In honor of Black History Month, we spotlight powerful stories from the wire—focusing on Black Wall Streets, Black-owned businesses and aging risks for Black Americans.
Whether you’re a professional journalist or solely a consumer of news, keeping up with the nation’s near-constant breaking bulletins these past few months may feel like running a marathon with no finish line. Making sense of even a single piece of news that profoundly affects the lives of millions of people can be a challenge, but it’s a brave new world when it’s coming on an hourly basis.
While Stacker’s coverage accounts for scheduled events, seasonal topics, and broader news pegs, we have rarely focused on up-to-the-minute breaking news. Part of that is due to our size and the team’s bandwidth—Stacker’s newsroom has always been lean. But more than that, we see the value in slower journalism that aims to help readers make sense of how national and even global news impacts them and those around them.
The first three stories we’re highlighting from the last month focus on Black communities in the United States, examining the past to help us understand how we got to where we are today.
This Stacker Original examines the legacy of systemic racism in financial institutions in the U.S. and highlights where in the country Black-owned businesses are flourishing today.
Senior Copy Editor Paris Close conceived the idea for this story during a Black History Month brainstorming session, focused particularly on themes of intergenerational wealth, racism in finance and financial education, and investing bias and trust. As Paris pitched, this Stacker Original shines “a historical spotlight on the numerous (albeit untold) thriving Black business districts throughout U.S. history—think Durham’s Hayti district or Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn Avenue.”
Our pitch format asks for the why, what, and how of a story. In answering why, Paris wrote: “Black communities have become more vocal and outspoken about reparations for descendants of American chattel slavery whose wealth was plundered, resulting in the generational poverty we see directly linked to the widening racial wealth gap. Black Wall Streets were systematically destroyed or declined due to racial violence, economic discrimination, urban renewal projects, redlining, etc.
“Few people know other Black Wall Streets besides Tulsa, which has gained renewed attention in recent years—especially following a crippling ruling in 2024. Three Tulsa Race Massacre survivors—all over 100 years old, including one who has since died—were denied their suit for reparations, which underscores the challenges Black Americans face in seeking justice and ensuring accountability for historic wrongs. Denying such redress only ensures the racial wealth gap will never close.”
Next, Paris collaborated with Managing Editor Alizah Salario and Data Editor Elena Cox to further pin down the approach, establishing a strong foundation with a clear methodology emphasizing the legacy of Black Wall Streets across the U.S. while incorporating expert insights. Elena dug into 2022 data from the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey to create a data visualization highlighting the representation of Black business owners in several metros in the South. We then shipped the prompt to our freelance writer Jazmin Goodwin, who conducted various interviews with historians and economists and spoke to Black business owners to offer a forward-looking perspective. From there, Senior Editor Carren Jao contributed developmental edits, and Paris put the finishing touches with a thorough copy edit.
As of March 3, this story has been picked up by 171 partners.
While Stacker took a deep dive into the history of Black Wall Streets, a story from our Stacker Connect partner TruckInfo.net—which released on the wire a few days ahead of Black History Month—gave a wider view of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. “Cities with the most Black-owned businesses” offers beyond what the headline promises, looking at how Black-owned businesses in major U.S. metros compare to population share, which states have the highest percentage of Black-owned businesses, and which industries are most popular among Black entrepreneurs.
Since publishing, an impressive 345 publishers have run this story.
Stacker’s newsroom produced this story for Stacker Connect+Studio client QMedic to delve into the risks associated with aging for Black American communities. Another piece written by Jazmin Goodwin with data work by Data Editor Elena Cox, this story digs into government data and consults experts, including professors from American University and Rutgers University, as well as Carlene Davis, co-founder of grassroots organization Sistahs Aging with Grace & Elegance.
This data visualization by Elena shows a stark difference between the experience of Black and white Americans, with the former being significantly more likely to die from the top causes of death for those over 65. Meanwhile, the writing digs into some of the reasons this is the case.
Senior Editor Carren Jao provided developmental edits for this story, while Janina Lawrence, a member of our freelance network, conducted copy edits. Published less than a week ago, this story has already been picked up by 112 of our publishing partners.
Here are several other highly impactful stories that came across the wire in February.
Kristen Wegrzyn is Stacker’s copy chief. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Illinois State University and a master’s in magazine publishing at Edinburgh Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva
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