The Interracial Council for Business Opportunity and the American Jewish Congress today announced joint sponsorship of “Project Transfer,” a pioneering program that has been operating quietly for nearly a year to arrange the orderly sale of profitable businesses in New York City ghetto areas from white to Black owners. A dozen white-owned businesses are now in active negotiation for sale to new Black owners and four sales have already been completed, it was reported at a meeting in Harlem today of black lawyers, accountants and prospective buyers. The stores range in net income from $15,000 to $40,000 annually and nearly all have employees in addition to the owner. Many of the buyers are persons who have worked in the stores in managerial roles, it was noted. Project Transfer was funded in January 1969 by the Ford Foundation.
Martin V. Waters, president of the New York ICBO and Jerome J. Steiker, Project Transfer chairman for the American Jewish Congress, said the American Jewish Congress, through a volunteer consultants’ group of businessmen, attorneys and accountants, finds white-owned profitable businesses in New York City that are available for sale and evaluates them as to their financial worth and future possibilities. Mr. Steiker noted that “only solid businesses with growth potential are considered.” The Interracial Council for Business Opportunity double-checks the businesses, locates potential Black buyers, and helps the buyer during and after the sale.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
