Tanika Bryant

I started the Buy Black Initiative in 2019 after seeing some disturbing statistics about the lack of generational wealth and ownership in the Black community. I read information stating that it would take Black Americans over 250 years to close the racial wealth gap and that a dollar circulates in Black neighborhoods for only 6 hours versus up to a month in other communities. When I got deeper into my research, I discovered that one major contributing factor is our lack of home and business ownership. Once my eyes were opened to this problem, I decided to be intentional about creating a solution, and Buy Black Lou was born. It started as a Facebook group and grew into much more, now with about 28,000 SM members in our Louisville group. Buy Black Lou provides a place for our Black-owned businesses to advertise their products and services through the social media platform and offers a central location for Black businesses to be found and patronized.