Charlotte Black Card launch party attendees: (from left) Rashid Lawrence, Phillip Agnew (founder/president, Charlotte Black Card), Brittney Eustache (director, customer relations, Charlotte Black Card), Michelle Kee (owner, M. Kee Designs, Charlotte Black Card member business), Amber Lawrence, James Brown. Photo courtesy of Phillip Agnew.
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A few months ago, Phillip Agnew was a man on a mission.

In June, after being arrested at Uptown’s EpiCentre entertainment complex for not adhering to the development’s dress code, Agnew started a citywide campaign to draw attention to what he — and many others — felt were racially targeted business practices. His “Do Not Enter the EpiCentre” movement attracted hundreds of advocates (and detractors), spawned a Facebook page and eventually ended up being discussed in City Council chambers, as well as being argued in court. 

But that was then.

These days, Agnew is on a brand-new mission — introducing people to the new Charlotte Black Card, which he says is designed to foster business, not block it.

Contrary to its name, the Charlotte Black Card isn’t affiliated with a credit card company; in actuality, it’s a loyalty card that gives consumers discounts at select African-American-owned businesses in and around the Charlotte area.

According to Agnew, he and his team of 10 volunteers came up with the idea of Black Card while spreading the word about the “Do Not Enter the EpiCentre” campaign.

“A catalyst for it obviously was our team’s interaction with the business community here in the city, and feeling that there was no forum or place for us to adequately react to what we saw as unfair treatment,” he said.

“We really wanted there to be something positive for us to rally behind … to find a positive way to build a community when it comes to how we spend our money here in the city.”

According to Charlotte Black Card Director of Media and Communications Dee Miller, since officially launching on Nov. 5, more than 50 businesses have signed up to offer discounts (including No Grease, Kalu and E-Z Tixx, among others). All of the participating businesses are listed on the group’s website (www.shopblackcard.com), along with the discounts they offer. Folks interested in obtaining a card — which is free for consumers and businesses — can also visit the site. Once signed up, registered holders will receive their cards by mail.

To date, said Agnew, “We’ve physically mailed 150 cards. When we checked [our e-mail account] on Sunday, we had 100 more people who had gone to the site and requested cards. So we’re up to 250, with 150 being delivered already.”

Of course, the nature of business sometimes being a murky thing, determining if an establishment is actually black-owned can be a difficult proposition. So, how do the folks behind the Black Card get to the bottom of things?

“What we have to do is … actually ask the question,” said Miller. “It’s funny you should ask that because we did run into that issue. There are few businesses when we’d be meeting, and we would say, ‘this is a black-owned business’ — and someone would chime in and say, ‘No, I think there may be a manager who is black, but it’s not a black-owned business.’ So we would actually check with the business.”

And as word spreads to business owners and users across the Queen City, the Black Card team envisions a time when their efforts won’t be restricted by geography.

“We see this whole initiative going national,” said Miller. “We’ve actually had people in different cities who have contacted us and they’re interested in starting this initiative in their own city.”

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