PEORIA MAGAZINE February 2023

secretary – a Peorian — which is progress, but Ivory said he doesn’t see many “people of color working” on construction sites, which suggests that government contracting needs more attention. More mentoring, financial literacy and technical assistance programs are required. Investments in education are a must, as “a teacher can change a kid’s life forever.” Children need role models in the professions who “look like them.” Black business needs a foot in the door and “a seat at the table.” Finally, it’s important that African Americans not become “too passive to the point they’re not challenging themselves.” Ivory’s Black Chamber wants to help. Tremayne Branch runs the restaurant Rumberger’s Wings & More, with operations in Peoria and Houston, Texas. He knewall about how to prepare chicken when he first met Ivory about eight years ago, but on the business side, he was still “learning as I go.” The Chamber’s assistance and Ivory’s mentorship and participation regarding contracts, bookkeeping, marketing, etc. were invaluable, “especially during the pandemic,” Branch said. “Just having somebody like that on your team…He’s very smart, strategic. Definitely helpful.” Toomany Americans view economics as a zero-sum game – one side wins, the other loses – but in fact “we don’t have to fight because there’s plenty of pie for all of us,” insists Ivory. Everyone in Peoria would benefit from a larger, healthier Black middle class. “America is a business … a corporation,” he said. “Any time you have employees who are not being productive, it affects your bottom line … It’s in America’s best interest to put all this human capital to work.” If he’s a realist, he’s also an optimist. “I think the future is bright” and “Peoria has a lot going for it,” said Ivory. “Sometimes, we have to be broken before we can be rebuilt.”

Larry Ivory with Congressman Danny Davis of Chicago

Larry Ivory with former President George W. Bush

bad news on all fronts is that Black businesses fall far short on average revenue. “A city of this size, you can’t identify one black business, for profit, that has more than 30 employees. That’s a tragedy,” said Ivory, who cites Census data showing that as a percentage of all local businesses, Black-owned operations “don’t even register.” The results can be poverty, crime, illness and despair, and they’re all deterrents to economic development. “You cannot fix these problems without understanding that if you have a thriving business community, you have less crime. It’s not complicated,” said Ivory. “If you’re working eight, nine hours a day … you’re not out in the streets taking someone’s TV. The idle mind is the devil’s playground; that’s what my father used to say.” At 63, “I’mat the point inmy lifewhere I can say what I want to say,” said Ivo ry, and even fellow African Americans sometimes disagree with him about his preference for private-sector solu tions to seemingly intractable social problems. Certainly, there is a role for government – IBCC has a full legislative agenda – but as someone whose career has been devoted to the furtherance of capitalism, Ivory reminds others that private enterprise “can do good and do well all at the same time.”

But first, any winning program is “intentional about building a strategy,” said Ivory, who isn't sure that approach exists in many communities. It was not always so. Peoria may never have arrived at the status of the Harlem Renaissance – a period when Black industry, music, dance, art, theater, fashion and scholarship went mainstream– but once upon a time, the early ‘70s, the city did brag busy, Black owned restaurants, markets, repair shops, an automobile dealership, hair salons, media, etc., said Ivory. In the ensuing decades, many Black Peorians lost ground. COVID compounded the inequities, and African American businesses initially got a tiny percentage of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money. They did better in the second round, thanks in part to the efforts of the Black Chamber. Meanwhile, African Americans wield nearly $2 trillionworth of buying power, whichputs themin the top 10economies in the world, about equal with Canada, more than Australia, while driving trends across food, entertainment, fashion, etc., said Ivory. No one should take Black consumers for granted. Nonetheless, “Black spending is one thing. Black ownership and equity are a different thing.” What do Black businesses need to achieve the latter? Access to capital, for starters, said Ivory. Illinois has a Black Illinois Department of Transportation

Mike Bailey is editor in chief of Peoria Magazine

22 FEBRUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE