Author: Victor Trammell

Photo credits: KoreAm Journal via Character Media | OAACC

On February 5, 2021, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris (pictured far left) met with leaders of the Black Chamber of Commerce (BCC) who represented chapters from major U.S. cities across America.

Vice-President Harris accommodated U.S. Treasury Secretary Dr. Janet Yellen inside the South Court Auditorium on a White House complex in Washington D.C. Harris and Yellen spoke with BCC members from various places, including Oakland, California–a West Coast city with a high population percentage of Black Americans.

Cathy Adams (pictured far right) was one of the BCC leaders who spoke with Harris and Yellen about U.S. President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Adams is the President and CEO of the Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce (OAACC), a branch of the superseding U.S. Black Chamber Inc. Ron Busby, the U.S. Black Chamber’s President was also at the conference.

” I am truly honored to be with you as we have the opportunity to celebrate Black history, but also to talk about the current conditions of Black people, as well as to talk about how we engage and go forward for the future of this country, as it relates to Black America,” President Busby said in his opening statement.

” We represent 146 Black chambers located throughout 42 states, including Canada and six countries in Africa, with a membership base of over 380,000 Black owned businesses, but we are the voice of over 2.6 million Black owned businesses,” Busby went on to say.

The virtual roundtable discussion Harris, Yellen, and other government officials held on this day certainly exhibited symbolic figures. At the surface level, they represent how far women (including Black and other women of color) and Black America have come as a whole in the U.S.

Read a full transcript of the BCC’s national membership meeting with Harris by visiting here.