New Atlanta center to help train Black entrepreneurs

A new center for training Black entrepreneurs will be opening in Atlanta as part of a collaboration announced this week between Spelman College, Morehouse College and an advocacy organization made up of business leaders.

The Center for Black Entrepreneurship is expected to start operating for the fall semester.

“In 2020 we saw an acknowledgment from many in the investor community that there needs to be a change, that we need to take a look at these barriers and how they are preventing talented aspiring Black entrepreneurs from reaching their full potential,” said David Clunie, executive director of the Black Economic Alliance, the advocacy group involved. “We need to give them the education, resources and opportunities they need to really succeed.”

The center will be housed in Spelman’s new Center for Innovation & the Arts as well as a new building at

Morehouse.

It will include a core curriculum on business development, speakers, mentorship opportunities and chances to connect with investors for the historically Black colleges and universities that make up the Atlanta University Center Consortium: Spelman College, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Clark Atlanta University.

Spelman is a private women’s liberal arts college with 2,097 students, and Morehouse is a private men’s liberal arts college with 2,200 students, according to the colleges’ websites.

In addition to the in-person instruction for students at these HBCUs, an online program also will be available to the general public and provide certifications in project management, cybersecurity and other business-related topics.

Morehouse President David Thomas said the new center builds on a long history of entrepreneurial spirit at these HBCUs and continues the schools’ legacies of providing opportunities for economic and social mobility for their students.

He said he hopes the center will serve as a model for other HBCUs.

“What I envision is for other historically Black colleges to join the CBE network so that these entrepreneurship centers are developed and connected across the country,” he said. “Collaboration makes these programs stronger.”

James Johnson Jr., a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said a wellplanned entrepreneurship center can be a first step toward addressing the systemic barriers Black entrepreneurs face.

Johnson said Black entrepreneurs face reduced access to capital, networking opportunities and generational wealth that could allow them to take the risks often necessary in starting a business.

They also face racism when applying for loans or finding investors, Johnson said.

MIKE STEWART/AP A center to train Black entrepreneurs is expected to open in the fall as part of a collaboration between Spelman College, Morehouse College and an advocacy group.