The story
Founded by Omar Wasow in 1999.1
Private company
BlackPlanet
Logo: BlackPlanet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3
Social networking service
BlackPlanet is an African-American social networking service for matchmaking and job postings. The company website also contains forums for discussion of political and social issues. BlackPlanet was launched by internet analyst Omar Wasow on September 1, 1999.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
Overview
1999Founded1
- HeadquartersNew York City1
- Websitewww.blackplanet.com
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BlackPlanet is an African-American social networking service for matchmaking and job postings. The company website also contains forums for discussion of political and social issues.2
Leadership
Who has led BlackPlanet, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.
- FounderOmar Wasow1
Subsidiaries and ownership
Owners
From Wikidata.1
Controversies and legal
Lawsuit
In October 2011, an anonymous model filed a federal lawsuit against BlackPlanet.com regarding a 2007 incident in which she was drugged and raped by two men who met the woman through the website. The two men (40-year-old Lavont Flanders, Jr. and 45-year-old Emerson Callum) were convicted by a federal jury in Miami in December 2011 of multiple sex-related and conspiracy charges and were sentenced to life in prison. The woman alleges that BlackPlanet.com "failed to warn women about the dangers of sexual predators". The site's parent company told the Miami Herald it "vehemently" denies the allegations.
From Wikipedia’s article on BlackPlanet, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4
Timeline
- 1999Founded Founded1
Links
- Websitewww.blackplanet.com1
- X (Twitter)x.com/blackplanet1
- WikipediaBlackPlanet
- WikidataQ4920183
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataBlackPlanet on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaBlackPlanet on Wikipedia
- 3Wikimedia CommonsBlackPlanet logo by BlackPlanet, Public domain
- 4