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1655-5 African American/Black Boycott TAG: 9303270746 1 of 15, 4 Terms mh93 BLACK 12/04/1993 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1993, The Miami Herald DATE: Saturday, December 4, 1993 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: photo: H.T. SMITH, John COPELAND; chart: The Convention Count (see microfilm - produced on MacIntosh) SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: ANTHONY FAIOLA Herald Business Writer BLACK GROUPS RETURNING Seven months after Miami's black tourism boycott ended, the movement to woo African American conventions back to Dade County is reaping high rewards. Ten black organizations -- including the National Association of Black Accountants and the National Conference of Black Mayors -- have booked conventions here since the boycott ended in May. They are among the first African American organizations lured to Miami in the 1990s -- and they're helping spark the rebirth of black tourism in South Florida. "We're trusting that progress will be made in Miami, " said Glenda Robinson, NABA Miami-chapter president, speaking about the group's decision to come to Miami in 1997 which was made after the city's boycott ended. "We wouldn't be pouring 1,000 visitors into this town if we didn't believe that. " The bookings -- the result of a campaign including color ads in Ebony and Black Enterprise magazines -- represent a total of 3,343 people who will stay in South Florida hotels for 8, 194 room nights. That makes up only 6.5 percent of all the conventions booked since the boycott ended. But collectively the black organizations will pump a projected $2.3 million into Dade's economy. In comparison to other towns, the returns are hardly an outpouring. Indeed, Atlanta, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and steeped in African American history, often books the same amounts of black convention business in just one month. But for Miami, which lost between $50 million and $100 million during the boycott years, it marks the resurgence of an ebbed market. "Black convention planners are very aware of picking a place where the people who look like you are benefiting from your tourism dollars, " said John Copeland, executive director of Miami Partners for Progress, the organization set up to monitor the many organizations created following the boycott. Besides placing magazine ads, the movement to bring black tourism business back to Miami has included direct mailings to the largest 200 African American organizations in America and a delegation of local tourism officials was sent to the National Association of Black Meeting Planners convention held two weeks ago in San Antonio, Texas, said Merrett R. Stierheim, president of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. But the movement has also been waged at home. When the boycott -- born after the official snubbing of anti-apartheid leader. Nelson Mandela on Miami Beach -- was settled in May, its closure was sealed with a pact to meet 20 goals. Many were aimed at increasing the role blacks play in Miami's multibillion-dollar hospitality industry. A promising sign will be marked on Monday, when Nova University, working with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, begins a hospitality training class for 15 local black residents. Also, the city of Miami Beach remains committed to spend $10 million toward the development of a hotel near its convention center, to be owned by African Americans. The Miami visitors bureau also expects to award 66 scholarships to Florida International University's Hospitality Management program to native Miami blacks by January. In some instances, however, organizations haven't considered the progress enough. For instance, the National Association of Community Development Agencies held back a decision to bring its 1,200- member convention to Dade in 1997. It cited a lack of blacks in AFL-CIO Local 355, Miami's banquet waiters union, which offers members a chance for lucrative temporary work at major hotels. Of those organizations returning to Miami, some do so with another purpose -- one beyond the obvious search for sun and sand. "We need to show the economic clout of African Americans, " said Albert Dotson Jr., an attorney at Fine Jacobson in Miami, and the local chapter president of 100 Black Men of America, a civic organization booked for a 1,200-member Miami convention for 1996. Deborah Sellers, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Black Tourism Network and a member of the African American Travel and Tourism Association, said recent violence against tourists in South Florida will likely deter some who would have returned. She added that many people still aren't aware the boycott has ended. H.T. Smith, the boycott's architect, says the future of black tourism in Miami, is, without question, in the hands of the city itself. "Remember, this is only the beginning of recovery, " he said. "It's how the people are treated when they come here that will decide whether black conventions return to Miami in large numbers." KEYWORDS: BLACK BOYCOTT BUSINESS DADE MD STATISTIC TAG: 9303220379 2 of 15, 15 Terms mh93 BLACKS MAKE 09/20/1993 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1993, The Miami Herald DATE: Monday, September 20, 1993 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: photo: John Copeland with Rod Petrey (LAWYER) , H.T. SMITH SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: TONY PUGH Herald Staff Writer BLACKS MAKE POST-BOYCOTT GAINS IN GOALS Nearly four months after Miami's black tourism boycott was settled, architects and implementers of the standoff-breaking agreement are inching forward in their three-year effort to bring the pact's 20 goals to fruition. Miami Partners for Progress, the agency created to carry out that mission, has set up shop in the downtown Miami law firm of Holland & Knight, where attorney Rod Petrey and staff director John Copeland monitor the numerous committees assigned to accomplish each objective. While it's too early to gauge the success or failure of any of the proposals, Petrey and Copeland feel good about the accomplishments thus far. They point to progress in securing a black-owned hotel in Miami Beach, establishing minority scholarships and intern programs and efforts to help local black businesses expand. "I think it's fair to say: 'Overall, we've made pretty good progress, ' " Copeland said. "Enough to be proud of," Petrey added. An unnamed out-of-town black investor with real estate holdings in South Florida is heading a group considering the purchase of a Miami Beach property for a convention-size hotel, Petrey said. The deal would have a base price tag of about $50 million. A feasibility study is being conducted on the proposed site. In addition, the city of Miami Beach has committed to provide $10 million in inducements for the venture, said City Manager Roger Carlton. The money would come from a proposed $50 million to $60 million bond issue to finance construction of several hotels near the Miami Beach Convention Center, Carlton said. City officials want the hotels to provide about 800 rooms. "If a viable proposal comes in and negotiations are worked through and the (money) from the private side materializes, then we will achieve an African American hotel on Miami Beach," Carlton said. In addition, boycott organizer H.T. Smith said a local investor group is also considering the purchase of a smaller Miami Beach hotel. "I'm not going to get excited until somebody buys something, but I'm encouraged people are taking action that wasn't even discussed three years ago, " Smith said. Several of the accord's minority scholarship and internship programs have already met or exceeded their first-year goals. The Inroads minority internship program recently completed its first round of summer internships for 23 college-bound minority youth. The students will return for the next three summers to work with local companies in their career field. "I'm very pleased with that program, " Smith said. "Because, honestly, I didn't think they could do it in that short a period of time. " Mark Jackson, executive director of the Visitor Industry Council, is working to increase private funding and expand the hospitality management scholarship program to include college freshmen. Jackson wants to keep between 30 and 35 students in the program and the current formula of accepting just second-year college students makes that difficult. "Once students have two years under their belt in a field outside the hospitality industry, why would they want to change?" he said. "So we'd like to get them early, preferably right out of high school." Efforts to get 200 native black Miami residents to return and resume their careers have not progressed as well. Committee members are still contacting candidates. But a scarcity of jobs and Miami 's less-than-stellar reputation for black career opportunities may be too much to overcome. "We're going to identify 200. We'll achieve that goal. How many we're going to get here, I don't know, " Copeland said. Former Miami News publisher David Kraslow, who is working on the proposal, acknowledged the difficulty. "Maybe 20 is more than we can hope for and that would be a tremendous victory for us, " he said. Partners for Progress has been successful in getting 18 local companies to redirect some of their contracts to minority businesses, but that is not enough, Smith said. "We could easily have 80. These 18 companies are carrying a disproportionate share of the responsibility. " Petrey said the vacation months have made planning meetings difficult and Smith feels the recent tourist murders have turned attention away from the boycott. But even though tourist safety has replaced black indignation as the top priority of Miami's hospitality industry, Kaaren Johnson-Street, head of black economic development with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and one of many local leaders working on the boycott agreement, said the issues surrounding the boycott are still a concern to blacks in Miami and across the country. "They want to see how this is going to turn out. Are they moving forward? Is the commitment there? So there's a lot of pressure. I think the way Miami is viewed in the future depends a lot on how successful we are in reaching these goals. " KEYWORDS: MD BLACK TAG: 9303030983 5 of 15, 18 Terms mh93 SMITH: MANDELA 06/13/1993 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1993, The Miami Herald DATE: Sunday, June 13, 1993 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: photo: H.T. SMITH SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: GAIL EPSTEIN Herald Staff Writer SMITH: MANDELA SNUB CONVENIENT 'HOOK' FOR BOYCOTT Miami's recently concluded black tourism boycott was sparked by politicians' snubbing of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, right? Wrong. It turns out Mandela was a convenient "hook" -- a way to grab national attention and support for a plan that had been percolating anyway, boycott leader H.T. Smith revealed Saturday. In a candid recounting of boycott strategy, Smith said that when local leaders refused to meet with the South African leader, they played right into the hands of gleeful boycott organizers. "I had been waiting for an opportunity, " Smith told a state conference of the National Association of Black Hospitality Professionals, meeting at the Biscayne Bay Marriott. "We needed a hook to mobilize the rest of black America." Smith said he watched in 1990 as Mandela got a hero's welcome around the world after his release from 27 years in South African prisons for opposing apartheid. In Miami, it was different. Mandela had expressed public support for Fidel Castro, Moammar Gadafi and Yasser Arafat. When he visited in June, a scheduled city proclamation was rescinded and politicians stayed away in droves. " (South African President F.W. ) de Klerk meets with Mandela, and (Mayor Xavier) Suarez won't, " Smith said. "I said, 'Oh my God, this is great! They snubbed Nelson Mandela. There it is, the gift we need. ' " Smith and other organizers were frustrated with the lack of economic opportunity for Miami's blacks, particularly in the multibillion dollar tourism and hospitality industry. Blacks owned none of Miami's hotels and had few management-level jobs. Not much was being done to change things. The Mandela snub was a convenient way to focus attention on the problems. Organizers chose to make their statement with a boycott for three reasons, he said: Everyone could participate simply by doing nothing. It was an effective and nonviolent alternative to deadly rioting. And it was a good way to communicate "on white folks' channel." White people don't always understand the way blacks communicate, Smith said. "But when you talk about a billion dollars, which is what black business was worth, the message starts coming in clear." Other tidbits Smith disclosed: * Remember those boycott videos, the ones comparing Miami to Selma, Ala. , in the '60s? Miami's tourism honchos squirmed when boycott organizers supposedly flooded the hospitality industry with 1,500 of the tapes. Well, it wasn't nearly that many. Smith said they sent the tapes only "to the organizations we knew would tell. Within a week, the convention bureau had a cepy. And it became more potent and visible. " * Six major organizations canceled Miami events within the boycott's first week, Smith said. But organizers were so fearful their project might fizzle there, they decided to spread out public announcements over time. "I said, 'Let's just announce one a week, so we know the boycott will last at least six weeks, ' " he said. It lasted three years and cost South Florida between $25 million and $50 million in direct and canceled tourist spending. It ended in May with a historic 20-point agreement to bring blacks to the economic table as partners. * Business leaders tried to "cut deals" with Smith, an attorney, offering him lucrative legal jobs if he would call off the boycott and disband the Boycott Miami committee, he said. Smith's answer: "I only have one vote. " TAG: 9302090319 4