Black Women Business Owners Series, the first installment in our new series

Office computer - 640x427.jpg — The growth in Black women owned businesses has been a trend since at least 2002. In the following decade, the growth rate for Black women owned businesses in America stood at 179 %. In Nebraska, it’s 162%. In this new series we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the women driving this surge in business growth.

Black Women Owned Businesses in the u.S. had the highest growth rate of any group from 2018-2019

By Leo Adam Biga

Racquel Henderson, Co-owner of Brilliant & Resilient

The Who

Making the most of second chances to overcome teenage pregnancy, homelessness and incarceration, Henderson’s become a community advocate and entrepreneur. Her Brilliant & Resilient affirmations line is the latest expression of her desire to lift up others. The children’s and adult brand grew out of a conversation she engaged in with the precocious Donovan, aka Tugga, about how to expose more people to the affirmations that mark his days. Racquel Henderson and her son Donovan already lived by the power of positive speaking when as a 5-year-old he inspired the affirmations-based casual clothing line she launched in 2020. Years earlier, Henderson began breathing in affirmations to heal from the bad choices she made that landed her in prison and separated from her daughter DeVena. Once out, she set about repairing her own brokenness and the relationships she severed with her adoptive family as well as reentering her daughter’s life.

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“I wanted more for my daughter, I could not bear the thought of her feeling unloved and unwanted and going down the same path I did and going through some of the things I went through. I knew in order to give better, I had to be better. I had to be the example. I was humbled and down to nothing, and that’s when I feel the true healing took place.”

-Racquel Henderson

Hard work and perseverance

Once she learned to love herself, Henderson’s life turned around. She did it without the help of a reentry program, all while working long hours, going to college, and raising her daughter, In 2014 she graduated summa cum laude as a UNO criminal justice major. “There was no direction when I came home from prison in 2006. Reentry was not yet a thing. It was very hard and discouraging, which is why I do what I do today. I had to make my own resources. I had to build myself up from the ground. I had to figure it out the best way I knew how. I probably got a hundred nos before I got one yes from an employer. I had to figure out which jobs were background-friendly and which were not. Same with housing options.” Said, Henderson.

She succeeded anyway. Others don’t fare so well on the outside.

“Everyone doesn’t have the resilience I had to keep pushing in spite of,” she said. “That’s why I started the Be Project. It brings awareness to various resources and opportunities for housing, employment, short-term training, post-secondary education in the community to help people be better. I post job and training leads. I don’t care if it’s a pantry or a coat drive, if it’s free and will help one person or a hundred people, I post it. I’ve paid out of my own pocket for individuals to complete different trainings. I’ve bought bus tickets for people with transportation issues. Just helping wherever I can.” Her initial career path helping others came working for Goodwill Omaha’s Restart program. “Every single thing I do is a piece of me, it’s a piece of my journey, my story. It’s what I wish I would have had when I was going through it.”

Changing the Narrative

Aaiden Hollingsworth modeling for Brilliant & Resilient

Brilliant & Resilient is no different. She introduced self-help talk to Tugga when he was a baby – he spoke in complete sentences at age 1. So when the idea of getting affirmations in front of people came up, she thought of putting them on apparel items and having the profits go to his college fund. Tugga, now age 7, authors the affirmations and mom designs the corresponding clothing items they adorn. The clothes are manufactured by Sharnelle Shelton, owner of Onyx Street Boutique in Omaha. The fellow Benson High School graduates are among a new crop of Black women business owners taking the metro by storm. In addition to spreading affirmations through apparel, Henderson uses positive messaging with clients she engages with in her full-time work as a Metropolitan Community College success navigator. She’s also employment and education coordinator for Black and Pink and a staffer with the Terra Luna Collaborative. Affirmations further guide her work as a Youth Justice Leadership Institute Fellow with the National Juvenile Justice Network.

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“I’m huge on words have power. For so long I let people tear me down with words. It wasn’t until I learned the power of them I was able to build myself up with words. I raise my son on affirmations and positivity. We speak life into each other, We speak life into ourselves. We speak life into our friends. Every morning and every night he does affirmations based on whatever he’s going through. If he’s having issues with not sharing at school, then it’s – I am a share, and him saying it with power and force. It has truly changed a lot with him with behaviors, with everything.”

-Racquel Henderson

Gacaja Vasser Photo credit: Cris Robinson Jr.

On the company website she further articulates the difference she feels affirmations make: “What you say matters and often correlates to what you do. Affirmations are the roadmap to our destiny because what you think, you believe, and what you believe, you achieve. I believe in my children and yours.” Demand for the hoodies, jogging suits, sweaters and T-shirts tagged with love-thyself sayings has exceeded expectations. Brilliant & Resilient markets accessories as well. “We want this to be a true reminder you are amazing, beautiful, proud, strong, smart. resilient. We found out through trials and teasers with friends and family that is how people felt when they wore the items, That’s the thing – it’s not just a clothing line. We want you to feel empowered. We got feedback people felt that way, so we knew it was something we had to get out there.” The products reflect her own personal, laid-back urban style. “I am a product of my environment. I am who I am no matter where I am. Even working in a professional environment, I still put my own twist on things. I like to be comfortable. That’s huge for me. I wanted the clothing line to be consistent. so you can look good, feel good, dress up or dress down. I wanted the items to be simple, affordable and comfortable.” The wearable affirmations complement the human services work she does that affirms others. In addition to her 9 to 5 job, she’s heavily involved with I Be Black Girl and Young Black & influential Omaha. She was a 2017 YBI Award recipient for her influencer work in the community. She’s active in an IBBG Mentoring on the Inside program for inmates at the Nebraska women’s prison in York, where she served her felony sentence for armed robbery. She also mentors at Sacred Heart Catholic School. “I’m really big on meeting people where they are and helping them get to where they want to go. Sometimes I wish I could do that on a larger scale. I’m one person.”

Here, and now

The advocacy she does continues to get noticed. Last month she was selected by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce as one of its 2021 Change Makers. Her ability to help MCC students and others navigate barriers is rooted in her personal experience of rising from the depths and her obvious passion for helping young people thrive rather than just survive. Henderson and the other Change Makers were honored at the Chamber’s Young Professional Summit on March 4-5. Her own journey to wholeness was stymied due to unresolved feelings about being adopted and not knowing her biological family. “Because of that I had this void inside of me,” she said. “I just always felt like something was missing, I wasn’t good enough.” Closure came when she found and met her birth mother in 2019 through an Ancestry.com and Facebook search. She learned of the tragic circumstances that forced her mother, then a teen herself, to give Racquel up for adoption. The trauma of that experience and the longing to reconnect never left the mother, Alfreda, who was overjoyed to hear from her long lost daughter. Henderson has discovered she’s part of a large family based in California. She’s visited them. They’ve visited her. She’s also come full circle with her own daughter DeVena, who’s following her mom’s footsteps as a UNO criminal justice major. “She helps me with everything,” Racquel said of DaVena. “She’s my biggest advocate. She’s always sending people my way. I love that about her. She sees the best in people, too ,and she wants them to do better. She wants to go into corrections, so we’re on two different sides, but we'll definitely work together on some projects.” Henderson admits she’s a better mother today than she was when DeVena was younger. “My son gets a different version of me than she did at his age. She understands that.” Her evolution has prepared her for her life’s work. “If somebody told me even five years ago this is where I would be, I wouldn’t even have believed it,” Henderson said. “I literally get to impact the lives of others on a daily basis. There’s so many people every day that reach out to me that let me know I helped them, changed their life, because they found a job or became a better parent. it brings tears to my eyes knowing that my pushing and pulling made a difference.” The needs never end. “Every single day someone needs something – a resource, a landlord that’s background friendly, a job lead, a pantry, just someone to talk to. I can’t even keep up.” It can be overwhelming, which is why she sets boundaries. “I’m big on self-care, I’m big on the way I pour into myself. I read the Bible, I do praise and worship, I take time for me.” She’s also learned to defer and refer. “Sometimes it’s not for me. I don’t need the credit for helping someone. I just need to know the person was helped.” Even with the precautions she takes to not take on too much, she acknowledged, “sometimes I’m stretched pretty thin.” “I’m a night owl. I work best when the house is quiet and everyone’s asleep. Sometimes I don’t sleep.” While content with where she’s arrived, there’s always more she’s looking to do. “I’m right where I want to be, but I would love to have a staffing agency for people with background issues. It would work directly with employers, hold workshops, do life coaching, grant dollars for short-term trainings – for everything from fork lift operators to CNAs. There is not a single place that is dedicated to people with background barriers.”

Future

Her goal is to grow Brilliant & Resilient so she can hire an assistant or manager. If it grows enough, she’d like to make the business a nonprofit to support at-risk youth in foster care or in the juvenile court system. She’s adamant about remaining in Omaha. “I see our community break so many people and sometimes those people don’t get repaired, so i want to do the work right here.” Helping fuel her motivation to stay is the metro’s strong sisterhood of Black women asserting themselves in business. Many of them are her friends. “It’s a real thing and it’s beautiful to see. I can’t remember a time when I knew so many Black women that own businesses, that are entrepreneurs, that are leaving their jobs to dedicate full-time to their businesses. It just kind of took off. They’re doing amazing things in our community and I love it.” She leans into her peers for advice and encouragement, always ready to offer a positive word of her own. Henderson feels these women taking leaps of faith to pursue dreams demonstrate what’s possible when you value yourself. Every day she sees the results of colleagues and clients believing in themselves. “You’d be amazed how much people will do better when they know better is available.” As for herself, Henderson takes refuge in a particular Brilliant & Resilient affirmation that most personally resonates in her life and in the lives of many others dealing with self-worth issues: I Am Blessed, Enough. Loved. “For so long, I set aside my blessings. I overlooked them. I focused on what I didn’t have and not what I did have. For so many years, I didn’t love myself. I had to teach myself to do that. Just being me is enough.” Access her clothing line’s catalog via the company website at brilliantandresilient.com or on its Facebook and Instagram pages.