For more info about becoming a vendor or sponsoring a booth space at the 2011 Women’s Empowerment Expo Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina contact tgales@radio-one.com or call 919 863 4825
Black women applaud strides
Expo in Raleigh celebrates strength
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK, Staff Writer
RALEIGH — African-American women are like a blossoming flower, if you ask Marilyn Griffin, a Durham artist who runs a small business out of her home, making elegant occasion hats and decorative dolls that sell for $75 and up. “From my mother to myself to all my sisters,” Griffin said, “more of us are self-employed. More of us are holding higher positions.
We’re women doing our own things and knowing who we are.” Griffin, 50, was one of more than 8,100 people, mostly African-American women, who attended the 2003 Women’s Empowerment Expo on Saturday. The expo was orchestrated by Radio One, a company founded by an African-American woman, Catherine Hughes, that has stations in 22 markets including K-97.5, FOXY 107/104 and The Light 103.9 in the Triangle.
The event, held at the RBC Center for the second year, has grown dramatically since it began in 1994, when about 2,500 attended. The growth could be seen as more evidence of the rising demographic profile of African-American women, a trend that recently landed on the cover of Newsweek. Various studies have reported that African-American women are inching their way into the corporate world’s hierarchy, Newsweek reported. Although black women’s median income is still below that of black men, they are outpacing men when it comes to education, a key indicator of future earnings potential.
About 40 percent of black women age 18 to 24 had attended college or completed some kind of degree in 2002, compared with 36 percent of black men, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report.The result of the growing gap is that it can be hard for some women to find a mate. About 45 percent of black women in the 30- to-34 age range had never married, compared with about 10 percent of white women of comparable age, according to 2000 census data. Griffin is among the legions of single, black women.
“I would have to find the right one,” she said. “I’m an artist. I’m an independent woman. I have high standards, and I’m going to stick to them.
“The growing buying power of black women was not lost on the businesses that came to market their products to the expo’s attendees, a crowd that exuded “business chic,” wearing business suits with sunglasses perched on their heads.
More than 90 vendors set up booths and peddled books, music, cosmetics, burial plots, health and auto insurance, wedding dresses, spa massages, high-speed Internet connections and fur coats that cost up to $8,000.The Women’s Business Center of North Carolina, based in Durham, set up a booth to give women information on how to set up a small business.
“African-American women are the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs. We’re here for those women who are interested to get them on their way,” said center director Verona P. Edmond, a former certified public accountant and the 47-year-old director of the business center. “I’m just a die-hard believer in the perseverance of women.
“When they weren’t browsing, expo goers watched performances from local musical acts as well as harpist Jeff Majors, R&B singers Syleena Johnson and Heather Headley, jazz saxophonist Mike Phillips and the day’s headliner, singer-songwriter Brian McKnight. The event’s keynote speaker, Susan Taylor, editorial director of Essence and a top executive at Essence Communications Inc., addressed an adoring audience. Her message was one of self-love, positive thinking, spiritual renewal and determination.
“Take control. Take your life back,” Taylor commanded. “What’s standing in the way of your light? Figure it out and remove it.”Mary Autry, a 51-year-old Durham resident and cosmetics saleswoman, said she always had strong, black, female role models in her life, from her days growing up on a North Carolina farm, the daughter of sharecroppers. But Autry feels heartened that now she sees strong, smart African-American women with new titles: poet and college professor Maya Angelou, talk show host Oprah Winfrey, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
“Hearing these things brings me back to where I need to be,” Autry said. “I am somebody. I am someone.”
Staff writer Christina Headrick can be reached at 836-5701 or cheadric@newsobserver.com.
For more info about becoming a vendor or sponsoring a booth space at the 2011 Women’s Empowerment Expo in Raleigh, North Carolina contact tgales@radio-one.com or call 919 863 4825
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts
