Directory highlights black-owned businesses

A business directory dedicated to black and person-of-color-owned businesses experienced significant growth since starting as just a piece of paper. SCRANTON, Pa. — Back in 2018, Glynis Johns, came back to her hometown of Scranton with an idea to highlight Black and POC-owned businesses, like the ones she shopped in at cities across the country. “You’d be surprised. There are some folks that are black-owned businesses that you wouldn’t expect, and I think it just breaks down another stereotype because black is not a monolith, black doesn’t look like a certain thing. And just because you’re promoting something as a black business doesn’t mean that you’re excluding any other businesses,” said Glynis Johns, founder and CEO of Black Scranton Project. As founder and CEO of the Black Scranton Project, Johns brought her idea to life, creating a directory that lived on a sheet of paper, “So, when I started out, I had about eight businesses in the business directory. A couple of them were at the marketplace at Steamtown. 2019. We had grown a couple more. By 2020, um, we had probably about 25 or so businesses,” she said. At its peak, Johns says the directory had listings for more...