In April 2001, I came to a crossroads in my life. After working diligently in Birmingham’s corporate world for seven years, I became a displaced worker, a casualty in the growing trend of acquisitions, mergers and consolidations in corporate America.

As I fine-tuned my resume in the course of my job search, I had to evaluate my skills and qualifications. The process brought me to examine my life situation. During this self-evaluation period, I came to realize that although I’d said I wanted the salary and security of a management-level position at a Fortune 500 company, what I really wanted was to explore my entrepreneurial side and start my own business.

Passion to Serve
I wanted to start a business that would allow me to carry out my passion for serving and helping other entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. I began to reflect on my past work experiences to decide specifically what type of business I would start, and what kind of services it would offer. I recalled being most productive and most fulfilled personally and professionally while working in the nonprofit sector.

Need for Clearinghouse
After this self-evaluation, I began to reflect on my past work experiences to try and decide specifically what type of business I would start, and what kind of services to offer.

I spent a brief time in my career as the operations manager of an organization that services the nonprofit community, just as I wanted to do with my business. In that time, I began to notice how many African American entrepreneurs there are, not only in the nonprofit sector, but in the for-profit sector as well. I also noticed how underserved and uninformed they are compared to others in the Alabama business community.

When I thought about the numbers of African American businesses and the diverse types of industries they represented, I felt driven to become actively involved and play a more integral role in the African American business community. I marveled at how many owners there must be locally, regionally and nationally. I thought, “What kind of economic and social progress Blacks could achieve if all African Americans started to invest and support Black business in their community as actively as they do those in the White, Asian, and Hispanic business communities?”

I concluded that we could more than considerably empower ourselves economically and socially within our nation, simply by spending, hiring, and partnering more actively within our own community.

So, I set out to start a non-profit organization that I envisioned, one that would fulfill my passion to serve small and budding businesses with the African American business community, my demographic target.

After some research and investigation, I learned that there are a few local organizations that support minority business development. But there is still the need for a central information clearinghouse and a support vehicle whose primary focus is to encourage the expansion of existing industry and promote new business starts exclusively in the African American community. 

My research ended when I discovered the Central Alabama African American Chamber of Commerce.

In mid-1992, Ophelia Cox, currently of Ophelia's Art Gallery , saw a television program about the Los Angeles Black Chamber of Commerce, and how it played an active role in assisting Black businesses after the Los Angeles riots of 1992.  

She talked to her business partner, Floyd Yelling, Jr., about the possibilities of organizing a local Black Chamber of Commerce in Birmingham . They decided to gather several of their colleagues and business associates to discuss the feasibility of establishing this chamber; everyone attending the initial meeting eagerly embraced the concept. In August 1992, they created a mission statement, purpose and goals, along with the basic structure, for the Birmingham-Jefferson Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Today, the newly named Central Alabama African American Chamber of Commerce has been revived under the notion that came to me to "support our own."

Power of the Dollar

African Americans represent a growing, multi-billion dollar consumer base for business in Alabama .  By simply investing in Black businesses, African Americans could actually redirect and redistribute tens of millions of their dollars to their own community, generating wealth. True wealth lies in how we invest, and in what we invest.

I say let's start investing in ourselves, but not only through financial support. Let's also share knowledge and information too. By doing this, we can truly end so many of our struggles and overcome so much of the disguised discrimination that continues in America today, if we first learn to support our own.

Maria H. Gardner is the executive director of the Central Alabama African American Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 205-323-1887. Or you can e-mail at info@caaacc.org .