There is no greater (or worse) story that gives the three-dimensional picture of why a well-coordinated political, cultural, and economic mass movement in these three areas is needed.

Wealth Creation
While many Black Americans participated in the stock market and became homeowners for the first time, 10 years after those gains began to materialize, they have almost entirely evaporated.

Black homeownership, according to the U.S. Census Bureau went from 44.8% in 1997 to a peak of 49.1% in 2004, before settling at 47.2% in 2007.  According to the Ariel-Schwab Survey, Black stock ownership spiked from 57%, in 1998, the first year of the survey, to 74% in 2002. By 2007 it was back at 1998 levels – 57%.

Financial Literacy
The sub-prime loan crisis has been full of accounts of individuals 1) who signed documents they did not understand and 2) who were deceived (by individuals posing as financial experts) into accepting unfavorable terms and conditions.

These stories are compounded by case after case of persons who have been caught in a personal debt spiral and pyramid due to their ignorance of the consumer lending industry and the many traps of the consumer lending industry.

Community Development
The dramatic rise in the ownership of paper assets over the last 10 years has not lead to the real development of our communities.  Leaving aside all of the latest terms, formulas, concepts, and models of community development promoted by financial gurus, activists, elected officials, government agencies, economists, and even some traditional community-based organizations; community development always revolves around the basic unit of any society – the individual, and the institutions they construct to evolve and steward life activity, like businesses and schools.

If one were to define community development in these basic terms, it is clear that the wealth created on paper, through the stock market and housing market over the last ten years has not led to a significant improvement in the quality of life of the masses of Black Americans as evidenced by Black entrepreneurs (over 80% of which still have no more than a single employee); incarceration rates and crime statistics (with alarming murder rates in Black communities); improved educational institutions (illiteracy, graduation rates, and standardized test scores paint the picture) and employment (Black male and teenage unemployment figures are staggering and the Black unemployment rate, which was 7.6% in December of 2000, stands near its 1997 levels – 9.7%, as of May of 2008 according to official Department of Labor statistics.)

So what do we have to show for the last ten years?

Certainly, financial gains and success stories for a minority of Black America, but more importantly, painful but powerful lessons that can inform and fuel a future economic renaissance.

While there is a 400-year old historical context that explains what has taken place over the past 10 years – as well as many local and global political, cultural, and financial factors – there is currently no dedicated or coordinated effort to find a single economic institution where all of these factors meet and connect, enabling the widest cross section of Black Americans, regardless of age, religious background, geographical location, political ideology, partisan affiliation, class status, educational level, or occupation to understand the dilemma we are in, identify their enlightened self-interest, and participate in a viable solution.

That institution is the Black-Owned Bank – which consists of our formal commercial lending institutions across the countries as well as informal institutions of cooperative economics like investment clubs and ethnic strategies for pooling of capital through rotating credit associations.

The study and analysis of the history and current condition of our Black-owned institutions of financial aggregation and intermediation – banks and cooperative economic pools – and a mass movement to engage and strengthen them in mutually accountable relationships is a winning strategy to improve the quality of life in Black America.

This website is dedicated to providing a spark to ignite that effort and inform that strategy.

Financial Literacy and Wealth Creation although critically important and necessary elements, will not automatically result in Community Development.  The boom in Black stock and home ownership over the last 10 years alone makes this clear.

Unless there is a concerted and determined effort to ensure that individual financial literacy and wealth creation for couples and families translates into broader economic development, neighborhoods and communities will not experience a lasting improvement in their quality of life.

Measurements of income, savings, and net worth are irrelevant to community development if they don’t affect incarceration and crime rates; entrepreneurship and business development and growth; and school performance and recreational activity among youth.

Here, there are a variety approaches to community development that have value - from neighborhood watch programs, parent-teacher associations and mentorship programs to faith-based initiatives to the unique role played by community development corporations (CDCs) to the insights of urban planners and political economists to the unique programs, pilots and models created by public-private partnerships to reputable multi-level or mass networking models to the initiatives, and economic nationalism models and programs of Marcus Garvey, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Claude Anderson, Ken Bridges, Muhammad Nassardeen, and Amos Wilson.  Each of these efforts and perspectives can inform meaningful and lasting community development.  In the coming months, the BBI will identify and shed light on local grassroots community development initiatives, and the folks on the ground that are doing the much needed work to uplift our communities.   We hope that you will find their work worthy of your support.  

In addition to the community development approaches mentioned above, the Black Bank Initiative (BBI) believes that the central role of formal and informal financial intermediation and aggregation - minority owned commercial lending institutions, investment clubs, and rotating credit associations, in particular - has been forgotten, marginalized or underutilized.

From taking foreclosed properties off of the banks of books; to better monitoring of the application of the Community Reinvestment Act; from better utilization of fiscal incentives of the Community Renewal Act; to making investments to local small business owners; and turning family reunions into opportunities to provide capital to entrepreneurs, finance college students, and disseminate financial literature; BBI is advocating for a paradigm shift in the way Black-owned lending institutions, investment clubs and rotating credit associations function.

To some degree or another, Black Americans are born into a legacy of financial illiteracy.  This is due largely to three factors: 1) The legacy of slavery which stripped Blacks of many of its economic traditions from Africa and the Caribbean and which was marked by efforts to keep Blacks from reading 2) Special efforts to keep blacks away from schooling in the fields of business and finance 3) The lack of financial and economic education available in the American public school system, which results in individuals of all colors graduating from high school without knowing how to read the business section of a newspaper, balance a checkbook, pay taxes, or become familiar with financial statements necessary for proper accounting in business and 4) The disproportionate acquaintance of Black Americans with poverty which yields less available role models of financial success – on the individual and institutional level.

The result is a unique form of financial illiteracy not experienced by any other people, but one in which promising signs of progress have materialized in recent years due to educational efforts and successful public and private partnerships.

An individual who is financially illiterate can be deceived by the many get-rich quick and something-for-nothing schemes, as well as the fine print, and numerous traps that await us all disguised as wealth creation programs.  Knowledge and the proper understanding of it are the keys to not falling for these pitfalls while engaging the world of financial services.  A primary goal of the Black Banking Initiative is to provide access to financial information to our participants.  Our sincere hope is that you will use that knowledge to make sound and informed financial decisions.  Financial literacy is an absolute if one desires an enhanced quality of life and wealth accumulation.  We realize that there will be participants with varying levels of financial knowledge, and we will work diligently to ensure that we present a good balance of information that can be beneficial to all of our visitors.

Please find below a collection of links that will empower you to become financially literate at the highest level.  We have developed this list independently in addition to drawing from Kelvin E. Boston’s Financial Success Resource Guide from Who’s Afraid To Be A Millionaire?: Mastering Financial and Emotional Success.

Financial Literacy Links:

•  
  • Black Enterprise
    www.blackenterprise.com
  • Motley Fool
    www.fool.com
  • Financial Literacy & Education Commission Member Agencies
    http://www.mymoney.gov/agency.shtml
  • Black Enterprise.com’s Black Wealth Initiative
    http://www.blackenterprise.com/wealth/wealth.asp
  • 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy
    http://www.360financialliteracy.org/
  • Michelle Singletary’s The Color of Money
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/24/LI2005032400142.html
  • Investopedia.com
    http://www.investopedia.com/
  • Bankrate’s Guide to Financial Literacy
    http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/Financial_Literacy/Financial_Literacy_toc_a1.asp

They are, first, the following from Claude Anderson, taken from his excellent book, Powernomics: the National Plan to Empower Black America:

“What is wealth? Wealth refers to the net value of a person, group or community less the liabilities or debt at a given point in time.  It is stored value.  Income, in contrast, refers to a flow of dollars over a period of time.  With rare exceptions, most Blacks are so marginalized that they own and control little wealth or resources anywhere, including their own neighborhoods.”

Second, from Henry David Thoreau:

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”

Third, from Proverbs 13:11 from the Bible:

“Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.”

Fourth, from Timothy 6:8-9 from the Bible:

“If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.  But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”

Fifth, from Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki:

“The poor and the middle class work for money.” “The rich have money work for them.”

Sixth, from Ayn Rand:

“Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”

Seventh, from Oprah Winfrey:

“Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn’t changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I’m just wearing better shoes.”

Eighth, from Surah 104: 1-3 of the Holy Qur’an:

“Woe to every (Kind of) scandalmonger and backbiter, who pileth up wealth and layeth it by, thinking that his wealth would make him last forever!”

Ninth, from Benjamin Franklin:

“Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.”

Tenth, from Andrew Young:

“I have about concluded that wealth is a state of mind, and that anyone can acquire a wealthy state of mind by thinking rich thoughts.”

Each of us must determine according to our own value system, reflection, and introspection, what wealth means and what we are willing and unwilling to do to obtain it. We have to search our conscience. There is an intricate balance between what we desire, and the means by which we obtain it which forces all of us to face deep ethical, moral and legal questions – if not in public or a social setting, than in the privacy of our hearts and the secret thoughts of our mind.

What are you willing to do, to obtain the lifestyle you want and become the person you want to be, is what it all boils down to.

The Black-Owned Bank Initiative For Wealth Creation, Financial Literacy and Community Development, before promoting any concept, vision, strategy or tactic or vehicle for wealth creation strongly encourages each and every person to clarify their economic self interest not only in terms of the financial wealth they desire, and lifestyle they wish to lead but also the kind of moral and ethical standards they desire to live up, to and live by.

If more of us had done that, perhaps, the wealth that we created on paper, over the last 10 years would not have evaporated so quickly.

Begin by reading a series of quotations regarding the concept of wealth:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=quotes+on+wealth&btnG=Search

A key step to enabling Black Americans to create wealth is through the cultivation of a healthy and proper relationship between our financial and emotional lives.  There is a unique book that marries top-of-the line financial information with insights regarding our emotional make-up.

That book is Who’s Afraid To Be A Millionaire?: Mastering Financial and Emotional Success By Kelvin Boston, and it is the official reference book of The Black-Owned Bank Initiative For Wealth Creation, Financial Literacy and Community Development (BBI).

The book is available at:
http://www.moneywise.tv/millionaire_book.html

Wealth Creation Links:

• Economic Mobility Project
  http://economicmobility.org/
• Building Wealth – A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Your Financial Future
  http://dallasfed.org/ca/wealth/index.cfm
• Black Enterprise.com’s Black Wealth Initiative
  http://www.blackenterprise.com/wealth/wealth_dofe.asp