Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403080040
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY THOMAS CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
Frank Brooks, owner of the 8-year-old company that manufactures precooked frozen pork sausage patties, gave Kenosha a new 55,000-square-foot facility and 150 jobs. In return, Kenosha provided Brooks with cheaper electrical rates.
To some analysts, this was just another sign that Chicago, once a city where black entrepreneurs could thrive, was losing its status as a mecca for black businesses.
Atlanta, some analysts said, is the new hot spot. This claim, however, is stirring some debate.
Atlanta is "one of the few cities you can see visible signs of growing black businesses," said Yvonne Conway, the business-development specialist for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency in Atlanta.
Alfred Edmond Jr., managing editor of Black Enterprise Magazine, which tracks black businesses and publishes an annual list of the nation's top 100 black companies, agreed there is more fervor to establish businesses in Atlanta than anywhere else in the United States.
"Currently, it deserves the reputation as the hottest spot," he said. "The bad thing about a reputation as a hot spot is that by the time everybody recognizes it is hot, it cools off."
For decades, Chicago was considered a mecca for black businesses, and that reputation stuck like a magnet, drawing hundreds of thousands of blacks to the city from the South for jobs and opportunities.
Empires were built. When it came to black-owned publishing companies; banking and insurance institutions; cosmetic companies; and entertainment spots that featured jazz, blues and theater, Chicago was the place.
Chicago is still home to many of the nation's top black-owned companies. According to Black Enterprise Magazine, Johnson Publishing Co., the 50-year-old publishing, broadcasting and cosmetics empire with more than $274 million in sales in 1992, was the second-largest black-owned company in the nation, behind TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc., a New York food processor and distributor, which had revenues of $1.6 billion.
In addition to Johnson, about a dozen other Chicago-area black-owned companies - including Soft Sheen Products Inc., Burrell Communications Group and Luster Products - made the list.
Analysts credit Atlanta's political and social climate and its moderate weather for making the city an attractive locale for blacks. The city did not become a drawing power overnight, they said. Atlanta has been governed by blacks for more than 20 years; in business, that means economic opportunities for blacks.
Chicago, they said, provided the same opportunities during the tenure of Mayor Harold Washington. Washington's death in November 1987 was a blow not only to Chicago's black political base, but to its economic base as well.
If Chicago has lost its status as the center for black businesses, it has occurred over the last six years.
In 1987, there were 15,374 black businesses in the metropolitan area, compared with 11,804 in the Atlanta area and 9,852 in the Detroit area, according to Angele Johnson, an information specialist for the Census Bureau in Chicago.
Between 1972 and 1987, Atlanta overtook Detroit, Johnson said. In 1972, there were 6,146 black businesses in the Detroit area, compared with 3,241 in the Atlanta area. She said new data won't be available until 1995.
Even though Brooks Sausage moved to Wisconsin, its owner said Chicago is still the place to be.
"I think it is still the mecca for black businesses," said Brooks, who added that one day he wants to open a new plant in Chicago.
by CNB