At a political campaign event last fall, Joshua Brister, founder of the fledgling Maine Black Chamber of Commerce, saw a broad agenda outlined for the state’s business community – but felt it overlooked an important need.

His attempt to fill it now is drawing a range of reactions.

In October, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, courted hundreds of voters at an election forum hosted by the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.

LePage and Mills, who won reelection in November, jousted over a variety of economic, social and environmental issues. Each candidate touched on concerns of business owners, including state spending, immigration policy, crime rates, Maine’s labor shortage, the housing crisis and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Brister noticed that challenges specific to Maine’s Black-owned businesses – a small, scattered community he says struggles to win support and overcome systemic racism – never came up.

“There were 400 to 500 people in the audience, but very few were Black,” Brister said. “If candidates aren’t walking into a room full of people that look like me, they’re not going to develop intentional policies and solutions to the challenges facing Black business owners in this state.”

That’s why Brister, a business consultant who owns the Lewiston-Auburn Maples semiprofessional women’s basketball team, has launched the Maine Black Chamber of Commerce.

It’s the first organization of its kind in a state with a small Black population – only 1.9% of Mainers identify as Black, and only 2.7% identify as Black combined with other races, according to data from the 2020 U.S. census.

Brister, a Navy veteran who later worked for the Department of Defense and the airline industry, registered the nonprofit with the Maine Secretary of State’s Office in June. Since then, the reaction has been promising, if sometimes ambivalent.

Like other chambers, the organization will have a 501(c)(6) federal tax status, he said. That means it can actively advocate, lobby, endorse and campaign for causes and candidates that support and further its purpose as a group promoting business interests.

More common 501(c)(3) nonprofits are charitable or educational entities that can advocate for causes, but they cannot support candidates, openly lobby for legislative change or participate in political campaigns.

“You cannot advance the interests of Black- and other minority-owned businesses without intentionally promoting those interests,” said Brister, 40. “You have to be talking with city councilors and economic development directors and the candidates running for the State House and the Blaine House in Augusta.”

LOBBYING FOR BLACK BUSINESSES

Right now, nobody is doing that level of promotion for Black- and minority-owned businesses in Maine, Brister said. He has counted more than 80 for-profit Maine companies owned by Black entrepreneurs. Membership in the Black chamber will be open to other business owners, companies and organizations that support its agenda, he said.

The Black chamber will build on efforts by Black Owned Maine and other organizations whose activities are constrained by their nonprofit status, small staffs and limited budgets, he said. It also will address race-specific issues that larger chambers across the state, with broader agendas and constituencies, haven’t championed. The Black chamber will work with those that have mutual interests, he said.

“We need intentional allies who have funding and are willing to stand by us when times get tough,” Brister said. “But we’re not looking to be confrontational. We don’t want to be bigger or better. We want to be a good chamber with an intentional plan. There’s got to be an engine to engage with if we want to bring positive change.”

At the same time, Brister wants the Black chamber to be formidable. To see how it’s done, he has visited similar organizations in Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina.

There are more than 145 Black chambers in 42 states, representing about 326,000 Black businesses nationwide, according to U.S. Black Chambers Inc. Brister’s father, who owned a roofing company, was a chamber member in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Brister grew up.

Brister has raised more than $400,000 in startup funding toward an anticipated annual budget of $1.5 million to $2 million, he said. He has lined up several people willing to serve on a 15-member board of directors. Brister wouldn’t say who they are just yet or where the funding is coming from. Chambers aren’t required to report donor information to the IRS.

“We’re in the incubation stage,” he said. “It takes conversations and backing to bring intentional, lasting change.”

The goal is to hire an executive director and a full staff, including an office manager and directors of advocacy and communications. He’d like to have it up and running within six months to a year.

By then, the Black chamber will have a website, he said, and a slate of programs including support for workforce development, internships for minority students at Black-owned firms, and assistance in drafting business plans and securing bank loans and other investment opportunities.

That’s something he does as a consultant with the Greater Portland Council of Governments, working with immigrants and people of color.

“Many Black business owners don’t feel comfortable walking into a financial institution,” Brister said.

RANGING RESPONSE

So far, Brister’s initiative has received varying types of responses.

“I find it deeply concerning, to be honest,” said Rose Barboza, founder and executive director of Black Owned Maine.

The business group was founded in 2020, during the nationwide turmoil that followed George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer.

Black Owned Maine operates under the financial umbrella of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Barboza’s group maintains an online business registry and advocates for Black-owned businesses with a goal to “sustain and innovate an ecosystem for Black entrepreneurs.”

Barboza, a restaurant operator and business consultant, said she views BOM as a Black chamber and questions why Brister decided to start a similar organization.

“It’s important in such a small community to take note of existing organizations and ensure the need is there,” she said. “We won’t be partners with his organization.”

Several people Brister suggested for interviews either declined to comment or didn’t respond to calls and email requests for interviews.

Neil Kiely, president of Androscoggin Bank in Lewiston, said his organization had a great experience collaborating with Brister in launching the L-A Maples, which the bank sponsored. Many of its employees volunteered at team events.

“When Josh approached us with the idea of launching a Black chamber of commerce, we were intrigued and offered our support,” Kiely said in a statement. “As a B Corp certified bank, we are especially committed to helping women and minority business owners to access the capital and resources they need to succeed.”

Kiely said the Black chamber would “bring additional critical resources and opportunities for connection to minority business owners.”

Quincy Hentzel, CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, said she had an initial conversation with Brister about his plan to form a Black chamber and that she looks forward to learning more about it.

Hentzel said the Portland chamber recently developed a strategic plan for the wider business community to build racial equity in Greater Portland.

“We support efforts that elevate Black voices and Black businesses through providing the needed supports, networks and resources to achieve this vision,” Hentzel said in a statement. “Our goal is for the region to develop intentional systems that create real opportunities for people of color to build businesses and drive economic growth for generations to come.”

Shanna Cox, CEO of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, said Brister has “an entrepreneur’s spirit” and his experience positions him well to forge a Black chamber in Maine.

“Our own membership of the LA Metro Chamber represents the diversity of the communities we serve, and we recognize the importance of affinity groups in commerce, policy and communities,” Cox said in a statement. “We look forward to working with this emergent chamber, Josh and his partners to support black-led commerce in Maine.”

Brister also has discussed his plans with the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, which has taken its own steps to address racial inequity in the business community. In 2021, it hired a director of multicultural markets and strategies and formed a diversity, equity and inclusion committee on its board of directors. The committee is staffed by Mark Ellis, an Asian American who is the chamber’s director of operations.

“We’re very excited by what Josh is doing,” Ellis said. “He’s very passionate about his plans and we look forward to supporting him as needed in the beginning and as an ongoing partnership in the future.”

Ellis said the state chamber recognizes that there are diverse issues among the nearly 60 local chambers across Maine and that there’s room for a chamber that addresses the needs of Black businesses specifically.

“The state chamber views itself as a community of communities,” Ellis said. “We’re absolutely stronger when we partner together.”

Brister is resolved to build a Black chamber that will form those alliances.

“If we’re waiting for others to put together a plan to help us, we know it’s not going to happen,” he said. “We’re looking for action that’s going to fundamentally change the game for Black-owned businesses.”

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