It started as a meeting among senior-age friends to discuss past and current events.

        It ended with an 80-year-old deciding to run for the Cincinnati Board of Education, and another 80-year-old applying to be executive director of the Black Chamber of Commerce.

        The luncheon meeting included Ernie Waits, 80, a retired management consultant; Frederick Suggs, 80, a magazine publisher; Willis Baker, 65, owner of an executive search firm, and yours truly.

        My first reaction after their announcements was to alert the Cardiology Center of Cincinnati.

        Mr. Waits is relying on experience and knowledge. He is a past president of the Cincinnati Business League, a group similar to the black chamber. He said the league is basically a research organization now.

        “If I am not chosen for the chamber position, I think we can blend the functions of the two groups,” Mr. Waits said. “The main goal is to promote African American-owned businesses.”

        Mr. Waits was the first black to have a registered executive search firm in Cincinnati. He pioneered the black expo which brought minority businesses from around the country to Cincinnati to display their wares.

        Mr. Waits was the first black registered stock broker in Cincinnati. He has owned a bowling alley, a business-management firm and was one of the organizers of a union at the old Wright Aeronautical plant, a forerunner of General Electric in Evendale.

        “If I did those things then, why not now?” he asked. “If I am chosen to lead the black chamber, this would not be the first time a senior citizens was chosen to lead a group of people out of bondage. Remember Moses? I think we need a modern-day Moses to lead our people out of any residuals of bondage.”

        Mr. Suggs published NIP Magazine in Cincinnati for 35 years. After he sold it, he started publishing Talk Magazine.

        His pet peeve is the Cincinnati Public School system. He thinks the schools of today aren't as good as they were 40 years ago.

        That is why he wants to be on the board

        “Forty years ago, Cincinnati Public Schools were on par with private and parochial schools,” he said. “There were no unions. Public school salaries were equal to or better than others and there was no public, private or parochial social passing. All schools graduated 90 percent of their seniors and the curriculum was basically the same in all schools.”

        Mr. Suggs thinks that some of the schools have moved away from teaching basics.

        “This failure to teach basics gave rise to social passing, causing students to be promoted by age instead of knowledge or proficiency of subject matter. Discipline and self-respect have eroded while the practice of social passing and the outlawing of prayer and the paddle has increased.”

        He said the public schools are not educating most of the black children to pursue higher education. They are warehousing them to fill the jails, he said.

        I don't think I agree totally with either Mr. Waits or Mr. Suggs, but the meeting was certainly a rarity. This was a real piece of black history — a time when history, friendship, nobility and significance converged.

       Allen Howard's column runs Saturdays. Call: 768-8362. Mail: The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

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