Ahead of Black Friday, one of the nation’s biggest shopping holidays, the Chicago Urban League is partnering with the City of Chicago and local agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul to encourage consumer spending at Black-owned businesses in the Windy City the day after Thanksgiving.
Dubbed “Black Shop Friday,” the initiative is supporting more than 500 Black-owned businesses in Chicagoland, including Semicolon Bookstore in the Fulton River District, Agriculture Men’s Wear near the Gold Coast, and Roasted Leaf Cigar and Coffee Bar in Oak Park.
“So often, when we talk to [Black] business owners, they talk about the lack of access to capital; the lack of access to a customer base,” says Karen Freeman-Wilson, the president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League, who believes that the run-up the 2020 holiday shopping season is an ideal time to inject some much-needed cash into the Black community in Chicago.
The advocacy group, which was founded in 1916 as an affiliate of the National Urban League, has previously fielded calls from Chicagoans inquiring about a directory of local Black-owned stores and restaurants.