Successful Black Entrepreneurs

2Importance of Black Entrepreneurs

TODAY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR the Black community is just as important as it was 200 years ago. It is one of the main ingredients for the development of Black self-sufficiency and healthy, safe, Black communities. Before the COVID pandemic, there were 2.6 million Black-owned firms in the country, which equaled 7% of all companies in the U.S.¹ The American Black community makes up 13% of the country’s population. This is not enough! Our country desperately needs more Black entrepreneurs who can build significant wealth for themselves and others. In the book The Millionaire Next Door, the authors cite the fact that 80% of the country's millionaires got their wealth through business ownership, and the other 20% did it the old-fashioned, hard way – they inherited it!²

As Eugene Lang, founder of the I Have a Dream Foundation, said, “There is nothing wrong with becoming rich, as long as one enriches others along the way.” Wealthy Black entrepreneurs do just that—they enrich minorities by giving them jobs. Yes, like all other entrepreneurs, Black entrepreneurs, do good for society by doing well for themselves.

An article by the Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page really magnifies the need for more Black entrepreneurs. He cites that the fact in a recent study, it was shown that Black males in their twenties committed four violent crimes for every one crime committed by White males in the same age category. But when the study was controlled for employment, ...