THE term "Black Economic Empowerment" is all the rage these days, the politically correct version of what used to be referred to as "Affirmative Action" — the fast-tracking of those traditionally excluded from the economic mainstream.As the very name suggests, in Government's view the black community is the chief victim of Bermuda's racial past having been denied full participation and opportunities in Bermuda's economy.

While there is more than a small element of truth to this opinion there is also another side to this issue.

In fact, it could be argued that the end of officially sanctioned racial segregation in 1959 and the gradual integration of the Bermuda community in the 1960s and '70s brought about the demise of an older form of black economic empowerment — one which allowed the black community to not only control its own financial destiny in large measure but which, perhaps more importantly, amounted to a powerful form of black self-determination.

In a recent discussion with some colleagues on the question of black economic empowerment, my friends all agreed that the end of segregation unwittingly did a lot to undermine many long-established black businesses, some of which had great economic and cultural significance within the broader Bermudian black community.

Intrigued, I thought this opinion merited further investigation. But where to go to find information on the subject of an older form of black economic empowerment that today is non-existent or exists on a much smaller scale?

I thought about the black Bermudian magazine Fame that was published here in the 1960s and '70s. After experiencing some disappointment at the Bermuda Library, which did not have a full run of Fame in its reference section, I then turned to the Bermuda College Library.

Luckily, the College did indeed have back copies of Fame, which were under lock and key in their rare books department. I spent an hour or so looking through these magazines in the hope of finding some answers to this question of black economic empowerment as it existed before the end of segregation.NOW it is a sad fact that it is very difficult to find comprehensive archives of magazines like Fame and the black newspaper the Bermuda Recorder. There are gaps in the holdings of every collection of these black-oriented publications that I have come across. Younger people will not even remember the newspaper TheRecorder, for decades an institution in the black Bermudian community. It was a black-published and black-owned publication, a record of the opinions of black Bermuda while its news reporting reflected how they saw the world. The demise of both the Recorder and Fame magazine in the 1970s is part of the story of the demise of an older form of black economic empowerment.

I don't know what I expected to find in terms of the contents of Fame magazine. But as a result of reading back numbers that covered the period from the late 1960s through the mid-'70s I was able to discern the outlines of buoyant black economic activity in Bermuda even in the face of racial segregation.

Then, as it is still the case today, the black community operated businesses of all kinds — from shops that sold everything from groceries to clothes, a whole host of service outlets, restaurants and the like.

But did we as a community have a hand in business activities that had the potential to create real wealth? It is generally accepted that the real money-making industry in Bermuda for many years was tourism.

And in the early days of Bermuda's tourism economy — from the 1930s through the 1950s — blacks could work in the large hotels but could not stay there as guests. Consequently, the black Bermudian community was able to establish a niche market of its own — hotels and guest houses and restaurants catering to African-American visitors during the days of segregation.

What jumped right off the pages of Fame was the sheer number of black-owned guest houses that were still in business in the 1970s — not only that, but black Bermudians even made apartments in their homes into tourist accommodations, where I suspect the majority of the clientele were originally black American tourists who, of course, were not welcome to stay in Bermuda's racially segregated hotels until the 1960s.

But let's go on. Older Bermudians will remember Mr. L.L. Newton Butterfield — a well-respected black Bermudian builder reputed to be Bermuda's largest construction contractor at one point. His firm had a workforce of more than 60 full-time skilled workmen made up of carpenters, masons, plumbers and electricians. This firm could build your house from the bottom up and his hardware store was among the first to bring in aluminium products to be used in the building trade.

Quality Bakery was once Bermuda's leading bakery — bigger than the Bermuda Bakery and situated behind the Green Lantern Restaurant on Serpentine Road, itself another example of black economic empowerment.

The Quality Bakery stood on the same site a the current Standard Hardware. Today the only reminder of the fact this pioneering black industry existed there is the fact the road it was once situated on is now called Bakery Lane. Black people mourned when that bakery closed its doors and still talk about it wistfully. Just speak to some older Bermudians about the bakery and you will understand what I am talking about.NIGHT clubs like the Clay House Inn were black-owned businesses that used to — ironically — cater largely to wealthy white visitors during the tourism heyday in the 1950s and '60s. Further back there were other night spots like the Zodiac Palace on Woodbourne Avenue, designed by black Bermudians, built and managed by black Bermudians. There was the Simmons Ice Cream plant in Somerset, Ace Printers, the Swan Bros. Welding Specialists, the Donald Smith Travel Agency, probably the only travel agency the majority of black Bermudians went to when they wanted to go to the United States.

And, of course, there was the Bermuda Provident Bank — the brainchild of a group of churchmen in the Southampton area. Again when I listen to older black Bermudians when they talk about its demise, I get the sense that they are still mourning the loss of this pioneering black Bermudian financial institution.

Of course, any look back at early black economic empowerment would not be complete if I did not mention Capital Broadcasting Company— the black-owned North Shore firm that operated the ZFB television and radio stations.

Founded by Bermudian Montague Sheppard, it was finally taken over by the Bermuda Broadcasting Company. It's a safe bet that many younger black Bermudians think that HOTT 1075 is Bermuda's first black-owned radio station or that Fresh TV is the first-black owned TV operation.

There were many, many more examples of black economic empowerment in the 1950s, '60s and '70s — examples of entrepreneurship which did not come into being because of Government initiatives and did not fail in the spectacular manner that Pro-Active did at the Berkeley Institute building site.

It is important to point out that the entrepreneurial spirit has a long history in the black Bermudian community and no doubt will continue to demonstrate itself long into the future.

But what happened to these early economic powerhouses that held so much potential for the black community? Well, in the case of the black guest house owners, their fate was probably predictable as soon as segregation ended and they could no longer hold on to their exclusive market share — black American visitors who, by the mid-1960s, could stay in any hotel they wanted.But there are also stories of mismanagement — and even outright looting of assets — by some involved in the early black entrepreneurial class that caused their businesses to fold. And then there were also changing market trends.

Even the Bermuda Bakery, which took over from the old Quality Bakery, no longer bakes bread on the industrial scale that it once did. These days most of the bread bought in Bermuda is imported and some supermarkets, catering to those who want freshly baked products, make their own breads and sweets in what you could describe as boutique bakeries.

Although Government will argue that the consequences of Bermuda's racial past need to be addressed by a programme of Black Economic Empowerment dictated by Parliament, the reality is that there have been enough black business success stories — even during the dark days of segregation — to give me the confidence to believe that as the economic playing field grows even more level, black initiative, creativity and business smarts will allow economic empowerment to go from strength to strength with or without intervention from the top.