How Sac Black Biz is connecting Sacramento residents with Black owned businesses

You may not know Sacramento entrepreneur Chris Lodgson, but thousands of people have joined one of his Facebook pages dedicated to Black businesses in the region: Sac Black Biz Community, Sac Black Biz United and Sac Black Biz Market.

Lodgson’s group pages bring together more than 10,000 people and feature over 500 businesses.

Sacramento business owners and entrepreneurs – most of whom are African-American, African or of Caribbean descent – use the online groups to support one another.

Lodgson, originally from New York, moved to Sacramento in 2015. Despite the differences in the verbiage and style of the east and the west coasts, there was one similarity that Lodgson realized immediately.

“When I got here, I noticed that a lot of the same problems we were having in New York, in terms of Black folks, poverty, unemployment, our economic condition and our social condition too. A lot of the same problems that were in New York were happening here” said Lodgson.

Unfamiliar with Sacramento, Lodgson needed to locate Black businesses in the city. He retrieved a directory of Black businesses from Underground Books in Oak Park and called around to see what businesses would join his Facebook group. He created the group and made it public on Dec. 15, 2016.

It was key for Lodgson to make the page public, hoping to welcome visitors and invite business owners to become members. He wanted to make it simple for interested people to search for Black businesses without joining the community.

Sac Black Biz Community, Lodgson believes, is his contribution to improve the economy for Black residents in the area.

“We measure ourselves by how well the businesses that we serve are doing and how well those businesses are serving their clients (and customers),” said Lodgson.

Lodgson and the Sac Black Biz Community have been able to raise thousands of dollars to support business activities for Black people in Sacramento and are always looking for more businesses to add to their directory list and new members to join the group.

You can connect with Lodgson and other businesses through his Facebook group page.

This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.