George Floyd - Providence Business News

STAYING THE COURSE: Dawn Apajee, founder and president of professional staffing service City Personnel Inc., speaks to Recruiting Coordinator Adora Andrade, who is writing on the board. Apajee says the nature of City Personnel’s business – which provides legal, administrative, accounting and support staffing services – calls for a commitment to diversity. PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

DEI TEST: Roll back? Push ahead? For many organizations, a critical...

Cover Story 07/18/2025

The diversity pledges flooded corporate inboxes across the country as protests filled the streets over George Floyd, a Black man who died under the...

TAKING A TALLY:  Of the first 50 minority  business owners featured  in the Everybody’s Business  monthly series since August 2020, 30 were men and 20  were women. Two of those businesses have closed, and  another is in receivership – all three of them operated by men. PBN ILLUSTRATION/ANNE EWING

Everybody’s Business: Minority owners resilient in face of uncertainty

Cover Story 03/28/2025

Providence Business News’ Everybody’s Business monthly series began with the intention of providing a voice to minority business owners in the tumultuous summer of...

ON THE MAT:  Nic Cortes, left, owner of the jiu-jitsu studio Cortes BJJ LLC in Warwick, teaches Kevin Madden of Warwick a mixed martial arts move. Cortes, a minority business owner, recently opened a second location in the city.  PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

An equity check: ‘Much of this movement is being dismantled’

Entrepreneurship 03/28/2025

Nina Reed’s bakery products are popular, but that doesn’t mean running her business has been a piece of cake. Reed, the owner of Sarcastic Sweets...

HOMEGROWN: Amelia Lopez, left, Southside Community Land Trust food access associate, and Appoline Alphonsine, a college intern, sort through vegetables harvested by the Providence nonprofit. SCLT recently received an $80,000 grant from the city that was not part of the $10 million racial reparation initiative. Some have complained that the city is moving too slow on deploying the $10 million equities program. PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

What happened to Providence’s reparations initiative?

Cover Story 09/15/2023

Jim Vincent threw himself into the work when he was appointed to the Providence Municipal Reparations Commission in early 2022 because he saw an...

Ex-cop guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd case

Government 04/20/2021

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of murder and manslaughter for pinning George Floyd to the pavement with his...

DIVERSE WORKFORCE: C.C. Business Corp. Vice President Ron Brewer, left, and President Marcellus Sharpe stand outside of Thundermist Health Center in Woonsocket, one of the private-security company’s clients. Brewer estimates that 70% of the company’s 39 employees are minorities. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

A question of equity: Can R.I. level the field for minority...

Coronavirus 07/10/2020

As small-business owners clambered to get in on the federal payroll relief program launched in the wake of COVID-19, Anna Mangeni held back. Her business,...

R.I.’s name returns to spotlight

Government 06/26/2020

Dropping “Providence Plantations” from Rhode Island’s official documents and websites is a start, but activists and others say state leaders need to do much...