Black Men And Businessmen

The inspiring story of Reginald Lewis: lawyer, Wall Street wizard, philanthropist--and the wealthiest black man in American history. Based on Lewis's unfinished autobiography, along with scores of interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, this book cuts through the myth and hype to reveal the man behind the legend.

Psychology and social science practically ignored “cool” as a legitimate topic of research. While in fact, the occurrence of cool has played an important role in the historical, social and cultural development of Black people, especially some Black males. Some Black male businessmen use cool behaviors to fight against stress caused by meaningful life supporting social, economic, political, and business issues. Coolposing is a leadership strategy based on African cultural elements of communicative individuality and mysticism, emerging from influences of “cool pose.” It is a part of character, and character is the representation of one’s self in everyday life. It is a positive response by America’s Black males (and not niggas) to alienation, lynching, and loss of community grounded in the coolness of the first group of captured, yet resistant Africans, who arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Within this book, readers will learn all about this often ignored subject, its central elements, and the nine kinds of “cool.” Coolposing proposes a major shift for the best mental, spiritual and physical health of Black males and prescribes measures for crisis intervention, as well as for preventing mental burnout.

From the high-profile founder of the highly successful "Black Enterprise" magazine comes an illuminating guide for the aspiring African-American entrepreneur. Graves uses his own story--which includes careers in the military, real estate, and public service as an assistant to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy--and those of dozens of other black men and women as examples of how to achieve professional success.

This book is about a young man coming to age back in the sixties, when Black men wore Afros and dashikis. We have just realized how important allies really were, no more mopping floors and working in the auto factories. We were going to be business owners, and no one could imagine what was in store for us—the burning down of my brother’s nightclub, a fight for my life, and my mother hanging on for dear life as my brother’s nightclub went up in flames. The opening of my photo lab was the biggest photo finishing plant the Kodak I’ve ever seen; that was owned by a Black man, hundreds of accounts from Los Angeles to Beverly Hills, but the robbers didn’t care. The police could not protect me; my employee respects life, going to work every day. This was the fight of my life; could you imagine coming to work finding your mother beat down in the store? I had to defend myself and my employees; it was a tale. Was it worth it? The dead bodies in the alley, my wife having no idea of what I was going through every day. My kids did not care; they only saw that I was never there. Get the insight of what it meant to be a Black business owner in the sixties. Everyone talked about a Black business owner getting a free ride with business loans from the SBA, but they never knew the truth. I still wake up at night in cold sweats, thinking about what I have been through. Was it all worth it?

This book is a long-term empirical analysis of the impact of the civil rights movement on the real-life situations of southern blacks. Looking at the period from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, it assesses the role of black political participation in six Florida cities. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.