Remembering Montgomery, wielding black economic power

By Monica Lewis
BlackAmericaWeb.com

[This is the first installment of a four-part series. Click here to read the additional stories.]
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(November 28, 2005) A half a century ago this week, blacks in Montgomery, Alabama sent a message by keeping the money they normally spent on bus transportation to themselves as part of a year-long boycott.

The move -- which, in essence, crippled the city’s major transit system, was a bold one. Blacks, fed up with mistreatment from the separate and unequal system of the Jim Crow era, knew the power their money wielded, and they weren’t afraid to do without to see that change was made.

Today, a similar movement could happen, but there are other ways to make the voices of our community heard by the powers that be, some say.

Stephen Washington, president of the Cleveland-based Black Wealth Network, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that a sit-out or one-day ban on buying a particular item or shopping at a particular store could work temporarily, but blacks could gain greater benefits by becoming owners, not just consumers.

“[Rather than a boycott] what would be even more interesting to me would be sort of unified focus on accumulating ownership in areas where we’re strongly affected,” said Washington, founder and managing director of the Black Wealth Network, an online investing company. “In other words, we need to be buying stock in companies where we as African-Americans have a large consumer profile.”

Industries such as sneakers, cosmetics and clothing apparel, Washington said, thrive off of the black dollar, with African-Americans making upwards of 25 percent of their customers, while only making up roughly 13 percent of the nation’s population.

“Why not accumulate ownership in those industries so that you benefit as much as those who benefit from being an owner?” Washington asked, pointing out that, with the large numbers of blacks spending hundreds of dollars on Nike shoes, the impact made from those same blacks becoming shareholders in the company would be phenomenal.

The only hurdle, Washington said, is that most major corporations aren’t making it known that investors are welcome.

“Companies who know their customers well put some effort to reaching those customers through advertising, but what they don’t do is market the opportunities to become an investor,” Washington said, adding that most publicly-traded companies will hire consultants to target investors, an outreach tool rarely used amongst the black community.

“These big companies know that when you become an investor, you have a say-so. An owner is a lot more powerful than a customer,” Washington said. “To me, we should unify around those areas as an ownership group. That way, we would have a tangible benefit from a collective as opposed to a symbolic gesture.”

The symbolic gestures, Washington said, are good for temporary gains, but the long-haul requires something more forceful than a boycott. With today’s world much different than the one Rosa Parks lived in 50 years ago, similar action created after her arrest might not be as effective, Washington said.

“You could prove a point,” Washington said, adding that businesses would realize that the black customer base is needed. “But beyond proving a point, what did you really get out of it?”

Melissa Harris Lacewell, Ph.D., a political science professor at the University of Chicago, said the Montgomery bus boycott wasn’t successful because it was the first time such a stand had been taken. In fact, she said, similar actions had been made by blacks in many southern cities for decades prior to Montgomery. What made it a success, Harris Lacewell said, was leadership, something that would be needed today to truly show the power of the black dollar.

“When we think about what caused the success of Montgomery, it’s not just the idea of boycotting or power of the dollar; it was a variety of factors,” Harris Lacewell told BlackAmericaWeb.com, acknowledging the well-oiled machine run by a young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the even-tempered personality of an ordinary woman like Parks.

Today, blacks would largely have more success on a local level, rather than attempting to wholeheartedly boycott a national chain, Harris Lacewell said, due largely to the growing diversity within our own community. With upper, middle and lower class black residential areas in just about every major city, it could be difficult to have the same level of accountability for blacks when attempting to make companies see the true power of the black dollar.

“Our capital is much broader today, and boycotts at major levels require a great deal of accountability. You simply need to be able to hold one another accountable,” Harris Lacewell said. “You’ve got to be prepared to look at your neighbor, look at the person next to you in the church pew and hold them accountable.”

Because things have changed so much over the last 50 years, Harris Lacewell said, there is a price to pay when granted the same privileges as members of other races.

“When you look at where the black dollars are spent, the vast majority is spent like white dollars,” Harris Lacewell said. “The only dollars really spent solely within our community are at barber shops and beauty salons. We tend to buy clothes, food and other things like other Americans."

She credited people like radio personality Tom Joyner for urging blacks to take action with their wallets against national chains like CompUSA and John Deere. But in a society where blacks presumably have as much access as whites, she said, that pressure can only go so far.

“This is part of the blessing and the curse of having so much more opportunity [than in the past],” Harris Lacewell said, adding that, for the most part, the major audience that companies target -- blacks 25 and under -- are often hard-pressed to find a cause their willing to stand up for.

“What sort of racial issue would move the 25-year-old African-American consumer to change their spending habits?” Harris Lacewell asked, yet not chalking all the responsibility on this particular group.

“We tend to think they’re apathetic, but they just don’t have a clear sense of where things lie,” she said. “In this transition, our civil rights organizations have done a bad job of really defining the issues for them.”

Washington agreed, adding that our best bet for making a serious dent in any corporation is by joining in on the party.

“[During the civil rights era], they used economics to achieve political goals,” Washington said. “Now, I think it’s harder to do that. It would be more effective to use that same unity to actually redirect dollars in a way to bring the economic benefit to you.”

Bus systems across the nation to pay tribute to late civil rights icon

Associated Press
(November 28, 2005) Dozens of bus systems nationwide, including Philadelphia's and Pittsburgh's, will pay tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks on Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the day she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man.

In Philadelphia, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will decorate the interior and exterior of one bus with posters honoring Parks. Middle school students will write comments about the significance of her actions on the exterior posters, and the bus will then be put into regular service for several weeks.

In Pittsburgh, the Port Authority of Allegheny County buses will feature a decal next to the first forward-facing seat on the driver's side of each bus. The decal includes a picture of Parks along with the declaration: "She refused to move. And changed the course of history."

On Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses in New York City and Long Island, the seat behind the driver will be symbolically reserved for the late Parks, whose act of disobedience and subsequent arrest prompted a bus boycott and proved a major turning point in the country's civil rights movement.

Above the seat there will be a poster of Parks, who died Oct. 24 at age 92, with the saying, "It All Started on a Bus," The New York Times reported in Wednesday editions.

The authority also will leave on the headlights of some 6,000 buses to commemorate the day.

Westchester County, N.Y., buses, including one that was previously named for Parks, will also keep a seat vacant in her honor, the county announced Wednesday. A flyer on the empty seat will explain the observance.

Other bus systems expected to pay tribute to Parks include those in Boston, Cleveland, Montgomery, Newark and Washington, D.C.




 

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