Boston is investing more in Black and brown businesses. But the work is far from over.

Three years after a report revealed stark inequities in the city’s business contracts, Mayor Michelle Wu announced that for the first time in Boston’s history, the city exceeded $100 million in total spending with Black and brown businesses. The investing achievement, which was reached this fiscal year, marks two consecutive years of “significant progress” the city has made contracting with more of Boston’s Black businesses, Wu said at a Black Economic Council of Massachusetts event last week, offering a preview of gains she said will be celebrated this week. The value of the contracts awarded to these same businesses jumped by 40 percent from last year, which Wu credited to the work of partners, including BECMA. In 2021, a city-commissioned report found that only 1.2 percent of the $2.1 billion in contracts that Boston awarded to businesses went to Black- and Latino-owned firms over a five-year period, highlighting large disparities in the way the city spends in businesses run by people of color. The annual Mass Black Expo’s second day took place at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The audience listened to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speak. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Despite the progress the city is making, Wu acknowledged...