Civil activists demand funding for Black-owned business in Covid-19 relief package

The targeted funding for Black-owned businesses should be included in the next Covid-19 relief package is the demand of civil rights activists and business leaders. According to the 90 days could be the limit for many businesses without federal aid.

“It should be specific,” said Ron Busby, president and CEO of U.S. Black Chambers. “It should not be the minority, it should not be underserved, it should be Black.”

National Urban League and the U.S. Black Chambers are among the groups demanding that Biden’s  $19 trillion stimulus plan allocate money that will exclusively go to Black entrepreneurs.

According to the New York Federal Reserve, the number of Black businesses fell by 41% between February and April of 2020. White businesses fell by only 17%. Small businesses overall saw a 22% drop. This cautioned the business owners their request came because last year black-owned businesses closed at disproportionate rates as entrepreneurs say they were rejected by banks for loans and overlooked in the first two rounds of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding.

Recently, Black chamber leaders, including Busby, attended a virtual round table with Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to discuss how the administration planned to help Black businesses devastated by Covid-19.

Harris and Yellen both acknowledged that little PPP funding went to Black businesses under former President Donald Trump’s administration. Biden’s recovery plan, Yellen said, would allocate $15 billion in “equitably distributed grants” to more than 1 million of the hardest hit small businesses, she said.

“This pandemic has exacerbated all the problems that existed before,” Yellen said.