RALLYING SUPPORT
Group calls on business, gov’t to reach out
African-American entrepreneurs seek greater opportunities for small, minority, women-owned businesses in Memphis.
Darrell Cobbins, president of a Memphis commercial real estate firm, in one statement captured the spirit of a group of African-American entrepreneurs who on Tuesday called for a renewed focus on expanding business opportunities for small, minority and women-owned firms in Memphis.
“I’ll just start off by saying we come in peace, but we also come in purpose,” Cobbins, president and principal broker of Universal Commercial, told some 100 people at the National Civil Rights Museum.
Ron Redwing, president of the civic group The 100 Black Men of Memphis, said a group of about 10 business owners decided to draw attention to the long-simmering issue following recent controversy involving minority participation in county government contracts.
Redwing, chief executive officer of The Redwing Group public relations firm, pointed to a Tuesday morning meeting Mayor A C Wharton had with a top Siemens Corp. executive for North America about boosting business with underrepresented firms.
Siemens and the Mem-
phis Bioworks Foundation are leading the mayor’s Clean and Green Initiative, a five-year plan to create jobs through making city government more sustainable.
Redwing said the group calling for a renewed focus is encouraging all businesses, and not only governments, to create greater opportunities for small, minority and womenowned firms.
U. S. Supreme Court and other legal decisions triggered by opposition to setting aside government contracts based on race led to expensive “disparity studies” documenting past discrimination and helped stall previous efforts.
Redwing said the group doesn’t see the need for further studies and Cobbins suggested that obstacles will need to be identified and addressed.
While African-Americans make up about 46 percent of the Memphis metro area population, government statistics for 2007 found that blackowned businesses accounted for 1 percent of business receipts in the area.
Redwing acknowledged some of the business and civic leaders who attended the announcement, including top executives of the Greater Memphis Chamber, Leadership Memphis, Memphis Tomorrow and the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County.
“This is great and it’s completely in line with what we should be doing,” Phil Trenary, the chamber’s chief executive officer, said afterward. “The key words we heard today were action, root cause and not doing another study. That’s what we need and that’s why we’re so supportive of this.”