(BALTIMORE – January 31, 2025) –  We, as a people, are so beautiful! I don’t care what anyone says. When one peruses the landscape of last night’s Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards ceremony at BWI-THURGOOD MARSHALL Airport’s Observation Deck, I saw a beautiful thing. There were not only business owners present from across the DMV, but also their supporters.

While we thank the airport’s chief executive, Ricky Smith, and his phenomenal team – Annette Fisher, Geraldine Bailey, and John Harvell, I have to take a moment and mention how important it is for entrepreneurs to have their family members present at such milestone events.

When one considers the grind of an entrepreneur, there is nothing average about it. Being in business for oneself is one of the most daring life hacks one can muster. It takes grit. It takes know-how. It takes a team. It takes a relentless determination that says no matter what, I will win!

Having grown up in a family-owned business environment, I know first hand how important it is to have all hands on deck. Why? Because running a business is hard. And quite often, an entrepreneur is doing a lot of the work by themself. So, to have the support of one’s significant other or mom or dad or sibling can mean the world.

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In 2011, BMORENews.com and Sisters4Sisters Network, Inc. joined forces to present the first-ever Black Capital Awards in Washington, D.C. We also hosted a more significant event – the BMORENews Global Forum on Women’s Empowerment at the United Nations in Manhattan. The name morphed into the Black Wall Street Awards, and we added the name of the man who made it possible – the late Joe Manns. He was a business owner who sincerely gave back to the community in a tremendous way – a way in which anybody would be proud – regardless of race, religion, upbringing, and the like.

To date, we have recognized over 2,800 individuals from 9 US cities with Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards. By definition, we celebrate Black entrepreneurs and professionals as well as the people who support them regardless of race. The aim is to help preserve little-known Black Wall Street history nationally and to help encourage entrepreneurship, beginning in the Black community.

For more information on Black Wall Street, check out Doni Glover’s “I Am Black Wall Street” on Amazon. In this book, he shares how the people in Tulsa’s Greenwood District first arrived and from whence they came. His book shows that the Greenwood District was a part of a continuum of freedom colonies dating back centuries in the western hemisphere.