It was the early 1950s, and businessman Bernard Garrett was frustrated. American racism had followed him from his Texas hometown to sunny, “liberal” Los Angeles.
So how did he manage - in only a decade - to OWN and desegregate 177 buildings, including the one housing a bank that consistently REJECTED his applications?
Two words: white frontmen. Garrett used his white business partner, Patrick Barker, to close deals in L.A. Barker posed as the lead investor while Garrett, the true lead, remained anonymous.
The set up worked ... until Barker’s early death meant finding a new white puppet, fast.
He hired mentee-turned-frontman Matt Steiner, and partnered with Joe Morris, an enterprising nightclub owner. Garrett went back to Texas to replicate his success and make more opportunities for Black people there.
Together, the team closed on the most audacious acquisitions racist white Southerners had ever seen!
In 1963, oblivious bankers handed ownership of the Mainland Bank and Trust Co. in Texas City, TX and the First National Bank of Marlin, TX to men whose kind they wouldn’t even let enter through the front door!
The astounding achievement made way for Black loan applicants to finally access investment capital like mortgages and business credit and ultimately establish and grow wealth. Of course, the hoodwinked white folks were LIVID!
But hey, sometimes the situation calls for clever workarounds like this, that flip white bias against us. Our creativity can liberate our people from racist business dealings - by any means necessary!