Car dealership has forever been a male dominated industry, now talk a black woman in the field, that’s barrier breaking 100%. With boldness, determination and lots of hard work, Ellenae Fairhurst has carved her name in history and is paving way for others.
According to Statistics from the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, out of 30 percent of new vehicle purchases in the U.S. made by multicultural consumers, only 6 percent of dealerships are minority-owned.
Ellenae Fairhurst, owner of the first Black woman-owned Lexus dealership made headlines with the feat, now she’s taking it to a whole new level with home delivery, adopting new ways to thrive regardless of the Covid-19.
Lexus of Huntsville the nation’s 48th largest dealership owned and operated by an African American entrepreneur, now provides the luxury of allowing customers customize their rides online and have it delivered home.
Ellenae Fairhurst Fairhurst worked as a secretary for Motown Records and for the law firm of Goodman, Eden, & Robb, before she was hired in 1968 as a secretary at the Ford Motor Company where she served for seventeen years as a marketing research analyst and was promoted to project manager. She left her position in 1986, and joined the Chrysler Corporation, retail dealer development program. After two years with Chrysler, Fairhurst was named president and general manager of the Cumberland Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1992, she sold her shares in the Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and purchased a Dodge dealership in Huntsville, Alabama. Although many setback tried stopping her she purchased a Nissan Infiniti dealership in 1999 and became the first African American female in North America to own an Infiniti dealership. That same year, she became the first African-American female owner of a Lexus dealership, which is located in Huntsville, Alabama.
Born on January 6, 1943, in Dayton,
Ellenae Fairhurst, earned her B.S. degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1965, and her M.A. degree in social and consumer psychology from the University of Detroit in 1973.
