Atlanta and black wealth: Success for many, but not for all (As published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
AJC BLACK HISTORY MONTH: WEALTH
Feb 22, 2020
By
· Eric Stirgus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
During the month of February, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will publish a daily feature highlighting African American contributions to our state and nation. This is the fifth year of the AJC Sepia Black History Month series. In addition to the daily feature, the AJC also will publish deeper examinations of contemporary African American life each Sunday.
Shoes. Phyllis C. Starks loves them.
But the love came at a cost.
Starks guessed she owned between 200 and 300 pairs as she worked her way through college and started a career. By her mid-20s, Starks had spent about $15,000 on shoes, nearly four times more than she had in savings and investments, she told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter in 1995 for the first of a series of articles about African American wealth.
Starks, 53, says she’s now more financially fit. Her shoe collection is down to about 60 pairs, and she won’t spend more than $70 on a pair. More importantly, Starks estimates her investment portfolio is about $190,000, not including the Cobb County home she bought 16 years ago and a southeast Atlanta home she inherited from her father.
Starks shares her lessons about money with younger family members. The conversations, she says, are important to helping the next generation of African Americans build wealth. Similar lessons are taught in churches, where it is a frequent sermon topic; as well as at the city’s revered black colleges; at family gatherings and on social media. The topic came up during this month’s Morehouse College fundraising gala when television star Omari Hardwick, the program’s emcee, talked about increasing black wealth through education.