Black-owned business owners say they need to band together to better succeed.

The Black Business Owners Group and Cedar Rapids branch of the NAACP held a roundtable discussion earlier tonight designed to bring together Black-owned businesses and churches together to better support one another.

“We understand that there are other individuals, other organizations in the city, working on the same thing. So our effort was tonight was instead of us working individually on the same thing let’s attempt to bring all of us together see what we’re working on and see how we can consolidate to be more efficient,” said Jackie Horton, senior pastor at Gospel Tabernacle Church.

Organizers say Black churches have historically offered support and guidance for economic development in the Black community.

They say this event lets different groups coordinate their efforts.

Original source can be found here.