In TT in the late 1960s and early '70s, despite independence, it wasn’t largely believed that an Afro-Trinidadian had the acumen to run a business, hold positions of corporate power or even a managerial position.

This was how Langston Roach Industries chairman, Langston Roach, now an inductee in the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce Business Hall of Fame, saw the environment at the start of his journey as an entrepreneur.

In Roach’s acceptance speech at the Chamber’s Champions of Business award ceremony on November 24, he told the audience this perception was one of the things he wanted to dispel.

“At the time it was believed that a black man could not run a business. I wanted to prove them wrong,” he said.

Now, with a list of accolades to his name, including a honorary doctorate from the University of TT (UTT), a Supermarket Association of TT Elite Champion of Business award, and four children who have embarked on their own entrepreneurial journeys, Roach has become what no one thought possible – a successful businessman.

Something to prove

Roach told Business Day that he got his entrepreneurial spirit from his mother’s side of the family. His mother, Veronica, was a nurse until she got married and had children. As a stay-at-home mom, she always found some way to bring an income into the home to supplement Roach’s father’s public-service salary.

Roach recalled seeing his mother work into the wee hours, doing pattern-designs, dressmaking and baking cakes for weddings or selling home-care and beauty-care products. He said she went on to own an Afro-West Indian boutique in Port of Spain, while he, his brothers and his sisters helped her design cakes for customers at home.

“My mother would earn enough money to renovate our house and support me while I was in university, which my father could not do on his own,” Roach said. “My father figured out a way to pay the mortgage and put food on the table and do the basics. So I was aware from an early age that you could work on your own and earn money to support yourself or at least supplement your household income.”

[caption id="attachment_988688" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Langston Roach built the Lanher brand of products into a household name. He has an in-house store at the Langston Roach Industries compound in San Juan. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]

His grandfather, whom villagers at his mother’s home town in St James called Mr Lynch, also set this example. He was a mechanic but was the man to call if there was ever a need in the area to get transport as well.

While studying chemical engineering at the University of the West Indies in 1969, Roach realised that blacks in TT were still considered less than equal despite seven years of independence. The same sparks that ignited the Black Power Movement between 1969 and 1970 also ignited his entrepreneurial spirit.

He was a member of the UWI student guild when students led by Geddes Granger (Makandal Daaga) staged protests against incidents of racism against Caribbean students at the Sir George