By Harry Coker Jr.
Every February, we pause to celebrate Black History Month—a time to honor the giants upon whose shoulders we stand. Recently, during a visit to the Banneker-Douglas-Tubman Museum in Annapolis, and while walking past the future home of the AARCH African American Heritage Center in Frederick, I was reminded that Black history in our state is not confined to museums or monuments. It is alive, unfolding and shaping Maryland’s economy in real time, a living force that continues to define our competitiveness and our shared future.
As Maryland works to win the decade, one truth is unmistakable: our long-term economic success depends on how effectively we remove barriers to opportunity and fully leverage the talent, innovation and resilience of all our people.
Maryland’s economic identity was forged, in no small part, by African Americans. In 19th-century Baltimore, ship caulkers like Isaac Myers helped make the city a global maritime hub, despite being locked out of fair wages and ownership. A century later, that same city produced Reginald F. Lewis, a son of East Baltimore and former delivery boy for the Afro-American who became the first African American to build a billion-dollar company.
Lewis was not alone. Leaders like Eddie C. Brown, who built one of the nation’s most successful Black-owned financial services firms, and Joseph Haskins Jr., a pioneering executive who helped open doors in corporate America, demonstrated that Black enterprise is not a niche success—it is a driver of regional and national growth. Their legacies underscore a simple but powerful idea: when access to capital and opportunity expands, the returns benefit the entire economy.
That tradition reaches back even further. Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man born in Maryland, was a self-taught mathematician, surveyor and astronomer whose calculations helped lay out the original boundaries of Washington, D.C. His widely circulated almanacs were both commercial successes and intellectual achievements—challenging the assumptions of his era and proving that Black excellence belonged at the center of the nation’s economic and civic life.
Because we are serious about growing Maryland’s economy for everyone, we must also be honest about the barriers that have historically held Black wealth back. The Black Economic Alliance estimates that the racial wealth gap has cost the U.S. economy roughly $16 trillion over the past two decades. Closing that gap could add as much as 6 percent to the national GDP by the end of this decade.
Equity, in other words, is not charity—it is a sound economic strategy.
For generations, policies like redlining denied Black families the ability to build home equity and denied entrepreneurs access to capital. Maryland has confronted these realities before. Parren Mitchell, our state’s first Black member of Congress and the “Godfather of Minority Enterprise,” helped create the nation’s first inclusive procurement and supplier-diversity programs, grounded in the belief that a fair marketplace is also a more competitive one.
That principle guides our work today. Maryland is modernizing how we support small businesses and entrepreneurs by aligning capital access, technical assistance and procurement opportunities into a more coherent, high-performance engine of growth. The goal is straightforward: ensure that capable firms can compete, scale and create jobs. When more businesses succeed, Maryland’s economy grows stronger.
Talent remains our greatest competitive advantage, and our colleges and universities are central to developing it. Over the past decade, nearly three-quarters of enrollment growth across the University System of Maryland has come from students who were historically underrepresented. That progress matters—not only for fairness, but because diverse teams are essential to solving complex global challenges.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County offers a powerful example. UMBC consistently leads the nation in producing African American graduates who go on to earn Ph.D.s in science and engineering and M.D./Ph.D. degrees. Through initiatives like the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, UMBC has demonstrated what is possible when high expectations are paired with sustained mentorship and opportunity. These graduates are fueling Maryland’s innovation economy today.
Maryland’s four Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore – are equally vital. They are engines of upward mobility and community impact. For decades, however, they were constrained by resource inequities that limited their ability to compete on equal footing.
Maryland’s $577 million HBCU settlement was just because it addressed those structural disparities directly—by investing in academic program expansion, faculty recruitment and institutional competitiveness. It was not about correcting the past alone, but about ensuring these institutions can fully contribute to Maryland’s future workforce and economic growth.
We see the connection between history and economic vitality beyond the classroom. The CIAA Basketball Tournament in Baltimore, the nation’s oldest historically Black athletic conference, now generates more than $100 million in economic activity, supporting small businesses and showcasing the city on a national stage.
On the Eastern Shore, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway draws visitors from around the world, supporting rural economies while honoring a legacy of resilience, strategy and courage.
Black History Month reminds us that progress is never accidental. Leaders like Lillie Carroll Jackson, the “Mother of Freedom,” understood the power of economic leverage. Her “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaign demonstrated that economic participation and accountability can drive lasting change.
That lesson still applies today. Maryland’s path forward depends on continued partnership among government, business, educational institutions and communities. Progress requires investment, persistence and shared responsibility.
By expanding opportunity, strengthening our workforce and ensuring access to capital across every region of the state, we are building an economy that works better because it works for everyone. When Black Marylanders thrive, Maryland thrives—and the benefits are felt by workers, businesses and families in every corner of our state. That is how we honor Black history: not only by remembering it, but by using it to advance a stronger, more competitive future for all Marylanders.
Maryland’s next chapter will be written not by exclusion or exception—but by shared opportunity and shared prosperity.