They can call attention to important social causes, and they can invest in their communities. They might even hold public office themselves.
Jerry “Iceman” Butler, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame crooner, founding member of the soul group the Impressions and long-serving member of the Cook County, Ill., Board of Commissioners, died on Feb. 20 at the age of 85. His death, along with the passing a week later of Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, political activist and onetime public schoolteacher Roberta Flack, led me to think about how important celebrities can be in the political process, not just for entertainers who use their names to get elected but also for those who use them to call attention to important social causes and who make investments in their local communities.
Flack, who was 88 at the time of her death, was a huge supporter of civil rights and gay rights and close friends with Angela Davis and Jesse Jackson. The Iceman, who charted with such hits as “Only the Strong Survive” and his duet with Betty Everett of “Let It Be Me,” served for 32 years on the governing board of the nation’s second most populous county, which encompasses Chicago. As a commissioner, “he worked tirelessly to expand healthcare access, improve infrastructure, and advocate for policies that strengthened our communities,” county Board President Toni Preckwinkle wrote, singling out Butler’s leadership of the board’s Health and Hospitals Committee.
In my one meeting with Butler, in 1988, I was able along with my then-Atlanta City Council colleague (and future mayor) Bill Campbell to chat with him in his dressing room. We presented him with a proclamation during the intermission of his performance at Atlanta’s Royal Peacock, the landmark Black music venue. Back on stage, the politician-singer invoked the nostalgia of the historic nightspot. “The walls are talking to me,” he said. “The shadows are whispering in my ears.”
Not all local and state governments are going to have celebrities on their elected bodies. But if governments are adroit, they can still benefit from their native-born and expat celebrities who are willing to invest in important local projects or use their renown to bring awareness to vital issues. A few examples from around my hometown of Atlanta illustrate the kind of impact that should resonate with local officials.
After his playing days, for example, Georgia Tech All-American and Tennessee Titans linebacker Derrick Morgan started a faith-based impact development firm called the KNGDM Group to do socially responsible investing in underserved neighborhoods. The Nashville-based company builds affordable housing and mixed-use projects, including an arts-centric development underway in College Park just south of Atlanta.
Another example is multi-Grammy-winning rapper Michael Santiago Render, better known as Killer Mike. The Atlanta native is making social investments all over the city, particularly in underserved Black communities. He owns a number of businesses, including the SWAG barbershops (an acronym for Shave, Wash and Groom), an online bank that caters to Black and Latino customers and “anyone else who wants to support Black-owned businesses,” and several restaurants. Among other things, Render promotes the importance of Black ownership, economic empowerment and developing Black generational wealth. Many will remember the attention he received for backing up then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms when she told angry crowds of youth to go home to avoid being hurt by violence after they took to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd.
Another rapper and actor, Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., who goes by the name T.I., is also deeply involved in Atlanta’s cultural, economic and political life. In 2019, he purchased a shuttered shopping center that once was home to Kmart and Giant Food stores near where he was born on the city’s westside. He subsequently sold the site to a Missouri-based developer, and in partnership with the city they built 143 units of affordable apartments.
Other local celebrities, from former “Top Chef” contestant Kevin Gillespie to “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss, own restaurants, real estate and other ventures in metro Atlanta. They leveraged their celebrity status to finance, open and promote their businesses, and they maintain crucial relationships with public officials.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that more celebrities are getting the entrepreneurial bug in ways reflecting their social consciousness, ranging from actor Jennifer Garner’s Once Upon a Farm, a kids’ organic snack and meal brand, to comedian Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Ventures, a venture capital fund, to recording artist Pharrell Williams’ nonprofit investment fund, Black Ambition.
Local governments have much to gain by working with such civic-minded celebrities, who can bring attention — and money — to the kinds of issues that every community faces. And if they’re lucky, communities might even be able to attract some of them to perform the kind of public service that Jerry Butler rendered for so long. In these times, we all would be better off if we heeded the advice of one of his most memorable songs, “Only the Strong Survive”: “You’ve got to be strong, you’d better hold on.”
