Cronkite News, August 13, 2020: Given history of discrimination, can community help Black-owned businesses survive COVID-19?
Black-owned businesses were particularly hard-hit when the spread of COVID-19 shut down or restricted nonessential activity throughout the country last spring, leaving many to wonder whether they could survive the plummet in daily customers.
COVID-19 had shuttered 41% of Black-owned businesses by April, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, compared with 17% of White-owned businesses.
The social justice movements that arose from the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police seemed to provide a brief respite for Black business owners, whose sales were boosted by advocates and allies early this summer.
But policy experts said that support may not be enough to offset the systemic challenges Black business owners and employees still face, such as historically higher unemployment rates, more than a century of discrimination and barriers to applying for federal small business loans.
