From: ronaldd@cbnewse.cb.att.com (ronald.h.davis)
Subject: Re: Investment
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 02:26:12 GMT

In article <3DJgwB3w165w@netlink.cts.com> galan@netlink.cts.com (Greg Gross) writes:
>Much has been made off an on about the purchasing power of the black 
>community, but one look around America's cities and you don't see much 
>being done with it. Not nearly enough, anyway.
>
>So why not pool our money and let what financial resources we do have do 
>some work for us?
>
>Several years ago, a number of specific mutual funds were formed on Wall 
>Street. These funds made it a point *not8 to invest in war-related 
>industries. They also made it a point to invest in companies that had 
>good equal-opportunity hiring records and were environmentally sound.
>
>What is to prevent us from doing something similar for ourselves?
>
>Whatis to prevent us from forming investment clubs of aour own, at the 
>local level first, then larger...identify well-run companies with a 
>history of equal-opportunity hiring or investment in black communities, 
>or both, and invest in those firms? 
>
>Or pool our money to be able to make loans to people wanting to start uyp 
>their own businesses in black communities. Banks traditionally have used 
>"redlining" against us; with our own pool of money to invest, we can work 
>inside their red lines to our own advantage.
>
>What is to prevent a block of residents, or a church, or a social club, 
>or any group of folks in the 'hood from pooling some money together, 
>buying a rundown property in the neighborhood, then fixing it up and 
>either renting it or selling it?
>
actually there is *nothing* preventing these ideas from being implented,
but a more obvious, and more easily implementable step toward this is to
simply SAVE AT BLACK-OWNED BANKS.  you can look in a magazine such as
"black enterprise" to see if there is one in your area.  i live in chicago
where there are a few.  i don't see why black people wouldn't save at a
black owned bank for some of the reasons that you have mentioned - fdic
protection makes these banks relatively generic, especially if you don't
keep more than $100,000 in a single account.  my bank, seaway national
bank, is not exactly close to where i live but i do most of my banking
electronically and rarely need to be at the bank in person so the issue
of location is mostly a wash.

another bank (although i don't think it is "black owned"), south
shore bank has also done a lot to provide financing to
help revitalize the south shore community after it began to decay after the
"white flight" of the 1970's [al capone was a notable south shore resident
from the past].  the president of the south shore bank wrote an article
that appeared in the "harvard business review" entitled "the new old
fashioned banking" [as i recall the article appeared in 1991].  in the
article, the author talks about how he and some other folks got control of
the bank [which was at the time up for sale] and executed on a mission of
serving the needs of the south shore community.  the article talks about
how they helped in the rehabilitation of the housing stock in the area
and are active in advancing business and the arts in south shore.  the
article is *well* worth reading and i recommend it highly; i posted my
review of the article some time ago.

-- 
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american