Yesterday's Architects Jordan C. Jackson Jr.: The Self-Taught Slave Who Became Lexington's First Black Undertaker — Then Took on Jim Crow He taught himself to read and write in secret. He became a lawyer, newspaper editor, funeral director, and Republican National Convention delegate. He stood before the Kentucky legislature in 1892 and fought a segregation law. He credited his wife for everything. By BEB Editor • 11 min read
The Pulse Enforcement Tightens the Operating Envelope for Fintech — Winners Will Treat Compliance as Product The Black Executive Journal — Afternoon Edition | Thursday, April 2, 2026 By BEB Editor • 6 min read
Today's Builders He Ran a $23 Billion Business Unit. Then He Tried to Run the NAACP. Bruce S. Gordon spent 35 years climbing from management trainee to president of Verizon's retail division — overseeing $23 billion in annual revenue and 35,000 employees. When he walked into the NAACP in 2005, he was the most powerful corporate executive ever to hold the role. He lasted 19 months. By BEB Editor • 10 min read
The Pulse Fed's 2026 Message Is "Higher-for-Longer" — The Real Story Is How Capital Is Being Repriced Across Borders The Black Executive Journal — Morning Edition | Thursday, April 2, 2026 By BEB Editor • 6 min read
Today's Builders He Built the Bible of Black Business From a $250,000 Bank Loan and a Blank Page Earl G. Graves Sr. did not inherit a media company. He created the category. In August 1970, with a loan from Chase Manhattan Bank, a small staff, and a mission that had no commercial precedent, he put the first issue of Black Enterprise on newsstands. By BEB Editor • 9 min read
Today's Builders She Built the App That Puts Every Streaming Service in One Place. Then She Drove It Into a Porsche. Rose Hulse founded ScreenHits TV in London in 2012 when the streaming wars hadn't yet been named. By 2023 she had signed the first global deal to put a TV streaming platform inside a car — and done it in 56 countries at once. By BEB Editor • 10 min read
Yesterday's Architects Eliza Allen: She Built America's First Black Bank — Starting in Slavery Before the Civil War, she organized secret mutual aid societies for enslaved women in the Virginia night. After it, she helped charter the first Black-owned bank in the United States. She did it all while working as a laundress. By BEB Editor • 11 min read
Today's Builders She Started on the Ramp Loading Luggage. She Ended Up Running the Company. Stephanie Chung spent more than thirty years in aviation — parking planes at Boston Logan as a teenager, selling corporate accounts for US Airways at 25, generating $835 million in revenue at Flexjet, becoming the first African American president of a private aviation company and more. By BEB Editor • 10 min read
Today's Builders She Solved a Problem Nobody in Corporate America Knew They Had Until She Showed Them Lisa S. Jones spent four years at NASA, built a career in supplier diversity at AT&T, then did something nobody had done before: compressed a high-definition video into a 15-kilobyte file that plays automatically inside an email. Read the rest of her story here. By BEB Editor • 9 min read
Today's Builders She Went to the Soweto Wine Festival and Came Back With a Business In September 2005, Selena Cuffe was in South Africa on an unrelated business trip when she walked into the first annual Soweto Wine Festival. She left with the seed of what would become Heritage Link Brands — the largest global importer of Black-produced wine, operating in the U.S...but there's more By BEB Editor • 10 min read
Yesterday's Architects Sally Seymour: The Woman Who Cooked Charleston Into Submission Born into bondage, she built the South's most prestigious kitchen — then trained an entire generation of Black chefs who reshaped American cuisine. Her name was their credential for decades after her death. By BEB Editor • 10 min read
Yesterday's Architects Cyrus Bustill: The Baker Who Built Black Philadelphia He fed Washington's army, co-founded America's first Black mutual aid society, and planted a dynasty that reached Paul Robeson. History buried him for 186 years. By BEB Editor • 8 min read
