El Paso, TX (KVIA-TV)-Each August, National Black Business Month directs attention to Black-owned businesses and the entrepreneurs who run them. According to Monica Tucker, this year, the Black El Paso Voice (BEPV) is bringing that national discussion local by using the month to pay tribute to local leaders, acknowledge its community partners, and launch new initiatives to strengthen Black-identifying entrepreneurship in the Borderland.
The Roots of National Black Business Month
National Black Business Month was started in August 2004 by Frederick E. Jordan Sr., an engineer from San Francisco, and John William Templeton, a historian and journalist. The motivation for the initiative came from Jordan’s own difficulties in obtaining financing for his engineering company: it was to promote policy changes that affect the millions of African American businesses throughout the country, to bring to light the systemic obstacles that Black entrepreneurs encounter, and to urge consumers to direct their purchases to businesses that are owned by Black people. Now, more than twenty years on, the observance has grown into a nationwide movement supported by chambers of commerce, corporations, and community organizations across the country…