Black Business Prosperity

Helping Black Businesses Elevate Their Success

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OUR VISION ~

Our Vision is collective/cooperative: We plan together, work together, share together, study together and fight together. By working cooperatively and collectively, we organize to meet the needs of all, knowing that each will contribute to the whole according to their ability. We are against taking more than we give.

We make our living with our own hands, building in time for leisure and recreational, moral, educational, and technical pursuits toward rebuilding our own CIVILIZATION.

Our vision is independence: Educational practices technically educate and train our youth through science, engineering, technology, and culture for independence and societal renaissance-ending dependency on and in relationships with enemies that fosters starvation, homelessness, defenselessness, poor quality of life, living without water and sanitation systems, lacking health care and schools, lacking electricity and basic necessities of life.

We concluded that we must first stand up for ourselves in every area of our existence; be always on equal footing; always independent, never passive victims, and never accept unequal relationships: only reciprocity.

LEARN MORE HERE!

MAAT ~ GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF MORAL LIVING~

MEDITATION FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ~ IGNITING THE INNER LIGHT~

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YOUR FIRST INTIMATE PARTNER IS MORE THAN A MEMORY

In African spiritual traditions, the first person you share your body with is not viewed as "just another relationship." It is believed to be the first sacred covenant between two souls, two bloodlines, and two ancestral streams.

Our elders taught that intimacy is never merely physical. It is an exchange of life force, spiritual responsibility, and destiny. This is why many communities surrounded marriage and intimacy with rituals, blessings, and the guidance of elders. They understood that what joins spiritually should never be entered into carelessly.

Whether that first union lasts or not, many traditions hold that it leaves a lasting spiritual imprint. For this reason, some African cultures practiced cleansing and reconciliation rites after broken relationships not because a person was "unclean," but to restore balance before entering a new chapter of life.

This wisdom reminds us that the body is sacred. Love is sacred. Intimacy is sacred.

Choose your partner with discernment, not only because they may become the parent of your children, but because, in many African spiritual worldviews, they may also become part of your spiritual journey and your family's ancestral story.

Now ask yourself: How many people have you shared your body with? According to African spirituality, how many sacred covenants have you entered into? How many souls have you formed intimate bonds with?

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Nina Simone didn’t write songs to make people comfortable. She challenged people to think about power, freedom, identity, and the stories societies tell themselves. This quote is one of her most discussed because it forces a difficult question: Who benefits when people are taught to accept injustice today in exchange for promises tomorrow? Whether you view it through the lens of race, economics, politics, religion, or history, the quote speaks to a larger idea. People often have the power to shape their own reality, yet systems can convince them to wait, settle, or believe their circumstances cannot change. That’s why Nina Simone’s words still spark debate decades later. Some hear a criticism of oppression. Others hear a warning about dependency. Others hear a call for self-determination. What makes the quote powerful is that it forces you to decide what it means for yourself. The conversation isn’t really about heaven. It’s about who controls the future and who gets told to wait for it.

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[tinykitchenvegan]

Smoky BBQ Black Bean Burger

[madamlaydebug]

Ancestors, go before me in 2026.

Remove what I cannot see.

Bless what I cannot reach.

Strengthen what I must carry.

Aṣẹ. So mote it be. 🌻💛

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Della Reese

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Black lesbian writer and activist Audre Lorde and her partner and fellow activist Gloria Joseph. Audre and Gloria lived together in Gloria’s home of St Croix in the Carribean until Audre’s death in 1992. The last thing Audre wrote was a note reading “Gloria, I love you.”

Check out our podcast to learn more about Audre.

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📌 BLACK CODES

🧱 Land Ownership Restrictions

“You can live on the land… but you’ll never own it.”

Sadly this way of thinking and system is not only still being practiced today by the government and businesses, but also by our own black religious leaders.

🧾 What Were Land Ownership Restrictions?

After slavery ended, the Black Codes made it extremely difficult sometimes impossible for freed Black people to buy land. These laws were designed to stop Black families from building wealth, independence, and generational security.

They used rules like:

❌ You must have a white co-signer

❌ You can’t buy property in certain counties

❌ You can lease but not own

❌ If you fall behind on payments, the land returns to the seller

❌ You must live on employer-owned land to keep your job

This forced many Black families into systems like:

Sharecropping

Plantation rentals

“Company town” housing

Tenant farming

You could work the land, but never claim it.

🏚️ How It Worked Then

A Black family saves money to buy a small farm.

The white land office refuses their deed.

A banker says, “You need a co-signer.”

No white co-signer will help.

They are told:

“Rent the land instead. Work it. Pay us. But you can’t own it.”

They farm it for years.

They build it up.

Then one missed payment and the land is taken back.

Generational wealth stolen before it could exist.

🔗 How It Shows Up TODAY

Land ownership restrictions didn’t disappear they changed shape.

Modern versions can look like:

HOA rules blocking Black buyers in “certain neighborhoods”

Banks rejecting Black loan applicants at higher rates

Predatory rent-to-own housing deals

Churches or religious organizations buying land “Claiming to be for the community” but members never own anything

Leaders promising land, homes, or farms that legally stay in the church’s name, not the families living on it

So you get situations where:

People live on land for years…

but the deed is never in their name.

They build homes…

but legally own nothing.

They leave the group or disagree…

and lose everything.

⚠️ When does this become a problem?

When leadership says:

“The church owns everything.”

“If you leave, you leave with nothing.”

“God gave me authority over your property.”

“Your house is really ours.”

That is not generational wealth.

That is dependency disguised as spirituality.

If someone controls your land, they control your life.

🪬 A Hard Truth

Not all oppression comes from the outside.

Sometimes it’s rebuilt from the inside by the very people claiming to save us.

When a religious leader, pastor, prophet, imam, or self-proclaimed “chosen one” tells people:

“Give everything to me, and trust God.”

But the paperwork…the deeds…

the contracts…all lead back to them?

That’s not faith.

That’s ownership.

🧱 WHY IT STILL MATTERS

Land = power

Land = wealth

Land = stability

Land = freedom

Land = a future for your children

And that’s why they tried to keep it from us then —

and why some people still try today.

Because a person who owns nothing can be controlled.

A person who owns land can stand on their own.

✊ THE POINT

Black Codes weren’t just laws they were blueprints.

And any system government, business, or religious that demands: your land, your labor, your loyalty, your silence…

…is repeating history in a new uniform.

We don’t need overseers when control can be done with paperwork.

[madamlaydebug]

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When we say the women is the fruit of life from which all seeds grow, we mean that! 🍑🍓💦

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🖤 DID YOU KNOW? The real reason watermelons were used to disrespect Black people…

After slavery ended, newly freed Black families in the South began growing and selling watermelons as a way to survive and build independence. It was one of the few crops they could grow on their own land without needing white approval. Watermelons meant freedom, food, land ownership, and economic power.

Black farmers sold them at markets. Black children enjoyed them freely. Black communities used watermelon profits to buy land, homes, and tools. It was a symbol of self-sufficiency.

And that scared people.

So a deliberate propaganda campaign began in the late 1800s. Newspapers, postcards, cartoons, and advertisements started showing racist images of Black people as lazy, messy, childish, and obsessed with watermelon. The goal was clear:

➡️ Turn a symbol of Black success into a tool of humiliation.

➡️ Push the lie that Black people couldn’t handle freedom or responsibility.

And sadly… it worked. What once represented freedom and hard work was twisted into a racial insult that still affects how people think today.

Watermelon was never the joke.

Freedom was what they were scared of.

History didn’t just happen — it was engineered.

Let that sink in.

🍉✊🏾

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“Cooning” is a derogatory slang term that comes from old racist stereotypes. People use it to describe when a Black person is seen as acting against their own community’s best interests just to get approval, money, or acceptance from outsiders (usually white people).

It’s similar to calling someone a sellout — but harsher, because it ties back to racist caricatures used to mock Black people during slavery and Jim Crow.

Too often, we see people who are quick to tear down their own community just to get a pat on the back, a paycheck, or some approval from outsiders. That’s not strength — that’s betrayal.

When you put down your own people, ignore the struggles we face, or use stereotypes to get laughs or attention, you’re not helping anybody. You’re just feeding into the same systems that held us back in the first place.

Real power is lifting your people up, telling the truth about what we go through, and standing proud in who you are. Our ancestors didn’t survive slavery, Jim Crow, and everything else just for us to turn around and be the ones doing the tearing down.

If you really want to shine, do it with integrity. Don’t sell out your own people. 💯✊🏾

[arinzeture]

How 76 Black Delegates Transformed a State in 1868

In 1868, during Reconstruction, Black legislators—who made up a majority of the South Carolina constitutional convention (about 76 Black delegates)—helped rewrite the state constitution, producing one of the most progressive governing documents in U.S. history. The new constitution abolished property requirements for voting, established universal male suffrage, and created the state’s first free public school system. It also required integrated public institutions, expanded civil rights protections, strengthened women’s property rights, and modernized taxation and representation. Guided by newly empowered Black lawmakers, the 1868 constitution reflected a bold vision for equality, education, and democratic participation in post–Civil War South Carolina.

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In 1947, Elmore Bolling, was shot to death at this location by jealous whites because he was a successful black entrepreneur. He owned a trucking business, farm and a general store. He gave back to the community and hired blacks. Murderers were not arrested.

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