There are no excuses when you have a guide.
Non-profit executive director Princess “Franny” Francois, is explaining how to use existing resources through her book Support BLACK Periodt: A Greenbook to Eliminate Your Ifs, Ands, or Buts, a comprehensive listing of Black U.S. businesses.
Francois wanted to provide resources for Black travelers, providing an abundance of resources that include personal narratives, history, and research, making them easy to navigate as she elevates Black businesses.
“Sometimes, I have found that it takes hours to sift through thousands of comments from Black travel groups to find the one piece of information you need,” Francois told Travel Noire.
“I wanted to save people time but organizing this book in a way that makes it easy to access this information. This information comes from years of experience: years of traveling, years of searching, years of asking, and years of curating information,” she added.
“Over the last year, I have been able to inspire thousands of my followers to think more about how to support the Black community. I noticed that my most popular posts were around supporting Black-owned businesses or learning untold Black narratives.
“This published book is the ultimate amplification, featuring thousands of Black businesses, landmarks, tours, locations, and creators you should support,” Francois told the outlet.
The author published her book in an attempt to change the statistics for Blacks who she believes are underrepresented in travel, museums, and national parks and deserve the support.
Francois’ book is comprised of 16 different industries where she feels Black business owners are underrepresented, including restaurants, coffee shops, and bookstores.
The book, built around a five-step framework, is organized through an acronym that represents ways people can support Black businesses: Buy Black, Learn Black, Amplify Black, Celebrate Black, Knowingly
(which spells out BLACK).