Kamala Harris made a surprise stop during her visit to Atlanta on April 29.
Before leaving the unofficial capital of the South, Harris made an unannounced visit to the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, also known as the RICE center, according to White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers. The center was established for Black entrepreneurs in Atlanta to have a central location to build together and provide greater resources to one another with the goal of increasing Black wealth.
Upon arrival, Harris was greeted by RICE president and CEO Jay Bailey, who thanked Harris for stopping by.
“I want to learn from you,” Harris reportedly told Bailey.
Bailey gave Harris a tour of the state-of-the-art facility, as Georgia politicians Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, as well as Rep. Nikema Williams were in attendance. Chambers reported Harris and the other politicians met with a “group of entrepreneurs” at the center.
Harris said she wanted to come to the center because it’s a prime example of the spirit of entrepreneurship. She also said entrepreneurs are benefitting from this administration’s Capital Readiness Program, which provides entrepreneurs with access to things they were previously denied.
The business owners Harris met with also benefited from working directly with the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, a Capital Readiness Program grant winner. Harris announced the CRP winners in August 2023.
Harris was in Atlanta for the start of the Economic Opportunity Tour, where she had a conversation with “Earn Your Leisure‘s” Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings. The big news from her trip came with highlighting the $158 million grant Atlanta received under the Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program. The grant will fund The Stitch, a park in downtown Atlanta that will reconnect communities divided by I-75 and I-85 in the 1950s and 1960s. The freeway displaced about 24,000 people and separated Black neighborhoods from jobs and services in downtown Atlanta. The goal of The Stitch is to help “historically underserved neighborhoods” while reconnecting them to downtown with 14 acres of green space and improved infrastructure. The project will also result in improved safe transportation methods like walking and biking in the previously separated areas.
The overall goal of Harris’ national tour is to illuminate the momentous investments the Biden-Harris administration made in small and Black businesses during the first term.
