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America's wealthiest black country
Ebony, Nov, 2006 by Kevin Chappell
Youngblood says that being successful financially has made it all the more important to help others who have yet to realize their full potential. That's why he regularly gives his time and financial resources to worthwhile causes, especially school endeavors in the county. "There was a time when we had to go to the big White corporations and ask for money for our schools," he says. "Now that wealth has been created in the county, it is good to be in a position where we can write a check and help that school."
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Businessman Gary S. Murray agrees. "Here we are, 40 years after the Civil Rights Movement ... and we are the first generation to assume this kind of power ... It's our time," says Murray, former chairman of the county's Economic Development Corporation and CEO of HumanVision, a venture capital and land development company. "It's like a country coming out of colonialism. I think the challenge for us is not to be smug about where we are, but to look at the intellectual capital that we are going to pass on to the next generation."
County residents say they realize that some people may think that such wealth flowing through the majority-Black county with parks, lakes, flowers and tree-lined streets is an aberration that is not sustainable, much less "bequeathable." But county residents say their wealth is indeed sustainable. In fact, they say they have barely scratched the surface of the kind of generational wealth Whites have enjoyed for hundreds of years. "This model has worked all over the country for generations; it just hasn't been us," County Executive Johnson says. "So we're still not satisfied. We're just getting started."
COPYRIGHT 2006 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
