Boston Business Journal says Black businesses seeing drop in support
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
President tells US to ‘hang tough’ over tariffs as Land Rover pauses shipments to country
The largest day of anti-Trump protests since he returned to the White House. Demonstrators were out in force around the United States. Their goal was to highlight what they see as Trump’s authoritarian style of government. Trump started the weekend by warning Americans, in a social media message, that “it won’t be easy”, though he said his economic strategy would deliver “historic” results.
Peter Bowes
North America correspondent
Image source, Reuters
Protestors were out in force around the United States.
It was the largest single day of demonstrations against Donald Trump since he returned to the White House, with opposition groups gathering in Washington and many other major cities.
Their goal was to highlight what they see as Trump’s authoritarian style of government – such as decisions to sack federal workers and break up the Department of Education.
His foreign policy has also come in for criticism.
Some protestors carried Ukrainian flags while others had “Free Palestine” signs.
And then there’s the sweeping tariffs on goods imported into the US, the most recent bombshell to affect not only Americans but the entire world.
“They’re just, in my opinion and the opinion of a lot of people, going about it the wrong way. And it’s going to cost – it’s going to cost the farmers in the red states. It’s going to cost people their jobs… people have lost tens of thousands of dollars,” one protester said.
Another said “I believe Donald Trump is trying to tear our country down. He’s ruining infrastructure, government departments, destroying our economy. We have to stand up and take our country back”.
With baseline 10% tariffs now in effect on all imports into the US, Trump started the weekend by warning Americans, in a social media message, that “it won’t be easy”, though he said his economic strategy would deliver “historic” results and would bring back jobs and businesses “like never before”.
“Hang tough”, he wrote after a week which saw trillions of dollars wiped off the value of US stocks on Wall Street.
We are continuing our live coverage in our new page. You can also stay updated on the latest news below:
Which US companies are pulling back on diversity initiatives?
The changes have come in response to a campaign by conservative activists to target workplace programs in the courts and social media. Critics argue that some education, government and business programs are discriminatory because they single out participants based on factors such as race, gender and sexual orientation. While hiring or promotion decisions based on race or gender is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in most circumstances, companies say they are not doing that. Instead, they say they aspire to diversify their workforce over time through policies like widening candidate pools for job openings. Uber dropped its diversity and inclusion section from its 2024 annual report filed last month and the word “diversity” doesn’t appear anywhere in its 135 pages. PepsiCo confirmed that it’s ending some of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, even as rival Coca-Cola voiced support for its own inclusion efforts. Google said it was considering other changes to its diversity policy in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020.
A growing number of prominent companies have scaled back or set aside the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that much of corporate America endorsed following the protests that accompanied the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020.
The changes have come in response to a campaign by conservative activists to target workplace programs in the courts and social media, and more recently, President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at upending DEI policies in both the federal government and private sector.
DEI policies typically are intended to root out systemic barriers to the advancement of historically marginalized groups in certain fields or roles. Critics argue that some education, government and business programs are discriminatory because they single out participants based on factors such as race, gender and sexual orientation. They have targeted corporate sponsorships, employee-led affinity groups, programs aimed at steering contracts to minority or women-owned businesses, and goals that some companies established for increasing minority representation in leadership ranks.
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While hiring or promotion decisions based on race or gender is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in most circumstances, companies say they are not doing that. Instead, they say they aspire to diversify their workforce over time through policies like widening candidate pools for job openings.
These are some of the companies that have retreated from DEI:
Uber
After conducting an internal investigation that found rampant sexual harassment issues within its corporate office under its founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber has been focused on overhauling its corporate culture since its current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took over in 2017.
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Those changes had included a ramped-up commitment to diversity and inclusion as part of a commitment that the ride-hailing service highlighted in a section of its annual report for 2023.
But Uber dropped its diversity and inclusion section from its 2024 annual report filed last month. And the word “diversity” doesn’t appear anywhere in its 135 pages.
Uber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Salesforce
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff once was on a crusade to inspire other corporate leaders to become social activists in a drive to fix a “train wreck” of inequality, but he has since toned down that message while pledging to work with President Donald Trump “to drive American success and prosperity for all.”
Although Benioff personally has remained an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, Salesforce is no longer touting its diversity program. After carving out a section of its annual report filed last year to declare, “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Equality is a core value at Salesforce,” the San Francisco company excluded any discussion of diversity programs in its latest annual report filed March 5.
“While we don’t have representation goals, we remain committed to our value of equality,” Salesforce said in a statement.
Pepsi
PepsiCo confirmed that it’s ending some of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, even as rival Coca-Cola voiced support for its own inclusion efforts.
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In a memo sent to employees, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said the company will no longer set goals for minority representation in its managerial roles or supplier base. The company will also align its sponsorships to events and groups that promote business growth, he said.
Laguarta wrote that inclusion remains important to PepsiCo, whose brands include Gatorade, Lay’s potato chips, Doritos, Mountain Dew, as well as Pepsi. The New York-based company’s chief diversity officer will transition to a broader role focused on employee engagement, leadership development and ensuring an inclusive culture, he said.
Goldman Sachs
Investment firm Goldman Sachs confirmed that it was dropping a requirement that forced IPO clients to include women and members of minority groups on their board of directors.
“As a result of legal developments related to board diversity requirements, we ended our formal board diversity policy,” said a Goldman Sachs spokesman in an email to The Associated Press. “We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we will encourage them to take this approach.”
Goldman Sachs said that it will still have a placement service that connects its clients with diverse candidates to serve on their boards.
Google rescinded a goal it had set in 2020 to increase representation of underrepresented groups among the company’s leadership team by 30% within five years. In a memo to employees, the company also said it was considering other changes in response to Trump’s executive order aimed at prohibiting federal contractors from conducting DEI practices that constitute “illegal discrimination.”
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Google’s parent company Alphabet also signaled things were changing in its annual 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The report dropped a boilerplate sentence it has used since 2020 declaring that the company is “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”
Target
The retailer said that changes to its “Belonging at the Bullseye” strategy would include ending a program it established to help Black employees build meaningful careers, improve the experience of Black shoppers and to promote Black-owned businesses following Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, where Target has its headquarters.
Target, which operates nearly 2,000 stores nationwide and employs more than 400,000 people, said it also would conclude the diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, goals it previously set in three-year cycles.
The goals included hiring and promoting more women and members of racial minority groups, and recruiting more diverse suppliers, including businesses owned by people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, veterans and people with disabilities.
Target also will no longer participate in surveys designed to gauge the effectiveness of its actions, including an annual index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ+ rights organization. Target also said it would further evaluate corporate partnerships to ensure they’re connected directly to business objectives, but declined to share details.
Meta Platforms
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram said it was getting rid of its diversity, equity and inclusion program, which featured policies for hiring, training and picking vendors.
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Like other companies that announced similar changes before Meta, the social media giant said it had been reviewing the program since the Supreme Court’s July 2023 ruling upending affirmative action in higher education.
Citing an internal memo sent to employees, news website Axios reported the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant said it would no longer have a team focused on diversity and inclusion and will instead “focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background.” The change means the company will also end its “diverse slate approach” to hiring, which involved considering a diverse pool of candidates for every open position.
Amazon
Amazon said it was halting some of its DEI programs, although it did not specify which ones. In a Dec. 16 memo to employees, Candi Castleberry, a senior human resources executive, said the company has been “winding down outdated programs and materials, and we’re aiming to complete that by the end of 2024.”
“We also know there will always be individuals or teams who continue to do well-intentioned things that don’t align with our company-wide approach, and we might not always see those right away. But we’ll keep at it,” she wrote.
Rather than “have individual groups build programs,” Castleberry said, Amazon is “focusing on programs with proven outcomes – and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture.”
McDonald’s
McDonald’s said on Jan. 6 that it would retire specific goals for achieving diversity at senior leadership levels. It also planned to end a program that encouraged its suppliers to develop diversity training and to increase the number of minority group members represented within their own leadership ranks.
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McDonald’s later said it was changing — but not eliminating — a scholarship program for Latino students after it was sued by a group that opposes affirmative action. The program will now be open to any student who can demonstrate an impact on the Latino community, the fast-food giant said. Applicants no longer need to have at least one Latino parent.
In an open letter to employees and franchisees, McDonald’s senior leadership team said it remained committed to inclusion and believes that having a diverse workforce is a competitive advantage. The company said it would continue to publicly report its demographic information and spending on diverse-owned suppliers.
Walmart
The world’s largest retailer confirmed in November that it would not be renewing a five-year commitment to a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, and that it would stop participating in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
Walmart also said it will better monitor its third-party marketplace to make sure items sold there do not include products aimed at LGBTQ+ minors, including chest binders intended for transgender youth.
Additionally, the company will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts and it won’t be gathering demographic data when determining financing eligibility for those grants.
Ford
CEO Jim Farley sent a memo to the automaker’s employees in August outlining changes to the company’s DEI policies, including a decision to stop taking part in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
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Ford, he wrote, had been looking at its policies for a year. The company doesn’t use hiring quotas or tie compensation to specific diversity goals but remains committed to “fostering a safe and inclusive workplace,” Farley said.
“We will continue to put our effort and resources into taking care of our customers, our team, and our communities versus publicly commenting on the many polarizing issues of the day,” the memo said.
Lowe’s
In August, Lowe’s executive leadership said the company began “reviewing” its programs following the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling and decided to combine its employee resource groups into one umbrella organization. Previously, the company had “individual groups representing diverse sections of our associate population.”
The retailer also will no longer participate in the HRC index, and will stop sponsoring and participating in events, such as festivals and parades, that are outside of its business areas.
Harley-Davidson
In a post on X in August, Harley-Davidson said the company would review all sponsorships and organizations it was affiliated with, and that all would have to be centrally approved. It said the company would focus exclusively on growing the sport of motorcycling and retaining its loyal riding community, in addition to supporting first responders, active military members and veterans.
The motorcycle maker said it would no longer participate in the ranking of workplace equality compiled by the HRC, and that its trainings would be related to the needs of the business and absent of socially motivated content.
Harley-Davidson also said it does not have hiring quotas and would no longer have supplier diversity spending goals.
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Brown-Forman
The parent company of Jack Daniels also pulled out from participating in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, among other changes. Its leaders sent an email to employees in August saying the company launched its diversity and inclusion strategy in 2019, but since then “the world has evolved, our business has changed, and the legal and external landscape has shifted dramatically.”
The company said it would remove its quantitative workforce and supplier diversity ambitions, ensure incentives and employee goals were tied to business performance, and review training programs for consistency with a revised strategy.
“Brown-Forman continues to foster an inclusive work environment where everyone is welcomed, respected, and able to bring their best self to work,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Conway said in an email.
John Deere
The farm equipment maker said in July that it would no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, and that it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws.
Moline, Illinois-based John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance” the diversity of the company.
Tractor Supply
The retailer in June said it was ending an array of corporate diversity and climate efforts, a move that came after weeks of online conservative backlash against the rural retailer.
Tractor Supply said it would be eliminating all of its DEI roles while retiring current DEI goals. The company added that it would “stop sponsoring non-business activities” such as Pride festivals or voting campaigns — and no longer submit data for the HRC index.
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The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company, which sells products ranging from farming equipment to pet supplies, also said that it would withdraw from its carbon emission goals to instead “focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”
The National Black Farmers Association called on Tractor Supply’s president and CEO to step down shortly after the company’s announcement.
As retailers drop DEI, some Black customers drop them
Companies, including Target, Walmart, McDonald’s and Amazon, announced plans to scale back or cut diversity, equity and inclusion programs. NBC News spoke to nearly two dozen Black people across the country about why they are boycotting certain companies. For the boycotts to have a marked impact, they will have to be sustained and reach beyond Black consumers, economists say. The total purchasing power of U.S. consumers is more than $17 trillion, said Vicki Bogan, a professor of public policy at Duke University.“If there is buy-in from other communities, then I think there could be enough pressure to change the corporate behavior in a shorter amount of time,” Bogan said.
March 20, 2025
Protests from conservatives and a new president in the White House who describes diversity initiatives as “ illegal and immoral ” have cleared the runway for private companies to roll back or completely abandon diversity, equity and inclusion commitments. Companies, including Target, Walmart, McDonald’s and Amazon, announced plans to scale back or cut DEI programs in their businesses, signaling to some Black customers that it’s time to rethink where they spend their cash.
NBC News spoke to nearly two dozen Black people across the country about why they are boycotting certain companies and the impact that changes to DEI initiatives have had on their spending habits.
Walmart did not respond to requests for comment about the boycotts. Target declined to comment about the boycotts or the feelings expressed by people who spoke to NBC News. It referred NBC News to a fact sheet about its “belonging” strategy . Amazon said the company is “committed to creating a diverse and inclusive company that helps us build the best range of products and services for our broad customer base.” McDonald’s declined to comment and referred NBC News to the company’s commitment to inclusion .
The protest isn’t just about DEI, said Trevon Logan, a professor of economics at Ohio State University. The abandonment of corporate pledges five years after the protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder in 2020 is also motivating boycotts.
“Many of the companies that are being targeted are not just companies that derive a significant share of their business from Black customers; they’re also companies that employ a large number of Black people,” he said, “who would be in environments where DEI policies could make their work environments safer, better and more productive.”
Black Americans have a collective $1.3 trillion in annual purchasing power , according to some estimates. The total purchasing power of U.S. consumers is more than $17 trillion, said Vicki Bogan, a professor of public policy at Duke University.
Both economists said that for the boycotts to have a marked impact, they will have to be sustained and reach beyond Black consumers.
“If there is buy-in from other communities, then I think there could be enough pressure to change the corporate behavior in a shorter amount of time,” Bogan said.
While Black shoppers aren’t the only people boycotting, Logan pointed to organizing “stemming from Black religious institutions.”
According to Bloomberg Second Measure data, a grassroots “economic blackout” on Feb. 28 had no discernible effect on overall U.S. consumer spending or spending at major retailers. Even with limited impact, Bogan said, the one-day blackout was “successful in raising awareness for this cause.”
Nonetheless, many of the people who spoke to NBC News said they are committed to shopping locally, buying from Black-owned stores when possible and avoiding the box stores that are dropping DEI in the long term.
Economic blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference?
A fledgling activist group encouraged U.S. residents to refrain from spending for 24 hours. The group’s founder described what he described as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans. The planned blackout started at 12 a.m. EST and was set to run through 11:59 p.m., EST. As of midday, any retrenchment on the part of consumers wasn’t visible, a market research firm said. The term “Blackout’ previously was applied to a 2020 protest initiated by two Black women who wanted the music industry to take a day to talk about racism and how the industry profited off Black artists, they said. Other groups and individuals are organizing longer boycotts to protest companies that have reduced their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and to oppose President Donald Trump”s moves to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. The People’S Union USA plans another broad-based economic blackout on March 28. It is also promoting weeklong consumer boycotts of specific retailers.
NEW YORK (AP) — An “economic blackout” promoted on social media was underway Friday but with no clear indication of how many people took part or whether national retailers and restaurant chains noticed any effect from the grassroots protest.
A fledgling activist group encouraged U.S. residents to refrain from spending for 24 hours as an act of resistance against what the group’s founder described as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans.
The planned blackout started at 12 a.m. EST and was set to run through 11:59 p.m. EST.
As of midday, any retrenchment on the part of consumers wasn’t visible, according to Marshal Cohen, chief retail advisor at market research firm Circana. The assessment was based on phone calls with retail executives and reports from his network of analysts monitoring malls and stores, Cohen said.
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“It doesn’t look like anybody’s really pulling back,” he said. “If you get 5% or 10% of the people that don’t shop, that could happen on any given day because of the rain.”
Other groups and individuals are organizing longer boycotts to protest companies that have reduced their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and to oppose President Donald Trump’s moves to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies.
The People’s Union USA, which takes credit for initiating the no-spend day, was founded only recently by John Schwarz, a meditation teacher who lives in the Chicago area, according to his social media accounts. The Associated Press did not receive a reply to requests for comment sent this week to the email address on the organization’s website.
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The website includes a link to a crowdfunding site where Schwarz requested help funding The People’s Union USA. As of late Friday afternoon, it showed well over $95,000 in donations, the vast majority in amounts $50 and under.
The New York Times reported Friday afternoon that a biography in the “Meet the Founder” section of the website omitted information about Schwarz that many potential donors would have found off-putting: in 2007, a Connecticut judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail and five years’ probation for disseminating voyeuristic material.
The AP could not immediately reach the Middlesex County criminal court clerk’s office to verify the court records the newspaper cited. The Times said Schwarz did not admit guilt with the plea he entered at the time but agreed the state had enough evidence to convict him and did not contest the charge.
“This whole thing was a big scam,” he told the newspaper Friday. “It’s going to be expunged. … I did not do anything inappropriate to anybody.”
The term “Blackout” previously was applied to a 2020 protest initiated by two Black women who wanted the music industry to take a day to talk about racism and how the industry profited off Black artists. They created a campaign under the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused. Social media users joined in by posting black squares and pausing their feeds to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
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The People’s Union USA plans another broad-based economic blackout on March 28. It is also promoting weeklong consumer boycotts of specific retailers — Walmart and Amazon — as well as global food giants Nestle and General Mills.
For his economic blackout, Schwarz advised participants to refrain from making any purchases either in stores or online, to shun fast food and to avoid filling their car gas tanks. Shoppers with emergencies or in need of essentials should support a local small business, he said.
Many research firms weren’t tracking the event’s immediate impact on sales. Companies may comment eventually if the various boycotts have material business consequences.
Some people posted videos on social media saying they weren’t making any store purchases Friday. Some users said they brewed their morning coffee at home, packed a lunch to take to work or bought items they needed ahead of time.
Rachelle Biennestin, a first-grade teacher and TikTok content creator who lives near the Boston area, accepted the invitation not to shop Friday. She already was participating in “No Buy 2025,” a social media-driven trend that encourages participants to reduce personal over-consumption.
Biennestin said she wanted to spend less money because major companies, such as Walmart, Amazon and Target, have backed away from their DEI commitments. She redirected her business to Costco, which has stood behind its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
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“I’m not going to forget that they rolled back on DEI,” Biennestin said. “I’m going to remember that, and so will my wallet.”
The no-spend day also received plenty of criticism online and inspired snarky suggestions for counter-protest shopping sprees. However, small businesses may have benefited from shoppers who decided to visit independent shops.
Mischa Roy, who owns a tea and home goods shop in Northampton, Massachusetts called Spill the Tea Sis, had reduced staffing in case the blackout made Friday slow. Instead, sales were brisk, Roy said.
“We are definitely seeing brand loyalty and small business loyalty,” she said.
A number of boycotts are in the works. An Atlanta-area pastor, the Rev. Jamal Bryant, organized a website called targetfast.org to recruit Christians for a a 40-day Target boycott starting March 5, which marks Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Other faith leaders have endorsed the protest.
Target announced in January that it was ending its hiring, supplier recruitment and promotion goals for women, members of racial minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, veterans and people with disabilities. The discount retailer headquartered in Minneapolis previously had a reputation as an inclusion ally.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, announced in late January that the civil rights organization would identify two companies in the next 90 days that will be boycotted for abandoning their DEI pledges.
Some retailers may feel a slight pinch from Friday’s broad “blackout.” Renewed inflation worries and Trump’s threat of tariffs on imported goods already have had an effect on consumer sentiment and spending.
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Anna Tuchman, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, thinks the economic blackout will likely make a dent in daily retail sales but won’t be sustainable.
“I think this is an opportunity for consumers to show that they have a voice on a single day,” she said. ”I think it’s unlikely that we would see long-run sustained decreases in economic activity supported by this boycott.”
Other boycotts have produced different results.
Tuchman studied the impact of a boycott against Goya Foods during the summer of 2020 after the company’s CEO praised Trump. Her research, based on data from research firm Numerator, found the brand saw a sales increase driven by first-time Goya buyers who were disproportionately from heavily Republican areas.
However, the bump proved temporary; Goya had no detectable sales increase after three weeks, Tuchman said.
It was a different story for Bud Light, which spent decades as America’s bestselling beer. Sales plummeted in 2023 after the brand sent a commemorative can to a transgender influencer. Bud Light’s sales still haven’t fully recovered, according to alcohol consulting company Bump Williams.
AP Business Writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.
A look at Black-owned businesses in the U.S.
In 2022, there were 194,585 U.S. firms with majority Black or African American ownership. That’s up from 124,004 in 2017, according to the latest estimates from the Annual Business Survey. Black-owned firms’ gross revenue soared by 66% during this time span, from an estimated $127.9 billion in 2017 to $211.8 billion in 2022. But they accounted for just 1% of gross revenue from all classifiable companies that year. In 2022, about 4% of all businesses were not classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners – though these firms accounted for 64% of total revenue. About seven-in-ten Black- owned firms (71%) had between one and nine employees in 2022, most of which are smaller businesses. Nearly half of all Black businesses (26%) were part of the technical and technical services sector, which includes warehousing and transportation. Nearly a third of Black businesses were in the health care and social assistance sector.
More than one-in-five Black adults in the United States say owning a business is essential to their personal definition of financial success, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. While Black-owned businesses have grown significantly in the U.S. in recent years, they still make up a small share of overall firms and revenue, according to our analysis of federal data.
How we did this Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to examine the characteristics of Black-owned businesses in the United States. The analysis relies primarily on data from the 2023 Annual Business Survey (ABS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The 2023 ABS covers data from 2022. The survey – conducted annually since 2017 – includes all nonfarm U.S. firms with paid employees and receipts of $1,000 or more in the year being studied. A firm is defined as a business “consisting of one or more domestic establishments under its ownership or control.” Majority business ownership is defined as having more than 50% of the stock or equity in the firm. The Census Bureau counts multiracial firm owners under all racial categories they identify with; Hispanic firm owners may be of any race. Read more about the ABS methodology.
In 2022, there were 194,585 U.S. firms with majority Black or African American ownership. That’s up from 124,004 in 2017, according to the latest estimates from the Annual Business Survey (ABS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation. Black-owned firms’ gross revenue soared by 66% during this time span, from an estimated $127.9 billion in 2017 to $211.8 billion in 2022.
Despite this growth, majority Black-owned businesses made up only about 3% of all U.S. firms in 2022 that were classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners. And they accounted for just 1% of gross revenue from all classifiable companies that year. By comparison, in 2022, roughly 14% of all Americans were Black.
A note on classifiable companies The Annual Business Survey classifies businesses as “majority Black- or African American-owned” if a Black owner has more than 50% of the firm’s stock or equity. The same standard holds for business owners of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The U.S. Census Bureau counts multiracial firm owners under all racial categories they identify with; Hispanic firm owners may be of any race. Not all U.S. businesses are classifiable by the race or ethnicity of their owners. In 2022, about 4% of all businesses in the U.S. were not classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners – though these firms accounted for 64% of total revenue. Ownership and revenue figures in this analysis are based on the roughly 5.6 million firms that were classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners in 2022, most of which are smaller businesses.
As has long been the case, White majority-owned businesses made up the greatest share of classifiable firms (84%) and their revenue (92%) in 2022. About one-in-ten classifiable firms (12%) had Asian American majority owners, and no more than 8% had majority owners from another racial or ethnic group.
How many workers do Black-owned businesses employ?
Black or African American majority-owned firms employed roughly 1.6 million workers in 2022. The firms’ annual payrolls were estimated at $61.2 billion.
About seven-in-ten Black-owned firms (71%) had between one and nine employees in 2022. Much smaller shares had 10 to 49 (13%) or 50 or more (3%) workers that year. Another 13% had paid employees at some time during the year but reported having none at the time the survey was conducted. (The ABS determines employment size by the number of paid workers during the March 12 pay period.)
What’s the most common sector for Black-owned businesses?
By far, health care and social assistance. Nearly 50,000 of the roughly 195,000 U.S. companies with majority Black or African American ownership, or 26% of the total, were part of this sector in 2022.
Looked at a different way, 8% of all classifiable U.S. businesses in the health care and social assistance sector were majority Black-owned that year.
Other common sectors included:
Professional, scientific and technical services (comprising about 14% of all Black-owned businesses)
Transportation and warehousing (9%)
Administrative, support, and waste management and remediation services (8%)
Retail trade (7%)
Accommodation and food services (7%)
Where are Black-owned businesses located?
Most Black or African American majority-owned businesses (90%) are located in urban areas. Just 5% are in rural areas – that is, places with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, under the Census Bureau’s definition. The remaining 5% could not be classified by community type.
Some of the most populous states also have the greatest number of Black majority-owned businesses. Florida had 21,064 such businesses in 2022, Georgia had 16,973, Texas had 16,849 and California had 16,826.
Black majority-owned businesses made up the greatest share of all classifiable firms in the District of Columbia (16%), Maryland (10%) and Georgia (10%).
Who are Black business owners?
They’re more likely to be men than women. Some 54% of Black-owned firms in 2022 had men as their majority owners, while 39% had women as their majority owners. Another 7% had equal male-female ownership.
Some 54% of Black-owned firms in 2022 had men as their majority owners, while 39% had women as their majority owners. Another 7% had equal male-female ownership. They tend to be middle-aged. Half of Black or African American business owners who reported their age group were ages 35 t0 54 in 2022. Another 26% were 55 to 64, 16% were 65 and older, and just 7% were younger than 35.
Half of Black or African American business owners who reported their age group were ages 35 t0 54 in 2022. Another 26% were 55 to 64, 16% were 65 and older, and just 7% were younger than 35. A majority have a four-year college degree. Among owners who reported their highest level of education completed, 27% had a bachelor’s degree and 34% had a graduate or professional degree beyond a bachelor’s in 2022.
What motivates Black entrepreneurs?
The ABS also asked Black or African American majority owners about nearly a dozen potential reasons why they own a business.
About nine-in-ten of those who responded said a very or somewhat important reason was the opportunity for greater income; a desire to be their own boss; or wanting to balance work and family life. Seeing business ownership as the best avenue for their ideas, goods and services (88%) and having flexible hours (87%) were also commonly cited reasons.
For most Black or African American majority owners, their business is their primary source of income. Of those who reported primary income information in 2022, 71% said this was the case.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Feb. 21, 2023.