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Black-owned brands got a foot in the door through accelerator programs at companies like Target and Amazon. Now they worry it might be closing.

Pernell Cezar’s coffee company, BLK & Bold, was operating out of the back of a brewery with three employees when he got his big break: an audience with a buyer at a Target Black History Month expo. By January 2020, bags of his Rise & GRND roast were on Target shelves.

That was five months before the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis incited nationwide protests for racial justice that reverberated throughout corporate America. Suddenly, big retailers were creating programs to help small businesses — and especially Black-owned businesses — get their foot in the door.

In 2021, Amazon started its Black Business Accelerator. Sephora, which had an existing program, refocused it on Black, Indigenous and other founders of color. Target, which is based in Minneapolis, started Forward Founders,

Keep reading this article on The New York Times Small Business.

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