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Fire ravaged local Black Businesses at the corner of S. 18th and Jefferson. Photo via Hip-Hop Sweet Shop Facebook

Several Black-owned businesses in Louisville suffered devastating losses this week.

On Wednesday, Dec. 21, the business complex at the corner of S. 18th and Jefferson St. was destroyed in a fire. The strip mall housed Hip Hop Sweet Shop, Fire & Desire, Kendrick’s Kuts and SKS Tax Service. According to Louisville Fire spokesperson Maj. Bobby Cooper, quoted in a Courier Journal article, “The building will be a total loss.”

As of this writing, the businesses involved have not made any public plans for fundraisers, but Hip Hop Sweet Shop wrote on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, “Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers, as our hearts are hurting. We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, money, and tears into our small, black owned businesses. It was devastating for us to pull up this morning and see it ablaze.”

The night of Thursday, Dec. 22, during the winter storm, a car slid off the road and into Black Market (2313 W. Market St.), a Black-owned grocery store. Black Market broke the news on their social media and asked for the community to stay tuned as they will update when they decide to do a fundraiser. Store owners have asked that no one other than them fundraise on their behalf or without their expressed consent. 

Please support these businesses when and if they begin to fundraise or rebuild. Small businesses are the backbone of communities.

This article appears in December 21, 2022.

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Erica Rucker is LEO Weekly's editor-in-chief. In addition to her work at LEO, she is a haphazard writer, photographer, tarot card reader, and fair-to-middling purveyor of motherhood. Her earliest memories...