Black Businesses Call Out Structural Barriers That Blocked Federal Contract Work Before Trump

Black-owned businesses are calling for real solutions to securing equity in federal contract work.

President Donald Trump has returned to the White House with a clear agenda to dismantle DEI initiatives. While this may seem like a setback for Black-owned businesses, many had already faced challenges securing federal contracts under the Biden administration.

While some minority-owned firms may have gained from DEI programs and initiatives, these efforts fell short of addressing the deeper systemic barriers that continue to hinder many Black-owned businesses.

“DEI isn’t for us,” Casey Cooper, owner of a Black-woman-owned long-haul trucking company, told Reuters. “It looks good on paper, but that money doesn’t go to us anyway.”

When Trump set his sights on dismantling DEI initiatives across the federal government—including programs designed to help Black-owned firms secure federal contracts—Cooper remained unfazed. While some minority-owned businesses may have benefited from DEI efforts, these initiatives did not go far enough in addressing the deeper systemic barriers that continue to challenge many Black-owned enterprises.

“Many of these business owners feel disillusioned, betrayed, and deeply concerned about the future of their enterprises,” said Ken Harris, president and chief executive of the National Business League, a trade association for Black-owned businesses. “DEI policies, while far from perfect, provided a semblance of opportunity in an otherwise exclusionary system.”

Government data show that in 2023, small disadvantaged businesses received just over 12 percent of federal contract dollars while Black-owned businesses secured only a small portion—1.61 percent. That share shrank in 2024, with Black-owned firms receiving only 1.54 percent of the $637 billion allocated for small business-eligible federal contracting. In both years, the majority of federal contracts overwhelmingly went to large corporations.

According to interviews with 10 experts in DEI, government contracting, public policy, and advocacy, the Trump administration’s rollback of DEI initiatives now threatens to undermine the limited progress made under the Biden administration in increasing Black-owned businesses’ participation in federal contracting.

“People want you to believe that, oh, the government got this big minority business program to give Blacks this multitude of contracts,” said Wendell Stemley, the owner of Black IPO Construction Management in San Diego and president of the National Association of Minority Contractors. “That’s just not the way it works.”

Stemley has requested a meeting with Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, whose department oversees contracting for infrastructure projects, and is seeking a meeting with Trump. His goal is to tackle the lack of contracting opportunities for Black and minority business owners, labeling it a “bipartisan failure.”

The NAMC president aims to highlight the need for better workforce training for minorities, enabling them to secure contract work with vendors committed to dismantling the exclusive networks that shut out smaller, minority-owned businesses. Leaders of other minority-focused trade associations are also considering legal challenges to the Trump administration’s orders.

Legal advisers are being commissioned to consult with members and are planning to meet with lawmakers to advocate for the continuation of diversity initiatives.

“If you take away the little bit of progress that we’ve gotten over the years, that’s not fair,” said Drexel Johnson, a Black general engineering contractor with the state of California.