A crowd gathered for Northwestern University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Keynote Jan. 28 in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, highlighted by speaker Maggie Anderson, author of “Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy.”
A powerful orator, Anderson, who was recently diagnosed with a rare form of adult onset muscular dystrophy, said that although the disease is having a weakening effect on her physically, she finds great strength in finding her purpose as an activist for King’s vision of economic equity and seeing others join the cause.
“When we stand together to lift each other up, we can see over the mountaintop,” Anderson said. “We can make miracles. If you believe there is no social justice without economic justice, stand up and let your bucket down.”
While those assembled gave a sustained standing ovation, Anderson thanked the crowd saying, “I love you for what you are going to do tomorrow.”
Anderson, CEO of the Empowerment Experiment Foundation, has a law degree and MBA from the University of Chicago, and is married to John Anderson, a Northwestern Kellogg School of Management graduate (MBA ’99). Inspired by the election of President Obama and a desire to do more for the black community, the Oak Park, Ill.-based Anderson and her family, including two young daughters, embarked on a social experiment in 2009 to provoke more action and unity around economic equity.
They made a public pledge to support only black-owned businesses for an entire year, prompting a study by the Kellogg School of Management to examine the statistical relevance on the economic impact of their experiment.
Anderson spoke of the hardships her own middle-class family endured that put them in touch with the everyday struggles experienced by black people living in food deserts with overpriced, inferior food options. To stick with the commitment they made, the family had to drive farther and look harder to find black-owned businesses to meet the family’s needs. She recalled that their children sometimes went to school in clothes that were too tight because of the dearth of children’s clothing stores, often begging for a banana or other favorite foods that were scarcer than the sweet cereals and fast food found in gas stations and convenience marts.
Adding to the family’s hardship was Anderson’s mother’s battle with pancreatic cancer. Born in Cuba and possessing a ninth-grade education, her mother convinced her U.S.-raised daughter to see her project through: “Mija, I’m going to go out fighting. Are you?”
Quoting King, Anderson said, “Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.”
The experiment brought many hard realities and economic disparities into view, which Anderson chronicled in her 2012 book “Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy,” including the fact that dollars stay in the black community an average of just six hours, because the majority of businesses operating in black communities are not owned by people who live in the community.
According to the Kellogg study only 2 to 3 percent of black dollars stay in the community where they are spent. The study also found that if black households of $75,000 or more increased their spending in black-owned businesses to 10 percent of their discretionary income, the resulting flow of cash in the community would have the potential to create a million new American jobs.
Anderson challenged attendees to join the empowerment experiment by supporting black-owned businesses in their communities and hiring black suppliers for their businesses.
Rewarding those who braved the weather were Northwestern’s Jazz Small Ensemble who enveloped the room with jazz arrangements of spirituals. Saxophonists Albert Kuo and Jon Rosen and trombonist Emma Blau smoothly traded solos on “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” and “Joshua Fit da Battle.”
Bienen alumnus and countertenor Carl Alexander (MA ’17) gave exquisite expression to Uzee Brown Jr.’s soaring “I Dream a World.”
Senior Derick Wallace, Weinberg ’19, helped welcome guests and explained the MLK Commemoration Committee had focused on King’s messages about economic equality as a theme for this year’s choice of keynote speaker and event programming.
More information about the Empowerment Experiment and the book “Our Black Year” are available on Maggie Anderson’s website.
For resources on black-owned businesses visit the Black Business Consortium of Evanston Northshoreand the U.S. Black Chambers Online Directory.
