Black Power Inc.: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics

In her new book, Black Power Inc.: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics Jessica Ann Levy traces Black empowerment’s rise in 20^th century American politics and its contradictions as a form of African American political activity. By closely following minister Leon Sullivan in his influential and varied career, Levi shows how white and Black businesspeople and government officials championed Black empowerment as a means to simultaneously offer meaningful opportunities for African Americans and to blunt the more radical aspects of the Black Power movement. Black empowerment politics similarly found application overseas in Cold War efforts to promote American-style free enterprise in Africa. In South Africa US corporate executives and government officials wielded Black empowerment politics to oppose apartheid and divestment even as they sought greater opportunities for Africans. By the early twenty-first century, the notion that private enterprise should play a leading role in combating racial inequality and empowering African Americans was widely accepted. By tracing Black empowerment politics’ evolution, Black Power, Inc. explains its popularity, championed by leaders from Bill Clinton to Nelson Mandela, while also revealing its role in expanding US corporate power, locally and globally.