How Black Small Business Owners Are Rallying to Avoid Permanent Closure

By Stacia Brown,

Published May 15, 2020 at 11:14 AM EDT

A large yellow house with black shutters and a tree in the foreground.

In Durham, small businesses have been the backbone of downtown revitalization. But since COVID-19 forced the closures of most non-essential businesses in mid-March, brick-and-mortar shop owners have struggled to stay afloat.

The closures have been especially challenging for some black entrepreneurs with smaller operating budgets and staff, making it difficult to secure emergency financial support. Host Frank Stasio talks to Tammie Hall, division director of the North Carolina Department of Administration’s Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses; Morgan Siegel, owner of Jeddah’s Tea; and Monica Edwards, co-owner of Morehead Manor Bed and Breakfast about how minority-owned small businesses are faring during the pandemic.

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Stacia Brown

Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A, as well as WUNC’s The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for WUNC's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC’s The Takeaway.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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