Filling the Black Hotel & Conference Center Ownership Void:
Tuskegee Has High Hopes; Clarke Atlanta Moves Slowly; Howard Throws in
the Towel!
African Americans have struggled to gain a foothold in any
industries, and the fact that they have failed to do so in the hotel
and lodging business has been a sore point for many years. Blacks own
anti manage few hotels — a fact pointed out by the recent announcement
of a boycott by the NAACP of several hotel chains.
The experience of three historically Black colleges and universities demonstrate the promise and perils of the business.
Tuskegee University
When Bernard Simmons attends the National Coalition of Black
Meeting Planners’ upcoming meeting in Mobile, Alabama, this April, he
hopes to lure a busload of the group’s members to historic Tuskegee,
Alabama. Simmons who is director of sales and marketing at the Kellogg
Executive Conference Center at Tuskegee University, believes the
meeting planners would find the historic city and university a
compelling location for African American organizations seeking to hold
regional and board meetings.
The airfield, Moton Field, where the famed all-Black Tuskegee air
fighter squadron trained during World War II and the George Washington
Carver history museum on the university campus would likely generate
interest among African American groups, according to Simmons. Tuskegee
University was founded by Booker T. Washington, one of the most
influential African American educators and leaders in American history.
“There’s a lot of history in Tuskegee,” Simmons says.
