CBE Resources for Continued Learning

January 17, 2025

Entrepreneurship and business-ownership were key pathways for African Americans to achieve financial freedom after the Civil War. Jim Crow laws imposed racial segregation soon after the abolition of slavery in 1865. In response, Black-owned businesses proliferated and experienced a period of economic success, known as the “golden age of Black business.”

In 1900, Booker T. Washington founded the National Negro Business League, which still helps Black entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses and, today, is known as the National Business League. The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, dubbed “Black Wall Street,” grew to become an epicenter of African American business and entrepreneurship before it was burned down in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The Civil Rights Movement and the end of Jim Crow were major steps toward economic justice for African American communities across the United States, but today Black- and minority-owned businesses still struggle to gain access to capital and face other systemic challenges that leave them vulnerable to failure at higher rates compared to white-owned businesses.

Learn more about these histories and local Black-owned businesses in Rhode Island from these resources:

National Library of Medicine: Remembering Dr. Andrew C. Jackson and the Tulsa Race Massacre
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Chronicling the Vital Role of Black Business in U.S. History
Local Black-owned Businesses:

  • African Alliance of Rhode Island is located at Bami Farm on the southside of Providence and hosts pop-up markets, cooking demonstrations, and community farming services.
  • Black Leaf Tea & Culture Shop is located in Providence, RI and is dedicated to cultivating community and promoting wellness around the enjoyment of high quality tea blends.
  • Bottega Yoga is an urban style studio that offers more than 30 classes of heated and non heated yoga, yoga sculpt, barre, pilates, TRX, boot camp and other fitness classes in Wakefield, R.I.
  • Stackhouse is Kingston’s own spot for southern-style comfort food located at the top of URI’s main campus in the Emporium.