Closing the racial wealth gap has been a goal for numerous organizations around the country in response to decades of oppressive laws and procedures committed by big banks. For one family based in Norfolk, Virginia, they created a business with the hopes to empower their community by providing resources to help them succeed financially.
Kenneth Royster is the president and CEO of First Genesis of Virginia, a finance company aimed to help others like him
in his community. He became inspired to start his company first being exposed to other Black professionals within the finance industry and wanted to provide more representation of Black people working in the sector.Royster works alongside his family members and also creates videos through the company’s YouTube channel about financial health. He says his ultimate goal to help more Black professionals enter the field and feel more confident with their finances to create lasting generational wealth.
“In financial services, first if you look at the stats today, it’s 75% male-dominated, an average age of 60. You think about a young African American man breaking into a culture like that, it’s kind of difficult. But again, having a person around who has achieved a certain level of success who is willing to mentor and guide was very
helpful. It made me feel like I can do it,” said Royster in an interview with Wavy.“When you have over a trillion dollars of spending power, you are a force to be reckoned with. What makes you a force not to be reckoned with is how you direct your trillion-dollar enterprise,”