Reflecting the survival strategies of the major corporations with which they want to do business, the three largest Black Expo organizations in America are merging in an effort to strengthen their competitive position and raise their public profile.
Black Expo Chicago, Indiana Black Expo and Black Expo USA, located in Atlanta, said Thursday they were joining forces to create the National Association of Black Expos.
The object: to hold uniform and coordinated Black Expos in 25 of the largest markets where African-Americans live and work.
Black Expos provide a venue for minority business owners, major corporations and consumers to meet, create business deals, and sell and buy products, said Renee Lawrence, an administrator of corporate sales for the new association.
The first Black Expo in Chicago under the new format is scheduled July 8, 9 and 10 in McCormick Place.
By consolidating, Lawrence said, the new organization has the capacity to reach 22 million African-American consumers, or about 75 percent of their market nationally. The spending power of African-Americans is about $300 billion annually, with 95 cents of every dollar going for goods and services manufactured or provided by corporate America.
"The concept of the Black Expo enables corporations to give something back to the black community," Lawrence said.
The new Black Expo organization will enable small minority-owned businesses to communicate with potential corporate customers.
"Black business growth in America has been seriously restricted and excluded from fair competition by racism and segregation," said a statement issued by the new organization.
In that respect, said Lawrence, nothing has changed since the late 1960s and early '70s when former President Nixon announced his "Black Capitalism" initiative.
Nixon's Black Capitalism program was aimed at bringing African-American businesses into the mainstream of the American business world. The idea was to help minority entrepreneurs via a broad safety net of Small Business Administration loans and entrepreneurial assistance.
In 1970 there were 308,000 black-owned businsses in America, according to figures provided by the organization. By 1990 that number had increased to 425,000 and though the growth of such businesses was a positive sign of economic progress, 95 percent of those businesses were struggling to survive, with annual average revenues of less than $50,000 apiece.
Black-owned businesses make up just 3.1 percent of the total number of businesses in the United States, but they account for 40 percent of the nation's minority-owned businesses, said Lawrence.
Yet based on comparison of receipts, black business receipts remain seriously behind other minority groups, she added. Black businesses account for only 27 percent of the minority business dollar, while Hispanic-owned businesses account for 33 percent and Asian-owned businesses 32 percent.
"We felt the best way for us to deal with the problems facing black-owned businesses was for us to come together," Lawrence said.
Last year's Black Expo Chicago, headed by Rev. Bernard C. Taylor, was held in McCormick Place and drew a record 200,000 visitors and 800 exhibitors. Some 600 exhibitors were minority businesses and 200 were corporations such as Toyota Motor Co., Quaker Oats Co., American Airlines, Kraft General Foods, J.C. Penney and Western Union.