Albany's Black Chamber: 'A Way to Connect'
Raysheea Turner, a partner in the only Black-owned law firm in New York’s capital city, recently invited clients to the Albany Black Chamber of Commerce & Social Club for a holiday mixer. Her request was simple: Get to know each other.
“This is about growth, and this is about networking,” she said, adding that she saw an opportunity for some of the entrepreneurs at the party to start doing business with each other.
This is the mission of the Albany Black Chamber, which I wrote about last week in The Wall Street Journal. It was formed in 2022 and opened its physical building last year a few blocks from the State Capitol in the stately Colonial Revival-style building that previously held the University Club.
One of the main goals of boosting Black entrepreneurship in communities like Albany is to close the wealth gap between Black and white Americans. A 2022 survey by the Federal Reserve found that a typical white family had more than six times the wealth of a typical Black family.
While fostering business networks is a key service of chambers of commerce in general, it can be especially beneficial for Black-owned small- and medium-size businesses, Black business owners and officials told me. The Chamber is a great space for events and client meetings – but also just to hang out. That’s really important for building an ecosystem that includes mentoring, access to finance and other services — which have long been barriers to Black business development, according to real estate developer Jahkeen Hoke.
I visited the chamber and spoke with several Black business owners around the region. Cindy Schultz took beautiful photos that we published along with the story.
A major catalyst for the Albany Black Chamber is Ed Mitzen, a white businessman who built a successful marketing firm that he partially sold in 2020. He said he was shocked by Floyd’s murder in May of that year.
Mitzen bought and renovated the University Club’s building — you can read a bit about the last days of the club in this Times Union article — and then turned it over to the Black Chamber. He also began providing grants and meeting with several Black entrepreneurs to discuss marketing and other aspects of their business. He said the goal of his “entrepreneurial philanthropy” was to help build wealth and equity to more durably address disparities in housing, health and crime. He estimated that he has invested $20 million through his group for these efforts.
One place where you can see the results is Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen. Its owner, Kizzy Williams, was on public assistance when she started her soul-food restaurant. It now has a catering operation and a produce store.
“When people come here, we want them to have access to Black businesses,” she said. “It’s not a large group of us. It’s small, and the world has to find a way to connect with these businesses.”
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