Business
New investment club sets out to create jobs
Linda Hayes founded the investment club to empower its residents to take control of their own destinies
The newly formed Southern Communities Investment Club (SCIC) has a purpose: Create jobs and opportunity for its members.
Linda Hayes (pictured), a successful realtor and longtime Dallas resident, is setting out to transform the southern sector of Dallas into a booming, economically robust community that has long been ignored and passed over. Hayes said she is concerned about the direction of the nation’s economy with the recent down grading of its bond rating, a Black unemployment rate of more than 16 percent, twice the national rate and a Black male unemployment rate of more than 17 percent.
“Everywhere people are talking about jobs, jobs, jobs,” Hayes said. “The fact is we haven’t seen anything for job creation in the southern sector. We’ve heard about businesses bringing jobs here, but I haven’t seen it.”
Instead of waiting for government officials or private companies to bring the jobs, Hayes founded the investment club to empower its residents to take control of their own destinies. Unlike past economic development efforts, the goal of the club is to pool financial resources of members to invest in new businesses directly help the residents of the southern sector: including south, west and east Dallas, Oak Cliff, Red Bird, Lancaster, Wilmer, Hutchins, Glenn Heights, Red Oak, DeSoto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, and Grand Prairie.
She has spent the past several months talking to residents and business owners in southern Dallas who say they are tired of getting passed over.
“We hope when people start looking at relocating companies, they’ll look at the southern sector instead of Legacy Park, Plano or Las Colinas.”
Hayes’ vision is clear; she wants to create a multicultural version of “Black Wall Street,” reminiscent of the early 20th century Tulsa community that was bustling with Black-owned restaurants, banks, hotels, night clubs and other businesses. That Tulsa community became an oasis for many Blacks from the Deep South who fled their homes anyway they could to build a new life. The business district had humble beginnings, starting with a rooming house by O.W. Gurley, a wealthy Black Arkansas businessman who moved to Tulsa from Mississippi. Once in Tulsa, Gurley purchased a huge tract of land where he began to build one of the most historically significant African American communities the nation had ever seen. Within a few years, he built additional office buildings and homes for the growing population of Blacks. The community was rich with successful businesses and a community full of pride until whites burned it down during what has become known as the nation’s worst race riot in 1921. This year, the remaining survivors and other locals commemorated the 90th anniversary of the horrible riots, and the celebration of the success of those businessmen.
Hayes said the southern sector of Dallas, rich with a large housing stock, available land, solid African American middle and upper classes and growing Latino population, has all the right ingredients to become a vibrant community where residents can benefit from the best of all businesses and services, just like those businesses and services available in north Dallas.
The plan to address joblessness could not have come at a better time. The recent downgrading of the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ by Standards & Poor’s rating agency has created a greater need to generate jobs. The weaker credit ratings will make it more difficult for minorities to obtain loans and jobs.
