#HowWeFight is a common sense response to injustice. Black people are being encouraged to intentionally and exclusively support Black-owned establishments in Central Ohio and beyond. The overall goal is to uplift, empower and redirect dollars to the Black community. We must build, protect and save ourselves. Anyone is welcome to participate in this economic movement for justice and empowerment.

Central Ohio (Columbus) has over 335,000 residents of African descent. According to BlackDemographics.com, Columbus (CBUS) has the 26th largest concentration of Black people in the United States, comprised of Foundational Black Americans, Jamaicans, Senegalese, Ghanaians, Nigerians, Haitians, Ethiopians and Eritreans to name a few. CBUS has the second largest Somali population in the United States with estimates at 60,000-100,000.

With the police killing of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Sam Dubose in Cincinnati and John Crawford III in nearby Dayton, the State of Ohio has had many cases of injustice. Columbus (the capital city of Ohio) ironically named after terrorist Christopher Columbus, has experienced the recent police lynchings and executions of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr., 20-year-old Donovan Lewis, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, 47-year-old Andre Hill, 23-year-old Henry Green, 13-year-old Ty’re King, 36-year-old Jaron Thomas. All seven were killed by law enforcement officers in Columbus and no one has been held accountable to date. Like the rest of the nation, there are countless examples of injustice and terrorism in CBUS. One of the latest cases is the murder of 13-year-old Sinzae Reed. In addition, extreme economic and health disparities are prevalent for Black residents throughout Ohio, including Columbus.

One day before MLK Jr. was assassinated, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pleaded with the community to “Redistribute The Pain”.

In response to injustice MLK said “Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal… Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? 

We don’t have to argue with anybody… Now we must kind of redistribute the pain…

Now not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank (a Black-owned Bank)… I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves… We are telling you to follow what we’re doing, put your money there.” Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base, and at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. And I ask you to follow through here…“

It’s been over 50 years since Dr. King delivered this message on April 3, 1968. For whatever reason the Black community has failed to follow through. According to Maggie Anderson (author of Our Black Year) and other economic scholars, African-Americans only spend 3% of their money with Black-owned businesses. That means we spend and give away 97% of our money to people outside of our community. No other group does that. The time to change is now. Share Black-owned businesses on your social media networks and encourage your friends and family to ‘Buy Black’.