Black Economic Union

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Black Economic Union (BEU) is a nonprofit group started in 1965 by Jim Brown, the famous NFL player and activist. It began as the Negro Industrial and Economic Union (NIEU) in Cleveland, Ohio, with the goal of helping Black communities through self-reliance, supporting Black-owned businesses, and providing loans, training, and jobs.

Key people and places:
- Main office: 10501 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland (University Circle)
- Early leaders included John Wooten as executive director and Carl Stokes as legal advisor
- Branches formed in Los Angeles and New York City, and later in Kansas City, San Francisco, and Washington

What they did:
- Through the 1960s and 1970s, members launched training programs, issued loans, and created jobs
- At its peak (1967–1974), the NIEU/BEU supported about 400 Black-owned businesses

Notable moments:
- The 1967 Cleveland Summit, where Jim Brown gathered Muhammad Ali and 11 Black athletes to support Ali’s draft stance
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) volunteered in the Los Angeles chapter
- LA director Booker Griffin helped lead efforts in California

Expansion and funding:
- In 1968, the Ford Foundation gave about $520,000 and the Economic Development Administration about $251,400 to grow the work
- New offices opened in Kansas City, San Francisco, and Washington, with more staff in Cleveland, LA, and New York
- Kansas City Chiefs players aided the national expansion

Rebranding and growth:
- In 1970, the NIEU was renamed the Black Economic Union, dropping “Negro” from the name
- Jim Brown organized the annual Jim Brown Golf Classic to raise awareness
- By 1979, BEU had five neighborhood offices in Kansas City and had become a citywide organization focused on business and economic development, with a budget over $500,000
- Services included loan packaging, job training, and technical support to help minority and low-income businesses