Fort Worth’s Black Chamber of Commerce focuses on building for the future at annual meeting

Fort Worth’s Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce celebrated its largest annual luncheon with a focus on building Black business capacity and looking toward the future.

The roughly 900 people gathered at Downtown Fort Worth’s Omni Hotel Thursday heard from business and political leaders about how supporting Black-owned businesses will pay dividends for the city.

The success of Fort Worth’s business community comes from years of hard work and collaboration with groups like the Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, said Robert Sturns, head of the city of Fort Worth’s economic development department.

“We stand on the shoulders of those who come before us, and hopefully we are setting the stage for those who come after us,” Sturns said.

Fort Worth has sometimes fallen short when it comes to creating catalytic investment its communities, but it is on the right track, said Mayor Mattie Parker.

She pointed to construction projects in the Historic Southside and Stop Six neighborhoods, as well as city partnerships with firms like the Beck Group that help Black-owned companies be more competitive in bidding for city projects.

“I can promise you if we don’t pay attention to what Black entrepreneurship looks like and the work that this chamber is doing, this city will stay stagnant,” Parker said.

Deryl McKissack, CEO of the architecture and engineering firm McKissack & McKissack, said there needs to be a focus on building sustainable Black businesses. She said larger companies will sometimes hire Black businesses in a limited capacity as a nod to diverse hiring practices.

Majority firms will go from one job to the next job with the same client, and Black-owned businesses need that same treatment in order to be sustainable.

Beck Group CEO Fred Perpall said his company puts a focus on diverse hiring to build people, not just buildings.

“This can’t be about making one Black person rich,” Perpall said, adding that a true solution to improving Black entrepreneurship is growing the talent base so that a greater pool has an opportunity to participate.