text:  Black franchisees in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Milwaukee then followed suit. Together, they formed the National Black McDonald's Operators Association, which grew to nearly 90 owners by 1975. They are really taking a risk, but they do it because they're fully aware of just the challenges of black business ownership during that time. Chatlin says that black franchise owners saw themselves as torchbearers of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream.