A few days before Randall Woodfin won the general election as Birmingham, Alabama’s mayor, his teenage nephew was shot to death. Just five years prior, his nephew’s father—Woodfin’s brother—was also killed by gun violence. So when Woodfin has to make a call to a grieving mother, father, or grandparent who has just lost a child to gun violence, he said, “I’m triggered every time.”
“America has a violence problem. At this intersection of a city in a southern state that has lax or no gun law, in a city where there’s majority of Black people, in a city where there’s access to guns easier than it is to buy drugs—what do you think is going to happen? You’re going to have a higher level of gun violence than your average urban core,” Mayor Woodfin said. “This issue is hard, and it’s not easy, but I do believe it’s solvable.”
Woodfin shared his impassioned remarks—and his city’s tangible solutions—at the Morrison-Clark Historic Inn in Washington, D.C., earlier this month as the National Black Empowerment Council (NBEC) hosted a duo of annual “Solution Sessions.” A packed room of professionals in suits with open minds to exchange ideas gathered during the Congressional Black Caucus’s Annual Legislative Conference week to discuss how NBEC members leverage resources, relationships, and influence to collectively impact Black communities and close the wealth gap.
New in its origins, but broad in its influence and impact, NBEC’s leaders and members say the organization is gaining steam to be a catalyst for change in the Black community “as a way to move forward the momentum that was begun during the Civil Rights Movement,” said NBEC member Michael Kennedy, “to take the community to the next level.”
And that’s exactly what NBEC Founder and President Darius Jones aims to do: connect people in “positions of responsibility but who operate in those positions with such a spirit of high consciousness and a desire to elevate and see our people succeed.”
Empowerment Through Social Connection
NBEC is a national network of leaders in politics, academia, health, tech, law, the faith community, and Black philanthropy who uplift Black people in the areas of education, economic empowerment, and community development. People, Jones said, who are “willing to work together strategically across those various industries to leverage the resources, the relationships, and the institutional influence they have for the uplift of our people.”
NBEC was founded in 2021 by Jones, a versatile visionary who has worked in local, state, and national politics and government relations. In forming the organization, Jones believes that members on both sides of the aisle are critical to increasing community impact and closing the wealth gap.
“Our organization is bipartisan because our belief is: wherever critical decisions are being made that are going to impact the lives of African Americans, we need access to those conversations,” Jones told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
According to Jones, twenty current and former African American mayors are members of NBEC.
“Being able to have mayors who are involved in our network—and to have in their cities a cohort of civically engaged members from our group, also in other industries—they’re able to work together collectively to punch above their weight to make a positive impact for our community,” he said.
While the organization cannot endorse nor campaign for candidates as a 501(c)3, the network can convene amongst themselves to find ways to support candidates as they see fit. NBEC congratulated its network member Steve Benjamin on his White House appointment and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks on her Maryland Senate bid announcement.
In addition to their collective power in politics,
there’s also a growing movement in the education space. Of NBEC’s 600 members, nearly 70% are alumni of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Jones said. The organization also has a few HBCU presidents as members, one of whom is Benedict College President Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, who has been a member since NBEC’s inception.“Darius Jones’ visions of creating a dynamic group of African Americans and their allies to create synergies and develop solutions to complex problems resonated with me as an African American woman and as an HBCU president,” Dr. Artis told BE, adding that the “synergies created by the NBEC create a vibrant ecosystem” for HBCUs.
Proactively addressing the “digital divide in low-wealth communities of color, providing community-based housing solutions and growing Black-owned businesses,” as a few examples, Dr. Artis said, “ is complimentary to the work we do at HBCUs. The Benedict College business incubator, technology hub, prison education program, community-based broad access program, and community development corporation all afford me the opportunity to advance the work of NBEC while simultaneously propelling the College and the community we serve. Each of these activities is, quite literally, an empowerment tool for the Black community.”
Furthermore, HBCUs can be protected, preserved, sustained, and grown by leveraging the “access to capital, strategy development, and the public/private partnerships that naturally evolve from the work of NBEC,” Dr. Artis said.
Homes We Own in Safer Communities
During the Sept. 12 Solutions Sessions, leaders examined the critical intersection of public safety initiatives with economic opportunities for businesses and the benefits of community engagement and safer communities due to Black homeownership. They offered meaningful solutions throughout.
“We do not deal with the underlying root causes of crime, and most of that is poverty,” said Reneé Hall, retired police chief and national first vice president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). She added that her organization works with Black chambers of commerce to ensure “businesses feel comfortable once they come into our communities.”
“If our dollars in this community are going to these businesses, are they investing in our police department and in our communities? Are they offering jobs, education and training?,” Hall asked. “Because we have to approach public safety and economic development and growth in a holistic manner, and we can’t just do one without the other.”
Mayor Woodfin said his city pumps a million dollars a year into conflict resolution programs for K-12 students. Other investments include re-entry tools for the formerly incarcerated: employment, getting a license or Commercial Driver’s License, and housing.
John Henry, CEO of Grace3 Technologies LLC, said, “We need more tech solutions for teens.” He’s working with NBEC to create career pathway programs and fund exams for teens to explore the aviation field. Through Grace3’s Teen Tech Summit, Henry said his company has impacted “3,000 or 4,000 kids.”
In a separate panel, leaders in affordable housing, utility infrastructure, and community benefit planning discussed collaboration to impact communities in real estate development. Jennifer Riley Collins, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Regional Administrator, said that HUD is partnering with the Department of Labor to focus on helping young people living in public housing obtain skills and provide them with opportunities to get jobs directly with the federal government. Collins also stressed the importance of Black homeownership.
“Our community continues to be discriminated against when it comes to the value placed upon a house that they own or a house that they may attempt to go buy,” Collins said. “Homebuilding is also economic development for our community.”
NBEC is hosting a homeownership and generational wealth workshop
at The Gathering Spot Atlanta on Sept. 29. The workshop is open to the public.Reception and Relationships
After NBEC’s Solutions Sessions, the dialogue flowed into the connection at NBEC’s annual Urban Leadership Reception. A packed crowd gathered at ZOOZ in DC’s revamped Wharf district. Amongst decorative florals, neon pink lights, French 75s, and the sounds of DJ Bomb Jahlamm, hundreds of guests convened, conversed, and carried on meaningful connections to address solutions.
Among the guests were Kennedy, an NBEC member who recently contributed $100,000 to the organization. As CEO of KAI Enterprises, Kennedy works to “transform communities through infrastructure, design, and construction.”
“I felt it was important to be able to be a part of threading together all Black people in the country—and now we’re talking about internationally—to have one voice and one movement together—instead of relying on one person to make things happen for us,” Kennedy said during the Urban Leadership Reception. “The contribution I made is something I feel is way past due…to help increase the infrastructure for the vision and strategy and growth of this plan. Every time someone makes a contribution to this organization, it has a 10x return in the community.”