John T. Childress is a numbers guy.
With a degree in finance and entrepreneurial experience, most recently as a business consultant, he has managed budgets at Temple University and for the Philadelphia schools operated by Edison Schools Inc.
Recently, Childress, 41, gave up crunching numbers to become executive director of the Philadelphia region's African American Chamber of Commerce - a post he sees as a "vehicle to help bring about change" for black-owned businesses.
The son of an astrophysicist, who grew up in Willingboro, Burlington County, and Santa Barbara, Calif., Childress says legal barriers for African Americans have pretty much tumbled. "There are no laws on the books saying that African Americans can't do X. It's not so much a time now that we need laws changed," he said recently in his Center City office.
"It's more a matter of getting business ideas together."
If African Americans prosper in business, "they'll have economic power, which leads to political power," he said. "Without good business, you really can't get anywhere."
Since its founding in 1994, the African American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware has fought to promote opportunities for black-owned businesses.
It has openly criticized the city's Minority Business Enterprise Council, the agency charged with ensuring minority participation in city contracts.
And it has long complained that Philadelphia's historically white building-trades unions have excluded people of color from their ranks.
"It's done a lot of good things, but there's a lot more it can do," said Childress, who has been meeting since his appointment in January with procurement officers, bank chief executives, city officials, and civic leaders.
In a city where more than half of residents are minorities and 43 percent are African Americans, only 2.3 percent of city contract business for construction, goods and services went to minority firms in the four years ended June 30, 2002, according to a 2004 city-commissioned study. Less than 1 percent went to firms owned by African Americans.
The African American chamber has traditionally had strong participation from vendors and contractors. Childress said he wants to expand the group to include more retail establishments and professionals, including lawyers, accountants and executives.
