The reality of our country is that there are significant barriers to success for black people due to the nature of systemic racism. This deeply saddens us, and we remain committed to fighting for change. As a part of this effort, we want to celebrate black women who have achieved great success and deserve recognition for their accomplishments.
At The Food Shop, we value and pride ourselves on women’s empowerment. Our core team is all women, and our founder is an incredible woman entrepreneur. We want to narrow our focus on black women who are emblems of women’s empowerment, and we will highlight black women in a variety of fields who we look up to in our upcoming blog posts. Today, we are celebrating three amazing black women in business.
Sheila Johnson is a businesswoman who was the first African-American woman to attain a net worth of a billion dollars. She co-founded the Black Entertainment Network and later invested in real estate and hotels. She is also the only black woman own stakes in three professional sports teams.
"There are a lot of male egos out there that cannot deal with highly successful women. And it's their problem." – Sheila Johnson
Madame CJ Walker rose from poverty and became the first female self-made millionaire. She founded a cosmetics and hair care company geared toward black women, but she was also well known for her philanthropy. She advocated for black women’s financial independence, and she ultimately employed 40,000 African-American men and women in her fast-growing business.
“I am not satisfied in making money for myself. I endeavor to provide employment to hundreds of women of my race.” – Madame CJ Walker
Ursula Burns is a powerful businesswoman who was the chair and CEO of VEON, the CEO of Xerox, and a member of the board of directors for Uber. She was the first black woman to lead an S&P 500 company, and she was a founding member of the Obama administration’s Change the Equation initiative to boost STEM education.
“My perspective comes in part from being a New York black lady, in part from being an engineer. I know I'm smart and have opinions worth being heard.” –Ursula Burns
Ultimately, these are only three of the many black women in business who we look up to, but we are so excited to celebrate their accomplishments with you.
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