by Lauryn Bray

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The Africatown Community Land Trust (ACLT) kicked off this year’s Summer of Soul series Wednesday night, May 22, with their Building Black Wall Street Mixer + Chat at Byrd Barr Place. The sold-out event garnered a crowd of just under a hundred guests and provided them with space to connect and network with other attendees.

“Networking spaces for Black professionals and entrepreneurs are crucial for several reasons. They provide a unique environment where individuals can connect, share experiences, and support one another in ways that are both meaningful and impactful,” said Kennesha Poe-Buycks, communications and marketing manager at ACLT, in an interview with the Emerald days before the event.

Attendees spent the first 45 minutes enjoying hors d’oeuvres and each other’s company before Debrena Jackson Gandy took to the mic to introduce the first speaker, Tremayne Edwards, director of operations at Byrd Barr place. Edwards spoke about some of the organization’s assistance programs available to eligible individuals.

“One of our biggest programs is our LIHEAP program — that’s our [Low Income Home] Energy Assistance Program that we serve for the entire Seattle area,” he said. “If you qualify for that program [and] you are a homeowner, we can actually help repair or replace your furnace up to $10,000, which is amazing.” Edwards said they also have a Cooling Assistance Program (CAP) ending on July 31. “If you qualify for that program, you can purchase a free AC unit for [your household.]”

Through LIHEAP, the organization also assists with preventing tenants from getting evicted. “We have, through that same program, eviction prevention, so if you are someone who has heat built into your rent, and are facing a shutoff notice or an eviction, we can help up to $1,500 towards that cost,” said Edwards.

This year also marks the organization’s 60th anniversary. “We’re gonna do a few different things this year to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Byrd Barr Place: July 20, we will be having a block party, we’re going to be shutting down this entire street …On Aug. 20, we’re going to be having a panel for discussions around launching the release of a blueprint for change — a new framework for centering Black people in grant making,” said Edwards. The organization will also be having its gala on Oct. 5.

Following Edwards, ACLT CEO K. Wyking Garrett spoke, not only about the significance of the event — talking briefly about the decimation of Black Wall Streets across America, like the thriving Black business community destroyed during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — but also provided an update on some of ACLT’s current projects and upcoming events.

“We know that Black people worked for 300 years and their labor capital invested and built the wealth of this society. But then through structures, we’ve been denied access to that capital,” Garrett said. “Reparations is something that has to be at the top of our policy agenda. And one of the things that we proposed in 2020 was establishing a $1 billion anti-displacement fund.”

Responding to the hypothetical notion that $1 billion is too much money for such a thing, Garrett said that $1 billion is just a fraction of the amount of money Black residents of King County have lost due to racist housing practices since 1950. “There was a study done by King County that said over $5 billion of wealth has been stolen from the Black community just in King County. So $1 billion is only actually 20% of $5 billion, right?”

Keynote speaker Lewis Rudd, CEO of Ezell’s Famous Chicken, then took to the podium to talk about barriers the company faced while trying to expand during a time when banks maintained discriminatory lending practices that kept Black-owned businesses and people from acquiring loans.

During his speech, Rudd remembered how the restaurant struggled to get a loan to open up a location in the U District two years after the first restaurant opened in the Central District in 1984, despite business thriving. He said, “Two years later, we would be introduced to the first experience of systemic racism. Went to the bank, applied for a loan. Everything’s great: Credit’s good, business is good, lines around the block of people loving the chicken. ‘You guys work hard!’ — that’s what the banker said, until he found out we wanted to open in the U District. ‘Well, I thought you were going to go south … Black people eat chicken, and that’s why you’re successful. You’re in the Black community.’”

Months went by before they heard back from the bank about the loan application, saying it was only approved after an associate of Rudd’s called the vice president of the bank. Following the call, the business received a loan of $35,000 six months after their original application. Rudd said the delay on the application caused the restaurant to miss out in participating in that year’s University Street Fair. Today, the franchise owns and operates 18 locations with the help of over 325 employees and is revered as the best fried chicken in Seattle.

The event also featured a panel of guest speakers, Damon Brown of Communion Restaurant and Bar, Rodney Hines of Metier Brewing Company, Veronica Very of WOW Gallery, and Monika Mathews of Queencare, moderated by Jay Martin Jr. Panelists were asked three questions regarding the importance of Black businesses and breaking down the barriers to success for Black entrepreneurs.

Following the panel, the event’s sponsors were invited up to the podium to address attendees before Jackson Gandy returned to dismiss everyone. Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth went up to address her constituents and talked about the importance of investing in Black businesses and community.

“The one thing that I have that’s in my office, and I remember going to Africatown and I know I heard directly from Wyking then I looked it up — $42,500 is the average household income for a Black family in the City of Seattle, [and] half of the Black families in the City of Seattle have a zero net worth,” Hollingsworth said. “Those numbers are in my office right now because there are things we have to do in our community. The first one is [expand] Black business — it’s about Black economic mobility. The second piece is land, homeownership, and affordable housing.”

Hollingsworth also spoke about the need for distinction and specificity in terms of policy relating to Black people and People of Color.

“When I’m challenged with laws, when I’m talking to people that do not look like this room but they speak for us, all they’re telling me constantly [is], ‘Well, you know, the Black and Brown community and BIPOC’ — First of all, we have got to retire that word. We got to not be scared to say ‘Black,’” Hollingsworth said. “We have to redefine what progressive means; there’s nothing more progressive than Black issues. And we have to recenter what that means, because we have gotten way off track.”

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📸 Featured Image: Part of Africatown’s Summer of Soul series, the Building Black Wall Street Mixer + Chat offers networking and knowledge sessions for Black professionals and entrepreneurs. (Photo courtesy of Erik Wilson)

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