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Don Barden, a Leading Black Businessman, Dies at 67
By NICK BUNKLEY
Published: May 19, 2011
DETROIT — Don H. Barden, who rose from poverty to build one of the nation’s largest black-owned businesses through casinos and cable television, died on Thursday in Detroit. He was 67.
Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
After Detroit began to allow casinos, Don H. Barden, right, tried to get one of the licenses, proposing a $1 billion project in partnership with Michael Jackson.
The cause was lung cancer, his lawyer, Henry Baskin, said.
Mr. Barden’s business empire started with a record store in Lorain, Ohio, that he opened at 21 with $500 in savings. Last year, the magazine Black Enterprise ranked Barden Companies as the 10th-highest-grossing black-owned company, with $405 million in revenue. Mr. Barden was the founder of Barden Cablevision, which built the cable television system serving Detroit and several suburbs. Comcast bought the system for more than $100 million in 1994, and Mr. Barden used the proceeds to open the
Majestic Star, a riverboat casino in Gary, Ind.
In 2001, Mr. Barden became the first black owner of a Las Vegas casino with his purchase of Fitzgeralds.
But he remained bitter about being denied the opportunity to open a casino in Detroit. Several years after the city began to allow casinos, he tried to get one of the licenses, proposing a $1 billion theme park and resort in partnership with Michael Jackson.
In recent years, he faced setbacks in his businesses and in his personal life. His gambling company, Majestic Star Casino, which operates casinos in Indiana, Colorado, Mississippi and Nevada, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. Earlier this year he and his third wife, Bella Marshall, separated after 23 years of marriage. She said he was no longer competent to handle his investments, an assertion he denied.
Mr. Barden was widely known for his charitable work. He organized a series of regional economic peace conferences to address Detroit’s crime problem, national reputation and need for economic development.
“He faced a lot of long odds,” said the Wayne County executive, Robert A. Ficano, who often consulted Mr. Barden for advice. “He knew how to run a business and have a heart for the community. He remembered where his roots were and never gave up wanting to improve this area.”
Donald Hamilton Barden was born on Dec. 20, 1943, in Inkster, Mich., a mostly black suburb of Detroit. The ninth of 13 children, he grew up sharing a bed with three brothers and left for college in the hope of becoming a business owner rather than an autoworker like his parents and an older brother.
“I figured I’d give myself 10 years trying to be an entrepreneur,” he said in
a 2007 profile in The New York Times. “If I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, I could always go at 30 to 32 and get a job in the factory.” He dropped out of Central State University in Ohio because he lacked the money to continue and in 1965 opened Donnie’s Records, which he promoted through appearances by the Jackson Five and James Brown. During his 20 years in Lorain, west of Cleveland, Mr. Barden became the first black member of its City Council, founded a newspaper, The Lorain County Times, worked as a news anchor and hosted a weekly television talk show.
Mr. Barden began developing real estate in Ohio before turning his focus to cable television in the 1980s, when he returned to Detroit and won the contract to install a system throughout the city.
Besides his wife, Mr. Barden is survived by a son, Don Jr., and a daughter, Alana M. Barden.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 20, 2011, on page B12 of the New York edition with the headline: Don Barden, 67, a Success In Cable TV and Casinos.
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