'BackingBlackBusiness' Is BLM's Latest Anti-Racist Initiative

In its latest project, the Black Lives Matter movement launched a campaign promoting African-American small business titled Back Black Business, which includes an online directory where people can find Black businesses across the United States.

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"BackingBlackBusiness.com" is a Google Maps-based, smartphone-optimized website that provides information and locations about small Black businesses near the users. The beta version of the website launched with more than 300 businesses in its directory, the anti-police brutality group said in a statement.

"Black-owned businesses have long been a staple in the black community, providing jobs, economic security and somewhere for us to go and feel seen and safe," Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a statement. "In these uncertain times, we need these places more than ever."

The website allows Black business owners to register their stores in the database. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 2.6 million African-American businesses in the country.

“At (a) time when the Black community is under attack, it is more important than ever to buy local and buy Black. Small businesses provide jobs and economic security," added the progressive movement.

Black Lives Matter have partnered with New York City-based ad agency J. Walter Thompson, which said it hoped the project would “reduce the racial disparity that exists in economic well-being through the promotion of black business ownership."

The Black Lives Matter movement was born out of a viral hashtag of the same words following a jury’s acquittal of George Zimmerman for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

It has since evolved into a movement against police killings of Black people, particularly following the high-profile cases of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray.