During National Women's History Month, we are featuring some of the prominent Black Women who have been meaningful to our historical journey as an online community. Our last feature this month is Maggie Anderson. She is a tireless advocate for economic empowerment, and has raised the consciousness of our community in support of Black businesses.

Maggie Anderson

Mother, Empowerment Activist, Author

Oak Park, Ill. mother Maggie Anderson entered 2009 with an ambitious goal: for her and her family to "buy black" for an entire year. Anderson hoped her effort to support African American-owned businesses would her inspire her community to become more active in their sometimes struggling neighborhoods.

For the Empowerment Experiment, the Anderson family publicly committed to live off of Black businesses for one year. Their pledge of love and faith inspired a national conscious consumerism movement to support the businesses that economically empower our struggling communities and drive more substantive supplier, vendor and franchisee diversity. 

After completing the year with her family, Anderson wrote about her experience in "Our Black Year," a book published and co-authored by Ted Gregory. She explained that the idea came about because she and her husband John wanted to embark on their dramatic adventure as a means to "inspire economic empowerment." 

The media attention and now the book, "Our Black Year" have created a credible platform to promote self-help economics in the Black community... and increase awareness about the need to seek and support quality Black-owned businesses and economically empower struggling Black neighborhoods. The book presents a compelling case for conscious consumerism. 

Maggie and John Anderson have established the EE Foundation which was set up to continue researching and promoting self-help economics, conscious consumerism and strategic entrepreneurship. 

Learn more about the Empowerment Experiment at www.eefortomorrow.com. 

Roger Madison, CEO

iZania LLC