- [Kenia] The historic Magnolia House was once a destination on the famed Negro Green Book, but today it's a respite for weary travelers from all over.

With its historic legacy, we thought it would be the perfect backdrop for a conversation about what African Americans want in the upcoming election.

- Located in the South Side neighborhood of downtown Greensboro, the historic Magnolia House hosted prominent Black celebrities like James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Lena Horne.

And, it was also a meeting place for civil rights activists, including the NAACP and CORE.

And its relevance historically, economically, and politically couldn't be stronger.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

- And I'm Kenia Thompson.

Join us in Greensboro for a special election coverage conversation with Black voters.

Coming up next, on Black Issues Forum.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you, who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.

[dynamic music] - Welcome to Black Issues Forum.

I'm your host Kenia Thompson.

And I'm here in Greensboro at the historic Magnolia House, bringing you a two-part conversation where I get to sit down with local business owners to talk about what's important to them in the upcoming election.

Before you meet them, however, we've got executive producer Deborah Holt Noel, who's gonna share a little bit about Greensboro, and why we chose this location for the conversation.

Take a look.

- Greensboro, North Carolina is home to seven colleges and universities, including two prominent HBCUs.

The all-women's Bennett College, and powerhouse, North Carolina A&T, whose students launched what became a flagship of the nationwide sit-in movement.

Approaching the turn of the century, the driving industry in this city was in textiles and tobacco.

Greensboro emerged as the denim capital of the nation.

While segregated mill villages cropped up, these industries still provided opportunities for Black economic ascension and political influence.

Leaders who have emerged on Greensboro's political scene include former Supreme Court Justice Henry Frye, and current representative Alma Adams of the 12th District, who has advocated strongly for HBCUs, and for women's reproductive freedoms.

Issues that will weigh heavily in this year's election.

She's up against Republican candidate Addul Ali.

Of registered voters in Greensboro, About 32% are Democrats and 30% are Republican.

But the largest sector is unaffiliated at 36%.

Today, the Gate City is the third most populated city in North Carolina, right behind number one, Charlotte, and number two, Raleigh.

And the city's Black population is more than 26%.

So Greensboro is pretty diverse.

And, you'll find a lot of Black owned businesses here.

But until recently, Black owned businesses were not sharing in the wealth stemming from business growth and development.

For example, in 2020, Greensboro generated over $1 billion in construction contracts, but less than 2% of that business was awarded to minority contractors.

So given the size of this city, its demographics, economic impact, and political makeup, Greensboro is key to the upcoming election, and to the future of North Carolina.

- Now, part one of the conversation.

So much rich history here in the great city.

And we're fortunate to have guests with us today to talk about how they want to see Greensboro continue to thrive and grow.

It's time to dive into the conversation and discuss some of the pressing issues and concerns at the forefront of many Black communities.

- I'd like to introduce our first guest, our gracious host, Natalie Pass Miller, owner of the Historic Magnolia House here in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The organization preserves black American sites, reunites them with their communities, and gives them a voice to tell their own stories.

Joining her, we have Valerie Benton Smith, local activists for business owners and community supporter.

Alongside her, we have Gary McCanns, a longtime resident of Greensboro and local leader in the business community here.

He's also a co-founder and chair of the Greensboro Business League, and former chair of the Greensboro Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises community.

And lastly, we have Stephanie, more lovingly known as Cookee Bumpus, owner of Cookies Cafe, a unique mobile coffee business offering quality products with extraordinary service where Coffee Brew is what they do.

So I'm gonna start by sharing a statistic with you.

So according to the US census, Greensboro's total population is almost 300,000 people, but the reported 125,000 as Black or African American, that's approximately 42% of the city's population, right?

Greensboro has a growing black business.

We have one business owner here with us today.

And actually more than I think everyone has business owner capacities.

But specifically, Stephanie, talk to us about starting your business.

We know in the last few years, you know, you're fairly new, but you've encountered some challenges.

What have those challenges been?

- Well, mainly for me, what comes to mind is marketing.

Marketing has definitely been a challenge for me.

With marketing comes decrease in sales.

Being a small business owner, I take on a lot of hats.

So I do marketing, I attempt to do bookkeeping.

I try to do a lot of things, but more so with the marketing because it's like you try to do social media and that alone becomes challenging for me.

And that drives people to your business which means that's an increase in sales.

And if people aren't driven to your business, that becomes a decrease in sales.

So marketing.

And then the other challenge for me is financial management.

Meaning just funds available for small businesses.

I find that to be a challenge.

Availability of funding, that's not always easy because I'm a new business and I'm still learning a lot about funding and it becomes challenging.

- Pause there.

Do you find that access to information, knowledge, and this is open to all of us here, is a struggle, a barrier?

- It's definitely a struggle.

I find that people often don't want to be forthcoming with information even when I just search for information myself, it's a lot of information out there.

And then when you attempt to just apply for things, I don't know.

I just don't know.

- You just don't know.

- I just don't know if I'm supposed to apply for loans under my business, under my LLC or if I'm supposed to use my social security number.

So it then becomes a challenge because my business is so new, they're looking for a certain amount of money that you have made.

I'm a small business, so my income isn't that high.

- I wanna pause there.

I know that Valerie works and advocates for many small business owners in the area.

Is what Cookee is saying resonating with you from what you've heard in community?

- Yes, definitely.

And to add to that, I'm hearing a lot of issues about supply chain.

That is a big strong point because- The demand is high and the supply is low.

So a lot of folks are wanting different things.

Sometimes they might not have all the, you know, parts to it.

For example, I'm in the automotive industry.

So getting car parts is a challenge, believe it or not.

And especially when the pandemic first hit, it's getting better now.

But when pandemic first hit, one of the issues was inventory.

Yeah, it was a time when I initially started that the whole parking lot was full of vehicles.

Then the manufacturers not making as many because of supply chain.

And due to that, we didn't have as many cars.

So it made it challenging.

And we had to do business a little differently.

People were on the online a whole lot.

And so with that being said, a lot of folks knew about the vehicles before they were even walking through the door, but that was an advantage.

So you knew exactly what people wanted.

And so we had that available.

So now they're not making as many vehicles.

And so the folks that get vehicles these days, generally they order them.

- Right, Gary, Valerie mentioned the pandemic.

Talk about what happened during that time to the city and did you see business owners thriving or did you see folks going out of business?

- I saw, particularly, the city shut down.

But we had support from the federal government and the state in terms of funds that were allocated and deployed from the grant, RETOOL grant that I worked on.

So there's about 30 some odd million dollars deployed across the state to focus on small business firms, particularly historically underutilized businesses that needed capital to maintain their business during that time.

But I think the other piece is, you've gotta create a support network around you to make sure you have the relationships with other business people, but also elected officials who have the policy making ability to incentivize your business.

- Right.

- So we gotta create those kind of networks as well.

- Yeah, and I wanna bring you in here.

You own this beautiful space.

You do a lot of work for other black voices, black businesses.

Talk about what you experienced as a business owner.

- Yeah, well, I can definitely sympathize with all three of them.

So when it comes to Ms. Stephanie, you know, being able to access, not only the financial resources, but how do you access the resources that can help you access those resources, right?

So, you know when we think about, on average for a small business, a minimum startup is gonna cost at least $40,000.

That is not something that is offered right now from the federal government as an incentive or anything like that.

And so, when you think about that, we've got a significant financial gap to be able to run a successful small business, right?

And wearing the many hats as we all do, bless our hearts.

Supply chain, my gosh.

Oh gosh, so it was during COVID, when we were actually doing the structural restoration of Magnolia House and talk about supply chain.

And not only the cost, right, but then the wait times and things, inventory not being in stock.

- And how did that impact your bottom line though?

- Oh, well, definitely significantly.

Because it delayed our opening, which delayed us getting back to business 'cause we weren't fully operable.

So, yeah, definitely.

- So we're talking capital, we're talking money here and you know, I love how the youth say, "I'm living my best life."

[chuckles] right?

[Natalie laughs] And I put this question in here 'cause I'm thinking to myself, as business owners, taking outta our own pockets, borrowing money from Peter to Paul.

Trying to figure out how to just stay afloat and survive.

Are you truly, I wanna ask each one of you, living your best life?

[all laugh] - You sure?

- I'm sure, yes.

She has to take a sip first.

- Take a sip.

- Let me add something.

- Sure, go ahead.

- I've been a business owner for 30 years, plus years, and it's a competitive sport.

I mean, you really have to be prepared to make sure that you've got the right product, or the right service, the right support network.

And also, even during COVID, the Biden-Harris executive order that put millions of dollars locally in a lot of markets and municipalities to make sure that we could sort of underpin and to fund some of these companies locally in the marketplace.

That's why those relationships with elected officials are so critical as we move forward, particularly now, since we're in the election period.

So many things are happening.

You know, the economy is pretty much stable.

But, you know, for small businesses, like mine and everybody sitting around this table, you still have to make money.

I mean, bottom line.

- And that was gonna actually be my third point, in reference to some of my challenges, is the competition.

Since I started on the corner, downtown, three years ago, well, four years ago almost, there's been so many coffee shops, I'm sure you are witness to that, that have opened downtown Greensboro.

And so for that reason alone, I'm glad that my business partner and I changed our business model.

And it's been going well.

- That's good.

We pivot, right?

- Yes, exactly.

- As business owners, I think we figure out how to make yourself unique, right.

What's your unique selling point.

- You have to be unique, yes.

- You have to, yes.

- [Stephanie] Yes, exactly.

- And so tell our viewers a little bit more about how unique your business is.

- Well, I, for one, am unique in itself.

[all laughing] - Yes.

- Let's drink to that.

- It's just, it's our customer service for one.

What we offer.

And what we bring to the table is you don't just come to us and get a drink, but it's all about the experience with us.

You get an experience when you leave Cookee's Cafe, you know.

It's not just, we don't just take your money.

But when you leave, it's about conversation.

And we build relationships with people.

So we want you to leave with a smile, and say, "Man, we're going back there," because of the experience that you had.

- And the coffee's good.

- And the coffee is outstanding, so.

- Just to piggyback off of what they were saying.

Because we had to do business differently, we had to focus like on the internet.

And, you probably know that North Carolina has some rural areas.

And so with that, high speed internet was not as available.

So I can say that, you know, in reference to advocating, $82 million was put back in the community for the small businesses, especially in the rural areas.

But not only did it help the businesses, but it also helped like the students who had to do their work online, and then some have, are doing hybrid now.

And then some have advocated, and said, you know, "I think I wanna, you know, go to school at home," 'cause that choice is there.

But high speed internet, that was a, something that was needed.

And it helps our business flourish because everybody is now going online.

And we's talking about standing out as a, what I do as an entrepreneur, we talk about the experience, making it memorable, celebratory.

It's not just, you just get a vehicle.

You drive off the lot, the black carpet is laid out.

Literally, and bows put on the vehicles.

Very personalized even when a customer comes in the door 'cause again, everything is set up prior to, and time is a big deal for folks.

So we strategize where they're not getting as much time just sitting there for hours like it was a long time ago.

So it was very personalized.

Experience is of excellence.

The product is phenomenal because there's nothing like the ride of a Cadillac.

And I'm not just saying it, it's just such a smooth ride.

But the experience, the service, everything that comes with it.

And now I'm in my third generation and it is about relationships and building relationships and being part of the community because it also brings trust to your personal brand as well.

- [Panelist] Exactly.

- A thought just came to mind while you were talking.

I don't have statistics to back this up, but there's a recurring theme that sometimes we hear that people don't want to support or frequent black businesses because of the quality of service.

Because of whatever the reasons are they wanna trump up.

Do you think that that's true?

Does that exist, that black people can't service as good as other races?

- I think that's a... Look, you can go into any business across the country and there are gonna be some issues.

- [Interviewer] I agree.

- I've dealt with black-owned businesses for 30 years and it's a stable market.

We certainly need to incentivize the market.

We need to invest in the market.

We need to invest in infrastructure, legislation needs to be modified to incentivize small black-owned companies throughout the country.

And so I think when we look at the history of black-owned companies and the lack of investment, underinvestment, we've gotta create more legislation.

We've gotta create relationships with the private sector that sees that as an opportunity.

And so when we do that and incorporate that in some of these comprehensive plans that are being put on the table, statewide, local, and federal, you'll see a difference in the outcome.

And the narrative will change.

We've gotta change the narrative on that.

- Anyone else you wanna add?

- And I'm seeing awareness.

That's what we focus on, is like with the greater North Carolina Black Chamber of Commerce, we focus on bringing awareness to this business.

Like, hey, these businesses exist.

So there's a spotlight in which we visited here before and it was about authors who were published authors and we visited the Historic Magnolia House.

And so it was advertised everywhere like, we are at the Historic Magnolia House.

And then the authors, it was televised as well.

So I'm saying bringing awareness is key point so that people can culturally feel and see the experience and want to come back.

'Cause what happens is people don't know, then they won't know where to go.

So I do think that we do need to... Like you were talking about marketing, we need to spread the word more.

And then I can tell you that I've come here on a Sunday and the line was out the building.

So I'm just mentioning that when there's excellent service and there's excellent product, people will come and they will continue to come.

And sometimes you may have to wait a little while.

Like there's another restaurant, Luxe that line is going around the corner.

And so I'm sharing that with you to say.

And it was also voted best brunch as well.

And it has the second largest in the downtown area as far as volume.

Craft is number one.

So I'm sharing these things with you.

And that's, again, I'm speaking of downtown Greensboro.

But I'm sharing these things with you, is that we really have to bring awareness.

Now African American businesses only represent 2%, and that's a huge racial wealth gap.

It's getting better because I said 2%; it was 1%.

So what we need to do is help close that racial wealth gap.

- I agree.

- And it actually makes a safer community for all.

- I agree.

- Because a family that has housing, a family that's fed, a family that has access to healthcare really makes this, overall, a better community for everyone.

- I agree.

- Yeah.

- We've had some systemic challenges too.

There's been a number of disparity studies done locally, Guilford County and statewide, that show that there's been a lack of investment and a lack of contracts for small Black-owned businesses throughout the region.

Sometimes less than 2 or 3%, when you got a 42% population.

That's unacceptable.

- It is.

- Here in Guilford County?

- Here in Guilford County.

- Wait for a second.

Do you know why?

- You gotta ask.

It's a systematic problem.

And you've gotta have people on staff who are committed to incentivizing those small Black-owned companies.

If I'm City Manager, if I'm the Mayor, that's what I'm focused on.

- And in the Black community, because I live on the east side of town, I live less than five minutes from here and there's only one grocery store.

If I want to go to a grocery store that's not Food Lion, I have to drive 15 minutes.

On the other side of Greensboro, where there's a Fresh Market and a Lidl right across the street from one another, and then less than 10 minutes away, there is a Harris Teeter, and that's not fair.

And I don't think it's, again, it's just not right.

But we are neglected on this side of town, because it's mostly Blacks, and he's absolutely correct.

- Anything you wanna add before I move on?

- Yeah, so I love the comment about the systemic change and I think, you know, one of the things what I hear and what I see is there's big on incentivizing these big businesses to come and relocate here.

- Right.

- Right.

Do we need to look at, well, how do we incentivize those same businesses to invest in those minority-owned businesses or create incentives for them to bring those MWBEs or those hub-certified businesses in?

And so then it creates kind of this, this ecoculture, right?

And other businesses, by default, are growing.

I also wanted to say that this is very much the age of consumer experience and it's all about the consumer.

And because of that reason, going back to the comment, I think where you were talking about quality of service.

When you come into a small business, a Black-owned small business, or any small business for that matter, and as the consumer, if you're not having a great experience, well, behind the closed, what's really happening is the many hats that she's wearing that impacts your experience.

What's happening is the lack of financial literacy to run a business successfully, that's impacting your experience.

And so you have to look at these companies and address them holistically, so that we can put our best foot forward for our consumers.

- Yeah.

Very, very good points.

Did you wanna add one more thing?

- No, no, that's it for me.

- You're doing good?

Well, and you know, this all ties into just, we saw a surge of Black business owners during the pandemic, because people lost jobs.

- Right.

- People had to do something.

- Right.

- And then, for all points and purposes, historically, we have not been paid what we deserve to be paid.

- Exactly.

- Right, and so it was seen as an opportunity to say, "Hey, let's see, let's see if we can make some more money just so we can live a little bit better."

But then, you know, we talk about now this inflation, right?

This rate of inflation that's just almost tripled since the pandemic.

When we look at cost of living as of mid-2023 2023 home prices in Greensboro alone saw a significant increase.

We've seen 10 to 12% year over year.

Median home prices in Greensboro sits around $290,000, but neighborhood-to-neighborhood rent increases about 8% to 10%.

And... And we've seen this continuously creep up, right?

Every six-months-or-so we see this creep.

What are your thoughts on the impact this has to the disparities in housing?

You mentioned you have to drive 15 minutes to go to a grocery store that has quality food options.

What do you think this is doing to communities?

- I mean, I think it's just... [scoffs] It's sad.

It's making things...

It's corrupting the communities, in my opinion.

And that's why we are having the robberies, and people feel like, on the east side of town, that's why nothing stays open.

- Mm.

- Stores are closing.

- And that was part one of the conversation.

Make sure you come back next week for part two.

And also engage with us on Instagram using the hashtag #BlackIssuesForum.

Watch us anytime on the PBS video app.

For "Black Issues Forum," I'm Kenia Thompson, I'll see you next time.

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