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THURSDAY, JUN6 29, 2006
BUSINESS
Sharpton
Black
leaders
launch BP
boycott
By Julia Click
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS— A group of
prominent black leaders
including the Revs. Jesse
Jackson and A1 Sharpton
annoimced Tuesday a boy
cott of BP PLC, saying the oil
company gonges customers
and racially discriminates in
its business practLces.
“One of the
biggest issues
of our time is
energy
exploitation,”
Jackson said.
“We are
encouraging
Jackson people to go to
other stations
and to turn in their gas
cards.”
The London-
based compa
ny was taint
ed because
none of its
upper-level
executives are
black and
there are no
black owners among its him-
dreds of U.S. distributors,
Jackson said.
BP spokesman Scott Dean
defended the company’s
diversity, sayir^ 15 percent
of BP’s U-S- employees are
black and they accoimt for
almost 10 percent of senior
officials.
“It is disappointing that
(Jackson) is playing the race
card £^ainst a company that
has a loi^-standir^ tradi
tion of diversity, that has a
work force that mirrors the
divez'sity of the American
people,” Dean said.
Dean said that while none
of BP’s roughly 600 U.S. dis
tributors are black, the com
pany would like to find
black-run companies to dis
tribute gas regionally The
company has been sued by a
black U-S- distributor who
said he was unfairly denied
a contract, but Dean said BP
chose a different bidder with
a better proposal.
Jacteon’s Rainbow PUSH
Coalition began weekly
protests against the compa
ny last week, and he said
there are plans to expand
the demonstrations after he
gained the support Tuesday
of about 100 black leaders at
a summit in Dallas that ends
Wednesday
Jackson said rising gas
prices have disproportion
ately hurt America’s poor,
who travel the most for their
work and can least afford to
pay He called for Congress
to cap gas prices and insti
tute a windfall profits tax
that would redirect oil com
panies’ recent record earn
ings to education and social
programs.
BP, which runs BP, ARCO
and Amoco stations, report
ed almost $5.3 billion in prof
its in the first quarter of
2006. Dean said high fuel
prices are needed to ensure a
steady supply for U.S. con
sumers and prevent short
ages.
Sharpton said protesters
will convex^ on BP stations
and offices in 12 major cities
across the country Jackson
said his group plans to
protest at the company’s
London headquarters.
Sharpton said Congress
and other oil companies
should take heed.
“If you give British
Petroleum a good spanking,
it will send a message to the
other companies,” Sharpton
said.
Dean said the boycott and
protests would not affect
‘business as usual” at BP
stations and offices.
Money seminar urges
new income, less debt
By Herbert L. White
herb.wriite@fhechar/otfepost.com
It’s never too late to get your
financial house in order..
A July 11 money man^ment
seminar sponsored by AJ
Financial Group will offer tips for
eliminatiTig debt, creatir^ new
streams of income and building
wealth- The workshop will be held
at 7 p.m. New Birth-Charlotte at
University Place, 604 Doug
Mayes Place. Tickets are $30 in
advance, $45 at the door.
Motivational speaker Les
Brown wiH headline the seminar,
but it’s message is how to maxi
mize and ^rploit money to create
wealth, especially amor^ Afiican
Americans, said Frank Johnson,
an organizer of the event.
Althou^ black income exceeds
$500 btUion annually and is grow
ing at record rates, African
Americans still are less likely to
save or invest than Americans as
a whole.
“The event is really designed to
help people get control of their
finances,” said Johnson, co
founder of Charlotte-based AJ
Financial along with Emma
Allen. “There’s an epidemic out
there where our folks don’t know
how to hande money I don’t think
this story can be told enou^ until
our folks start to turn this thing
around.”
Allen and Johnson conduct sem
inars that identify ways people
can make their money more pro
ductive through financial check
ups and debt-elimination pro
grams. AJ Financial conducts
workshops through birsinesses,
churches and schools.
For information, call (704) 529-
2920.
On the Net
AJ Financial Group
w\vw:startnowfinishrich.
BIRMINGHAM NEWS PHOTO/BEVERLY TAYLOR
Sonia Tutuwan works on the hair of Ashaki Means at her salon in Birmingham, Ala. Means is holding
her 3-year-old daughter, Sloan. Tutuwan owns a big columned house in the Norwood community In
Birmingham, where she both lives and runs her business, a spa called Changes.
Palatial customer service
Historic mansion
home to salon, spa
By Kathy Kemp
THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - She
never thou^t she’d end up in a
10,000-square-foot mansion in
Norwood.
Sonia llituwan wasn’t long out
of cosmetology school when she
decided to open her own hair salon
in Eirmingham four years ago.
Because she specialized in
Afidcan-American styles, she
wanted to be in a black neighbor
hood and had chosen a building
near Midfield.
She put down earnest money
and prepared to move. But then
she got a call fi^m someone who
had heard she needed space for a
business and offered to lease her a
floor in an old Norwood house.
“I really didn’t want to go, but I
thought, why not? It couldn’t hurt
anything just to look,” TUtuwan
recalls. “So I drove over here, and
when I pulled up outside, I was
like, ‘OK, where do I sign?’”
Instead of leasing space,
Titiiwan talked the owner - who
ran a mortgage company there -
into selling her the 14-room,
Greek Revival-stjde mansion. In
the early 1900s, the home was the
family estate of J.R. Copeland,
president of the old Copeland-
In^s Shale Brick Co.
It sits at the top of 32nd Street
North on the comer of 12th
Avenue, which is zoned commer
cial. From its terra-cotta veranda
is a sweeping view into the central
valley of Birmii^ham on up to
Red Mountain.
Tbday a sign outside announces
“Changes Salon, Spa & Wellness
Cent^*.” Thtuwan runs the busi-
‘ness on the first and second floors,
and lives in the 900-square-foot
attic suite. Chents fill up the
house Monday through Saturday
and Itituwan is accustomed to
strar^rs dropping by, asking to
see her house.
“It happens every day,” she says.
“Ifl’mnotbusy Itrytoshowfhem
aroimd.”
She paid $160,000 for the house.
which, in top condition in
Momtain Brook, likely would be
worth millions. The previous
owner had installed new plumb
ing and wiring and renovated.
Hituwan took out a loan, boi^t
the place and moved in - at age 26,
the owner of one of the city’s old
est, largest and most magnificent
homes.
Her timing couldn’t have been
better. In- the last 18 months, oth
ers have discovered the beauty of
stately old Norwood, lined with
sidewalks and ancient oaks, just
northeast of downtown. White gay
men, young black couples and,
lately, single women of all races
have been buying the old bunga
lows and two-story family homes
to fix up and live in.
Most stUl cost less than $60,000
but require much remodeling.
Unlike a few of the Johnny-
come-latelies, who aim to buy and
flip the houses for profit, Tutuwan
bou^t hers because she loved it
at first si^t. She plans to keep it
and, maybe 10 years down the
road, turn the second floor into a
bed and breakfast.
Employers
lookiD
keep
lioomers
By Joyce M. Rosenberg
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Although baby boomers
are starting to head into their sixties,
many of them expect to keep working well
past the point where their parents retired.
So small businesses that depend on
boomer employees aren’t anticipating an
®codTis in the next few years.
Nonetheless, some company owners are
making sure they retain boomer workers
by offerii^ them fiex time and exti'a bene
fits to help offset any hankerings for retire
ment.
At Grossman Marketing Group, a mar
keting and graphic design company in
Somerville, Mass., President Steve
Grossman ^pects his boomer employees
to keep working even as they begin
approaching the traditional retirement
age of 65. He noted that many boomers
still have plenty of financial obligations,
and many just don’t feel like calling it a
career. (There are an estimated 77 million
boomers in the United States, bom
between 1946 and 1964.)
Still, Grossman said, many boomers will
be thinking about retiring, and “to the
extent that we as owners of companies can
continue to make the job interesting, im^-
inative and make that job something tiiey
look forward to every day ... we can avert
that wholesale departure of people.”
Being fledble and understanding about
the personal issues many boomers face -
for example, their need to care for elderly
parents - is just as important, Grossman
said. So his company offers employees paid
family leave.
“If we have paid family leave, he (an
employee) can keep his job, take care ofhis
mother, not have to go thror^h the guilt of
not havir^ done the right thing,” said
Grossman, whose company has about 120
The company offers this type of leave to
other employees as well, for‘ instance,
those having childi'en or needing to cai*e
for an fil spouse. It’s not all altruism -
Grossman rmderstands that being imder-
standing, even generous, with employees
wUl benefit his company in the long run. If
he retains workers, he doesn’t have to find
and ti'ain replacements. He gets loyalty in
return for his efforts on behalf of employ-
Essence Fest
kicks off
By Kristene Rueken
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON - Essence Music Festival
oiganizers said Friday it’s fitting that their
yearly event, usually heldinNew Orleans,
is being held at Reliant Park _ the same
groimds where thousands of evacuees
fix)m the dty found temporary refiige after
the storm.
The three-day event featuring dajiong
seminars and nights filled with top-name
musical acts begins its 12th installment,
and first outside of New Orleans, on
Saturday in Houston.
“We’re so happy to be in Houston,” said
Essence Communications Inc. President
Michelle Ebanks. ‘Your generosity in the
wake of Hurricane Katrina makes us
proud to be here today”
The festival, which began as a one-time
celebration of Essence magazine’s 25th
anniversary has always included free
empowerment sessions. But this year, in
Katrina’s wake, officials see the sessions
with greater importance than in the past.
‘We knew our mission to strer^then the
fives of Afiican Americans was more
important than ever before,” Ebanks said
Friday “So we’ve raiewed the original
party with a purpose which is now a bigger
party with a deeper purpose.”
The festival was forced to find a new
temporary home because of the ectensive
damage to the Lomsiana Superdome.
Houston was annoimced as the substitute
in November.
“This year, because of the tragedy and
the displacement that so many of the peo
ple that supported us over the years are
experiencir^, we saw an opportunity” said
Essence editorial director Susan L. Taylor.
‘We saw an opportunity to really bring
together the leadership in black America.”
© O OB^*9