Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | September 28, 2020 | wbjournal.com "Everyone in one way or another is supporting and feeding off of, or making a lot of money, off the textile industry," Melish said. e Central Massachusetts' ties to slavery went beyond the textile industry, as slavery effected every part of the economy, Hardesty said. Shoemakers in Leicester produced footwear for enslaved people and one in North Brookfield was one of the state's largest such shoemakers, while another in Millbury made fancier versions for the slave owners. A Worcester hatmaker produced 7,000 palm-leaf hats each year to be sold in Southern markets, and a plow maker designed machines specifically to be used for enslaved people. "Especially adapted to slaves," Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co., the plow firm, said in an advertisement of its tools in the mid-1800s. Millbury gunmaker Asa Waters & Co. – whose industrialist founder built the Asa Waters Mansion in Millbury – had a significant market in the South, where firearms were used in the policing of runaway slaves and suppressing slave uprisings, wrote Rockman. "e South is both a market and a producer for New England," Melish said. Slavery's impact on today's diversity & inclusion efforts In his 2012 article "e Impact of Slavery on 20th- and 21st-Century Black Progress," Waters, the professor from the University of Maryland, called the idea of slavery ending in 1865 a devastating myth. Several institutions following abolition still perpetuated the remnants of slavery, such as when sharecropping was used to keep the price of cotton cheap, he wrote. Beyond those institutions, Waters – citing sociologist Joe Feagin from Texas A&M University – wrote several lasting conditions from slavery continued to supress the economy and cultural mobility of Black people in America into the 20th and 21st centuries, specifically: • Restrictions on Black voting in many areas of the South; • Black children still attending segregated schools; • Black families living in segregated areas; • Black people facing informal discrimination when seeking housing; • Black defendants being tried for crimes by all-white juries; • Black professionals facing discrimination in the job market. "Intergenerational poverty was transferred and carried like invisible baggage from place to place," Waters wrote. "As African Americans were forced into ghettoized communities in the South and in the North, poverty became a dominant feature." is poverty has been carried forward and exacerbated by government policies limiting access of Black people to social programs and through the persistent effect of Southern cultural values on American society at large, Waters wrote. "For Americans to acquire more cosmopolitan attitudes and values that support social justice for all, free of a racial animus, would require change in the interpretations and understanding Continued from Page 13 of U.S. history and dominant cultural values," he wrote. Such efforts to find a better understanding of the Black experience in America have been at the core of the greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion since the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota at the end of May. ose moves include executives at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, the region's largest employer, taking part in a Black Lives Matter rally put on by one of its medical professionals; the College of the Holy Cross and Worcester State University examining their policies to entice more diverse staff and students; and the Hanover Insurance Group in Worcester increasing its efforts to have inclusion be part of its core culture. "e racial equality issues and the unrest today is a problem for society and our business, especially if we don't step up and help some of the systemic issues of our society go away," Hanover CEO Jack Roche said in an interview for WBJ's Executive to Executive feature in August. "We are going to do more than say nice things. We are going to change the way we recruit into the community and change the folks we engage with in order to address these issues." WBJ News Editor Grant Welker contributed to this report. A 1857 advertisement for the sale of a 50-year-old man named Dick and a 14-year- old girl named Lydia in Tennessee PHOTO | COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVE Securities and investment advisory services offered through SagePoint Financial, Inc. (SPF), member FINRA/SIPC. SPF is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of SPF. 1500 West Park Drive, Suite 100 Westborough, MA Local: 508-482-9336 Toll Free: 800-427-9781 arolle@lfsadvisors.com www.lfsadvisors.com MEET ALEC ROLLE INVESTMENT ADVISOR REPRESENTATIVE AND CERTIFIED MEDICARE AGENT "I am committed to helping individuals achieve financial security and having a positive impact on the Worcester community." Legacy is active in the support of their clients from basic financial planning advice, through the complex needs of wealth management. We are proud to be able to add Alec and his expertise to the firm. Alec is licensed to provide financial assistance for all types of wealth management including as a certified medicare agent. We encourage you to call Alec and welcome him to the community. NMLS #422081 Your Vision. Our Commercial Team. Go Beyond Banking ™ 888-744-4272 | clintonsavings.com Leonard T. Anctil Daniel J. Kelser Marina L. Taylor Lynne G. McCormack Robert G. Rivard Bernard P. Gagnon W

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