In July 1997, the Richmond City Attorney struck down a scandalous deal between the City and The Loewen Group Inc. , a giant Canadian company. Loewen has been aggressively marketing through churches and telemarketing programs throughout the United States for control of the traditionally family-owned, black burial business. The mainstream white-owned funeral concerns see big profits in a sector of the death industry they admit they actively shunned less than a decade ago.
Black communities are now attractive target markets for the big funeral companies .
Historically, the nation s estimated 4,000, mostly family-owned black funeral homes have been important mainstays of black communities and their unique culture. In many places they are some of the last black-owned institutions catering to and supported almost exclusively by black consumers. But this long-standing tradition now seems doomed because of a controversial sales arrangement that The Loewen Group reached two years ago with the National Baptist Convention USA , the nation s largest organization of black U.S. churches. Convention officials say that when the deal was struck, it seemed like a good idea. Inc. The Reverend Henry J. Lyons , the Convention s controversial president, was a major proponent of the deal with The Loewen Group.