Black Owned Business

Two decades after musicians and actors took their final bow at Watts' Mafundi Institute, the fading imprint of the cultural academy's logo clung stubbornly to its front wall. As city projects and small businesses moved into the building after 1975, whitewashing failed to smother the mural of proud African faces. And, for many locals, the Mafundi symbol continued to evoke memories of a renaissance that flourished after the 1965 riots.

Eleven months after the 1992 riots, more than half of a sampling of African-American and Korean-American business owners in Los Angeles say they are deeply troubled by what is happening in their communities. But many more Koreans than blacks are considering moving, according to a new study. Almost 40% of Korean-Americans said they are thinking of leaving Los Angeles. Nine in 10 of those said they would remain in the United States. Only 7% said they would return to South Korea.

Johnson Products Co., a hair care goods manufacturer that ranks among the nation's largest black-owned companies, said Monday that it has agreed to be acquired by pharmaceuticals producer Ivax Corp. in a transaction valued at between $61 million and $73 million. The buyout is considered a milestone in the entrepreneurial history of African-Americans because it involves one of the nation's most successful, high-profile black manufacturers.

A group promoting business development for South African blacks arrived in Los Angeles over the weekend on the second leg of a six-city tour of the United States. Their objective is to help blacks "take a meaningful part in the economy of post-apartheid South Africa," said Michael Mohohlo, a partner in a black South African management firm and U.S. coordinator of the visit.

Come on a Saturday, says Freddie Carter, the man who has owned Styles Ville for four decades. That's when you'll find a row of eight barbers, buzzing, snipping and shaping heads. That's when you'll breathe in the musky spice of peppery oils, hair tonic, after-shave and an incense called Black Love. That's when you'll hear the clamor of loud talk and quiet whispers, of dominoes slapped down by men playing in the back, and the slice and whir of clippers. Bzzzzz, slash, slash, slash. Bzzzzz.

C.H. "Chuck" James III has an Ivy League business degree, a board seat at a prestigious management learning center and a city of Industry company that bears his name. But when faced with strategic business decisions, he often asks himself, "What would my great-grandfather do?" The original C.H. James was a trailblazer who founded a West Virginia produce firm in 1881 by bartering memorial pictures of assassinated President Garfield for the garden-grown vegetables of coal miners.

One can be commercial with a conscience, Spike Lee was explaining to a horde of reporters he convened at his latest money-making venture on Melrose Avenue. Pushed to elaborate, the brash young filmmaker said he would never consider, for instance, selling "X" underwear to make a buck. "X" caps, "X" jackets, "X" T-shirts, "X" postcards, "X" buttons and "X" pendants are a different story.

Oprah's Eccentric, Harry Caray's and Michael Jordan's Restaurant all stand among antique stores and art galleries in the gentrifying River North neighborhood near Chicago's glitzy Magnificent Mile. But the latest celebrity to open a restaurant in this heartland metropolis chose a site 12 miles to the south, in a setting where tourists rarely stray. Minister Louis Farrakhan proudly describes the location of the Nation of Islam's new Salaam Palace of the People as "the heart of the ghetto."

After the urban riots of the 1960s, there was a rush to build new job-creating businesses in South-Central Los Angeles and other inner-city areas. Shopping centers sprouted, as did factories that made everything from computers to sheet metal. Nearly three decades later, few of those enterprises remain--victims of indifferent outside ownership, a mismatch of jobs and residents, and a changing economy. Aerojet General Corp.'

Eight people, including corporate executives, a minority hiring advocate and elected officials were honored Friday evening at an annual awards presentation of the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce. Two top Walt Disney Co. executives, corporate President Frank Wells and Disneyland President Jack Lindquist, received the Distinguished Service Award for contributing to "the elevation of blacks and other minorities."