Overview: The Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce held its 30th Annual Celebrity Golf Classic at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, with proceeds benefiting the chamber’s charter school. The event is part of the organization’s mission to connect small business owners with institutional networks and contracting opportunities, and to help prepare entrepreneurs for success. The chamber also runs monthly mixers across its 15 chapters and is developing a new travel show aimed at Black American travelers. The organization’s president, Rich Wallace, emphasizes the importance of showing up in person and building relationships, rather than relying on technology.
Aryana Noroozi
The Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce held its 30th Annual Celebrity Golf Classic on Thursday, June 18, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The chamber president, Rich Wallace, a San Bernardino resident, says it is less about golf and more about what happens between the holes.
“Most of the golfers that come to our golf tournament are not golfers,” said Wallace, who oversees 15 chapters spanning from Long Beach to the Inland Empire, with a presence in Pomona, Victorville, Barstow, Palm Springs, and Temecula. “There are people that bought clubs at a garage sale, and they just come to hang out and network.”
That same notion of meeting people you don’t know, and being confident and ready when you do, sits at the core of what the chamber does. The golf classic is one of several Juneteenth events the organization hosts across Southern California each year. The event coincides with Father’s Day weekend and drawing small business owners, vendors, and community members to one of the region’s most iconic venues.
The tournament has been held at the Rose Bowl for the past 15 years; a deliberate choice, Wallace explained, to give participants—including golfers and vendors—access to spaces that are typically out of reach.
“A lot of times the resume of where you’ve been will get you where you need to go,” he said. “We can bring you to the Rose Bowl, and maybe that helps your children down the line. You can say, ‘Hey, I was at this event at the Rose Bowl.'”
Proceeds from the event benefit the chamber’s charter school, which serves young people between the ages of 16 and 30 pursuing their high school diplomas. Wallace was candid about the financial realities of running such an event – celebrity participants don’t pay, venue costs are high, and this year the chamber covered the cost of 72 players even with 68 in attendance.
Any remaining funds cycle directly into future programming. The chamber’s next major event is a casino night aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach on August 21st, which will feature former NFL tight end Mercedes Lewis, whose mother sits on the chamber’s board.
“We’re just constantly raising money,” Wallace said. “We’re constantly trying to do something different.”
The chamber charges $200 annually, but Wallace is quick to clarify what that buys.
“Give me $200, but you got to show up,” he said. “If you’re not going to show up, keep your money. Showing up is half the game.”
Wallace described a chamber that operates less like a directory and more like a bridge, citing examples of connecting small business owners with federal contracting opportunities through agencies like Caltrans and High Speed Rail, running IRS workshops, and coaching entrepreneurs on how to fill out a request for proposal and walk into a corporate office ready.
“I could take you to Procter and Gamble and have you meet the guy at Procter and Gamble,” Wallace said. “But if you don’t know what to say, that’s on us too. So we help prepare people.”
For vendors and entrepreneurs who attend events looking to make immediate sales, Wallace has a different message: come to connect, not to close.
“Don’t come out looking to sell stuff,” he said. “You’re coming to meet people and do some follow-up. It’s better for you to sell out of what you brought than to have a line and three customers at home.”.
Wallace has led the chamber for years and manages chapters not just in Los Angeles County but throughout the Inland Empire – where the chamber’s reach into cities like Pomona, Victorville, and Barstow. This means Black-owned businesses in those communities have a direct line to contracting pipelines and institutional networks that can otherwise feel out of reach.
In addition to the golf classic and casino night, the chamber runs monthly mixers across all 15 chapters and partners with other ethnic business coalitions, including the Hispanic Coalition and the Asian Business Association.
The organization is also developing a new venture: a travel show through its HTV network aimed at Black American travelers navigating U.S. cities.
“When I travel to Chicago or Detroit, I want to know what’s going on in that city,” Wallace said. “There’s really no thing that will tell you where you can get the best fried chicken when you go to Dallas or Houston.”
The show will draw on relationships with nearly 3,000 Black chambers across the country, distributing a companion travel magazine through those networks.
At 76, Wallace approaches the chamber’s work with a philosophy that’s equal parts practical and philosophical. He pushes back on tech dependency and what he calls the “microwave mentality,” and he ties it directly to the purpose of showing up in person.
“It’s not what you know, it’s who knows me,” he said. “If you know me, and somebody comes to you and says, ‘Hey, I dealt with the guy from the Black Chamber’ — ‘Oh yeah, that’s Rich.’ Now two people that didn’t know they knew me know me. So now, I’m in the middle of a conversation.”
That, he said, is the whole point – not just of the golf tournament, but of the chamber itself.
“It’s always about leaving something with people so they can remember what you are, as opposed to who you are,” Wallace said. “Who I am means absolutely nothing. But what I am means a lot more.”