Black Leaders Detroit is holding a local and national bike "Ride For Equity" this month.

The event promotes Black businesses and raises awareness about access to capital for Black entrepreneurs.

The local ride takes place on Saturday, May 17th from Corktown to Belle Isle.

Then the national ride kicks off on May 31st in Tulsa, Oklahoma and concludes in New York City.

Yes, there is a bike ride from Tulsa to New York.

The nonprofit will hold community conversations in cities along the route.

Here to tell us more is Dwan Dandridge.

He is the CEO of Black Leaders Detroit.

Dwan, always great to see you.

- Likewise, thanks for having me.

- So let's start with Tulsa to New York.

- Yes.

- It's a long ride.

But there's also some important significance to choosing Tulsa as the sort of beginning of that ride.

Talk about how this idea comes together.

- Yeah, no, a hundred percent, right?

So what we do at Black Leaders Detroit is we're trying to create wealth again, right, in our communities.

And as we thought about like a ride that would kind of mimic and show the world kind of like what we're up to on a national level, I guess at least, riding from Black Wall Street to Wall Street was the only thing that kind of made sense at the end of the day.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- And I've pretty much, because we know that there's been disruption to wealth that we've been creating in the Black community, and it's always been intentional, but I think Tulsa has the richest history or the most recognizable history.

- Yeah.

- So that's the reason we're starting there.

- Yeah.

For viewers who don't know, just give them a thumbnail of Tulsa, what it was, and what happened to it.

- Yeah, so the Black Wall Street, Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma was a very thriving Black community where there were homeowners and business owners that had some very successful businesses.

And it was disrupted in a very violent way.

- Yeah.

- Something that's called the Tulsa Massacre, built off of a lie.

And, you know, when folks came to stand up for themselves, they were attacked.

And I believe that, historically, it was the one time where you had, you know, bombing taking place in this country and it was done by countrymen.

- Yeah, yeah.

When you think about what happened there and sort of carrying that physically forward to New York, today, I mean there is still this gap.

I mean, I'm thinking of the distance between the two, you know, this gap that still exists between what African Americans had and what we have access to now.

And that's really what your work is about.

- Definitely, you know.

What we do, we provide grants and interest loans to entrepreneurs of African descent here in the city of Detroit.

And we are still seeing huge disparities in the wealth, but we're also seeing huge disparities when it comes to accessing capital.

- [Stephen] Getting access.

Yeah.

- Right?

So instead of waiting on the systems to self-correct, we figured we'd put something in place, be it the grants and no interest loans that we've done for the last four years, and we've been able to deploy over $4.8 million to entrepreneurs in the city.

And we think we're just getting started.

- Yeah.

Talk about the success stories there, and I think that's important, because I think there are a lot of people who say, well, a lot of times these businesses maybe aren't getting access to capital because well, maybe they can't take advantage of it or they won't be successful.

The things we hear about African American stereotypes that are unfair, you're seeing up close that they don't play out.

- Yeah, right?

It's like we call the business owners high risk and we don't even have enough data to show that they're high risk because nobody's loaning them money, right?

- Why are they high risk?

- A good friend of mine, Doug says, that he likes to call them like maybe hard to lend to, but not high risk.

And that's Doug Bitonti Stewart from the Max and Marjorie Fisher Foundation.

So one of our partners, we have 148 loans out, we have two in default.

- [Stephen] Wow.

- I don't know- - Right.

- if, you know, everybody can boast of those records that are- - Most banks can't talk.

- Exactly.

- About a success record like that.

- Exactly so, you know, and again, I think the demand is crazy.

One of the things that we experience is more people are applying because they see that we, you know, when people apply with us and they don't get, or they don't get funding right away, they never walk away wondering if this is because I'm Black.

- Right, right.

- They know that we have their best interest at heart and when I say their best interest, it's really ours.

- It's ours.

As a city and as people.

- They're providing services, products that we need and they're employing Detroiters.

- Yeah, yeah.

When you make these loans is there more that you're doing to make sure that folks are able to do the things that they need to do in their business?

I mean, you're pulling them along as well.

- Yeah, yeah.

I think that there's a temptation to want to be all things to them.

- Yeah.

- And we are resisting that temptation.

We know that there are other needs that entrepreneurs have.

- Yeah.

- I was an entrepreneur myself and I know that when I started out, I was able to deliver a product and service, but on the business side of things, I didn't know what I was doing, right?

And a lot of business owners have great services products, but there are some things that they just aren't aware of.

There are some very good partners out there in the ecosystem that provide all the other technical assistance.

So we typically will refer them to one of those providers instead of trying to take all of that on ourselves.

- Yeah.

All right, let's talk about this bike ride.

Insane bike ride.

Tulsa to New York.

How many miles is that?

- So we're talking about 1,643 miles.

- Okay.

- From, you know, start to finish.

- Yeah.

- And we're doing it over the course of 35 days.

As you mentioned, we're taking off May 31st, the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, landing in New York on the 4th of July.

And we're going to stop in, you know, several cities.

The major cities will be St. Louis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Dayton, and then, you know, somewhere in New Jersey.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

How many miles a day?

Are you?

- So we're averaging 50 to 75 miles a day.

So, you know, it's ambitious and it'll be painful, but we ride six days and we rest a day.

- Yeah, okay.

And you have the bike ride here in Detroit now- - Yes.

- from Corktown to Belle Isle.

Slightly shorter distance.

- Yeah.

Much shorter distance.

What we thought, right, you know, we've done the ride from Detroit to Mackinac the last four years and we've had a lot of support from our family and friends here in Detroit.

We did not want to do something that they wouldn't be able to participate in.

So we're having a bike ride.

8:00 AM is the take off time at Michigan Central.

We're gonna be right in front of Newlab.

They're gonna be things for people that don't wanna ride.

So you can come out and join us if you wanna come and do yoga, if you wanna come and cheer us on, if you wanna come and walk.

We have some folks that'll be doing a short distance run.

But yeah, we're looking forward to hanging out with our family here and building some momentum before we kick off.

- Yeah.

And people who are here who can't make the ride from Tulsa to New York can also participate.

- A hundred percent.

- Because now we live in a world where you don't have to be in the place where you're doing something.

- Yes, yes.

- You can actually be on a bike ride in your living room.

- Technology.

- And do it that way.

That's pretty cool.

- Technology's found a way to have us together even when we're not like together, right?

So we're asking people to come out and join us in one of the cities if you're able to meet us there.

But if you are not, we welcome you to join us.

We're hoping to get 9,000 people to ride with us remotely, either from home, riding around your neighborhood.

If you're an avid cyclist, of course you can match the amount of miles we're riding on a given day.

If you have a Peloton, you can sign up and join us through that way as well.

And we just ask that you would register and tag us in a picture showing us that you actually are riding with us.

- That they're actually riding with you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, Dwan, I am always impressed by the work you're doing and, you know, what I love about it is that it's not charity, it is building, right?

- Not at all.

- It is building this community and giving it access to such a vital tool, to being able to be more self-sufficient and to thrive economically.

So it's just incredible work.

- No, I appreciate that, right?

It's like, you know, we really believe in the people in this community.

- Yeah.

- You come from the community.

I come from the community, right?

And we believe that there are a lot of people out there that have given the tools and the resources.

- They just need a chance.

- They solve the problems.

- Every problem that we have in the city, we have somebody out here that can solve it.

- Yeah, all right.

Congratulations on the work and good luck on the ride.

- Thank you, hope to see you out there.

- Oh, maybe.

Maybe for a couple miles.

- All right, we'll take that.