DOUSCS — Descendants of United States Chattel Slavery

A national registry of American businesses owned by the descendants of those who built this country in chains.

Descendants of United States Chattel Slavery is building the first verified business registry and certification network for descendant-owned enterprise in America.

Registry Coming soon Certification Coming soon Waiting list Open now

The disparity

A gap this wide is not a market outcome.

Black Americans are 14% of the United States population. Black-owned businesses with employees are less than 4% of American employer firms.

Share of U.S. population 14%
Share of U.S. employer firms 3.9%
0%5%10%15%

A 3.5-to-1 underrepresentation — the accumulated result of exclusion from capital, from land, from the GI Bill, from federal contracting, from corporate supply chains, layered on the foundational theft of enslaved labor. Businesses are how communities generate employment. Where a community does not own at its share, it cannot employ at its share.

What we are building

What was never granted, we build ourselves.

The federal government has never counted business ownership at the lineage-specific level that distinguishes descendants of United States chattel slavery. There has never been a registry, a certification, or an organized economic identity — and there is no federally recognized designation through which this community can reach the resources and set-asides that other groups can claim.

We are building all three. Not waiting to be counted. Counting ourselves.

National Business Registry

A searchable, verified directory of descendant-owned businesses across all fifty states.

Certification

Credentialing for individuals and for businesses, giving descendant-owned enterprise a recognized identity in supplier diversity and procurement.

Economic Census

Annual data collection published as the State of the Descendant Economy Report.

Research Division

Genealogical review of every descendant certification, against the documentary record.

Verification

Certification you have to earn.

Most business certifications are self-reported. Ours is not. Every descendant certification is reviewed against genealogical evidence by the DOUSCS Research Division.

Who reviews your application

Every lineage review is carried out in-house by the DOUSCS Research Division. The Division is headed by Dr. Randy Short, a historian of African and African American history who holds a doctorate from Howard University, a Master of Divinity from Harvard, and an M.Phil. from the University of Virginia. He has taught history and religion at Bowie State University and Lane College, and is the author of Slavery's Mastery.

01

Verify your identity

Confirm you are who you say you are, through a secure identity check, before any application is reviewed.

02

Submit your lineage

Name your ancestors and the records you hold — census records, vital records, Freedmen's Bureau records, family documents.

03

Research Division review

Our researchers trace and corroborate your line against the documentary record, including federal archives held by the National Archives.

04

Decision, and the right to appeal

You receive a decision with reasoning. If denied, you may appeal with additional evidence within thirty days.

Your documents are not kept. We retain the outcome of the review and a record that it happened — never the family records you entrusted to us.

Schedule of certification

Four ways to be recognized.

Two certifications for a person, two for an enterprise. Each is annual, and each is earned — the fee covers identity verification and the cost of genealogical review. It does not purchase the outcome. An applicant who pays can still be denied.

Personal Certification

Certifies a person's lineage

Descendant

Personal Basic

Identity verification and full Research Division review establishing your descent from a person enslaved in the United States.

Descendant

Personal Executive

Everything in Basic, plus a researched, DOUSCS-branded family lineage record produced by our Research Division and issued to you.

Business Certification

Certifies an enterprise

Descendant-owned

Business Certification

Certifies your business as descendant-owned and lists it in the national registry. Requires an owner holding current Personal Certification with at least 51% ownership.

Community Sponsor

Community Sponsor

For businesses that are not descendant-owned but stand with this community. Reviewed on conduct and legal standing. Carries a distinct designation — never the descendant certification.

Personal Certification comes first. Your lineage is reviewed once, as a person — not again for every business you own.

Fees are published when certification opens. The waiting list is told first, and is given the first opportunity to apply.

The waiting list

First in line when the registry opens.

The registry is being built now. When it opens, the waiting list is contacted first and given the first opportunity to apply — before certification is announced publicly.

Adding your name costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It reserves your place in the order applications are taken.

We will only contact you about DOUSCS certification and the registry opening. Your place on the list is not a certification and does not commit you to applying.