Coffee Conversations: Black Coffee Atlanta CEO, Atlanta Housing CEO and community leaders on the future of Lakewood Heights

Jamin Butler, the CEO and co-founder of Black Coffee Atlanta, sits in the lounge area of his coffee Lakewood Heights coffee shop. (LaShawn Hudson/WABE)

Jamin Butler, the CEO and co-founder of Black Coffee Atlanta, says coffee is the medium that brings people together for conversation and community.

Bulter said he and four close friends decided to launch the coffee shop in South Atlanta as an avenue to give back and to be a part of the revitalization of the Lakewood Heights community. He says oftentimes, when a historic Black community undergoes revitalization, developers and big companies push out minority-owned businesses.  

“We come from South Central and other low-income communities across the nation, and we realized what happens when you don’t take economic opportunity to participate in change,” Butler said on Friday’s special edition of “Closer Look.”