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PI http://www.theoharlottepost.com 7C PEOPLE OF PROMINENCE ®f)e C?)arititte $ost Bryant Allen Allen banks on hard work Her goal is to teach financial literacy By Erica Bryant SPECIALTO THE POST Emma Allen is chief executive officer of AJ Financial Group LLC. She WQJ formerly senior vice president and director of community Outreach for First Charter. Her career in banking spans over 20 years. She is a recipient of the Roddey Foundation Award, Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Award, and Thurgood Marshall Award. Allen is one of five honorees for this year's Charlotte Post People of Prominence - Women of Distinction awards. The pub lic is invited to attend the cere mony on May 4 at 6 pm. at Spirit Square. Along with the awards presentation, there will be an interesting discussion with the honorees about their careers and family. Attendees will also have the oppornmity to ask ques tions. Tickets are on sale now. Following is an excerpt of an interview with Emma Allen about life lessons and career success. It's part five in a series of interviews with the honorees. The conversation will continue with Allen and our other hon orees on the evening of May 4. Among other things, find out why Allen says it's crucial to find people who care enough about you to tell you the truth. EB: What is a common mistake that you find many young people are making today? EA: Going on to college campuses talking about financial hteracy, I’ve found that 90 percent of people don’t understand the ditch that they are digging for themselves with credit cards. The most critical mistake I see yormg people making ri^t now is getting into debt before they under stand how to handle it responsibly But, it really starts with us as adults, as parents, and if we don’t understand that in our homes it’s difficult to pass it on to the next generation. What I find is that it isn’t about how much you make, because we have great tal ent in our communities, but we don’t have great finan cial literacy So as talented as we are there is that gap and it gets passed down fiom generation to genera- tion. EB: As far as individuals attempting to find success in the banking industry, what advice would you give • them? EA: I’d tell them to really be open to learning at every stage of your career. I’d advise them to build rela tionships with people at every spectrum of the com pany Sometimes I think we get really focused on, and I’ve done this, really get focused on building relationships up but forget about building lateral relationships and those relationships with people who might not be on our level. That is important. Please see ALLEN/8C BUSINESS PHOTO/BUCK ENTERPRISE Darwin N. Davis Sr., a former senior vice president at Equitable Life Assurance Society of America, helped transform corporate acceptance of black executives. He died April 16 in Philadelphia. A pioneer’s passing Equitable’s Davis in vanguard of corporate executives BLACK ENTERPRISE Darwin N, Davis Sr., pioneer of corporate diversity, former senior vice president of Equitable Life Assurance Society of America, died April 16 at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. He was 74. The cause was cardiac arrest, said his wife, Velmarie. Fortune magazine in August 2005 cited him as one of “the bravest gen eration,” the first black executives to battle thdr way to the top of cor porate America. Presenting Mr. Davis with its 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award, the Jackie Robinson Foundation wrote; “Ifis story is record-breaking and astounding by any measure- , ment. He has been on the cover of Black Enterprise magazine three times, in Newsweek, and featured in articles in Time and U.S. News. There have bem six television spe cials about him and his work. He has been honored over 100 times for his work in the corporate world and the black community In addition, Davis has received two Honorary Doctorates.” Bom in Flint, Mich., on April 10, 1932, the eldest of three siblings, hh-. Davis grew up in an atmosphere of limited opportunity but rising aspirations. His father was a clerk in the U.S. Postal Service, his moth er, a General Motors factory worker. Athletic and gregarious, Mr. Davis discovCTed his calling early sales. He had a paper route and sold flow ers. A Boy &out and YMCA coun selor, he also had a passion for ser vice. Please see DAVIS/8C Darwin N. Davis Sr. appeared on the cover of the July 1976 issue of Black Enterprise magazine. Joblessness more than skin-deep By Wendell P. Simpson mEPHILADELPH TRIBUNE PHILADELPHIA - Under the draconian provisions of Reagan era trickle-down economics, the Black middle class saw its biggest upward explosion at the same time Black poverty grew by leaps and boxmds. Sadly, in 2006, the paradigm has moved increasingly toward a more desperate poverty level since those halcyon days of upward mobility While President Bush consistently asserts that the U.S. economy is on the rebound, economists have noted that 33 percent of the A&ican-American community is worse off today than it was 40 years ago. Data corroborate that assessment. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 10 million African- Americans, one-third of aH black people in the United States, fit its critmia of “poor.” It’s all about jobs or the lack of the same. Numerous experts agree that no factor drives this phenomenon more than the lack of employ ment opportunities in minority communities. Segregation, discrimination and a lack of demand for low-sldlled labor, coupled with the abandon ment of traditional African- American urban enclaves by the Black iniddle class, have exacer bated the deepening crisis. “Race diffe^nces and class dif ferentials have been ground together in this country in a cru cible of missty and squalor in such a way that few of us know wh^e one stops and the other begins,” saj^ Henry Louis Gates Jr, in an article fiom the Black Collegian. William Juhus Wilson, profes sor of Afio-American Studies at Harvard University and a former adviser to President Bill Chnton, says there are innumerable fac tors compounding the chronic problem of black imemploymait. “Some of the problems are racial Please see BLACK/8C THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2006 Four allege drugmaker bias against blacks By Ken Kusmer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INDIANAPOLIS - Four former or cur rent black employees of Eh lilly and Co. are suing the drug company alleging they were paid less than their white co-workere and denied promotions because of their race. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Indianapohs, seeks class- action status on behalf of more than 1,000 black employees who attorneys said might have faced the same kinds of discrimination since August 2003. Named as plaintiffs are former employees Cassandra Welch of Indianapohs, Jarmaine Bromell of Philadelphia and Raynard Tyson of North- Carolina and current employee Sheryl A. Davis of Memphis, Tfenn. Welch began as an hourly employee before being promoted to an administrative position, where her career stalled, the law suit states. TTie others were or are current ly sales representatives. More than 20 present and former Lilly employees have contacted the plaintiff’s lawyers, Joshua and David Rose of the Washington, D.C., about possible represen tation in the case, Joshua Rose said in a telephone interview. Complaints are pend ing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he said. “Lilly managers tend to groom white employees for promotion and bonuses more effectively more rapidly and more often than their Afiican-American peers,” the attorneys, who specialize in employment discrimination cases, said in a news release. Lilly spokeswoman Carla Cox said the company had not yet seen the lawsuit, so it was withholding comment on the specific allegations. Black-owned businesses in S.C. struggle to keep up THE ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina has one of the lowest numbers of black-owned businesses per capita in the country despite a 23 percent increase between 1997 and 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Blacks make up almost 30 percent of the state’s population, but just 9.8 percent of the state’s businesses were owned by blacks in 2002. Nationwide, the number of black-owned businesses grew by 45 percent fixim 1997 to 2002, more than four times the national rate for all businesses, according to the bureau. ‘We’re about halfway there,” said Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. “The future is bright. We will continue to spiral up.” Revenues fix/m black-owned businesses increased by 25 percent nationally during the period to about $89 biUion. In South Carolina, black-owned business reported $1.6 bilhon in sales in 2002, up fix/m about $1.4 billion in 1997. Nearly aU black-owned businesses are small - 92 percent had no employees other than the owners, according to ffie report. By comparison, about three-fourths of aU U.S. businesses had no employees. ‘We do have challenges; we are making progress,” said Ronald Langston, director of the state Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency “This is the real challenge: to move these smaller busi nesses into the next step of growth.” AU smaU companies in South Carolina have a harder time finding money have a less-educated work force and have less expe rience than entrepreneurs in other states, said Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. He said black business owners are suffer ing the same afflictions _ only to a greater extent. ‘Nobody intoids for them to do worse, but when you’re a minority you always pay a great economic price when things ar^’t going well,” Knapp said. PajToU among the state’s black-owned firms was about $16,484 per worker in 2002. The average pay per employee at black- owned businesses across the country that year was about $23,228.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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