Early in the pandemic it was widely reported that African Americans were being severely affected by COVID-19 cases and deaths. In early April, 2020 several news outlets were reporting that 70% of COVID deaths in Louisiana were African American, as were 58% of COVID deaths in Illinois, 40% in Michigan,

Black owned businesses with no employees in the United States increased 19.2% between 2012 and 2017 totaling 2,951,000 Black firms. Businesses with no employees refers to non-employer firms (ex: sole-proprietorships/ partnerships with no paid employees). However this data for 2017 does not include nonemployer C-corporations, which represent approximately 2% of

The Georgia Black population grew by 159,279 between 2016 and 2019. (estimates for 2020 are not yet available). Of the top 10 counties in Black population growth 9 were in the Atlanta metropolitan area and one in central Georgia. With a Metro Black population of 1,924,513 in 11 of the

Black owned employer businesses in the United States increased 13.6% between 2012 and 2017 totaling 124,000 Black firms. These businesses employed 1,208,270  people, an increase of 23.9 percent from 2012; their payrolls totaled $26.1 billion, an increase of 30.3 percent (not adjusted for inflation). Almost 1 in 3 (32%) of