AUSTIN, Texas -- COVID-19 has taken a devastating toll on minority communities. Now, new research points to a disproportionate economic toll as well.

While most small businesses have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz predict 40 percent of black-owned businesses across the country will not be able to recover from the shutdowns.

They say there were more than one million black-owned businesses in the U.S. at the beginning of February. By mid-April, more than 440,000 of them -- or 41 percent -- had gone under for good. That's compared to 17 percent of white-owned businesses shuttered during the same period.

The President of the Texas Association of African American Chambers of Commerce joined Capital Tonight to discuss the report and how black-owned businesses in Texas are faring. Click the video link above to watch our interview with Charles O’Neal.