Black Flight: Not Even Sandy Beaches and Warm Weather is Enough

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Miami, FL, November 4, 2009—South Florida has a growing dilemma, and the newly established South Florida HBCU Alumni Alliance is positioned to solve it. The dilemma- attracting and retaining South Florida’s black middle class- has been labeled “black flight” and is serious enough that Florida International University’s Metropolitan Center commissioned a study in 2007 to understand this issue. How can a metro area truly maintain its diversity and sustain its competitive advantage against other cities when the area fails to retain its most talented residents from a particular population group? What the South Florida HBCU Alumni Alliance strives to accomplish is to create and foster a thriving black metropolis where entrepreneurs, professionals, and leaders can be retained.

As diverse as the South Florida metro area has grown to be with a melting pot of ethnicities and backgrounds, South Florida has not been as nurturing for professional African-Americans as other black metros have been. The dilemma is even more noticeable in Miami where many of Miami’s black middle class has fled north for Broward and Palm Beach, but overall the entire metro area stretching from Miami-Dade County to Palm Beach County has lost its residents to more favorable cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, and even Orlando. These cities have created such a progressive professional and social environment for African-Americans that the cities have experienced a tremendous boost in population. Unfortunately for South Florida, local black professionals often feel like it is not the live, work, play community that it should be.

So why a local HBCU alumni alliance? Historically, HBCUs (otherwise known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities) have served as the backbone of the growing black middle class and have awarded more undergraduate and graduate degrees to African-Americans than any other type of educational institution. As such, forming a local HBCU alumni alliance pools together the local alumni associations of HBCUs to target local young black professionals and eventually create social and professional programs and opportunities that will position South Florida as a more vibrant place to live, work, and play.

Since its inception in March of this year, the South Florida HBCU Alumni Alliance has already succeeded in capturing the untargeted demographic through networking and social events, professional and business development opportunities, and community service projects. Its signature 1st Wednesdays South Florida HBCU Alumni Networking & Cosmopolitan Social has created a great social environment for the more than 2,400 who have attended at least one social. The monthly social has become a staple in the social scene and has been frequented by high powered black attorneys, business executives, and even political candidates. The Alliance also recently hosted a financial planning seminar presented by a local financial services firm, and several other professional development and social activities are currently being developed. The organization’s civic engagement committee is currently exploring potential partnerships for an organization-wide community service project, and an HBCU recruitment fair is currently being coordinated.

As the alliance establishes itself and continues pursuing its mission, local chapters of HBCU alumni associations are welcomed into the alliance and should contact info@SouthFloridaHBCUAlumni.com and visit the website, www.SouthFloridaHBCUAlumni.com for more information. The alliance also embraces corporate partners interested in targeting this untargeted demographic and collaborating with the alliance in many respects.