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 opens September 2026 Certification opens September 2026

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

Infrastructure, not a directory.

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. We are building all three.

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.

Ambassador Network

Representatives working in their own communities to enroll and support businesses on the ground.

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, led by Dr. Randy Short.

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

Announced pricing.

Annual. 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

$100/ year

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

Descendant

Personal Executive

$250/ year

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

$400/ year

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

$600/ year

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.

Register your interest

Be on the registry the day it opens.

Registry and certification both open September 2026. Add your name now and you will be among the first reviewed, at no cost and no obligation today.

We are also seeking Ambassadors — certified members who represent DOUSCS in their own city and enroll businesses in their community.

We will only contact you about DOUSCS certification and the registry launch.