This month is Black History Month and while there are countless entrepreneurs and business owners I would love to feature and profile one story that resonates with me the most is that of Black Wall Street.
It’s a story that is rarely told and spoken about but business owners especially African-American business owners should know the story. I decided to write this because it’s Black History Month but I don’t subscribe to the idea that there needs to be a specific month that is the only time Black people’s history gets showcased. I mean that for African-Americans, Africans, Asians, Spanish, Mexican, etc. The beauty of platforms like Medium, Tumblr and Wordpress is that stories can be told at anytime of the year, not just in February.
- The jobless rate is 15.8% for African Americans and there is a decline in household wealth and lag in small business ownership(Source: Bloomberg Business Week)
- There were 1.9 Million Black-owned businesses in 2007 which produced $137.5 billion in revenue. Nearly 1.8 Million are sole proprietorships with no employees (Source: United States Census)
- About 2 million of America’s estimated 26 million small businesses are owned by African Americans. But only 100,000 have employees (Source: SBA)
- Internet startups whose founders were black received a median of $1.3 million in venture financing in 2010 (Source: Venture Capital Human Capital Report)
The bottom line is that Black Entrepreneurship has been on the rise, so I thought it would be good to speak about a historical example successful black entrepreneurship—Black Wall Street.
Black Wall Street
During the early 20th century in Tulsa, Oklahoma there was one of the strongest communities of African American businesses in American History. Also known as “Black Wall Street,” the “Black Beverly Hills,” and “Little Africa,” the Greenwood neighborhood was an example of affluence and success.
A dollar circulated for an entire year in Black Wall Street before it left the community and there were over 600 businesses including 30 grocery stores, 21 restaurants, 2 movie theatres, law offices, a bank, a hospital, and a host of other businesses. The community also created many businessmen who became multimillionares and 6 of which had their own private jets.
On May 31, 1921 (or June 1, 1921) Black Wall Street was bombed and all 600 businesses were destroyed overnight. Historians have claimed that thousands of lives were lost during the massacre and to this day many have not recovered.
Now, the purpose of me writing this especially on a platform like a blog was to bring this story which hasn’t been widely told to light. It is to celebrate black entrepreneurship during Black History Month but to also celebrate entrepreneurship as a whole.
What happened to the town was a tragic story, but I hope that this sheds light on the beauty of what one community can do when they invest in one another to build and grow. There were other “Black Wall Streets across the nation including North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia and other places. It is a lesson for many business owners and entrepreneurs whether you are white, black, green, pink or blue. We see communities like this in business organizations like BNI or the Chamber of Commerce, we see it in churches and even between friends and families.
Remember what happened in Tulsa and try to appreciate and celebrate the community and what it meant for African Americans but also to entrepreneurship.
If you found this post of any value, I would appreciate it if you recommended it. Also, I would love to hear if you are part of any strong communities (any entrepreneurial community) and how they are helping you out as a business owner.
Please check out my business blog here: http://progreshion.ceoblognation.com
This post was originally published here: http://progreshion.com/2014/02/14/a-story-you-may-not-have-heard-the-power-of-communities/
Email me when I am CEO publishes stories