From: Congresswoman Alma S. Adams
4:02 pm Wed. May 20, 2020 ·

"Today, I am heartbroken by the loss of my dear friend Andrea Harris.
Mayor Bill Bell once called her the “mother of minority enterprise,” but even that doesn’t begin to describe her contributions to our state. I’ll remember her as a Bennett Belle and a strong advocate for HBCUs, a champion for Black businesses, and as one of the first persons in our state focused on building wealth in minority communities; but most of all, I’ll remember her as a faithful friend and mentor.
Thank you Andrea for lighting the way for so many others, including myself."
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Andrea Harris, Minority Economic Development Trailblazer, Passes
Phyllis Coley / Spectacular Magazine
May 20, 2020


Henderson, NC – Andrea Harris’ life has been dedicated to overcoming barriers to economic growth and opportunity. She passed this morning (May 20) at the age of 72. She was co-founder and Senior Fellow of the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development, headquartered in Durham, NC. Davis Royster Funeral Service in Henderson is handling arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.

Growing up in the rural community of Henderson, NC, during the heart of the Civil Rights movement, she had seen more than her share of inequality. So, after graduating from Bennett College, she chose to become a community organizer, rather than attend graduate school.

“I decided to be a part of saving the world,” she recalls. “I thought I was invincible.”

Two years later, at age 23, Harris became Executive Director of a Community Action Agency in Henderson. She was the youngest community agency director in the nation, supervising 120 full-time employees and helping fight poverty across three rural communities. Harris stepped out of that role after 6 years to begin representing lower-income, older adults throughout the southeast and in Washington through the regional Office of Community Services. Her work helped the participation levels of minority and elderly in conferences on national aging policy more than ten-fold.

When she was tired of the constant travel, Harris took a job with the North Carolina state government. Although the slow pace of progress frustrated her, she found the experience provided a new direction for her work.

In 1986, she and two colleagues co-founded the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting minority and women businesses. There were then fewer than 30,000 minority businesses in North Carolina; today, there are more than 132,000.

Harris says the Institute’s work is founded on the belief that home- and business-ownership are the two most effective means for building economic assets and expanded access to opportunities.

“Investing in populations with limited net worth is far less costly than the negative social consequences of economic isolation,” she said. “We must work towards widely shared prosperity as an economic imperative.”

Spectacular Magazine honored Andrea Harris with the Spectacular Magazine Woman of the Year – Lifetime Achievement award in 2014.
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DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Andrea Harris' legacy of economic development and minority enterprise commands attention.

For more than three decades, Harris has been a giant in building North Carolina's black wealth.

In 1986, she co-founded The Institute -- a nonprofit minority-economic-development office in the heart of Durham's historic Black Wall Street.

A building they own.

Her passion and drive to close the minority wealth gap has garnered her multiple business and leadership awards -- including multiple Orders of the Long Leaf Pine -- the state's highest honor.

"I didn't do anything by myself. I got to enjoy all of the fruits of a whole lot of people's labor," Harris said, with her typical humility.

Her team's mission at The Institute: bring lawmakers, banks and business leaders to the table -- challenging them to do better.

Many of those discussions happen in The Institute's boardroom.

"When you are the only voice in the room, you need to make sure you are clear where you stand and that they understand on the front end. I'm just not in this space to be here. So if I'm going to be in the room let's be clear. That I am clear about why I'm here," Harris said.

Harris is humble but intense.

"I've been in meetings where I had to say 'Whoa ... go girl,'" co-founder Lew Myers said about Harris' fierceness.

Myers said Harris' honesty, directness and compassion always brokered the deal.

"I mean, she is the epitome of what we would like leaders to be," Myers said.

Part of Harris' leadership strategy at The Institute is generating financial support for minority businesses and HBCUs, all while building relationships.

"I consider Andrea to be the mother of minority enterprise," said former Durham Mayor Bill Bell.

Bell said that in 2003, his community development firm, UDI, called Harris when the company struggled to secure a major grocery chain on its property near North Carolina Central University.

"She opened doors for us. We got a Food Lion. They came," Bell said.

Christopher Rivers met Harris nearly a decade after he had just gotten out of prison.

Harris gave him a job at The Institute.

"I've seen her make countless decisions. None of which start with herself," Rivers said.

He said the experience at The Institute led to him starting his own licensed construction firm, The Christopher Building Co., which now employs up to 20 people.

"It's an emotional thing because I don't know how I would have become the person that I am but from my connection to her. Literally," Rivers said.

Today, Harris is retired from The Institute, but she hasn't left completely - she still uses her voice for her community.

"I still sit on an economic board where I am the only female and the only minority in the room and this is 2019," Harris said. Her advice to women and people of color is, "That we've still got some work to do."

Harris says back in the 1980s, the State of North Carolina was doing less than 1 percent of its business with minorities and women.

Today, Harris says that number is up to 15 percent.

#BlackHistoryNC #BlackHerstory365 #HendersonNC #economics #NCCivilRights #NCEducation #DontLetThemForgetUs #AfricanAmericans #MoversAndShakers

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Source:https://abc11.com/5158338/...