Electrical contracting firm Spurlock and Son gives new meaning to the phrase “power to the people.” The family-owned business occupies a lucrative area where tradesmen of color are sparse and Black ownership in the sector is even rarer. The company provides electrical services for residential and commercial properties.
“I always liked the electrical trade,” said Terriell Spurlock, while sitting next to his wife Kim at their office at 3065 E. 93rd St. “Even when growing up it was something about seeing lights come on from nothing. How does that work?”
Spurlock’s dream of developing a firm led to providing stability for his family and opportunities for others. Those others include his children. During the sit down at the Spurlock and Son office, Terrell and Kim Spurlock are accompanied by their son Terrell Spurlock Jr., and their daughter Tatyerra Spurlock-McPherson, who joined by video call. For them, family is at the center of their business model.
Kim Spurlock ensured that the family business was able to flourish during its start. She streamlined the processes while money was low and help was minimal.
“I came into the company once I realized that he was a one-man show in the office,” she said. “He would be working a job way deep on the West Side, and then have to come all the way back to the South Side to do whatever paperwork he needed done.”
Initially intending to stay with the company for a year, Kim Spurlock stayed. It’s been nearly 20 years.
Wendell Williams, a third-generation electrician who has worked with the Spurlocks for nine years, said the family dynamic is why he stays.
“I would never just leave voluntarily to go work for any other company,” Williams said while taking a short break from his current work in a North Lawndale residential development. “We’re more like a family. We laugh, eat and joke together. We get serious together. It’s nothing better than having a family.”
Williams, 50, began working with Spurlock in 2016, the same year the company became a signatory of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134 union. He learned of Spurlock through his father, who once owned an electrical company. Back in the day, Williams said, Black tradesmen naturally came together. That same energy should carry through in modern times, he added.
“It’s very necessary because young Black men don’t get the opportunities they need,” Williams said. “So if you get a chance, you stick with it.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry is one of the largest trade sectors. Black men make up about 7% of the industry despite the Black population being 13% of the total US labor force.
Spurlock and Son didn’t get here alone. They stand on the shoulders of businesses such as Taylor Electric Company, founded in Chicago in 1922. Taylor Electric is considered one of the city’s oldest continuously operating Black-owned businesses.
Spurlock and Son provides services to larger developments such as the Invest South/West developments in Auburn Gresham on 79th and Halsted; a mixed-use development in Homan Square and the eco-friendly culinary hub, Englewood Connect.
The company started out in Auburn Gresham before transitioning to the Southeast side of the city. Terrell and Kim Spurlock said their visibility in the trades makes it easier for Black people to see themselves in the industry.
“I think we inspire a lot of our people in the community to do or want more or better,” said Kim Spurlock. “We try to set an example and show people that college isn’t for everyone, but you can still take care of your family [with a career in] a trade.”
Terrell Spurlock noted the importance of seeing people that look like him working on developments in the community.
“You don’t often see Black faces doing that kind of work,” said Spurlock Sr. “There’s kind of a disconnect. All of our employees started out from the South Side [and are] people that we met along the way. It’s been very interesting to see where our employees started and where they are now. I often tell my employees that you helped me send my kids to college. When they started buying houses, I’m like, ‘okay, this is a real company.’”
Kim Spurlock detailed the journey of building the electrical firm, which began when her husband left the military. After Spurlock served six years in the army, the couple returned to Chicago in 1991 to care for his father. Spurlock attended Coyne College, where he eventually became certified as an electrician.
Spurlock landed his first job, with Entergy Integrated Solutions, shortly after graduation.. He worked his way up to supervisor until the company shuttered its northern operations. In 1998, Spurlock decided to go into business for himself.
Using his sister’s real estate connections, Spurlock met general contractors for residential developments and landed jobs working on rehabbed homes in what he called “freelancing,” to build up his resume until he began getting contract work for the company.
Spurlock received his minority business certification, which allows companies with more than 50% minority ownership the ability to receive government contracts and other business opportunities, while completing his first multi-property job in 2005. That job, working on electrical solutions for 82 townhomes on 122nd and Marshfield Avenue, was brokered by Carrie Austin, the 34th ward’s former alderwoman.
“She believed in making sure Black contractors got the same opportunity as the white contractors,” Spurlock said about Austin. “She gave us the opportunity and she believed in us.”
Kim Spurlock said 2005 was the “kickoff” for other certifications for Spurlock and Son, including being certified as a Veteran Business Enterprise and a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. The townhouse project later led Spurlock and Son to a contract with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), a relationship that would expand into continuous projects.
Spurlock said that working with larger projects under the CHA often garnered the ire of the big trade union. That pushback is what pushed Spurlock to become a union contractor.
“The union’s thing is, if you’re doing projects this size, you should be a union employee,” Spurlock explained. “If you’re not, we can have a union employee doing this project, which would financially help the union.”
Going into the union expanded business for Spurlock and Son, helping them to recruit more workers who were already union-certified.
That’s what happened with Henry Johnson, who met the elder Spurlock at his former shop in Auburn Gresham. Johnson and other unionized community members threw fundraisers and other community engagement events to inspire youth to join the trade.
“He was instrumental, because he was like, ‘Man, you can use my spot,’ because we’d throw a party right before the Bud Billiken Parade,” said Johnson.
The connection would lead to Johnson working for Spurlock in 2023.
John White, another foreman for Spurlock and Son, has worked with the firm since 2013. White said he was not initially serious about the trades when he told Terrell Spurlock to contact him for work, but is glad he did.
“When I told him I was ready, he called me the next day and I’ve been working ever since,” White said. He remembered when the union tried to send him to another firm to work, he threatened to leave the union if they tried to move him, adding that working for Spurlock is more than a job.
“The key word is family,” said White. “Each one of us is hand picked. We all got a relationship with him. Some already look at an electrician as a powerful trade, but for a Black man to teach and show another young Black man, that’s powerful.”
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