South Side resident Edward Harris says he remembers when 75th Street in Greater Grand Crossing was an epicenter for Black-owned commerce.
“This was like a renaissance community area that was thriving when I was coming up as a youth,” 54-year-old Harris said. “They were booming down 75th Street. You had restaurants, you had bars, you had cleaners, you had all types of different, niche businesses.”
On Saturday, the Southeast Side was the site of “Spend in the Black,” a street festival event along the 75th Street corridor with a goal of strengthening “Black economic power.” The event was reminiscent of the 75th Street of Harris’s youth. He said he would love to see the event happen as often as possible.
“All of it is just beautiful. You see technology vendors, you see restaurants, you see small vendors, said Harris. “Black enterprise in itself, in general, is awesome.”
The event’s impact was notable. Businesses located along 75th Street saw a 500% increase in sales and the event welcomed “25,000 people in foot traffic,” according to Ald. William Hall (6th Ward), one of the event organizers. Of the 103 vendors, 14 sold out of products during the event.
Hall also said he is currently meeting with one business owner, who wants to sign a lease for a location on 75th Street. It is unclear if the business participated as a vendor during the event.
The “Spend in the Black: Resurrecting the Black Dollar” event in Chicago followed a recent trend of faith leaders across the country spearheading movements to encourage spending with Black-owned companies and those that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Other organizers for the event included Salem and Progressive Baptist Church Pastor Charlie Dates and leaders in Chicago’s business scene.
Atlanta-based pastor Jamal Bryant was behind the national Target boycott that has been credited to a drop in the company’s stock and foot traffic after the company parted ways with its DEI efforts after Donald Trump’s administration pressured the private sector to end such initiatives.
The April 19 event in Chicago resembled a Summertime Chi block party with over 100 Black vendors selling and advertising their goods and services on the mile-long stretch from King Drive to Cottage Grove Avenue.
Ahead of the event, Hall and Pastor Dates promoted the gathering with a video featuring rapper Rick Ross, asking people to come out to support Black vendors.
During the event, renowned House DJ Farley “Jackmaster” Funk was there, playing everything from the blues, house music, funk, and R&B jams. The sounds emitted through the speakers of Funk’s decorated mobile DJ truck as people coupled up and started stepping in Chicago fashion. Onlookers spotted West Side Congressman Danny Davis (D-7th) as he danced alongside a community resident.
“I think it’s phenomenal. It’s something that we should do more often. It shouldn’t be even just a one-time thing. Like they said, ‘the revolution will be televised,’ and this is a part of that,” Woodlawn resident Celeste Howell said.
Howell said she heard of the event through word of mouth and social media. She said she thinks the event should happen regularly. She compared the affair to the Maxwell Street Market that initially took place in the neighborhood used to be referred to as “Jewtown,” where immigrants from Eastern Europe established the Sunday-only flea markets on Maxwell Street on the Near West Side in the 1800s. Today, that area is home to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“They used to have those events regularly. They’d open up their community on the weekends,” Howell said. “So why not? Why can’t the Black community do this every weekend? They had those flea markets and those pantries. This is something that we can do on a regular, I think.”
In a text message, Hall told The TRiiBE that while there are no current plans to make the event annual, they “are listening to what the community wants, how the businesses were impacted, best practices and following God for next steps.”
Vendors ranged in specialties from clothing entrepreneurs to those in the nonprofit and mental health space to the trades. According to the vendors, the application process was simple, with vendor fees of $300 and waived fees for any businesses physically located on 75th Street.
Lisa Brown, founder of Blessings Healthcare Academy near 75th and Indiana Avenue, had her fees waived. Brown, a licensed nurse, founded Blessings Healthcare with her best friend to provide medical training opportunities in their community in 2023.
“We started off as CNAs (certified nurse assistants), and we went up the ladder and began to be nurses and nurse practitioners,” Brown said. “So we decided at this point that we wanted to come and give back to our community, teach the young girls, single mothers, that this is a way to get started in the healthcare field.”
Despite the cloudy weather on Saturday, Brown said she was impressed with the outcome and the unity that Black Chicagoans showed during the event.
“For me, the importance is that we recognize each other. We see the wealth that we have, [and] we put it back into each other instead of spending it somewhere else,” Brown said.
Bernita Jordan, co-owner of Jordans, heralded as one of Chicago’s oldest Black-owned beauty supply stores with nearly 50 years in business, said that the event allowed residents to learn of stores and shops they’ve never heard of. For Whitney Stanley of Live and Believe fitness studio in Beverly, it was an opportunity to promote health to the attendees and network.
“It’s given us an opportunity to really pour back into our community and it’s showing us that there are businesses that we might not even know existed. So it gives us an opportunity to actually connect with other businesses,” Stanley said.
Attendees Jordyn Hill and Alexis Whaley, who both recently moved to Chicago from Oklahoma, say the event helped them learn what Chicago has to offer and where to find Black-owned products. They both learned of the event as members of Progressive Baptist Church.
Whaley shouted out participating bookstore and community space, Burst Into Books, adding that she was interested in the various community events held in the store’s Roseland location.
Kiecha Joseph, also a member of Progressive Baptist Church, said the event gives meaning to the saying, “there’s strength in numbers,” adding that the market provided opportunity to the Black community during a time of economic struggle and would like to see it more often.
“I think it’s something they can do more than annually, maybe even quarterly or semiannually,” Joseph said. “From a marketing perspective, I think there are a lot of options and opportunities, and this looks like just the beginning. So who knows what’ll come from this event?”
The post ‘Spend in the Black’ street fest boosted business along 75th Street appeared first on The TRiiBE.
