A group of African American business owners and financial professionals met in Chicago recently to discuss the state of African American financial literacy. The event was presented by Leak and Sons Funeral Homes. The guest of honor was Margarita Anderson, the author of Our Black Year. The group gathered at the Welcome Inn Bed and Breakfast in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the African American Community Empowerment Plan, an initiative led by New York Life’s African American Market Agents. These agents are working towards creating $50 billion of generally tax-free future income every five years. This is a necessary initiative and hopefully it will open the flood gates and truly empower the community and create a legacy of wealth for generations to come.
We spoke with Gus Bowers, one of New York Life’s African American Market Agents about why this initiative is important to the Black community. “We spend money for Cadillacs, and buy all the cars in the world with big houses we can’t afford, but when we die we don’t leave anything to the next generation. As a result, the next generation is poor, the generation after that is poor. We need to stop doing this simply by purchasing tax-free life insurance and leaving that money to the next generation. If we don’t start doing this, nothing is going to change,” he said.
The following evening, over 600 people gathered at a town hall meeting at Trinity United Church of Christ to discuss this matter and further map out a plan to take action.
Take a look at the gallery below.
