SUNRISE, Fla. – The South Florida Black Business Directory will host its Release Party at 6 p.m. at Mind Warehouse, 111 NE 1 Street, 7th Floor in Miami, on February 19 to celebrate the inaugural edition of their business directory. More than 100 people are expected to come celebrate the launch of the new free directory, including regionally elected officials, business leaders and entertainers. The event is open to the public and proceeds from tickets sales will go to investing in the maintenance of the community created directory.

“We are excited to announce John Gay, Tax- Drz CEO and attorneys Bernadette Norris and Austin Pammies of Austin Pammies Norris Weeks, LLC see the vision, are proud sponsors of the movement and are excited to use the directory as an opportunity to improve the quality of enterprise in the black community,” says Crystal Mathis, Co- Founder of the South Florida Black Business Directory.

After the shooting deaths of Walter Scott and Philando Castile, the business directory was created by a group of more than two dozen South Florida leaders, business owners and community members with the common goal of the celebration of black enterprise in South Florida. The group believes that the creation of a directory will make it easier for consumers to patronize Black businesses in South Florida.

“It is unacceptable that the black dollar circulates only six hours in the Black Community and our priority is to mirror that of Black Wall Street in the 1920’s where the

Black dollar circulated for an entire year before it left out,” said Jimmy Nickerson, Co-Founder of the SFLBBD.

The group’s goals for the directory are to help increase jobs, allow people to restore their own communities, schools, parks and decrease the level of unnecessary violence within black communities.

The South Florida Black Business Directory is a simple tool to help facilitate these social and economic changes. It’s free to sign up, and the group is grateful for any opportunity provided to continue getting the word out to the community.