What Does the Legacy Lab Do?
Black businesses with community governance models face heightened barriers to capital, support, and market access, as well as narrative challenges that undermine collective ownership and its focus on community well-being.
The Legacy Lab empowers and scales community-owned Black businesses through targeted investments and advocacy. We aim to model an equitable economy that fosters the well-being of the Black community in all areas—physical, social, political, and economic. Through this program, our goal is to transform the narrative surrounding Black entrepreneurship, shifting the focus from mere risk and rapid growth to community wealth-building and restoring economic power to historically Black communities.
How we are doing it:
Ecosystem Strengthening
Bridging the gap that exists between the co-op ecosystem and the entrepreneurship ecosystem and developing a shared framework for a more inclusive and community-centered entrepreneurship.
Increased Access to Capital
Developing recommendations to increase private and public investment in black-led, community-governed enterprises, as well as our own deployment of funds.
Narrative & Norm Change
Shifting mindsets and narratives that position entrepreneurship as a tool of racial capitalism to entrepreneurship as a community wealth-building tool.
Six months, ten Black-led community-rooted businesses, four cities, and what they built together
Black Americans built tools of survival, resistance, and self-determination across every one of those generations, and today Legacy Lab documents what that practice looks like in its present forms: cooperatives, community-accountable businesses, and nonprofits, all rooted in the communities they serve. Across Baltimore, Detroit, Durham, and Memphis, ten Black-led, community-rooted businesses and organizations each received $50,000 in unrestricted capital, a cohort of peers doing the same work in other cities, and a funder willing to trust their judgment: Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy, Black Classic Press, Culinary Femme Collective, Cxffeeblack, Detroit People's Food Co-op, Elite Performance Foundation, Howard Family Bookstore, Our Time Kitchen, Partners in Equity, and ProsperUS Detroit. The report makes the case to funders and intermediaries with the rigor and evidence it deserves, and translates it into concrete, actionable commitments.
Download the Legacy Lab Report here.
Community-owned and governed Black businesses are essential to building collective wealth in Black communities and deserve protection and investment.
Where we’re working
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Durham, North Carolina, was once home to one of America’s thriving Black Wall Streets from the 1800s until the 1960s, when racist city policies aimed to destroy and displace residents and businesses. Today, although there has been significant growth, only about 4% of businesses are Black-owned, despite the city being 34% Black. While many examples of Black community-owned and community-led businesses exist, it is also important to note that Durham was the birthplace of the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, which was locally owned and emerged from mutual aid efforts, starting in 1898.
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
Memphis, Tennessee, has one of the highest percentages of Black Americans in the United States at approximately 63%, with only around 9% of businesses owned by Black people. Historically, Memphis was also home to community-led efforts like the Citizens’ Co-operative Stores of Memphis in 1919, which had five locations serving over 75,000 residents.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Baltimore, Maryland, has a similar percentage of Black residents to Memphis, 61%, but only about 8% of Black residents own businesses. It was also an early hub of Black-led economic cooperation, with Black marine and dock workers owning their own company, The Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company, as early as 1865. This ownership helped protect their livelihoods.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
Detroit, Michigan, has a recent history of Black-led auto union efforts that fought for more equitable outcomes for their collective labor. While not independent businesses like cooperatives, these organizations helped improve labor conditions and raise wages, leading to greater community wealth for many Black residents. Groups such as the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW) were active around the late 1960s.
What drives this work
Transforming economic systems means shifting power, capital, and the narrative, and doing so in ways led by those most directly impacted. By supporting Black community-owned and community-led businesses, the program helps return economic power to communities that have long been excluded. It invests in local leadership, not just as beneficiaries, but as the visionaries and strategists needed to build a more just economy.
Through this work, the program challenges extractive systems and uplifts models rooted in care, ownership, and community well-being.
Our Program Partners
Our Team
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