Black Power and Ice Cream
The Black power movement inspired a vibrant black entrepreneurial spirit that encouraged a number of black owned restaurant chains in the late 1960s. In Baltimore one of the greatest examples of this is the purchase of The Arundel Ice Cream Company. In 1973, Business Opportunities For Progress, a group of African American investors, purchased the Arundel Ice Cream Company and its 16 ice cream stores which also sold bakery goods, sandwiches, and fried chicken. The company planned to sell its featured ice cream products in every neighborhood grocery store. “Young blacks will be able to say it is possible for us to make ice cream not just operate a liquor store,” said Samuel T. Daniels executive director of the Council for Equal Business Opportunity Inc at a press conference. So, a little over thirteen years after protesters forced Arundel to completely integrate its ice cream parlors and African American investors bought it. No details exist on how it changed overtime but about twenty years later, the company was sold at auction.
