Was the fastest growth of Black-owned small businesses in 30 years under Biden?

Vanessa Swales, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

June 29, 2024 at 3:00 AM·2 min read

As President Joe Biden ramps up efforts to win over Wisconsin voters, one of Milwaukee’s leading Democratic officials lauded the gains Black Americans made under the Biden administration.

On May 16, during an event for Vice President Kamala Harris, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley claimed: “Under (the Biden) administration we have witnessed the fastest growth of Black-owned small businesses in more than 30 years.”

Let’s dig into the numbers.

Crowley quoting the White House?

What Crowley said might have sounded very familiar. Why?

In early 2023, Biden spoke of the record numbers of new Black entrepreneurs during campaign speeches Jan. 27 in South Carolina and Feb. 4 in Las Vegas. The White House even released a fact sheet discussing similar claims on Feb. 6.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley makes remarks before Vice President Kamala Harris highlights how the Biden-Harris Administration has taken historic steps to advance economic opportunity by improving access to housing, creating jobs and investing in small businesses as part of her nationwide Economic Opportunity Tour on Thursday May 16, 2024 at Discovery World in Milwaukee, Wis.

Here’s what the fact sheet laid out:

Since the President entered office, a record 16 million new business applications have been filed, and the share of Black households owning a business has more than doubled. Building on this momentum, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Achieved the fastest creation rate of Black-owned businesses in more than 30 years — and more than doubled the share of Black business owners from 2019 to 2022.

PolitiFact National did an earlier fact check on the Biden Administration’s statements on Black entrepreneurs from the factsheet and rated it True:

Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board datasets found record levels of Black business ownership in 2021 and 2022. Independent analyses say that some of Biden’s policies likely played a role.

PolitiFact cited a Brookings Institution analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey that showed the number of Black-owned businesses with more than one employee has increased every year since 2017.

In the same fact check, PolitiFact cited the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances from 2022. It reported that 11% of Black households held equity in a business.

When PolitiFact contacted the Biden administration for comment for their fact check, the White House “shared independent analyses suggesting that some Biden policies helped spur these increases.”

The analyses in question focused on changes the Biden administration made to a pandemic-era initiative, the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided loans to small businesses in need.

Our ruling

On May 16, Crowley said: “Under (the Biden) administration we have witnessed the fastest growth of Black-owned small businesses in more than 30 years.”

Crowley had been referring to a statement made by the White House earlier this year. That claim had previously been fact checked by PolitiFact and

was found to be supported by data from the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board and independent analysis.

We rate this claim True.