Black Wall Street (Durham, North Carolina)
Black Wall Street was the hub of African-American businesses and financial services in Durham, North Carolina, during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Black-owned business in Durham can be traced back to the efforts of two African-American entrepreneurs: John Merrick and Charles Spaulding.
[5] Racial tensions were at an all-time high, due to the recent emancipation of all Black slaves, and the new economic and social competition they represented in many Whites' eyes.
[7] Originally a barber by profession, Merrick gained enough money through income and loans to open North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, which was later expanded with the efforts of Charles Spaulding.
Serving as the president of North Carolina Mutual starting in 1923, Spaulding enjoyed the reputation as America's leading Black businessman.
"[10] By channeling their success to providing employment for fellow African Americans, these pioneering figures of Black Wall Street stimulated its economic expansion.
[12] Clashes between White and Black communities throughout the south during this time period were practically routine occurrences, but this was generally not the case in Durham.
Merrick's original insurance company was partially funded by his long standing friend Washington Duke and White capitalist, Julian Carr.
Seen as the quintessential southern businessmen, the Dukes were a highly revered family who made a fortune from establishing Durham as the tobacco capital of the world.
[20] This openly positive attitude towards the Black community stemmed from Washington Duke's original opposition to slavery during the Civil War.
[20] Frequently characterized by local historians, as “philanthropic, accommodating, and welcoming," Washington Duke believed that economic progress should not be marred by skin color.
[20] Often found directly giving personal advice to Merrick and Spaulding, the Dukes did not isolate themselves from the Black half of the city unlike other contemporary industrial moguls.
This means we musn't let our colored neighbors fall into economic depression.It was also evident that the level of business on Black Wall Street was insignificant in comparison to the Duke Tobacco industry.
Envious of the rapid economic development, lower-class Whites occasionally attacked stores on Black Wall Street.
He wrote that he had "never seen in a city of this size so many prosperous blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cotton-mill operatives, and tobacco factory owners among the Negros.
"[14] It is important to acknowledge the fact that these aforementioned statistics reflect gross numbers, and realistically much of the wealth was shared among a select few Black business elite, not the entire population.
[41] A majority of African-American business owners realistically operated small stores specialized in certain goods that frequently did not result in huge successes.
[44] During the late 1800s the first Jim Crow laws were established, which mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern United States.
By the end of World War II, the success of African-American businesses gave Durham the title as "Capital of the Black Middle Class.
This urban sprawl coupled with a heated Civil Rights movements from the 1940s to 1970s began the first real desegregation of Black and White business districts.
