Many of the black 2020 30 Under 30 listmakers echo a similar sentiment in candid video interviews with Forbes, but they also note the black community’s collective ability to persevere against all odds. But without access to capital, our ideas come to a standstill, are stolen or are manipulated.” “We have the acumen, the creativity, the knowledge and even the manpower. And in just the last five years, four other African-Americans have reached the billionaire echelon.īut even with this forward momentum, black entrepreneurs still face a number of challenges: primarily, a lack of access to capital, says Ron Busby, president of the U.S. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey, arguably the most notable black female entrepreneur, became the first black American billionaire. In recent years, the number of black-owned businesses has risen dramatically, with black women fueling much of that growth. The rate of black business creation continued to rise and fall throughout the 20th and 21st century, increasing in the ’90s, dipping during the 2008 recession and rising again post-recession. “Black businesses were targeted and we saw a rollback in many of the advancements that were made previously,” says Tiffiany Howard, a small business and entrepreneurship fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the resurgence of Jim Crow laws enforcing racial segregation, coupled with the Great Depression, led to the decline of black entrepreneurship. The Reconstruction era, the period after the Civil War, saw a sharp rise in the number of black-owned businesses as the country attempted to right some of the inequities of slavery. The black community’s long history of entrepreneurship is marked by ebbs and flows. With few work opportunities and high job instability, many black pioneers took matters into their own hands, building small enterprises that served and employed fellow African-Americans. “These segregation patterns then created market opportunities for black entrepreneurs to step in, make money and meet the demands of the black community,” says Mehrsa Baradaran, author of The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap. Walker’s hair-care line and the businesses that formed Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Black Wall Street, were developed in direct response to racial discrimination. Historically, black-owned companies, like Madam C.J. What emerged from these conversation was a rich, complex portrait of black entrepreneurship, one that highlights the black community’s tremendous creativity, as well as a resilience that was born, in part, out of hardship and necessity. To honor their business achievements this Black History Month, Forbes spoke to a number of founders, investors, activists, celebrities and experts on the black diaspora. Let’s take a look at the two Black men who made the list, and how they made their fortunes. Specifically, zero Black women made the list of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans, and only two Black men made the list.
Yet, despite the diversity of the richest Americans on the Forbes list in nearly every other way, one group remains largely unrepresented on the list: Black professionals. And rounding out the top five is Larry Page, who recently stepped down as the CEO of Google but still remains a controlling shareholder and board member - and who has a $123 billion net worth. 4 on the Forbes Richest Americans list, with a slightly lower net worth than Zuckerberg ($134 billion). 3 with just under $135 billion in net worth. Mark Zuckerberg, the man behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp comes in at No. Right behind Bezos is America’s favorite problematic dude-bro, Elon Musk, who is worth a little over $190 billion. According to the outlet, he’s worth $201 billion, which is a staggering $22 billion more than where he was last year on the list. Forbes has dropped its annual list of 400 Richest Americans.įor the fourth year in a row, Jeff Bezos - the founder of Amazon - was No.
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