F.C. Tucker Emge REALTORS® has always felt strongly about the importance of supporting local businesses. Now, in the wake of a year in which attention was brought to the systemic hardships faced by many Black Americans, and in honor of Black History Month, we want to take time and space to highlight businesses with African American proprietors here in our corner of Southwest Indiana. African American owned businesses are an integral component of all of our local economies and it is to the economic advantage of our entire region to intentionally support and promote these businesses, which might otherwise fly under our radars. Making sure that Black owned businesses thrive is the responsibility of all of us who use goods and services on a regular basis. Since capitalism works best when competition is allowed to thrive and flourish, sometimes we have to give certain businesses a little extra boost to make them more competitive with more established entities. Who was it that said “The rising tide lifts all boats”? (Fun fact: President Kennedy used this phrase more than once, but he did not originate it. The phrase was a slogan of the New England Council.)
First a more detailed look into why it matters. Green Business Network cites 6 main reasons to support Black-owned businesses.
- Closes the racial wealth gap
- Strengthens local economies
- Fosters job creation
- Celebrates Black culture and serves communities
- Holds other companies accountable
- Creates visibility and representation in the green economy
These objectives are echoed by a similar article published at Good Intent.
- Close the wealth gap
- Promote entrepreneurial equity
- Increase the number of Black-owned LARGE businesses
- Boost our economy through job create and increased national income
- Communicate your expectations to all companies
While Google Trends showed an extremely sharp increase in interest in Black-owned businesses last spring and early summer following the racial turmoil in the United States, since then the search has trended back downward to a much lower level of interest. The trend suggests that while the initial awareness of the issue caused people to be hyper-reactive, many consumers have relaxed back into the status quo position from before Summer 2020. To truly support Black-owned businesses, consumers must patronize them regularly throughout the year, not just during Black History Month or Juneteenth.
Here in Southern Indiana, in 2016, the Black Chamber of Commerce was established in Evansville to bring more attention and offer more resources to black-owned companies. The Black Chamber of Commerce has even launched an excellent app called BlackWorks that allows you to search locally for Black-owned businesses. Leadership of the Black Chamber of Commerce recently changed, and the Courier and Press printed an excellent article about the future of the organization and its new leaders.
This past October, for the final Midnight Madness event of the season, Downtown Evansville sponsored a Black Maker’s Market. Here is a list of the small businesses that were at that event:
Additionally, the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County partner in a joint initiative called The Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise Program. Through the Indiana Department of Administrations’ (IDOA) certification program, the city and county are dedicated to recognizing and supporting businesses that are 51% owned and controlled by Black, Hispanic, Asian Pacific Islanders, American Indians, or Alaskan natives, or, females: “It is the policy of this administration to strongly encourage efforts to increase opportunities for Minority-owned Business Enterprises and Women-owned Business Enterprises to do business with the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County. It is our goal to achieve significant utilization of 12% MBE and 7% WBE of the annual amount spent by the City and County for construction, goods, supplies and professional services.”
In preparing to write this blog, we amassed quite a list of local Black owned businesses too long to share in the limited space of this article. The next time you are in the market for anything from a real estate agent to a massage therapist and almost everything in between, please take a few extra minutes to do some research and seek out a business owned by an African American in your community. Here in Southern Indiana, some of these businesses have brick and mortar locations while others are cottage industries. We highly recommend the BlackWorks app for finding more locally based businesses in Southern Indiana. However, if you are traveling, there are other apps that can be used to find such businesses around the country:
- Support Black Owned:
- African American Literature Book Club: This database is dedicated to the many Black-owned bookstores across America.
- EatOkra: The EatOkra app is great for specifically finding Black-owned restaurants and food services.
- Instagram: Useful for finding smaller, independent Black-owned shops to support. Start off by following some hashtags: #SupportBlackBusiness, #SupportBlackArt, #ShareBlackStories.
- Black-Owned Brooklyn
- WeBuyBlack
- Black Nation
- Official Black Wall Street
- WhereU Came From
- I Am Black Business
We hope we can continue to be a well rounded resource for the entire community. Let’s Talk!
