By Brooke Thomson
President & CEO

The arrival of Black History Month in February reminds us of the important role that Black-owned businesses have played in the economic history of Massachusetts. It also prompts us to consider the renaissance of Black-owned startups and companies that we are now seeing across the commonwealth.

African Americans were involved with skilled crafts and technological advancements in Massachusetts well before the Civil War. Research by the late UMass Boston Professor Robert C. Hayden finds that free and enslaved blacks were shipbuilders, sail makers and manufacturers of shoes, clothing, bricks, lumber, furniture, wrought iron and silver.

Hayden notes that, as early as 1730, former enslaved person Stephen Jackson was a prosperous hat maker in Boston. Paul Cuffe of Westport was successful in trading ventures between America and Canada between 1870 and 1903.

By the turn of the 20^th century, some 200 African American-owned businesses had created a vibrant commercial district in the 700-900 block of Tremont Street in Boston. Anthony W. Neal in an article in the Bay State Banner reports that Black Bostonians of the period understood that their economic advancement, by necessity, depended chiefly upon the support of their own community — solely upon their own efforts and the cultivation of their own resources.

In 1900, 7.8 percent of Boston’s black men and 5.9 percent of its black women were professionals or engaged in business proprietorships — primarily personal service concerns requiring only small amounts of startup capital. While the vast majority of black business owners fell into the categories of retail merchants, restaurant owners and caterers, and boarding and lodging housekeepers, others held a wide variety of occupations, ranging from pharmacists to newspaper publishers.

Black entrepreneurs also contributed to the development of new and important technologies. John Burr of Agawam filed a patent for the rotary lawn mower in 1898. Lewis Latimer, a Chelsea-born Black inventor for whom an annual AIM award is named, patented a method in 1882 for the production of carbon filaments critical to the development of the electric light bulb.

The number of Black-owned businesses waxed and waned during the 20^th century, according to Hayden, as immigrant groups and shifting economic patterns changed the markets in which Black entrepreneurs operated. Black businesses also struggled with a range of racial and economic challenges, including limited access to capital, economic disparities, restricted business locations and discrimination from customers.

The good news as we enter 2025 is that Black businesses are growing in a manner that strengthens the entire Massachusetts economy. Just look at the AIM Board of Directors: Anthony Samuels runs DRB Facility Services in Boston, which employs 400 people providing building maintenance and cleaning service; Marianne Lancaster is the founder and owner of Lancaster Packaging in Hudson, a distributor of packaging, industrial supplies; Herby Duverne, CEO of Windwalker Group ,delivers security and professional development services; and Gary Evee, Founder of Evee Consulting, who provides cybersecurity solutions to major clients throughout the country.

All this should make us confident that Black History month is not just about the past, but also about the future.