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Black entrepreneurship's role in closing the racial wealth gap

Kezia Williams, CEO of the Black upStart, on how Black-owned businesses can bridge a wealth divide rooted in discrimination.
Studies show that Black women are the fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs.
ljubaphoto via Getty Images

A sneakers store builds a bridge where Black Wall Street once stood

Dec 15, 2022
Venita Cooper says Silhouette Sneakers & Art is "destination retail." But the store is helped by tourists visiting the historic site.
"We have a very fraught history of separation and division," Venita Cooper says. "Sneakers is one of those things that really brings people together."
Courtesy Gary Mason

“Newsflash: Not all horses have perfect hair” 

Nov 24, 2022
After designing an “Afrocentric” hairpiece for her horse, Chanel Rhodes set about making colorful horse wigs for sale.
As a little girl, Chanel Rhodes never saw people like her riding horses. Now she’s an equestrian entrepreneur.
Courtesy Chanel Rhodes/Andrew Garces

How could additional capital for banks in communities of color help local businesses?

Apr 7, 2022
The Treasury Department provided $9 billion to lenders in underserved communities, allowing them to expand and support entrepreneurs.
Toriano Fredericks, owner of Boricua Soul in Durham, North Carolina. It was difficult, but his restaurant was able to survive the pandemic and remain open.
Leoneda Inge/WUNC

Nashville VC fund invests in health startups led by Black entrepreneurs

Jan 27, 2022
One goal is to address inequities in health care, and to help make sure those inequities don't get worse as medicine relies more on big data.
Entrepreneur Marcus Whitney, left, interviews former HCA CEO Milton Johnson during Whitney's Health:Further conference in Nashville, which ran from 2015 to 2019.
Melissa Madison/Courtesy Health:Further

In Nashville's dominant health care sector, a lack of diversity in the upper ranks

Sep 3, 2020
Industry leaders say the lack of diversity also contributes to health disparities, like higher rates of chronic conditions in Black Americans.
Bobby Frist, chairman of the Nashville Health Care Council’s board of directors, speaks at an event. He's encouraging member companies to take meaningful action on racial inequity.
Donn Jones Photography and the Nashville Health Care Council