Small Business Lending in Baltimore's Black Butterfly and White L

WBAL-TV 11 News reported on significant disparities in small business lending across Baltimore's predominantly Black neighborhoods. Despite the Black Butterfly containing two-thirds of Baltimore City's population, those communities received less than one-third of small business loans between 2013 and 2023. On average, White L neighborhoods received five times the lending volume of Black Butterfly neighborhoods.

Brown's report lays out the logic and rationale behind how the federal government spread discriminatory maps in the 1930s—maps that keyed lending decisions to the racial demographics of each community. As Brown told WBAL-TV, today's small business lending patterns remain roughly aligned with that legacy: where African-American residents are concentrated, lending is systematically lower.

The research series is produced by Bmore Collab with support from partners including the Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative and the Kauffman Foundation. A companion report from Johns Hopkins researchers documents lending volumes across neighborhoods from 2013–2023; Brown's publication provides the historical foundation for understanding why those disparities persist.