Founder Files
Ruka Puts Braiding Hair on Sephora's Shelves.
2026-08-03
Two Historic Black Banks Merge Into the Nation's Largest.
2026-08-04
It's Black Business Month. Here's How to Actually Show Up.
2026-08-01
Beyoncé Now Owns SirDavis Outright.
2026-07-28
Oui The People Makes Its Fragrance Debut at Sephora.
2026-07-04
The Founders of Black Wall Street.
2026-06-20
They Built It in 1947. It Is Still Standing.
2026-06-14
Mielle Organics Sold to Procter & Gamble. Monique Rodriguez Stays CEO.
2023-01-05
The Honey Pot Company Acquired for $380 Million. What Beatrice Dixon Built.
2023-03-14
Sundial Brands Sold to Unilever. The SheaMoisture Question.
2017-11-28
P&G Acquires Walker & Company. Tristan Walker Built the Exit He Designed.
2018-12-12
Cecred Is at Ulta. Six Months In, Beyonce's Hair Brand Is Proving Everyone Wrong.
2024-08-15
The Drop
Black Girl Sunscreen Is at Target and Walmart. Shontay Lundy Built This Shelf Space One Store at a Time.
2022-06-01
Topicals Got Its Sephora Shelf. The Brand Did Not Ask Permission to Be There.
2023-04-12
PATTERN Beauty Is Now at Ulta. Tracee Ellis Ross Built This Brand to Last.
2021-03-01
Shontay Lundy Did Not Build Black Girl Sunscreen to Prove a Point. She Built It Because No One Else Would.
2023-07-12
Beatrice Dixon Trusted a Dream. The Honey Pot Company Was the Result.
2023-09-05
The CROWN Act Made Natural Hair a Protected Class. The Beauty Industry Is Still Catching Up.
2022-10-18
Black Beauty Is a $9 Billion Market. Black-Owned Brands Have Never Held More of It.
2023-11-15
Why Every Major Beauty Conglomerate Wants a Black Brand Now. The Business Behind the Acquisitions.
2023-06-20
Black Beauty Founders Raise Less. The Data Is Clear. The Reasons Are Not Complicated.
2022-08-10
Brown Beauty Co-op Only Carries Black-Owned Brands. That Is the Entire Point.
2021-04-15
Thirteen Lune Is Now Inside JCPenney. The Black Beauty Retailer Just Reached 650 Stores.
2022-01-19
L'Oréal Acquires Carol's Daughter. The Acquisition That Started the Conversation.
2014-10-08
Brand Moves
They Were Told They Wouldn't Fit In. So They Built the Convention Everyone Wants Into.
2026-07-15
Aurora James Built a Shoe Brand. Then She Built the Infrastructure Around It.
2024-03-10
Kwame Onwuachi Just Put a Black Chef on the Las Vegas Strip. That Has Never Happened Before.
2026-04-15
OneUnited Bank Has Been the Largest Black-Owned Bank in America for Decades. Here Is Why That Still Matters.
2024-09-12
Sheila Johnson Built Seven Forbes Five-Star Hotels. She Is Not Done.
2024-06-05
Telfar Clemens Did Not Build a Luxury Brand. He Built a Movement That Happens to Make Bags.
2023-08-20
Gregory Gourdet Won James Beard's Best New Restaurant With Haitian Food. Read That Again.
2023-11-08
Black Founders Post Their Strongest Quarter Since 2022.
2026-06-30
Ulta's 2026 Lineup Leans Into Black-Owned Brands.
2026-06-30
Bask & Lather Is on Track to Top $100 Million.
2026-06-30
MAJENYE Debuts With a 16-Product Sensory Ritual Line.
2026-06-30
Cécred Set the Bar. $200 Million, Year One.
2026-06-30
Culture
Ruka Puts Braiding Hair on Sephora's Shelves.
2026-08-03
Two Historic Black Banks Merge Into the Nation's Largest.
2026-08-04
It's Black Business Month. Here's How to Actually Show Up.
2026-08-01
Beyoncé Now Owns SirDavis Outright.
2026-07-28
Oui The People Makes Its Fragrance Debut at Sephora.
2026-07-04
The Founders of Black Wall Street.
2026-06-20
They Built It in 1947. It Is Still Standing.
2026-06-14
Mielle Organics Sold to Procter & Gamble. Monique Rodriguez Stays CEO.
2023-01-05
The Honey Pot Company Acquired for $380 Million. What Beatrice Dixon Built.
2023-03-14
Sundial Brands Sold to Unilever. The SheaMoisture Question.
2017-11-28
P&G Acquires Walker & Company. Tristan Walker Built the Exit He Designed.
2018-12-12
Cecred Is at Ulta. Six Months In, Beyonce's Hair Brand Is Proving Everyone Wrong.
2024-08-15
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A rolling archive of news and events in our culture. This record stays.
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Two Historic Black Banks Merge Into the Nation's Largest.
2026-08-04Ruka Puts Braiding Hair on Sephora's Shelves.
2026-08-03It's Black Business Month. Here's How to Actually Show Up.
2026-08-01
Beyoncé Now Owns SirDavis Outright.
2026-07-28The Drop
Ruka Puts Braiding Hair on Sephora's Shelves.
New collections, price moves, and product releases filed as they happen.
Read story →
Founder Files
The Founders of Black Wall Street.
Inside the decisions, pivots, and breakthroughs of Black beauty founders.
Read story →Culture
It's Black Business Month. Here's How to Actually Show Up.
Beauty as a lens on identity, music, media, and what the culture is building.
Read story →The Archive
Founders
In-depth profiles on the women and men who built the Black beauty industry. Their decisions, their cities, their brands.
Latest Filed
Two Historic Black Banks Merge Into the Nation's Largest.
Optus Bank and Mechanics & Farmers are combining into a $1.27 billion institution, the largest Black-owned bank in America. Two century-old missions, one balance sheet.
2026-08-04Ruka Puts Braiding Hair on Sephora's Shelves.
Ruka Hair becomes the first Black-owned hair-extensions brand at Sephora, and the first extensions brand the retailer has stocked in more than 20 years. Online August 4, in stores August 14.
2026-08-03It's Black Business Month. Here's How to Actually Show Up.
August is National Black Business Month, founded in 2004. Beyond the hashtag, the ask is simple, and it is year-round: move your dollars, and keep moving them.
2026-08-01Beyoncé Now Owns SirDavis Outright.
Two years after launching the American whisky with Moët Hennessy, Beyoncé has bought out LVMH's spirits arm to become sole owner, making SirDavis woman-, family-, and Black-owned.
2026-07-28
Oui The People Makes Its Fragrance Debut at Sephora.
The clean beauty brand steps into fine fragrance with five eau de parfums: Sunday Lime is now at Sephora, and the full collection lives at ouithepeople.com.
2026-07-04
Black Founders Post Their Strongest Quarter Since 2022.
Black-founded U.S. startups raised $643 million in Q1 2026, the highest quarterly total since Q2 2022 and nearly 70% of all 2025 funding combined. The gains rode on 34 deals. That is the catch.
2026-06-30
Exits & IPOs
The Honey Pot Company Acquired for $380 Million. What Beatrice Dixon Built.
Compass Diversified's acquisition of The Honey Pot Company closed in 2023 and valued the Black woman-founded feminine care brand at $380 million.
Mielle Organics Sold to Procter & Gamble. Monique Rodriguez Stays CEO.
Read →
P&G Acquires Walker & Company. Tristan Walker Built the Exit He Designed.
Sundial Brands Sold to Unilever. The SheaMoisture Question.
L'Oréal Acquires Carol's Daughter. The Acquisition That Started the Conversation.
Beyond Beauty
Black ownership doesn't stop at beauty. Fashion, restaurants, music, finance, hospitality -- the same founders, the same conviction, a much bigger canvas.
They Were Told They Wouldn't Fit In. So They Built the Convention Everyone Wants Into.
Dream Con, the anime and gaming convention founded by RDCWorld's Mark Phillips and Affiong Harris, grew from 800 people in Waco to more than 32,000 in downtown Houston. It is the blueprint for what Black nerd culture looks like when it owns the room.
Kwame Onwuachi Just Put a Black Chef on the Las Vegas Strip. That Has Never Happened Before.
Maroon opened at SAHARA Las Vegas in April 2026 -- an Afro-Caribbean steakhouse named for enslaved Africans who escaped British colonialism. The Strip has never seen anything like it.
OneUnited Bank Has Been the Largest Black-Owned Bank in America for Decades. Here Is Why That Still Matters.
While fintech startups come and go, OneUnited has quietly built $650 million in assets and the first Black-owned digital bank. The institution is the infrastructure that everything else depends on.
Sheila Johnson Built Seven Forbes Five-Star Hotels. She Is Not Done.
Aurora James Built a Shoe Brand. Then She Built the Infrastructure Around It.
Gregory Gourdet Won James Beard's Best New Restaurant With Haitian Food. Read That Again.
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