Viewing page 154 of 196

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

MORTGAGE BANKING:

$300 million in investment funds now serviced by black firms may zoom to $10 billion within five years

Black capitalism in the area of mortgage banking—the practice of bringing together those with money to lend and those who want to borrow it to buy or improve property—began about 15 years ago when a man with $7,500 decided that it looked like a good business to be in. Today there are 16 such men who head firms with FHA-VA approval and handle a total of nearly $300 million in mortgages. Though this amount is, according to Dempsey Travis, the man who started it all, "a few ink spots in a glass of buttermilk," the black mortgage scene is changing so rapidly that the 30-fold increase in business handled by blacks over the last 10 years probably will multiply itself more than a dozen times by 1975.

[[image - black & white photograph of Dempsey Travis on stairs]]

[[caption]]Dempsey Travis is president of Sivart Mortgage Corp. in Chicago, the oldest and largest of the nation's 15 FHA-VA-approved black mortgage banking firms.[[/caption]]

[[image - black & white photograph of Dr. James B. Harris and Q.V. Williamson reading documents at table]]
[[caption]]Dr. James B. Harris (l.) and Q.V. Williamson are officers of Atlanta Mortgage Brokerage Co., Atlanta's foremost black mortgage banking firm, servicing $15 million.[[/caption]]

[[image - black & white photograph of Fred Johnson seated at microphone next to Charles Wimes]]
[[caption]]Fred Johnson of Atlanta Mortgage Brokerage Co. (l.) and Charles Wimes, president of Mid-Central Mortgage Corp. in Kansas City, field questions at black mortgage bankers' workshop session in New York.[[/caption]]