“The Invisible Backbone

The Alarm

“A Black Mecca takes care of its own, irrespective of outside involvement.”— Rev. Tarzene Livingston

Atlanta risks losing its claim to that title if it continues to overlook the real infrastructure holding its Black communities together. Small Black businesses—97 percent of all Black firms, generating $10.4 billion annually—and small Black churches, with hundreds of congregations contributing an estimated $1.5 to $1.7 million each in local economic activity per year, are not side notes. They are the backbone of historically Black neighborhoods, the institutions that keep communities alive even when external support falls short. To remain a true Black Mecca, Atlanta must recognize, invest in, and strengthen these pillars at the heart of its identity.

These institutions are more than cultural symbols. They are embedded systems of survival, stability, and growth. They are the load-bearing pillars of Atlanta’s Black economy—and without them, the city’s claim as a Black Mecca collapses into an image without a base.

The Evidence

• Georgia Tech Case Study: Small churches play measurable roles in housing stability, economic self-sufficiency, and community services, proving they are embedded socio-economic anchors—not just spiritual centers.

• Partners for Sacred Places Study: The average urban church contributes $1.7 million annually in local economic impact through operations, property management, visitor activity, and programming. Multiply that across Atlanta’s hundreds of small Black congregations, and their combined footprint rivals the city’s largest employers.

• Sole Proprietors: 97% of Atlanta’s Black-owned firms are non-employer businesses. Together, they generate $10.4 billion in annual revenue. While they may not have large payrolls, they stabilize households, circulate wealth on the block, and serve as the invisible safety net for fragile economies.

• Land Ownership: Faith institutions collectively hold hundreds of acres of property in Atlanta, much of it in historic Black neighborhoods. Already, development pipelines tied to churches are producing more than 1,000 affordable homes, demonstrating that spiritual land can be leveraged to become civic infrastructure when combined with policy and support.

  
  

The Gap

Despite overwhelming evidence, policy and development frameworks continue to prioritize megaprojects, high-profile employers, and cultural branding, while overlooking the embedded institutions that enable community permanence.

• Economic development strategies celebrate towers and corridors but fail to count the everyday circulation of dollars through small businesses and churches.

• Financing systems rarely accommodate their scale. Sole proprietors are often excluded from most lending programs, and small churches frequently struggle to access affordable credit for essential repairs, such as roof replacements, HVAC system upgrades, or service expansions.

• Zoning and redevelopment pressures displace them from historic corridors. Condominium ribbon-cuttings are applauded, but the quiet closure of a neighborhood church or family-owned shop barely makes the news — even though those closures destabilize households and unravel culture.

• Measurement frameworks undervalue their impact. Success is tracked in units built or jobs created, not in households stabilized, wealth retained, or culture preserved.

This is Atlanta’s blind spot: the invisible infrastructure is carrying the city, yet policy acts as if it does not exist.

What Must Change

1.        Recognition: Officially classify small Black businesses and churches as infrastructure in city and state policy — equal to schools, roads, and utilities.

2.        Capital Access: Establish micro-loan programs, community land trusts, and dedicated funds tailored to sole proprietors and faith-based institutions.

3.    Zoning Protection: Safeguard commercial and religious spaces in redevelopment projects and include right-of-return provisions for displaced institutions.

4.    Metrics: Adopt Black Community ROI (BCROI) to measure wealth circulation, household stability, land preservation, and cultural continuity, not just jobs and contracts.

The Consequence of Inaction

If these institutions remain invisible, Black Atlanta will hollow out. Corridors will weaken, households will destabilize, and the “Black Mecca” brand will be reduced to marketing spin, not measurable reality.

• Public systems will face heavier burdens when churches can no longer provide food, childcare, and shelter.

• Wealth will leak out of neighborhoods as outside corporations replace embedded Black businesses.

• Civic trust will decline as the institutions residents rely on disappear.

The city’s claim as the Black Mecca will be nothing more than a slogan — hollowed of substance, stripped of permanence.

Policy Alarm

Atlanta cannot remain the Black Mecca while ignoring the small businesses and churches that form its economic and cultural backbone. Recognition, capital, zoning, and measurement are urgent steps to preserve Atlanta’s Black future.

According to Alphonso David, President and CEO of Global Black Forum, “We need to shift more than just policy priorities. We need to shift capital. Philanthropy must direct resources toward place-based, Black-led economic development. The private sector must double down on local supplier diversity and entrepreneurship support. And voters must begin to hold mayors, city councils, and governors to the same standard we hold federal leaders – arguably, higher.”

Further, he says: “The lesson is clear: if the federal government is retreating from the advancing economic equity, then we must redirect our attention and investments to the places that are still moving forward. That means focusing on local ecosystems where bold, Black-led solutions are already reshaping what economic opportunity looks like.”

No institutions have done more, with less recognition, than Atlanta’s small Black businesses and small Black churches. They are not symbolic — they are infrastructure. They are the invisible backbone of this city, and without them, there is no Black Mecca.

BlacIntellec is an intelligence platform. We surface data and convene dialogue, but the wisdom of the community itself defines the strategies and responses. Founded by Joseph R. Hudson, it provides data, analysis, and strategy to inform civic decision-making.