CBA Highlights Significance of Black Entrepreneurship

Citizen Newspaper published Sept. 22nd, 2009:

As the Chatham Business Association (CBA) gets ready to celebrate 37 years of community service at its upcoming gala fundraiser entitled, “Restore, Realize, and Live the Dream,” a retired history professor highlighted Black entrepreneurship at the organization’s regular monthly meeting and said CBA members stand on the success of other pioneer African- American business owners.

Dr. Christopher Reed, from Roosevelt University, touted past and present Blackowned businesses such as the Illinois Service Federal, Supreme Life Insurance Company, Seaway Bank, Binga Bank, Victory Life Insurance, as examples of how Chicago gained its reputation as a mecca for Black-owned businesses during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of them, including Victory Life Insurance, Supreme Life, and the Binga Bank, were located in the Black metropolis area (known as Bronzeville) from 26th Street to 55th Street between Wentworth to Cottage Grove before businesses such as Seaway Bank and Independence Bank made their mark in Chatham.

Reed said the success in Chatham is an affirmation of the dreams that started in the Black Metropolis. “You are doing something that is part of a tradition,” Reed told CBA members. “Just as they succeeded until the Great Depression, you’re going to succeed as this recession is ending.”

With Black-owned businesses such as Seaway Bank and Illinois Service Federal Bank still standing strong, Reed said Chatham has the potential to thrive. “More and more Blacks can own their own businesses but they have to convince themselves of [those possibilities],” he stated.

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