Celebrating diversity in business

August 2024

Elijah Jackson Crane’s watch and jewelry store, Richmond, Va., circa 1899. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress)

by Gregg MacDonald, Staff Writer

August is National Black Business Month, a recognition that began in 2004 when civil engineer, businessman, activist, veteran and author Fredrick E. Jordan, working with John William Templeton, president and executive editor of the Access Corporation, advocated for a national annual acknowledgment of Black-owned American businesses.

According to the Minority Business Development Agency, the overall goal of National Black Business Month is to encourage people to purchase goods and services from Black-owned businesses in August to help raise awareness and support these businesses.

For generations, Black-owned businesses have made significant contributions to America’s economy. Since the late 1700s, free and enslaved Black people have opened barbershops, tobacco shops, shoemaking shops and other small businesses.

The real boom in Black business growth was during the period of 1900-1930, particularly in the South. This was a time of remarkable expansion, driven by the resilience and determination of Black entrepreneurs in the face of segregation imposed by Jim Crow Laws.

One such business was started by Richmond, Va., native S.J. Gilpin, born in 1850 of free parents. He learned the shoemaking trade from his father and opened a shoe shop in 1873. Another was a watchmaking and jewelry business, also started in Richmond by Elijah Jackson Crane around the same time.

These early Black entrepreneurs were both featured in the Richmond Planet, a Black-owned newspaper founded by 13 former Richmond slaves in 1882. Its first editor was Edmund Archer Randolph, the first Black graduate of Yale Law School.

According to the Department of Small and Local Business Development, the economic impact of Black-owned businesses is significant. As of the latest census data release, there are currently 3.12 million Black-owned businesses in the U.S. today, generating a substantial $206 billion in annual revenue and supporting 3.56 million U.S. jobs.