Detroit’s 16th annual State of Black Business Summit was held on Monday, March 7 at the Double Tree Suites Hotel and gathered over 300 attendees inside the Crystal Ballroom. Presented by Comerica Bank, the summit addressed the current state of Black business in the city. Keynote speaker, world renowned scholar, and founder and CEO of Boyce Watkins Enterprises, Dr. Boyce Watkins, Ph.D., headlined the summit.
Dr. Kenneth L. Harris, Ph.D., CEO and national president of the National Business League, took to the stage to open up for Dr. Watkins, and readied the crowd for a phenomenal message full of African American history, empowerment and unity. Harris’ supercharged message of ‘… by any means necessary’ wildly resonated with the crowd as he continuously led the audience in chanting the rallying cry throughout his speech.
“When I say Black business, ya’ll say ‘… by any means necessary’,” he started out with. To which the crowd enthusiastically responded accordingly.
“Today, we’re going to focus on three areas: history, the current conditions and what I call The Detroit United Front, which is the solution to the ongoing problem that we see here [in Detroit].” He went on to say, “With that, there are some false narratives out there: Black people are not lazy. Black people do not need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Black people can survive on their own.” Harris concluded his opening statements with the phrase ‘we got work to do,’ then proceeded to inform the crowd on the work that needed to be done and how they can get involved.
Dr. Boyce Watkins’ message was full of Black power, generational wealth gems and also outlined his seven rules of the new Black Wallstreet, which included:
- Buying Black is a MUST
- Reciprocity is mandatory, and
- Every Black child should own stock on the day they are born.
The summit also addressed the exclusion of Black businesses in the public and private sectors, as well as systemic, institutional, and structural exclusion of Black businesses. In addition, the summit served as a platform to announce and swear in new leadership of the recently developed Detroit United Front (DUF), an organization comprised of the Detroit chapter of The National Business League (NBL), the Detroit Black Chamber of Commerce (DBCC) and the Booker T. Washington Trade Association (BTWTA).
The DUF’s leadership team were sworn in by 36th District Chief Judge William McConnico. The Detroit United Front will also serve as the NBL’s Midwest Regional Office and include the following members:
- Dr. Cecil Forbes, president, NBL Detroit Chapter (Owner, ICareSpine)
- Orena Perry, chairman, NBL Detroit Chapter (founder and executive director of The Acquisitionist, Inc. and the owner of JEADL Enterprises, LLC. )
- Dr. Danielle Cato-Benson, president, DBCC (CEO, 1:11 The Collective)
- Chad Rhodes, chairman, DBCC (managing partner, The Rhodes Cos)
- Bartel Welch, president, BTWTA (CEO, Red Diamond Digital)
- Crystal Gunn, chairman, BTWTA (Founder, The Amazing Woman Network) and their executive committee leadership team
For more information contact [email protected].
