The magic and tragic of self-interest

30th April 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing payday loans on dmp Columnist

I have a clear recollection of my classmate Alvin Boutte in the seventh grade at Sacred Heart School in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1943 when we stood equal in height. So I was quite surprised to read that he had moved to Southside Chicago where he was destined soon to become a six-foot-five hunk of a man who became known as Big Al.

If nothing else, Al was consumed by ambition — a quality not noticeable back in elementary school days. From humble beginnings, he had studied at Xavier University in New Orleans where he earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. After a stint as an online payday loans in washington officer in the U.S. Army, he joined the huge migration of Blacks to Southside Chicago and beyond.

Reading like a storybook, Al’s life began with owning and operating a Chicago drugstore that gradually expanded into a chain. This gave him entrée to acquaintance and eventual friendship with business titans like George Johnson who became a legend through the development of the hair-care products Ultra-Sheen and Afro-Sheen.

Another link in Al’s meteoric rise, John Johnson parlayed Ebony and Jet into the largest African-American Publishing Company. The two Johnsons helped Al found Independence Bank that grew into the country’s largest minority-owned bank, acquiring Drexel National Bank — loan in nc the first time a Black bank acquired a healthy white bank.

Known as the mecca for Black business, Chicago owes this moniker mainly to Alvin Boutte, Sr., George Johnson and John Johnson who transformed Southside Chicago into a veritable business dynamo, but did not stop at the moneymaking aspect of it all.

Independence Bank also lent a helping hand to keep the civil rights movement afloat. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., needed funds for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Al convened a meeting of Chicago’s Black leaders and collected $55,000 for the cause. Later, he raised eyebrows by inviting Dr. King to his home.
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As head of Independence Bank, Al also became involved in assisting campaigns of local community activists like Harold Washington, as well as other movements for justice, notably Jesse Jackson’s Operation Breadbasket.

Success breeds success and noteworthy friends like Olympic sprinters Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, Sr., who were frequent companions on the links, although they had to fight for their right to golf with the general population back in the day.

As I read the obituary sent by my cousin Lawrence Sweet, I felt a twinge of pain and nostalgia that I had not known Big Al after our elementary school days. There was so much same day loans in georgia magic that ensued from his self-interest and ambition. Notwithstanding, I also feel an “Is that all there is?” tug at my heart as I contemplate the lightning transit of life.

In my mind’s eye, I can still see the left backside of Al’s head in class at Sacred Heart School. His smooth, raven-black hair set off his almost motionless, quiet demeanor that scarce foretold what burning, creative fires lay hidden deep within his mind.

With a matriarchal life spanning a near-epic 95 years, Eula Mae Brown Hamilton pursued a far different course on her journey. Quite unlike the flamboyant careers of such business pioneers and giants guaranteed loan bad credit direct lender as Big Al and the Johnsons, Eula Mae was a homebody, a homemaker whose entire life centered around her family and rearing her children.

From strong ancestral roots in Liberty, Mississippi, Eula Mae migrated to the Big Easy where she reared Audrey Hamilton Jackson, Baby Brother (deceased) and Dyan Hamilton French Cole, the latter better known as Mama D, community matriarch.

As one can easily experience in New Orleans but hardly anywhere else, Eula Mae’s homegoing celebration was anchored by a lively combo featuring Leah Hodges, Les Getrex and others. Their bluesy Gospel sound in­quir­ed, “Is that all there is?” Even Eu­la Mae’s 95 years managed to compare the market personal loan rates fly by with diz­zying speed and a sense of ur­gency.

After a long, beautiful life in which he brought the joy of music to many folks everywhere, self-styled “America’s oldest teenager,” Dick Clark, took his final bow on the heels of Big Al and Eula Mae Hamilton. The echo still calls, “Is that all there is?”

The magic of self-interest can avoid the tragic as long as we make our own interest the instrument and workhorse that serves our own and the needs of others.

This article was originally published in the April 30, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper