PEORIA MAGAZINE February 2023

S P O T L I G H T

‘THERE’S PLENTY OF PIE FOR ALL OF US’

Peorian Larry Ivory found his ‘calling’ advocating for Black businesses at local, state and national levels

BY MIKE BAILEY PHOTO BY RON JOHNSON

L arry Ivory recalls the moment clearly, still wincing at the memory. Early in his career working as a local stockbroker for a national financial services firm, then the only African American among his peers, he learned that an acquaintance and member of the church his minister father led had invested his savings with another colleague. Ivory had some catching up to do from the start, as he hadn’t brought to the job a significant number of friends and family who belonged to the so-called “investment class.” He remembers the uncomfortable conversation – “people have their own reasons for what they do” – which was “a defining moment for me. “I endured. I was tenacious,” and in time, Ivory would get people of all races to trust him with their money, move into management and build a lucrative career. Struggle can make the triumph all the sweeter, but sometimes, a little less struggle would be nice. “We’re patriotic Americans who believe in a country that can do better,” said Ivory. “The only way to do better is for America to live up to its creed” of equality and the promise of a “more perfect Union.” For the last 30 years, he’s been doing his part to change attitudes and achieve just that.

his speech with biblical references, as Ivory often does. His “idol,” his father, was head pastor at Peoria’s Grace Baptist Church. The Rev. Jeffrey and Gladys Ivory raised eight children on Peoria’s South Side – four boys, four girls. An athlete who shined in basketball and boxing, Ivory matriculated at Roosevelt Grade School (nowElise Ford Allen Academy) andManual High School, Class of 1977. He then served three years in the Marine Corps before attending SaddlebackCollege inCalifornia to study international business. Ultimately, he returned to central Illinois and a job on Caterpillar’s assembly line, beginning a career characterized by the upward mobility he now seeks for others. Withwife Janis, Ivory has raised three children – Tamika, Kenyatta and Joshua – with IBCC becoming something of a family affair for them. “I think it was really my destiny,” Ivory said of coming back home. “I don’t regret staying.” So, how are Black businesses in Peoria faring? It’s a “mixed bag,” said Ivory. The picture is brighter statewide, where IBCC advocates for more than 120,000 Black businesses and has approximately 2,500 dues-paying members. Only a handful of the latter have a Peoria address. Meanwhile, the

Since 1997, Ivory has been president and CEO of the Illinois Black Chamber Chamber of Commerce (IBCC), which he operates out of a 14th floor office of the Riverview Plaza building in Downtown Peoria. There he also presides over the Peoria Black Chamber. Meanwhile, Ivory was a founding member of the National Black Chamber in Washington, D.C. in 1993, culminating in his chairmanship of the board from 2019 to the present. Call it the trifecta. The Black Chamber advocates, edu cates, networks, mentors, fundraises and lobbies governments on behalf of Black entrepreneurs and businesses, with the goal of equity and empower ment. To that end, Ivory gets the word out through aChambermagazine, public speaking engagements, and a weekly radio show –WAKE UP! —on economic issues on Chicago’s WVON 1690 AM. Previously, Ivory enjoyed a successful private-sector career, both on his own and in stints with Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney. He went full time with the Black Chamber at the turn of this century, even though it meant a big cut in pay, because “I knew I couldn’t serve two masters. “It was a calling.”

You might expect a preacher’s son to use a word like “calling” and to pepper

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