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JUNETEENTH CLEARED A PATH FOR THE RISE OF THE BLACK INVESTOR CLASS

BLACK ENTERPRISE — Black investment groups, venture capital firms, and individual investors have been rising like a tidal wave in recent years.

Many Black men and women used the COVID-19 Pandemic to educate themselves about money, invest in businesses, and even purchase real estate. The pandemic also led to a rise in the number of Black entrepreneurs and business owners, as the Black Lives Matter movement and Juneteenth brought a new focus on racial equity.

“It’s amazing, the fact that it’s cool so it’s not even just podcasts, people are learning financial literacy through music,” entrepreneur, investor and podcaster David Shands told BLACK ENTERPRISE.

“There’s never been a time in history where rappers are injecting financial literacy into their music and now it’s cool. The whole culture is shifting to you’ve got to be smarter you’ve got to be more responsible with your money. I think it’s absolutely amazing.”

Investing has been on the rise in the Black community in recent years, but several Black people made fortunes investing in businesses and real estate in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. 

If you take a look at the Atlanta skyline, you’ll see the decades-long work of Black CEO and investor, Herman J. Russell.

Russell, whose first property was a vacant lot he bought in 1946, built H.J. Russell & Co. into one of the nation’s largest black-owned construction and real estate firms. In addition to acquiring and developing numerous real estate projects in the Jim Crow South, H.J Russell is one of the largest black-owned companies in the U.S. and is regularly on the BE 100 list.

Projects built by H.J. Russell include Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Georgia Dome, Philips Arena, Turner Field (former home of the Atlanta Braves), and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, (current home of the Atlanta Falcons). Russell passed away in 2014 and his sons Jerome and Michael now run the company

In 2014, Russell shared his advice for being a successful Black person in an industry with little minority participation.

“Do not hesitate,” Russell told BE in 2014. “Push for opportunity but most of all be persistent, prompt, and reliable. African Americans make up a huge percentage of the population so it is important that you work hard to increase the percentage of our participation and you should seek it as if your life depends on it.”

The late TLC Beatrice CEO Reginald Lewis, a Harvard-trained lawyer and entrepreneur, was the first Black man to build a billion-dollar company. 

The Baltimore native launched his investment firm, the TLC Group, which in 1987 purchased Beatrice International Foods Cos., a manufacturer of processed meats, dairy products, and beverages with 64 food-processing and distribution companies in 31 countries.