Political and social changes can alter the economies at the national and local arenas.

Wichita State Professor Robert Weems, a Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History, is doing his part in understanding the rise and fall of African American entrepreneurship in Wichita. He is researching what factors affect local minority businesses.

“It’s widely regarded that African American history in general is one of the more under-reported and under studied areas, but when you look at the business component of that it’s even more understudied.” Weems said.

Weems has interviewed past and present Wichita business owners and their patrons with a long-term view of the city since coming to WSU in 2011.

“I’ve very grateful in terms of just how forth coming the individuals have been with me because they have shared with me the proverbial good, bad and ugly in terms of business operations,” Weems said.

Though the entrepreneurs are the main focus of his research, Weems finds great value in the perspective of the clientele. Weems sees a difference in how business owners view their enterprise as opposed to the perspective of their customers.

Weems values all of their input and feels compelled to document their experiences

Weems started his project from the ground up. He found historical projects about with the African American community as a strong base for him to start while using the researchers as a resource themselves.

“Him being fresh and from the outside gives a different perspective than someone from the area,” said Gerald Norwood, a Wichita resident who has researched national and local African American history for 25 years.

Norwood serves as a pillar of local African American history to Weems as well as the community. Weems looks to Norwood as a resource for key members of the African American business community.

“When people find out that your working on this type of research you get referrals to other people,” Weems said.

Weems has interviewed about 30 people toward his goal of interviewing between 50 to 75 community members.

Weems also hopes to collect artifacts of African American owned businesses. The interviews will be transcribed and stored in Ablah Library in order to be used by future researchers.

“Simply knowing that in fact there is a business tradition in these communities might be an additional spark for present day persons who are thinking about starting a business to engage in these entrepreneurial activities,” Weems said.

Weems sees this changing economy as more of an opportunity than a problem. He said he hopes his research encourages younger generations to become entrepreneurs.

Norwood said any time someone makes the effort to research the past and to tell the stories about the way they were they are doing a great service to the community.

“He is allowing people to be able in only a moment to experience what took 100 years for people to go through,” Norwood said.