Super Tuesday Celebrates Atlanta’s Black Business Women

Posted by Sonja Ebron

The Atlanta Business League put on a fine celebration of the achievements of Black business women last week. ABL was established in 1933 as an affiliate of the National Business League, founded by Dr. Booker T. Washington. In 1984, under the leadership of Alice White Bussey (of Bussey’s Florist), ABL’s Women In Business committee created Super Tuesday to raise awareness of African American women business owners. Last week’s celebration marked the 25th anniversary of this sistah-fest, headlined by Radio One magnate Cathy Hughes. More than 1000 women (and quite a few men) gathered to meet and greet and do business with Atlanta’s best and brightest Black women leaders at the Atlanta Marriot Marquis.

Cathy Hughes launched the event at 9:00 am with a rousing message on the importance of Black media. She took several well-deserved shots at BET and the Real Housewives of Atlanta, reminding us of our responsibility to demand and support positive images of Black people. To prove the reality of positive images, she started listing some of Atlanta’s legendary Black women — Janis Ware, Harriette Watkins, Mayor Shirley Frankin, Leona Barr-Davenport, Rashan Ali, Xernona Clayton, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Elizabeth Omilami, JaQuitta Williams, and on and on and on — and didn’t stop until the entire conference was on its feet in rousing shouts and applause. Cathy Hughes pointed to many of those women in the audience and explained there was no excuse for buying into 21st-century Tarzan myths [her words] with such towering examples of real Black women in plain sight.

Charlotte King and Sonja Ebron

Lunch was off the chain, even for a vegan like me. The hotel laid out the fine china and otherwise showed out for the event, not at all because its general manager, Erica Qualls, is the current ABL board president. I was among 50 or so ABL leaders and previous awardees who were asked to parade around the conference room prior to the presentation of awards. Awards were presented to women business owners in the categories of home-based business, creative style, success against the odds, non-traditional business, and outstanding achievements, capped by a recognition of this year’s Millenium Pacesetter, Wal-Mart’s southeast division president, Rosalind Brewer. The stories of all the award finalists were inspiring, and I was happy to see the diversity in the industries represented.

Layli Phillips and Sonja Ebron

There were concurrent workshops in the morning on many topics, including supplier diversity initiatives, executing a business plan, women in the C-suite, sales strategies, networking with social media, personal financial strategies and maintaining wellness. In the afternoon, conferees split up into more concurrent workshops on the stages of life, economic stimulus opportunities, succession planning, money management, business loans, and the green economy. I moderated this latter workshop — Going Green — where we discussed energy efficiency, green certifications, clean technologies, green jobs and more with Dr. Charles Walker (Green Divide), Charlotte King (Snowden & King Marketing), and Rosa Crowley (U.S. Department of Labor, retired).

The day ended with a fabulous fashion show and wardrobing seminar produced by Saks Fifth Avenue. Everyone looked exhausted and rejuvenated at the same time. The energy of the entire conference was wonderful, and a good time was had by all. I can’t wait to do it again next year!