The Black Church and Corporate America- Notes on the Harlem Legacy of Dr. Calvin Butts, III

Even in this age of stakeholder capitalism, there is little discussion about the relationship between the Black church and corporate America. The role of the Black church in politics is well established, but rarely are there references to its role as an economic engine for inclusive growth from the Reconstruction era to now in business literature or summits.

The visionary economic development legacy of Reverend Dr. Calvin Otis Butts III in revitalizing Harlem merits reflection and acknowledgement within this thought literature. The achievements attained by his leadership were rooted, in part, by his strategic leveraging of relationships within the corporate sector to achieve economic and social goals.

In the 20th century, the relationship between Black churches and the corporate sector was a largely fractious one due to segregated hiring practices or business practices towards Black customers. Boycotts by Black pastors were instrumental in advancing desegregation goals related to hiring and courtesy.

The Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King resulted not only in a favorable Supreme Court decision, but the loss of 30,000 fares a day by the transit system. Dr. King's boycott was arguably inspired preceded by a similar effort in 1940's Harlem led by Abyssinian pastor and US Congressman, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

During the post-Civil Rights period, Dr. Butts forged a new path among church and business leaders from opposition to collaboration. He understood both the lingua franca of business and the historic role of the Black church in supporting the economic mobility of the Black community.?

His influence on Harlem's reconstruction or second renaissance from being a metaphoric emblem of troubled inner city enclaves to a vibrant, economically robust neighborhood is a case study of note. The impact of Abyssinian's church-led economic development effort anchored in corporate partnerships is a powerful example of urban revitalization that merits recognition.

But first, a brief history lesson.

Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded in 1808 in New York by freedman and seamen from the Ethiopia who opposed the segregationist practices of New York's First Baptist Church. Before moving to Harlem in 1908, the church was based in Greenwich Village and Mid-town Manhattan. And because of its history, Abyssinian Baptist Church was in existence during the Civil War and witness to the Reconstruction years that followed.

From our modern-day vantage point, it is difficult to conceive what the state of the American landscape was after the Civil War in the East and the South, but chaotic would not be an understatement. Cities and rural areas were teeming with people in dire condition. The end of slavery and the war created a refugee-like environment for Blacks and whites in our country.

Imagine the daunting task of normalizing thousands of people who had lost practically everything in the aftermath of war (New York suffered among the highest casualties of soldiers in the war because of its overwhelmingly high enlistment rate) and a marginalized community of people who had experienced over 200 years of enslavement.

During that 200 years, there had been no collective access to literacy (teaching an enslaved person to read was illegal), skills development, and knowledge about the economic workings of a greater society beyond the work farms on which enslaved persons lived. (For the record, slavery began in the American colonies well before the Revolutionary War. The first enslaved people came to New York in 1670 to work on the Morris Estate in the Bronx.)

The average enslaved person never traveled more than a mile from their farm. With freedom, these men and women were now on untraveled roads that stretched into promising horizons. They had no compass or roadmap for the future other than their work ethic and the burning desire to become educated in order to succeed.

Black churches like Abyssinian helped lay the groundwork for the progress achieved by Black Americans in the years following the Civil War, still the most defining event in our nation's history. It was the Black church that helped with housing, clothing and provided aspirational spaces for education during our country's Reconstruction era,. Accessing and sustaining these spaces was hard. They were subject, in many cases, to the will of insurance companies who had the power to decide whether to grant property insurance for a school space.

Obtaining insurance for the schooling of Blacks was a consequential challenge. Insurance policies for churches were not transferable for use of that space as a school. When this request was made by Black church leaders, it was often rejected by companies, even when money was not an issue, unless there was additional advocacy and sponsorship. White churches in partnership with Black church communities created a Sabbath school model to navigate around this difficulty. In New York City, its African Free Schools, a system started by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in 1787, were absorbed into the public school system in 1834 easing pressure on churches when freedman entered the city after the Civil War.

The African Free School model demonstrated how crucial the need for partnerships with white churches, missionary societies, and philanthropic organizations would be in the success of freedman families. Black churches were the links to these partnerships and these early forays into interracial collaboration were vital to building a fully integrated society after the war.

Through this shared commitment, Black church congregations and their community partners created an infrastructure for equal opportunity and access. Church venues from buildings to tents were the site of work being done by mutual aid societies and missions to mobilize resources and job opportunities for freedman and their families in the new American order.

1980's Harlem, New York was in many ways an American frontier, albeit an urban one, on the frontlines of a new order as well. During the 1970's, the iconic neighborhood had been hit hard by the economic woes of New York City, which at one point teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.

Like other parts of the city, Harlem was suffering from blight, suburban flight (Over 40 percent of residents, nearly all middle-class left the neighborhood.) and crime. Its sweeping boulevards were now bordered by abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and overall inner-city decline. Deemed an insurance risk and impacted by redlining policies, 1970's Harlem was an isolated shell of its former glory-a far cry from the elegant streetscapes and economic vitality of its past.

1980's Harlem wasn't any better. It's economic needs and possibilities were not lost on a young minister at Abyssinian Baptist Church- Reverend Dr. Calvin Otis Butts III, a native New Yorker from Queens, who began his tenure at the church in 1972. Small-scale economic stability and survival in the 1970's and the 1980's in Harlem rested not only on the sheer entrepreneurial will of local residents, but on the presence of small businesses.

This cadre of important enterprises included the legendary Sylvia's Restaurant, real estate offices like the one led by Assemblyman Lloyd Dickens, civil rights advocate and father of New York legislator Inez Dickens, government offices, local boutiques, bookstores, physician offices and larger employers such as Harlem Hospital, the Apollo Theater, and the Schomburg Library. This was a valuable foundation, but it wasn't enough.

The neighborhood in the 1980's was in a need of a comprehensive plan for economic growth, stability, and restoration. During the splendor of its Renaissance and Post World-War II years, Harlem was a world-renowned center of Black culture, entrepreneurship, and financial independence. Madame CJ Walker, the nation's first Black woman millionaire was a resident there as were other Black millionaires. Harlem's stately brownstones were architectural gems and its 125th Street corridor was one of New York's most storied commercial and entertainment hubs. And there was, of course, the legendary "A" train, the subject of Duke Ellington's masterpiece homage to Harlem.

It should be noted that Black New York City at this time also was shaped by prominent enclaves in Brooklyn (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Fort Greene) Harlem, and Queens (Addisleigh Park, Jamaica, St. Albans, Elmhurst). But Harlem was the mecca.

That mecca, however, was facing a bleak future. Even with the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, Harlem continued to suffer from a lack of investment, jobs, quality housing, retail venues, full-service grocery stores, and a vanishing middle-class presence.

In 1987, Dr. Butts pushed for the creation of community development non-profit. A firm believer in self-help and community self-determination, his advocacy led to the founding of the Abyssinian Development Corporation (ADC) in 1989.

Led by Dr. Butts' vision to rebuild Harlem "block by block", ADC focused on achieving that through four key goals: (1) building quality housing and renovating neighborhood blocks;(2) attracting retail business into the neighborhood (3) creating quality neighborhood schools; and (4) providing social services to families. ADC's innovative model of combining residential and commercial real estate development goals with education and social service initiatives proved to be a nationally groundbreaking one.

With a roadmap in place, ADC quickly got to work by building a hundred-unit housing center for senior citizens and embarking by block-by-block renovation efforts. In 1997, ADC led a $15 million deal for bringing Pathmark, a major grocery retail chain to East Harlem. The 50,000 square foot facility, the first of its kind in Harlem, also housed a Chase Bank branch, the bank's first supermarket branch, and parking. The Pathmark deal marked the first major commercial venture in Harlem in 20 years.

In 2001, ADC launched a Head Start program and restored a historic building in Harlem to build the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change, Harlem's first new high school in 50 years. Since then, ADC has added a middle school and built Thurgood Marshall Lower School as part of its public academy model. The success of the Thurgood Marshall model has now positioned the academy to graduate pipeline classes of students who began in the Head Start program and remained through high school. As part of its educational priorities, ADC launched a homeownership education initiative called the Harlem Economic Literacy Program. Over three hundred of its graduates have purchased homes. In addition, ADC stewarded programs to provide assistance to the homeless, which included oversight of a shelter, the elderly, and families in need.

Buoyed by the success of its first senior housing project, the Abyssinian Development Corporation expanded its real estate efforts over a 20-year period into a multi-million dollar portfolio. The last major project under Dr. Butts' leadership prior to his passing last month was the renovation of the Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem. The project was completed in 2019. In it's 1920's heyday, the ballroom hosted a 900-seated theater, a casino, retail stores and a basketball arena. Under Dr. Butt's leadership and a partnership with a major developer, the space has been converted to a mixed-use facility for housing, retail and community use. The renovation building also includes a parking garage.

The milestones achieved through ADC's corporate collaborations since 1989 have been considerable. Here a few highlights. In addition to key support from JP Morgan Chase , M&T Bank, Washington Mutual, Bloomberg Corporation, Coca Cola, other financial institutions, and local real estate developers, ADC launched a partnership with Starbucks focused on its social goals. And by creating a flagship retail presence on the 125th Street corridor, Abyssinian Development Corporation demonstrated the viability of Harlem's spending power which triggered a revitalization of the 125th Street corridor. That corridor now includes Whole Foods, Starbucks, Staples, Fed-Ex, CVS, MAC Cosmetics, Aldo's and an indoor mall.

21st- century Harlem is a testament to one of the country's most monumental partnerships between a Black church and the corporate sector. While the Abyssinian Development Corporation model was without question, ambitious and innovative in scope, there are other development partnerships between Black churches and the corporate sector (including the corporate philanthropic sector) that have also engineered new eras of economic growth and social stability in other cities.

For this reason, discussions taking place about stakeholder capitalism or ESG initiatives cannot and should not overlook these pivotal community development achievements. Strategies for economic inclusion, investments in equitable sustainability, and more expansive capitalization of Black and Brown businesses or start-ups should include Black churches as strategic touchpoints and resources. The ADC model shows what is possible when influential partners work across sectors to advance a common good.

In 2021, the Abyssinian Development Corporation was selected as a community partner by the New York Junior League in recognition of its tremendous impact on the revitalization of Harlem. What began as the vision and hope of one leader spurred a movement and a new model for solving a complex matrix of urban challenges. It wasn't easy, but it was possible.

Here's to Dr. Butts, who in the face of obstacles many considered intractable, gave Harlem back its future. Block by block. Rest in power, Dr. Butts. We will take it from here.