Andrea Harris
#NCMAAHC is sad to share the news of the passing on May 20, 2020, of Ms. Andrea Harris. She was a pure fire trailblazer for Black North Carolinian's.
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From: Congresswoman Alma S. Adams
4:02 pm Wed. May 20, 2020 ·
Top Photo credit: Congresswoman Alma S. Adams
"Today, I am heartbroken by the loss of my dear friend Andrea Harris.
Mayor Bill Bell once called her the “mother of minority enterprise,” but even that doesn’t begin to describe her contributions to our state. I’ll remember her as a Bennett Belle and a strong advocate for HBCUs, a champion for Black businesses, and as one of the first persons in our state focused on building wealth in minority communities; but most of all, I’ll remember her as a faithful friend and mentor.
Thank you Andrea for lighting the way for so many others, including myself."
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Andrea Harris, Minority Economic Development Trailblazer, Passes
Phyllis Coley / Spectacular Magazine
May 20, 2020
Bottom photo credit: Spectacular Magazine
Henderson, NC – Andrea Harris’ life has been dedicated to overcoming barriers to economic growth and opportunity. She passed this morning (May 20) at the age of 72. She was co-founder and Senior Fellow of the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development, headquartered in Durham, NC. Davis Royster Funeral Service in Henderson is handling arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.
Growing up in the rural community of Henderson, NC, during the heart of the Civil Rights movement, she had seen more than her share of inequality. So, after graduating from Bennett College, she chose to become a community organizer, rather than attend graduate school.
“I decided to be a part of saving the world,” she recalls. “I thought I was invincible.”
Two years later, at age 23, Harris became Executive Director of a Community Action Agency in Henderson. She was the youngest community agency director in the nation, supervising 120 full-time employees and helping fight poverty across three rural communities. Harris stepped out of that role after 6 years to begin representing lower-income, older adults throughout the southeast and in Washington through the regional Office of Community Services. Her work helped the participation levels of minority and elderly in conferences on national aging policy more than ten-fold.
When she was tired of the constant travel, Harris took a job with the North Carolina state government. Although the slow pace of progress frustrated her, she found the experience provided a new direction for her work.
In 1986, she and two colleagues co-founded the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting minority and women businesses. There were then fewer than 30,000 minority businesses in North Carolina; today, there are more than 132,000.
Harris says the Institute’s work is founded on the belief that home- and business-ownership are the two most effective means for building economic assets and expanded access to opportunities.
“Investing in populations with limited net worth is far less costly than the negative social consequences of economic isolation,” she said. “We must work towards widely shared prosperity as an economic imperative.”
Spectacular Magazine honored Andrea Harris with the Spectacular Magazine Woman of the Year – Lifetime Achievement award in 2014.