New Books Network Jessica Ann Levy, "Black Power, Inc.: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026)
Mar 13, 2026
Jessica Ann Levy, assistant professor of history and author of Black Power, Inc., explores how Black empowerment politics moved from cities into corporate boardrooms and across the Atlantic to Africa. She examines figures like Leon Sullivan, corporate strategies around anti-apartheid and divestment, tensions between institutional empowerment and radical Black Power, and the limits of market-based racial remedies.
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Black Empowerment Originated In Urban Economic Crisis
- Black empowerment emerged from urban responses to deindustrialization and white flight rather than being purely ideological.
- Jessica Ann Levy traces its roots to Booker T. Washington and shows how training, entrepreneurship, and managerialism reshaped postwar Black politics in cities like North Philadelphia.
Corporations Used Empowerment To Counter Divestment
- U.S. corporations in South Africa responded to divestment pressure by adopting corporate-sponsored Black empowerment programs.
- These included voluntary affirmative action, hiring Black managers, scholarships, and business support to counter calls for divestment.
Sullivan And Matsuyane As Transatlantic Guides
- Jessica uses Leon Sullivan and Samuel Matsuyane as narrative guides rather than full biographies to illustrate transatlantic threads.
- Both men grew up in segregated contexts shaped by Booker T. Washington ideas and later adapted uplift for urban industrial settings.
