by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The rising tide doesn’t lift all boats at the same time, but each eventually rides a little higher.
It’s the “eventually” part that frustrates those whose rise has been slow.
“I wouldn’t say there’s been a vast increase in middle and upper-middle class black people in Jacksonville, but I would say there’s been a noticeable increase,” said City Council member Reggie Fullwood. “You are seeing the rise of black wealth on various levels, middle and upper-middle.”
There are no new ingredients in the recipe for success. Education, determination, a healthy economy, family support and opportunity.
A willingness to take risks is important, too, said Fullwood, who represents the Ninth District.
Fullwood graduated from the University of North Florida with a bachelor’s degree in communications while minoring in political science.
He worked at Vestcor Development Corp. for four years, starting out in public relations before moving to the Affordable Housing Division.
He started his own company, Rhino Harbor, a little more than a year ago, primarily working on affordable housing projects and multi-family development.
“I think African-Americans are realizing that, to be successful, you have to take risks,” he suggested. “Like my old coach used to say, ‘You can’t steal second base by staying on first.’”
Segregation actually fostered an entrepreneurial spirit that withered with the coming of the Civil Rights movement, said Pete Jackson, the City’s chief community officer.
“What’s really surprising is, when this city was in the throes of segregation, we lived on the far east side, where A. Philip Randolph [Boulevard] is now,” said Jackson. “I can remember, up and down Florida Avenue, there were minorities who had their own businesses.
“They might not necessarily have been licensed, but the need to generate income and support their families necessitated them going into business for themselves.
“After the riots [of 1963], a lot of that changed. I think that entrepreneurial spirit dissipated with the availability of jobs, being able to be employed by businesses that [previously] did not employ blacks.”
With the coming of new opportunities, the need for old practices disappeared.
“Being able to work for bigger companies, and with other things that were going on,”
said Jackson, “the entrepreneurial spirit among minorities
waned . . . or was killed because of the inability to compete in the more open, global market.”
Fullwood and Jackson are certain there is a rising black middle and upper-middle class in the City. But it’s difficult to confirm.
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics publish overall employment numbers for Jacksonville. The figures are not broken down by race. The lack of certain statistics — especially those showing change over time — frustrates local agencies trying to determine where the economy should be targeted for help.
A state employee who used to compile those numbers for the City retired five years ago. Apparently, no one picked up the task, said Ben Warner, associate director of Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.
“In the past, there have been different ways to get at this kind of information,” Warner said. “But, currently, no one is tracking it.
“It would be helpful if someone started doing it again.”
Even with that information, getting a grip on definitions for “middle” and “upper-middle” class is as challenging as trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. The definitions themselves shift. And workers may move in and out of classes several times in their lives — sometimes leapfrogging ahead, sometimes taking a step back.
Still, the signs of progress are out there.
“It’s been slow progress,” said Fullwood, “but we’re finally beginning to see some of the programs that were started years ago paying off, affirmative action programs that allow people to get a foot in the door.
“Because of the opportunities that have been generated over the past few years, it’s easier than ever to go to college.”
Without education, opportunity vanishes, he added.
“Since the end of slavery, black leaders have preached that education would be the foundation of progress,” said Fullwood. “It certainly is.
“And now there are lots of ways to go to college, from Pell Grants to scholarships, to any kind of financial aid.”
Annette Davis agreed with Fullwood’s points and singled out education for special mention.
“A lot of my friends are first-generation college graduates,” said Davis, coordinator of the City’s Equal Business Opportunity Program. “I was the first in my family to go to college; my husband was the first in his.
“Education is critical to the success of anyone.”
Davis majored in English and minored in political science at St. Joseph’s College in Indiana. She earned a master’s degree in public administration at Florida State University.
Her husband, Antonio, is a certified public accountant who graduated from FSU.
As a young woman, Davis drew inspiration from her mother, who did not have a high school diploma but urged her daughter to go to college.
“She is such a strong person,” said Davis. “She went to school in Columbus, Ohio, and could barely get through because of the overt racism. Things were difficult there. It’s not just the South.
“She eventually got a GED, and she always worked. I looked at her and thought she was such a strong provider for us and encouraged us to be better. She would say, ‘I want you to be better than I was.’ “
Because of her basketball skills, Davis also traveled, exposing her to more options than most of her peers ever glimpsed. It broadened her horizons and tempered her determination.
“I guess I was lucky because of that,” she said. “Getting out of that little world I was in, seeing how other people lived. You could see how much more there was out there.
“I just knew I wasn’t going to have this life of poverty. I was going to do whatever it took to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Opportunity is essential to success. It is also “a two-sided animal,” said Jackson.
“One of those is preparing yourself to take advantage of any opportunity,” he said. “The other is having a strong spiritual base that fortifies you to keep pursuing in spite of difficulties, being able to persevere. It used to be called ‘intestinal fortitude.’ But I think it’s more akin to spiritual fortitude to believe in yourself . . . to have a strong enough self-image to believe failure is not lifelong, but incidental.”
Determination and a solid education may offer the promise of prosperity. To wring the most out of those attributes, Fullwood said, people often have to be willing to take risks.
“There has been a movement in the African-American community to start their own businesses instead of just working for someone else,” he said. “We have to go into the professions that provide opportunities for us. I just think African-Americans are being more aggressive from a business point of view.”
Jackson offered a slight variation on the same theme.
“I think the answer, not just to African-Americans but to any culture becoming mainstream, is a more of a move toward productivity and meeting demand,” he said. “We have been a people who are consumers: movies, shopping, buying cars, going across town to restaurants.
“When you don’t produce, it means you have to spend that money outside your own communities.”
It is natural for those who have become successes to lose sight of those left behind, like shrinking figures in the rear-view mirror.
That keeps progress contained.
“So many people helped me along the way, and not just black people,” said Davis. “The president of the college that I went to helped pay my tuition one semester.
“I have been blessed to be around so many good people, regardless of race. It is critical that we, as African-Americans, who have gotten to the point where we are today, help those who haven’t gotten there for one reason or another.”
“We have the current middle class, and their children are going to college,” said Fullwood. “One of the problems now is reaching down to people in the lower-income areas. The opportunities are there; just not a lot of us are taking advantage of them.”
If he has any complaint about the new middle class, Jackson said, “it is there are not enough of those who have made it going back to the ‘hood, going back to the schools, going back to the avenues . . . reaching back to grab a hand, to provide access.”
Those who have become successful, “who have faced the challenges and overcome them, have to have the heart to speak to the minds and spirits of those who have been frustrated by life and say to them, ‘You can make it.’
“The best people to help people of a specific culture are the people of that culture who have made it, who have the courage to help somebody else make it.”
With more people working together, they said, the future should be brighter. And the future’s never far away.
Davis, in particular, spoke of her concern for two young people who, she hopes, will one day count themselves successful, happy . . . and safe.
They are her 5-month-old twins, Tristan Alexander and Ethan Emanuel.
Davis and her husband will expose their babies to as much of the outside world as possible. Parks, museums, theaters. They’ll also teach them caution.
Long before they are old enough to drive cars, she and her husband “will be teaching them how to interact with police officers,” she said. “We have to do that with our black youth; they are targeted a little more.
“We will also have to talk to them about how they are perceived when they’re out in the community.
“Daddy and I are going to tell them that, while being home is a safe environment, not everywhere is like that. The outside world is a little different. It’s not as safe.
“And we’ll explain the history of our people. We’ve come a long way, but there are still some nasty things out there.
“We’ll keep them in school, keep them educated and disciplined. But if we don’t teach them about these pitfalls, all the education in the world won’t help them.”