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Black Business

In The History of Black Business In America,
Juliet E. K. Walker makes a magnificent
contribution to the literature on African American
entrepreneurship and capitalism. Shattering myths,
pointing to possibilities, and refining our thinking
about procrustean racism, Professor Walker
explores perceptively a world where blacks have
been much maligned and vilified as incapable of
mastering simple and/or world-shaking business
attitudes and skills.
Writing boldly in her introduction, the
author quickly alerts us to the value of the book:
"Beginning in l600s, Africans in America, slave
and free, seized every opportunity to develop
enterprises and participate as businesspeople in the
commercial life of a developing new nation ...
Why, after almost 400 years do we find black
business activities in the late twentieth century
existing at virtually the same level of industry
participation as it did under slavery?"
From the first page of the book, we are
carried through the maze of history to the answer:
one that lies not in when-the-sinner-comes-to-the-
mourner’s-bench bromides, but the very serious
and destructive practice of American racism
preventing blacks from access to resources and fair
opportunities to develop. Professor Walker invites
us to review and put asunder the old foolishness,
the blaming the victim ad hominem argument, that
black business failure and/or limited growth were
rooted in African inexperience turned into African
American ineptitude and lassitude.
Professor Walker was inspired to take up the
question of the African American business ethos
owing to the family lesson and lore of her great-
great-grandfather, Free Frank (l777-1854), who
entered the realm of commerce and business with
good intentions that got good results. Previous
scholars would have us belief that Free Frank was
an anomaly in his determination and his more than
modicum of success. Though he "could not read
or write ... he could count," notes...