Tulsa’s Black Wall Street is often considered as the only legacy of Black wealth and economic empowerment. That is farther from the truth. There is a nation of Black Wall Streets beyond Oklahoma, nestled between the pasts of the Civil War and the end of Reconstruction.
Today is a new day to shed light on the ongoing efforts to preserve and advance the Black dollar. From Greenwood to Richmond, segregation and discrimination forced Blacks into a small world in which Blacks had open access to prosperity and generational wealth.
We want to acknowledge the freedman communities, individuals, and new-age initiatives that continue to breathe hope in a New Black Wall Street. For instance, former Wall Street analyst Claudia Walker dedicated her collection, The ABCs Of Black Wall Street books, to empowering educators, parents, and youth about the future for Black Wall Street. The Official Black Wall Street organization provides a platform and directory for Black-owned businesses across various sectors within the United States.
Ikechi Nwabuisi, founder & CEO of TRiBL, is also a true believer in the future of Black Wall Street. He introduced a strategic plan to lay the groundwork for a global digital wealth strategy built on community and e-commerce. In May, the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival hosted a series of community-led events, which included discussion panels, performances and guest appearances from artists, advocates and political leaders.
Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma
After a long battle, the affluent Black-owned community Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street, graced the National Register of Historic Places last year.
Recognized as a freedom colony, Black Wall Street was a thriving mecca of black enterprises fueled by Oklahoma’s oil boom during that time. The entrepreneurs of Greenwood continued to work with other businesses to pour and circulate resources within the Black community until the Tulsa Race Massacre on May 31, 1921.
Launched in 2022, the Black Wall Street Business Center pays homage to the Tulsa Greenwood neighborhood. The 2,200-square-foot facility that aims to advance Black, indigenous, and minority businesses and entrepreneurship. Thee hub features three shared office spaces, 16 working desks, a seating area and a meeting room, free Wi-Fi and printing, and a kitchen.
Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia
Known as “the Harlem of the South,” the Jackson Ward district of Richmond was established in 1871. The Reconstruction era saw an influx of freed slaves move into the neighborhood. They created one of the most vibrant, active, and prominent centers of Black economic self-determination.
Among the District’s thriving entertainment included the famed Hippodrome theatre where the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Richmond’s own Bill “Bojangles” Robinson made appearances. The neighborhood housed large and well-known African-American churches, including the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded by famous orator John Jasper. The retail and business community included the incomparable Maggie L. Walker, the first woman in America to found and lead a bank in the United States when she opened the St. Luke Penny Savings.
In the late 1950s, the Ward was divided by the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike (now part of I-95). Many structures and businesses were torn down.
The Hayti Community in Durham, North Carolina
The Hayti community, once the economic and cultural lifeblood of Black Durham, is linked to the newly-constructed Durham Freeway, which upended businesses and livelihoods. After the Civil War ended, freedman settled in Durham, N.C. to work in the tobacco warehouses. They settled in the vicinity of Fayetteville Rd. on land owned by White merchants until they were fully self-sufficient.
The growing neighborhood was named after Haiti—the first free, independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere. By the early 1900s, Hayti built Lincoln Hospital, staffed by black doctors and nurses, as well as a theater, a library, hotels and over 200 businesses. North Carolina Central University was founded in Hayti in 1910 and became the first state-supported liberal arts college in 1925.
Additionally, James E. Shepard, Aaron McDuffie Moore, John Merrick and Charles Clinton Spaulding founded North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co., which became the wealthiest Back-owned company during that time. The group also started a land-development company that built many of the homes and businesses in the area.
The Historical Town of Boley, Oklahoma
Formed after the Great Migration, Boley, Oklahoma was established in 1904 as one of the largest and most thriving black towns in the country. Thousands of Blacks relocated to the north after slavery and settled on the land that was owned by a Black woman, Abigail Burnett McCormick. McCormick had inherited the land from her father, J. B. Boley, a railroad official of the Fort Smith and Western Railway.
When McCormick stepped in as mayor of the town, she invited Blacks far and wide and helped grow the population to 4,000. By 1911, Boley was acclaimed for building the first Black-owned electric company and the first Black-owned bank in the country. Residents established several grocery stores, hotels, restaurants, cotton gins, drug stores, a jewelry store, department stores, insurance companies, photography businesses, and an ice plant. The town were huge supporters of two colleges: Creek-Seminole College and Methodist Episcopal College, and became a place for fraternities such as Eastern Stars and Black Masons to hold their annual meetings.
The downtown business district is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Boley still hosts the nation’s oldest African American community-based rodeo every Memorial Day weekend.
The Fourth Avenue District in Birmingham, Alabama
As a result of Jim Crow laws, a growing black business community were forced into an area along Third, Fourth, and Fifth Avenue North, from 15th to 18th Streets in Birmingham, Alabama. The area, also known as “Little Harlem,” was located in the area included barber and beauty shops, mortuaries, saloons, restaurants, theatres, photographic studios, cleaners, shoe shine parlors, and motels.
Bob Williams, owner of “Bob’s Savoy,” a famous night club and restaurant, and other Black businesses continued to do well throughout the ’60s. However, disintegration caused a major “economic” impact on the area. Many Black shoppers abandoned Black-owned businesses once they were allowed to shop in white-owned establishments.
Sweet Auburn, Atlanta Georgia
In 1956, Fortune referred to Auburn Avenue as “the richest Negro street in the world.” The historic district of Atlanta was named Sweet Auburn by John Wesley Dobbs to
reflect African American community triumph. Prior to the civil rights movement, the former Auburn Avenue catered to the underserved Black population and boasted a concentration of retail trade and wealthy business owners.The area’s business district included restaurants, lawyers’ and doctors’ offices, insurance companies, banks, lodges, churches, funeral homes, shoeshine stands, clubs, drugstores, and other businesses. Citizens Trust Bank extended credit to Black homeowners and entrepreneurs who were rejected by the city’s white lending
institutions. Alonzo Herndon, a freedman who was considered the city’s first Black millionaire, founded Atlanta Life Insurance Company and a Texan named Heman Perry built the second Black insurance company at the time, called Standard Life. Sweet Auburn was also home to the nation’s first African American daily newspaper, the Atlanta Daily World, established in 1928 by W.A. Scott.Weeksville in Brooklyn, New York
In the 1800s, Weeksville played a significant role in our country’s history as one of the first Black communities in New York. This cohesive section of Crown Heights was named after James Weeks, a freedman who purchased a large portion of land. Property ownership was instrumental in creating a thriving neighborhood and community with over 500 residents, including doctors, teachers, and business people. By 1850, Weeksville had become the second largest community for free men and women in pre-Civil War America.
During the 1930s and 50s, the identity of Weeksville would start to fade as a wave of European immigrants and Brooklyn’s expanding city would lead to the village’s buried past.
Learn more about the Weeksville’s important history at the Weeksville Heritage Center.
The Black Wall Street of Baltimore
A group of Black entrepreneurs have rallied together to call 25th Street in North Baltimore, Maryland a new name: “The Black Wall Street of Baltimore.” One of the collaborators include the founder of the non-profit Notre Maison Connects, Jacqueline Cummings, who owns several buildings along the street. Previously, Cummings said she wanted to invite more Black-owned businesses in the community to join her and other Black business owners. The street boasts several Black-owned businesses including a clothing store called Waaah attached to a barbershop, a library, a hair salon, a soul food joint called Taste This, a unisex clothing brand store and a restaurant.
Additionally, education is just once incentive to encourage generational wealth. Business owners are welcomed to teach 18 to 21 years olds about entrepreneurship.
The Black Wall Street of Mississippi
After several banks rejected his loan request, Tony A. Reimonenq Jr. of Reimonenq & Co. L.L.C. remained resilient and closed a $1 million deal on a property he wanted before it ever went on the market for sale.
Along with his wife, and three sons, Reimonenq purchased a 20-unit strip mall in the Oak Grove community of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with plans to transform the location into a version of the original Black Wall Street in Tulsa. According to Black Business, the establishment will be named Greenwood Plaza. It will offer spaces for the purpose of empowering entrepreneurs to set up shop.It will be located on Old Highway 11 in the Oak Grove area.
In 2022, the Small Business Administration’s District Director, Janita Stewart, said the plaza is ideal for trade schools, supply stores, barber shops, beauty salons, insurance, real estate brokers, medical offices, lending institutions, caterers, florists, and events or corporate meetings. Free monthly money management workshops and business growth programs will be provided as well.
Here are several other Black Wall Streets across the nation:
- AfricaTown (near Mobile, Alabama)
- Allensworth (California)
- Beech Settlement (Indiana)
- Blackdom (New Mexico)
- Brooklyn (Illinois)
- Dearfield (Colorado)
- Eatonville (Florida)
- Ellis Alley (San Antonio, Texas)
- Hobson City (Alabama)
- Lyles Station (Indiana)
- Mound Bayou (Mississippi)
- Sandy Ground (New York)
Celebrate Juneteenth 2023 with BLACK ENTERPRISE with month-long content that explores the history of prosperity and banking, and the future of investing and financial literacy for Black communities.
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