Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130286
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
HOOKS TELLS BLACKS: START BUSINESSES
NAACP director Benjamin Hooks on Friday encouraged blacks to start their own businesses despite reluctance by white-owned banks to loan them money.Hooks, speaking at Hampton University, said blacks should be trained to start up companies and given resources to run them.
He said many of the nation's largest urban black neighborhoods are filled with shops and restaurants not owned or operated by blacks.
"A lot of black businesses have failed because black folks believed that they could not render the same service they should," Hooks said. The results are a lack of jobs in the black community, disenchantment and resentment, he said.
White-owned banks haven't helped enterprising blacks, Hooks said. They continue to discriminate against minorities who apply for loans to open businesses, he said.
But Hooks said blacks must pursue their goals in the face of discrimination, instead of allowing prejudice to bring them down.
"We have to overcome our own self-fear, self-doubting," he said. "Whatever happened to us during slavery, many of us have not gotten over it."
Hooks, a lawyer, pastor and lobbyist, also urged blacks to put an end to the self-destructive behaviors that are threatening inner-city neighborhoods - primarily drugs.
Hooks, 68, said he sees hope in the new administration in Washington, but that a new president cannot solve the problems facing an entire race.
Bill Clinton will "make a great president," he said, but "no white man has my destiny in his hands. My destiny is in my hands.
"We have got to take control of our own lives," Hooks said. "Nobody can save us from us but us."
Hooks' speech ended a three-day conference at the university on "Closing the Income Gap - Strategies and Solutions for Economic Empowerment."