Africana & Black Studies

Black-owned banks are those where at least half of the voting stock is owned by Black Americans. Black-led banks are those where the majority of the board of directors are Black and the bank primarily serves Black communities. The FDIC certifies banks that are Black-owned or Black-led, using the term African American Minority Depository Institution (MDIs).

For the purposes of this article, Black-owned and Black-managed credit unions that serve the Black community have been included to provide the most complete picture of America’s Black financial institutions. The article uses the term “Black-owned” in this broad sense, recognizing that stockholders own for-profit banks and members own credit unions.

Black banks are an endangered species. As they die, so does opportunity for communities of color.

Big banks and corporations like Yelp, Netflix and Microsoft have announced major investments to Black-owned banks in recent years. Yet, Black banks are far from thriving. Americans who identify solely as Black or African American make up 13.4% of the U.S. population today, but less than 1% of all FDIC-insured banks are considered Black-owned. So how do Black-owned banks work and why is their survival so vital to the American economy? Watch the video find out.

This talk by Brandon Winford of the University of Tennessee Knoxville explores the social, political, and economic history of Black banks in the region with rich details about the men and women bankers responsible for their existence. The everyday activities at work inside the bank have not always been recognized for what they might tell us about community dynamics. As a site of Black economic life, the Black bank was filled with drama, growth, theft, tragedy, strategy, democracy, disappointment, celebration, and misunderstanding. These financial institutions represented the possibilities and strivings of Black people and contributed to a thriving separate Black economy. [February 21, 2022]

We are a nonpartisan alliance of Black business leaders and allies focused on driving economic progress for the Black community through public policy, advocacy, and engagement with government and business leaders.

This research provides a fact base to document the racial gaps that exist in the US economy today and offer a vision of what could be gained if they were closed. We adopt the lens of the economic roles individuals play as workers, business owners, savers/investors, consumers, and residents. These roles are obviously not neat silos. But collectively, they offer a multidimensional view of economic life, examining how individuals make a living, spend their incomes, and build wealth or manage debt.

David Clunie, Black Economic Alliance executive director, joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss racial equity in the U.S.

We developed the Black Leadership Academy to help organizations improve their talent pipeline and equip Black leaders with the network, capabilities, mindsets, and behaviors needed to achieve their professional aspirations.

The Black Leadership Advisory Council (BLAC) has been charged with identifying barriers in the Black community in education, community safety, health, and business leadership. BLAC will act in an advisory capacity to the governor to develop, review and recommend policies and actions designed to eradicate and prevent discrimination and racial inequity in Michigan.

The Kellogg Black Management Association strives to develop Black leaders within the community. Through professional and personal initiatives, we work to create a supportive environment, enhance career development, and attract top talent.

While we’re seeing an increase of African Americans in leadership positions, the data still highlights strikingly low representation when it comes to Black people in “C-Suite” executive roles.

National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) leads in the creation of educational opportunities and economic growth for African Americans.

The UCLA Anderson community is proud to embrace an equitable, diverse and inclusive campus culture that offers an ideal climate for business education. We celebrate Black History Month by recognizing our personal heroes. Inspired in 2021 by the theme Beyond Barriers, Anderson students, faculty, alumni and staff described their most influential, pioneering role models, from astronauts to political leaders to family members.

Taking these steps won’t be easy; executives will need to think deeply about their ethics and corporate culture and exert extra effort for a cause they may not consider central to their business. But the reward will be great: maximizing the human potential of everyone in the workplace.

Unlike the competition, we are a 100% black owned brokerage and we partner with other top black real estate agents in (almost) every city in the country.

Real Estate 100 Youth Foundation Inc. has announced that they will be hosting their new book release event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday June, 24th 2017. This new how-to book for the real estate industry is entitled Real Estate 100: The Teen and Millennial Investment Blueprint, and it is co-authored by African-Americans Lisa Puerto and Anthony Lee. With a purpose to educate the next generation regarding the changing trends in the industry, the book is written by seasoned industry professionals from the East and West Coasts of the United States.

HomeLight created the Black Real Estate Agent Program™ in February 2021 to improve the rate of homeownership for Black Americans. According to research by Deloitte, fewer than 6% of active real estate agents and brokers identify as Black, but more than 11% of the population is Black. The program’s goal is to increase the number of top-producing Black agents in real estate by eliminating barriers to entering the field.

The Black Sports Agents Association (BSAA) was founded in 1996 by Andre Farr along with other notable sports leaders with the assistance of Rev. Jesse Jackson as a solution to bring balanced representation to African-American professional athletes. The BSAA now boasts several hundred members including sports agents who have successfully negotiated over $3 billion in annual salaries and business transactions.

When people hear the term “sports management,” they often automatically think of white men. We do not see many black-owned firms in the industry, but that is one thing changing. Companies are finally catching on to audiences generally becoming more diverse, and Black-Owned Sports Management Agencies are growing in popularity.

A history of black sports agents.

Because sports were among the first, and most high profile spaces to accept African Americans on relative terms of equality, sport has had a unique role within American culture. Within black communities, sports have always been political. From the refusal to allow African Americans an opportunity to compete to the formation of African American segregated sporting teams and leagues; from the hard won battles to compete at the highest levels of the game to the introduction of African American expressive cultural practices within the games, the African American presence in sports has had social and political consequences.