Black-owned businesses on Martha’s Vineyard span its economic and cultural niches while catering to a general audience. They are inns, art galleries, boutiques and restaurants as well as service providers from real estate to holistic weight loss. But many African American business owners, year-rounders, vacationers and community leaders agree that, given the Island’s history and large African American summer population, there are not nearly enough black-owned businesses based here.

Island Insurance Agency

Hires Account Executive

Martha’s Vineyard Insurance Agency has added Carrie-Lynn Whitney to its sales staff at its Edgartown office.

Ms. Whitney, a 20-year veteran in the insurance industry, has joined the agency as an account executive. Most recently, she has been employed as a benefits consultant handling national accounts. She has relocated from Connecticut to Edgartown.

It was warm and cloudy this year on the Fourth of July.

And as celebrations got under way, two of Vineyard Haven’s anchor businesses burned. Emergency services shut down power along Main street, cordoning off the heart of downtown. And in the aftermath, business owners commiserated, lent their support to the devastated owners of Café Moxie and Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, and shared fears about a retail season now in jeopardy.

She is most at home in the water and on it.

“My grandparents had a house on Morse street with a barn out back and they gave it to my parents when they got married. We called it The Shack and I was there from zero to ten. We would start coming Easter weekend and go straight through until Halloween and we’d be here all summer. We would load up the car Friday after school and we’d stay until Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on the tides. Dad was a fisherman, you know, so if the fishing was good, we’d stay.”