Good Information Sources 

Q.  With the close of Black history month, can you recommend a book that documents  historical minority entrepreneurs, besides those repeatedly mentioned every year?

A. For a good book on the subject, check out Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans
by Professor John Sibley. A lot of people know little about many, many, many other historical entrepreneurs.
For instance, have you ever heard of A. G Gaston of Alabama, born in 1892?

References

A.G. Gaston
Washington University film and media archive
http://tinyurl.com/cw9tqsj

Amazon: Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans
http://tinyurl.com/cn2xqtv

Sweet Revenge
Different business leaders share their experiences about entrepreneurship throughout the school year at Holy Names University.
In March, Marlo Scott of Sweet Revenge will discuss her self-employment path and passion for cupcakes, travel and beer after one layoff too many…

Series free to the public.

James Durbin
Speaker Series
https://www.hnu.edu/about/public-events/james-durbin-entrepreneurship-speaker-series

Myths and Facts – How Much Do You Know?

True or False?
1.  The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, one of the largest and most successful Black companies in the 19th century, was co-founded in 1898 by an African American barber with little formal education.

True or False?

2.  By 1889, African-Americans had established a wide range of very successful small businesses in Philadelphia. True or false?

3.  It was difficult but not impossible for African-Americans to operate businesses in the South before the Civil War. True or False?

4. By the Civil War, the value of all free Black-owned establishments and personal wealth in the U.S. was valued at about $50 million; half of the wealth was based in the South. True or False?

5.  Apart from Madam Walker’s success as a millionaire in the early 1900’s,  there were a few millionaires in the industry until the passage of the Civil Rights Bill.

6.True or False? During the Depression, Bank of America was the only bank in the country to open a branch in a segregated Southern city. And that bank kept almost all Black-owned businesses in that area from going under.

Answers
1. True
2. True
3. True
4. True
5. False. Madame Walker is a popular historical reference used repeatedly by the media, which tends to ignore the business success of other people of color attained during the historical period in question. And after passage of the Civil Rights Bill, “African American businesses [were caught] in the middle of a number of [political conflicts] ideas and programs…When the [bill] was passed, there was a gap in…the existence of  black businesses…entrepreneurial activities would lay dormant until the early 1970’s.”
6. True and false. The circumstances described are accurate but the institution was not Bank of America but Mechanics and Farmers Bank, an institution founded by North Carolina Mutual…

References
Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
http://www.cneonline.org/

Entrepreneurial Enclaves in the African American Experience John Sibley Butler and Kenneth L. Wilson Goggle Books
http://tinyurl.com/ajlg3ac http://sites.la.utexas.edu/johnsibleybutler/

North Carolina Mutual http://www.ncmutuallife.com/newsite/pages/about.html Mechanics and Farmers Bank https://www.mfbonline.com/about_us/our_history.html

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side
of the Personal Finance Industry
Helaine Olen, a Los Angeles Times personal finance columnist and author of Pound Foolish gives an inside look at the industry, and how consumers lose a lot of money by following questionable advice.

Some of the incidents and statistics relate to potential entrepreneurs.
However, the major take away lesson in the video is that consumers have to ask questions and fact-check advice for themselves. And the question many people fail to ask is “What’s in it for them if I follow the advice?”

Reference
C-SPAN book TV      56 Min
http://tinyurl.com/a92jgtm