Oklahoma Black-Owned Businesses Are Booming

A new US Census report shows more African-Americans are going into business for themselves. Black-owned businesses have jumped by 45 percent across the nation. <br/><br/>As News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims

Thursday, May 11th 2006, 10:18 am

By: News On 6

A new US Census report shows more African-Americans are going into business for themselves. Black-owned businesses have jumped by 45 percent across the nation.

As News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims explains, Oklahoma is following the trend.

Itâ€™s lunch-time and a little barbecue joint at 27th and North Cincinnati is definitely cooking. Reba Dales Barbecue stays pretty full, the phone rings off the hook and the take-out orders stack up. Customer LaCher Thompson: "Oh I think it's great they've got the best baked potatoes in town!"

Deondra Hall says itâ€™s enough to make her grandmother and the restaurant's namesake proud. "Ever since I was little we were always in the kitchen together cause she did a lot of canning and thatâ€™s where I really did get a lot of my cooking skills from."

Hall used to do assembly work for Quikset, but now she's assembling the ever popular New York stuffed potatoes, making her dream of working for herself come true. And according to new census reports, she's not alone.

Reba Dales Barbecue is part of a black-owned business boom. The US census reports those businesses are up 40 percent from 1997 to 2002 and they added close to half a billion dollars to Oklahoma's economy.

Hall says her business has doubled in the seven months since she opened. And she's loading up about 87 potatoes every day.

She's able to hold her costs down, because Reba Dales is truly a family affair. Her mother's the sous chef and her husband runs the barbecue pit after he gets off work. But she's already feeling the pressure to expand. "I don't know yet. I have had a lot of people come in and ask me to expand. But I'm just gonna take it a day at a time, not going to rush it."

Business, like barbecue, takes time to get it just right.