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Photo by Courtney Jones, The Jones Photography & Media Company
At the start of the 20th century, Jackson Ward was one of the wealthiest Black business districts in the country. Inspired by early trailblazers like banker Maggie Walker, three Black female entrepreneurs got together in 2019 with a goal of helping Richmond’s Black businesses thrive. Rasheeda Creighton, along with Kelli Lemon and Melody Short, founded the Jackson Ward Collective Foundation. “While our name is an homage to Jackson Ward’s successful history, we serve any Black business in the Richmond region,” Creighton says.
The JWC Foundation provides business coaching to Black entrepreneurs in all stages and also hosts a 12-week community business academy. “All the foundational details to starting a business — like hiring, pricing, budgeting and financing — can be daunting,” Creighton says.
The Richmond native earned her bachelor’s from Spelman College and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Before launching the nonprofit, she worked at Capital One for 15 years. “As executive director of the [company’s] 1717 Innovation Center for entrepreneurs in Shockoe Bottom, I saw a lot of people who participated in the programs did not look like me,” she says.
Troubled by this gap in the business ecosystem, Creighton wanted to do something about it. “Opportunities are not equal, and the barriers to access are huge,” she says. “As one example, Black businesses are not funded at the same rate as white, male-run businesses — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
She and her partners especially want to help Main Street businesses such as retailers, restaurants, and personal and professional services. “These are the businesses that run our community and help our neighborhoods thrive,” Creighton says. “We want to support the community that supports us.”
So far, they’ve received a tremendous response from the Black community, as well as financial backing from the city’s major employers. Black businesses are not only getting access to resources to meet their specific business needs, they’re getting support and encouragement from a like-minded community.
“The work we do has purpose; it’s not just a job,” Creighton says. “It’s my way of using my gifts, talents and connections to pour back into the place that’s given so much to me. A fellow Spelman alumna, Dr. Marian Wright Edelman, says, ‘Service to others is the rent we pay for living.’ That’s something I live by.”
