Donald Barden founded Barden Communications Inc., built a cable television system to serve Detroit, Inskter, and several other suburbs. He would later sell it to Comcast in 1994 for over $100 million.
Donald Barden was born on December 20, 1943, in Inkster, Michigan, a mostly Black suburb outside of Detroit. Once Barden graduated high school he began working at a shipbuilding company in Ohio and quickly rose to an executive assistant to the CEO. He would later attend Central State University for a short time but dropped out due to finances. At 22 he opened a record shop named Donnie’s Records.
Barden used the money he made from investing in Ohio real estate he established Barden Cablevision in 1979, which developed the cable television system serving Detroit and surrounding areas. Barden eventually sold the company to Comcast in 1994 for over $100 million. In 2001, he used the capital gained to establish Majestic Star Company, which included the Majestic Star, a riverboat in Gary, Indiana; Fitzgerald’s in Las Vegas; and a few other casinos in Indiana, Colorado, and Mississippi. Although the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, his holdings in Fitzgerald’s weren’t included in the bankruptcy.
Burden would become one of the most successful Black businessmen and the first Black owner of a major Las Vegas Casino. Barden earned most of his wealth through the casino, cable television, and real estate industries. Barden would work as a news anchor, talk show host, started a weekly newspaper he Lorain County Times, and become the first black City Council member for the city of Lorain, Ohio in 1972.
Barden organized a series of regional economic peace conferences to address and shed light on Detroit’s high crime rate, national reputation, and need for economic development in the city. Barden passed away at the age of 67 on May 19, 2011, from lung cancer in Detroit.
Sources:
Bernardo, J. (2011, December 30) Don H. Barden (1943-2011). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/barden-don-h-1943-2011/
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