Princeton University’s Keller Center kicked off a new initiative this spring titled, “The History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States”. The Center held a recent round table discussion on this topic as part of a series of lectures, workshops and conversations aligned with the University’s publicly stated commitment to put an ”understanding of racism and the ways it intersects with most of the world’s most pressing problems” at the center of their educational programs.
The Center is exploring the creative strategies that led black entrepreneurs to succeed. Discussions focused on the constraints Blacks faced that limited overall economics both in Black communities and all of society—with the greatest impact occurring when the constraints became institutionalized.
The series that is open to the public draws on the country’s most prominent academic scholars in the areas of black history and black entrepreneurship. Earlier topics were: “African American Business, Entrepreneurship and Capitalism, 1619-2021: Where Do We Go from Here?” and “Exoduster Entrepreneurs: Creating Black Business Communities in the West”.
As a minority group Blacks have a history of entrepreneurship not like any others due to the centuries in which they were shackled in slavery. Once freed those who resourcefully became entrepreneurs overcame challenges that included restrictive markets, segregation, Jim Crow laws, limits on access to capital, threats of violence and death, intellectual capital theft, and other extreme challenges.
“It is essential for our students to learn both about and from America’s Black innovators of the past and understand the impact and lessons on entrepreneurship today,” said Keller’s executive director Cornelia Huellstrunk.
Ihsan Beezer, a PhD student in Organization Management at Rutgers Business School, moderated the round table discussion. He is affiliated with The Rutgers Advanced Institute for the Study of Entrepreneurship and Development (RAISED) where he conducts research on urban and minority entrepreneurship.
Participants in the discussion included:
- Juliet E. K. Walker, Professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and Founding Director of the Center of Black Business History, Entrepreneurship, and Technology,
- Christine Kinealy, Professor of History and Founding Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University,.
- Martin Ruef, Jack and Pamela Egan Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at Duke University where his research focuses on the social context of entrepreneurship from both a contemporary and historical perspective, and.
- John Sibley Butler, the J. Marion West Chair for Constructive Capitalism in the Graduate School of Business, Department of Management at the University of Texas at Austin and is a professor in the Management Department.
The Keller Center’s program is bringing to the forefront the innovations of Blacks that contributed to America’s growth that should be recognized with those of white Americans. Their contributions ”resulted in lasting societal and cultural changes far beyond the Black community”. In addition, the program highlights the success of Black entrepreneurs that was achieved “under some of the most daunting constraints”.
The recent round table discussion and other events may be found on Princeton’s Keller Center’s Youtube Channel.
Read a broad range of articles about black and minority entrepreneurship and innovation, including diversity challenges that remain
