August is National #Black Business Month, and I wanted to acknowledge the Black-owned businesses across the country as well as my city, (RVA), Richmond, Virginia.
Black business owners account for about 10 percent of U.S. businesses and about 30 percent of all minority-owned businesses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, that amounts to approximately two million companies owned by African Americans.
🤔 Consider this... approximately two million companies are owned by African Americans. Nearly 40 percent of black-owned businesses are in health care and social assistance, repair and maintenance, and personal and laundry services. Other categories include advertising firms, auto dealerships, consulting services, restaurants, barbershops, beauty salons, and more. That is a great power to have.
New York has the most black-owned businesses in the U.S. followed by Atlanta. The highest ratio of black-owned businesses is in Washington, DC where 28% of all businesses are black-owned. The growth of black-owned franchise businesses has been explosive.
Please support and encourage African American-owned businesses in your community. Learn more about business opportunities for the African American community, not just for #Black Business Month but ongoing.
I try to make a point to support my fellow black-owned businesses locally and even across the country. I agree with Karen Hunter from Urban View. She often speaks of how we are rebuilding "Black Wall Street" one brick at a time.
"Black Wall Street", I would have loved to have witness and experience that time. What confidence, sense of accomplishment, joy, pride and power they most have had. That was a powerful era in history. 😁😂😇 Unfortunately, the name "Black Wall Street" has been replaced in history and referred to as the Tulsa race massacre which took place on May 31 and June 1 in 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city officials, attacked Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 😢😞😠
Additionally, in my city, there is a place called Jackson Ward, which similar to Tulsa, this was a thriving African-American business community in Richmond, Virginia. In the midst of this you would find, the Hippodrome Theater is located in Richmond, Virginia. Thank you Ron Stallings for your vision to restore it and educate us on history. ✊🏾✊🏾
In the early 1900s, the community was filled with Black-owned businesses and creative entrepreneurs. It is situated in the historical African-American neighborhood of Jackson Ward, which was referred to as "The Harlem of the South" during the 1920s.
Shout out to the Jackson Ward Collective that has taken on the responsibility to support current and perspective black-owned in the Jackson Ward area. 😄
#Black Business Month
Dr. Shawn M. Nicholson
