Explores business development in the Black Power era and the centrality of economic goals to the larger black freedom movement.
The Business of Black Power
emphasizes the centrality of economic goals to the larger black freedom
movement and explores the myriad forms of business development in the
Black power era. This volume charts a new course forBlack power studies
and business history, exploring both the business ventures that Black
power fostered and the impact of Black power on the nation's business
world. Black activists pressed business leaders, corporations, and
various levels of government into supporting a range of economic
development ventures, from Black entrepreneurship, to grassroots
experiments in economic self-determination, to indigenous attempts to
rebuild inner-city markets in thewake of disinvestment. They pioneered
new economic and development strategies, often in concert with corporate
executives and public officials. Yet these same actors also engaged in
fierce debates over the role of business in strengthening the movement,
and some African Americans outright rejected capitalism or collaboration
with business.
The seven scholars in this collection bring
fresh analysis to this complex intersection of African Americanand
business history to reveal how Black power advocates, or those
purporting a Black power agenda, engaged business to advance their
economic, political, and social goals. They show the business of Black
power taking place in the streets, boardrooms, journals and periodicals,
corporations, courts, and housing projects of America. In short, few
were left untouched by the influence of this movement.
Laura Warren Hill is assistant professor of history at Bloomfield College. Julia Rabig is a lecturer at Dartmouth College.
