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August is Black Business Month – It’s a time to celebrate Black-owned businesses and honor the rich heritage of Black entrepreneurship.
It’s a call to continue to empower Black business owners in our communities and advocate for economic inclusivity for all.
Black Business Month was started in 2004 by historian John William Templeton and engineer Frederick E. Jordan, Sr. who quickly realized how limited financing options were for Black entrepreneurs. Their goals were to “drive the policy affecting 2.6 million African American businesses” and bring awareness to and eradicate the systemic inequities that Black business owners have faced throughout history and continue to experience to this day.
Although some progress has been made to better support and advocate for Black-owned businesses in the United States, there is still much more work to do.
While generating over $150 billion in revenue, according to the U.S. Census, Black business owners account for only about 10 percent of all U.S. businesses, with an even smaller percentage of products from Black-owned brands on store shelves. In addition, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on minority-owned businesses, which were almost twice as likely to close permanently as a result of the pandemic.
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