Black History Month is about more than celebrating significant people and events. It is about continuing to advocate for Black people on social issues like economic equality. Rolling out spoke with Pastor Freddie Haynes of Friendship-West Baptist Church about how he is using his platform to educate and move the conversation forward. Year-round, he focuses on engaging the community to support Black-owned businesses. Pastor Haynes recently kicked off a campaign that focuses on supporting Black-owned companies in Dallas.
What are some of the ways in which you are supporting Black businesses?
On a regular basis, we have tried to engage in economically empowering Black businesses and seeking to raise the economic consciousness and IQ of our community. We need to make sure that we support Black businesses today. Let’s go ahead and rebuild Black Wall Street by supporting Black businesses that exist right now. It’s hypocritical if you say, “How awesome was Black Wall Street?” But then you spent all your money with White people. For us, we do 100 Days of Buying Black. We’re about the community, so it’s always going to be about businesses in our community. On Sundays, when we have a captive audience after our first service and second service, we basically have Black businesses that set up in our vestibule or lobby. We’ve had a number of businesses that have basically testified that Black Wall Street or West Wall Street provided them [with] their largest influx of revenue every year.
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