58% of Black business owners said their business’s financial health is “at risk” or “distressed” during the COVID-19 pandemic. And, today, the median wealth for white families is about 12 times that for Black families with a mean of around $140,000 for white families versus $11,000 for Black families, and one in four Black households have zero or negative net worth compared to less than one in ten white families without wealth.  

Why it is important to shop Black 

6 Reasons to support Black-owned businesses:  

1. Closes the Racial Wealth Gap  
2. Strengthens Local Economy 
3. Fosters Job Creation 
4. Celebrates Black Culture and Serves Community 
5. Holds other Companies Accountable  
6. Visibility and Representation in the Green Economy  

Directories to support locally owned Black businesses

Here are some of our favorite resources:   

• Eat Okra: EatOkra is a go-to app for discovering Black-owned restaurants. Where food, culture, and community link, EatOkra connects 330,000+ diners to culinary creators and restaurants, reimagining the dining experience in local neighborhoods nationwide.  
• Black Business Green Book: a new digital directory from Color of Change that helps consumers locate Black-owned small businesses across the country to patronize during the holiday season and beyond.  
• BLK + GRN: At BLK + GRN, our all-Black artisans are carefully chosen by Black health experts who know what an all-natural product truly looks like. Our marketplace connects Black people with natural lifestyles to high-quality, toxic-free brands that share in our mission of health, wellness and community cultivation.  
• Get The Bag: Get The Bag, LLC is a community to connect with Black women who are aspiring and current entrepreneurs, motivated, courageous and fired-up about becoming more financially informed to start and scale successful businesses.GBN
• Shop Black Owned: is a business directory specific to eight cities at the moment, with more to come: Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle. Shop Black Owned is a free, crowdsourced and map-based tool that makes it easy to find a Black-owned business in your immediate area. There are more than 1000 businesses listed and more are being added every day.  
• Miiriya: An app that allows you to shop all Black-owned Businesses on just a single app. Miiriya’s goal is to create convenience for shoppers who want to support black businesses seamlessly, while also creating a surge recirculating the black dollar. 

Small, Black-owned businesses with great products

This list was curated by Brooke Bennett, Green America staff member. Descriptions are from businesses. All businesses sell online, unless noted. 

Green Business Network Members that have earned Green America's certification are denoted as GBN.

**This business is part of the Get the Bag directory; Get the Bag supports Black women entrepreneurs.

Self-care products:  

• Natural As I Wanna Be: Our plant-based clean beauty skin care products are unisex and for all skin types: sensitive, normal, dry, oily, combination and mature. GBN
• 4elements Bath Products: All-Natural Soaps, spa style foot and body scrubs, body butters, lip balms—all packaged in recycled and recyclable containers. No artificial preservatives, no animal testing. GBN
• SMB Essentials: We are a beauty-wellness company that incorporates sustainable business practices to create natural, non-toxic, earth-friendly, cruelty-free beauty and wellness brands. GBN
• Touch Body Works: Touch Body Works is an all-natural beauty brand. Formed out of the need to create natural skincare that was affordable, truly natural, and pleasant for everyone who experiences it. 
• Bomb’d Aesthetics: Bomb’d skin care products are all handmade and 100 % Cruelty-free and vegan. 
• Cecile's Bath and Beauty : Featured in NY Times. Revolutionizing small-batch skincare and empowering you to live a cleaner, more authentic life through effective, high-quality and truly clean options.**
• Bevel: Men Skin Care : Sold At Target: “Our vision is to build the world’s most consumer-centric health and beauty products company, inspiring unprecedented consumer loyalty.”
• SenTeamental Moods Tea: Ethically sourced teas incorporating regionally (Chicago, Illinois) grown vegetables, fruits and botanicals into tea blends.**
• Pretty Honest Candles : Sustainability focused candle company based in North Carolina.**
• Alexandria Winbush : Luxury Candles: “We want our products to create an uplifting environment with positive energy. In addition to the products creating the atmosphere in these spaces, we aim to close the wellness gap by creating a community for our customers.”  
• Fari Organic: A San Francisco based company working toward a more sustainable future. Organic, sustainability focused beauty company. Our mission is to provide an all-natural, eco-friendly collection of skin care products, so neither your body or our planet suffers.**
• Kazmelege : Plastic Neutral hair tools company. Made for curls, coils, kinks and great for all hair types.**
• Ooopolish:  Vegan nail polish line that is diversifying beauty in nail care with all-inclusive imagery and 80+ handmade African- inspired shades. 

Bookstores and authors:

All bookstores ship throughout the US.

• Be Rooted: Be Rooted inspires customers to explore their inner muse and celebrate self. (Journals and Planners) 
• Alexandra Elle: (Author)The intention behind Alex’s work is to build community & self-care practices through literature & language.   
• Mahogany Books:   Mahogany Books is a local independent bookstore that believes in social entrepreneurship. We take a leadership role in the African American community by promoting reading, writing, and cultural awareness as tools to improve self-esteem, self-love, and our communities to enrich the lives of motivated individuals. 
• Semicolon: Black: Black woman-owned bookstore and gallery space, Semicolon Bookstore and Gallery is committed to nurturing the connection between literature, art, and the pursuit of knowledge, while also using the power of words to better our community.  
• Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books: Uncle Bobbie's was created to provide underserved communities with access to books and a space where everyone feels valued. In addition to our specially curated book selection, we also serve high quality coffee, food products, and more, including apparel and children's games. 
• Loyalty Bookstore: a Black and Queer Bookseller who has spent her career working to diversify the book industry for it to better serve the powerful communities of color and queerness.
• Entrepreneurs Color Too  : A coloring book, aiming to inspire and empower women of color and fill the diversity gap in the book publishing industry. Each book features 24 illustrations, celebrating black and brown women.**
• Self Care for Black Women : Prioritize your wellbeing with these 150 self-care exercises designed specifically to help Black women revitalize their outlook on life, improve their mental health, eliminate stress, and self-advocate. **

Home goods and others:  

• Jungalow: We are also proud to offer an exclusive, rotating selection of high-quality, limited-edition art prints from an international group of artists.  
• Karbie Company: "We are offering quality cookware at an affordable price, while also sharing the Karibe culture.”  
• Green Top Gifts: Black Santa wrapping paper: We bring diversity to your celebrations with apparel, home decor and stationery. 
• Blk & Bold: Enjoying a cup of coffee & tea, into a means of giving back. BLK & Bold pledges 5% of its profits to initiatives aligned to sustaining youth programming, enhancing workforce development, and eradicating youth homelessness. Fair trade and B-Corp. 
•  Destiny Darcel:  Black Girl Decor/ Black Girling with My Friends details the love and light that Black girls bring to one another. I hope that each one of you sees yourselves and your best friends in each piece.  
• DASH Safety Solutions  Environmental, Health, & Safety For Your Home & Business Give the gift of a virtual Home Ergonomic Assessment.**
• Seed Mail Seed Co : Ethically sourced non-gmo seeds from common and rare plants and herbs.**
• Mocktail Club : Non-alcoholic beverages. We are focused on sourcing our fruit juice from organic suppliers and using sustainable packaging that helps to reduce our footprint and waste. We are mission driven. 1% of our sales goes to supporting clean water access globally.**
• Gift Shop: The Gift Shop is a physical space to find, learn, and discover and shop for incredible brands from Black entrepreneurs in the DMV. Washington DC area  
• Spice Suite: That spice shop has become a dream incubator and haven. Having hosted over 450 free pop-up shops for black business owners, this space has become a DC staple for this DC native. 

Apparel:  

• Cise: Protect Black People Bag/ Our very first initiative was the Protect Black People line. Under this campaign, we released varied pieces with a poignant message, PROTECT US! 
• Culture Clips: We at Culture Clips believe in representation in the black community. We offer high quality, affordable and most importantly, long-lasting shoe charm pieces. 
• Elexiay: Handmade Crochet and knit brand: Elexiay are a fashion brand that highlights Nigerian craftsmanship sustainably. All pieces are handmade and recyclable. 
• Vertical Active Wear: Vertical Activewear is a slow-fashion brand for woman made on-demand in the USA. We are inclusively made in sizes XS-5XL, consciously manufactured using eco-friendly fabrics on-demand in the US, and mindfully shipped using recycled packaging.  
• GaleriaLa: The concept is simple: fashion with integrity. We thoughtfully curate the finest selection of sustainable fashion from emerging brands worldwide. You can shop for clothes that are artisan made, locally made, and made with fair trade principles. 
• Cotton Blocks : Cotton Blocks is a fashion-meets-history brand offering unique products that celebrate, educate, and uplift the people, places, and events of the Black American experience.** 
• All Very Goods Accessories/Stationery Design studio that uses personal illustrations, graphic design, patterns and symbols from Africa, Asia and Europe to create products that are visual metaphors of the founder's African American history and present experience. D.C. based. Incorporates sustainable business practices.**
• Thrift with JT: ThriftwithJT was founded by an entrepreneur, thrift guru, model, stylist, & HBCU student. He has a lifestyle of bringing a unique sense of fashion together from many different decades. He aspires to share what he loves with the world. Clothing that is new to you. 
• Vintage Royalty: “We started The Vintage Royalty with one goal in mind: to create pieces of wearable art that are inspired by the past and made for the future.” 
• Legendary rootz: “Our purpose is to reclaim our history and celebrate black culture through powerful apparel and accessories.”  

Gifts for kids:  

• The Black Toy Store: is your online destination for hand-picked, curated children’s toys, games, books, and gifts that reflect the beauty and diversity of the African diaspora. 
• Kids Coloring CO: Kids Coloring Co is dedicated to producing hands-on activities that will be loved by your child and enjoyed by you!  
• Just Like Me Box: Just Like Me! Book Box® was built on the foundation of exposing children of color to literature, characters, authors, and stories that are reflective of them. Picture books are among the first representations of the broader world that we see, and they are introduced at a critical time. The truth is EVERYBODY should read Black children’s literature.