After years of climbing corporate ladders, Black professionals are quitting corporate America — and not looking back. For them, leaving isn’t a sign of failure; it’s deliberately choosing to take control of their careers, prioritize mental health and build something that reflects their values. Those revelations often come years after navigating workplaces, and they realize it’s time to pivot and bet on themselves.
Some of the top Black professionals who have worked for Fortune 500 companies felt overlooked, undervalued and unsupported. Many of them have carefully planned their C-suite exits and chosen entrepreneurship and other avenues.
Marketing executive Bozoma Saint John left top roles at Netflix, Uber and Apple, rejecting work-life balance, the savior-complex and the constant pressures of having to shrink herself or “tone down” who she is as a Black woman. She is the CEO of her hair brand, Eve by Boz, a cast member on Bravo’s”The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and co-host on NBC’s “OnBrand with Jimmy Fallon.” Tristan Walker stepped away from corporate roles at Andreessen Horowitz and Foursquare to pursue entrepreneurship, launching Walker & Company Brands and the grooming brand Bevel, both of which are now owned by Procter & Gamble. Walker is the Founder and CEO of the brands and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Foot Locker, Inc., Shake Shack, Inc., and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Former Wall Street professional Melissa Butler ditched the fast-paced corporate culture largely because she “couldn’t be myself” and people always judged her looks. She now owns Lip Bar, a popular vegan lipstick brand catering to women of color.
While these former corporate professionals succeeded in their roles, they turned to entrepreneurship to better serve themselves and the communities they had originally set out to reach through their brands. Their stories are part of an ongoing trend that explains why so many Black men and women are leaving corporate America in droves.
A 2022 LinkedIn/YouGov study found that 1,000 Black professionals turned to entrepreneurship for “financial support (48%), flexibility (46%), and to counteract a lack of fulfillment at work (30%).” Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many Black Americans have decided to launch their own businesses. However, systemic barriers, such as limited access to financial capital, are among the challenges many Black entrepreneurs face as business owners.
The study also showed that “37% of Black entrepreneurs feel like they have to have someone white on their leadership team/executive board in order to get funding; 36% of Black business owners have a hard time securing financing; 35% of Black entrepreneurs have been discriminated against when applying for funding; and 64% of black entrepreneurs rely solely on personal savings to fund their businesses.”
For Black men and women, both corporate America and entrepreneurship present unique challenges. Many Black employees in corporate settings felt the pressures of being “the only one in the room,” code-switching and shouldering the emotional labor of having to navigate predominantly white spaces. Regina Lawless, who no longer works in corporate America, shared with USA Today the challenges she experienced as a Black woman navigating those workplaces.
“I was coming in as a young Black woman and I didn’t want them to think of me as unprofessional or ghetto or pick your negative stereotype of Black women,” Lawless said. “It was my way not to have people question my competence or my professionalism.”
Lawless said she was among the few Black women at her company. She dressed conservatively, wore her natural hair under a wig, and spoke in a language similar to her white colleagues’. Trying everything to fit in, Lawless said code-switching was her saving grace, as many Black people resort to in these settings.
“Had I not code-switched and conformed, I would not have been seen as having leadership potential,” she said.
Lawless served as head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Instagram before quitting corporate life altogether. She now runs her company, Bossy and Blissful, and in 2024 released her book, “Do You: A Journey of Success, Loss, and Learning to Live a More MeaningFULL Life,” per USA Today.
Her experience reflects a broader reality for many Black professionals, especially Black women. They feel the constant pressure of having to conform in order to survive in these spaces at the expense of their mental health, authenticity and well-being.
Following George Floyd’s killing in 2020, some of the top companies in the nation pledged millions and billions of dollars toward racial equity, according to NPR. Five years later, and corporate America has turned its back on DEI initiatives. Companies like Walmart, Target, Amazon, Google, McDonald’s, and others are eliminating it in response to President Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order that ended DEI in government workplaces and pressured private companies to do the same.
During that time, 277,000 Black women lost their jobs, particularly in the government, corporate and public sectors. According to a blog post from the Economic Policy Institute, the employment rate for Black women dropped by 1.4% to 55.7%, one of the “sharpest one-year declines in the last 25 years.” Black women with college degrees who worked in the public sector were the main ones to be targeted in Trump’s political ploy.
But despite the setbacks, Black professionals are choosing not to stay in spaces that limit them. From launching businesses to consulting and building brands, both Black men and women are taking control of their careers, creating their own opportunities and redefining success and what it looks like for them.
