Capitalism

Purchasing Department Inputs to Stimulate Black Capitalism

Purchasing Department Inputs to Stimulate Black Capitalism

Book Review: Black Capitalism: Strategy for Business in the Ghetto

Book Review: Black Capitalism: Strategy for Business in the Ghetto

The Myth and Irrationality of Black Capitalism

The Myth and Irrationality of Black Capitalism

The pros of black capitalism: A modest program can pay dividends

Black capitalism programs will not go far in solving our urban problems; a few billions poured into ghetto business will not revitalize the inner city. The idea, however, is not totally without merit. The author points out some misconceptions about the idea, then describes a feasible program for encouraging black entrepreneurship. Such a program should be modest, focus on training existing and potential small businessmen, utilize students in schools of business, and attempt to alter entry controls. These efforts will not change the world, but will give economic experience to people who need it, achieve gains in an area where any gain is hard to come by, and give both experience and sensitivity to the student working in the program.

The cons of black capitalism: Will this policy cure urban ills?

From the 1880's on, the Negro masses, urged by their leaders, were led to place increasing faith in business and property as a means of escaping poverty and achieving economic independence. Although ostensibly sponsored as the means of self-help or racial cooperation, as it was sometimes called, through which the masses were to be economically emancipated, Negro business enterprise was motivated primarily by the desire for private profit and looked toward the establishment of a Negro capitalism employer class. One of the clearest expressions of the growing tendency to look upon the development of Negro capitalism and business enterprise as the basis of racial economic advancement is found in the proceedings of the Fourth Atlanta University Conference (1898) on “The Negro in Business.” In his paper, “The Meaning of Business,” John Hope, the late president of the new Atlanta University, called upon the Negro to escape the wage-earning class and to become his own employer.

Government Incentives and Black Economic Development

Civil Rights activity since 1967 has taken a new direction and added a new dimension. The national Civil Rights organizations have elected to emphasize a variety of programs to improve the economic status of the American Negro. This is a significant change from the emphasis placed on local action in the courts.1 Although all of the economic programs advocated by militant and Black Civil Rights leaders are characterized by diversity, there are three basic solutions-oriented alternatives now advocated. The first is skills training and employment emphasis. The Urban League!2 and the NAACP3 have been active in programs to improve employment opportu? nities either through job placement or skills training, in new industrial firms in the ghetto or in established business. The primary participants in the jobs-oriented approach, however, are the private sector's large corpo? rations. For example, large corporations responded to former President Johnson's plea for help by establishing a JOBS Program under the sponsorship of the National Alliance of Businessmen. Firms participating in JOBS have already created 105,000 permanent jobs and have promised to provide at least 267,000 more for the hard core urban unemployed. A second general approach to the solution of the economic plight of the Negro is the Black economic development or the Black capitalism approach. One course of action would establish Negro businesses within the existing economic community. Negro businesses and capitalists would face competition across the color line. The alternative course would establish an economic substructure for the Blacks. In this environ? ment, newly formed Black businesses would operate in a market com? posed of Blacks. In extreme form, the latter alternative has a geographical or spatial dimension of a separate Black economic system. CORE, the Black Muslims, and the Black Panthers have already given evidence of a preference for the Black capitalism approach that leads to a separate Black economy.4

Social stability and black capitalism

Social stability and black capitalism