This month, in celebration of Black Business Month, Capital B Gary is publishing a series of stories highlighting businesses, business owners, and entrepreneurs in the city.
Forty years later, Bill Coker is no longer the boy who once paid for practice cuts. At 52, he presides over one of Gary’s most enduring barbershops. Running Billco Barber Shop for nearly three decades, Coker has upheld a tradition that stretches beyond just fades and crisp lineups. In Black communities, barbershops have long served as gathering spaces — places where people come not just to look good, but also to connect. That tradition continues at Billco’s, making it both a business and a cultural anchor.
“I didn’t know it was going to be my destiny,” Coker said. “And now I’m actually walking in my destiny.”…