For Steven Jumper, coffee isn’t just a hot cup of Joe, it’s a memory.
“Some of the most kind of poignant, formative conversations I remember as a kid was, you know, sort of sneaking up to the dinner table with my parents and grandparents and family members, talking about politics and culture and art over, you know, a post-dinner coffee,” Jumper said.
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Now Jumper and his family have turned those memories into a small business - Blue’s Coffee & Tea Co.
He said the company is named after his late grandfather, Robert Jumper, Sr. who was one of several plaintiffs in the historic Griggs vs. Duke Power case at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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“My grandfather and other Black men working for the regional power company at the time and being systemically kept from upward mobility, decided to speak truth to power and bring that suit to the highest court of the land,” Jumper said. “So that same sort of spirit of work ethic and community and justice and honesty is really at the core of what we do and what we try to embody in the ways we approach customer service and the telling of our company story.”
Currently, Blue’s Coffee & Tea Co. is available online and at farmers’ markets and grocery stores in the Washington, DC area. Next year, Jumper said they’ll open their first cafe in DC.
“We’re excited about bringing the experience of community and conversation, and again, the best coffee and tea that we think are being offered in the area,” he said.
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Their company is one of millions of new small businesses created over the last four years nationwide. The White House said more than 20 million small business applications have been filed during that time frame.
“Black-owned, Brown-owned, women-owned businesses, they’re really charging ahead, and they are going to be the ones who deliver for our economy into the future,” Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, U.S. Small Business Administration, said.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports business ownership has doubled among Black households and hit a 30-year high for Latino households.
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The agency has also prioritized lending opportunities for minority businesses. Since 2020, the SBA has tripled its lending to Black-owned business and doubled lending to Latino-owned and women-owned small businesses.
“Our economic security into the future is really reliant on making sure that our businesses can have successful pathways towards building wealth and create more jobs,” Guzman said.
These new shops are also leading to more jobs nationwide. Guzman said about 10 million of the 16 million jobs created over the last four years stem from small businesses.
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