Retired Teacher Starts Bus Tour of Black Businesses in Detroit

May 23, 2015, 3:48 PM

Some African Americans tire of reading about Detroit recovery's with the focus solely on young white business owners. 

So Carole Watson, 68, a retired teacher who has lived in Detroit for 50 years, set out to create a monthly bus tour called "Us Too Detroit," that focuses on black-owned businesses, Peter Moskowitz of Al Jazeera America reports. Detroit has about 32,000 of them.

“I just said to myself, ‘I don’t want to hear another story about the renaissance of Detroit and not have it include my people,’” she told Al Jazeera America. “God has created enough for everybody. So why do we have to work so hard for exposure?”

Al Jazeera says:

Detroit is 82.7-percent African-American, according to 2011 U.S. Census figures, the most recent available. Yet if you were to tour the city through the pages and websites of the local and national media, you might get the impression that its business are almost all owned by white people. The city has been in the spotlight for the last few years as it made its way through the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The news outlets reports that Watson and her collaborators hired a school bus from a black-owned bus company and began the tours in April for $20 a ticket. The first tour sold out, and in May, the second one sold out as well.

A third one is planned for Saturday, June 20. More details will posted on the bus tour's Facebook page.

Al Jazeera writes:

Watson said she has been impressed with the interest in Us Too: The tour next month will probably require a second bus. But she and her collaborators say they don’t feel Us Too is done growing. They want to diversify who goes on the tour, showing not only older Detroiters but also young African-Americans who might not frequent many black-owned businesses and white transplants who might not know those businesses exist. Their ultimate goal is to create a directory of every black-owned business in Detroit.

 


Read more:  Al Jazeera America


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