Black Wall Street (Durham, North Carolina) facts for kids

Black Wall Street was a special area in Durham, North Carolina, where many African-American businesses and financial services were located in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was on Parrish Street and was home to important companies like Mechanics and Farmers Bank and North Carolina Mutual. It was a place where Black people built their own successful economy during a time when they faced many challenges.

History

During a time when Black people often faced unfair treatment and their rights were limited, the Black community in Durham achieved great things in business. This success challenged the idea of White supremacy. The start of Black-owned businesses in Durham can be traced back to two important African-American leaders: John Merrick and Charles Spaulding. They provided the leadership that helped Black Wall Street begin.

Even though Black Wall Street helped increase wealth for African Americans, this new wealth wasn't shared equally among everyone in Durham's Black community, known as Hayti. The area also helped create a stronger social structure for Black people, but it didn't directly lead to desegregation (ending separation between races).

Memorial sign of Black Wall Street in Durham Downtown

Historical context

After the Civil War, the southern United States was going through a tough time called Reconstruction. In the late 1800s, many southern areas were rebuilding after the war. There was a lot of tension between races because Black slaves had recently been freed. Many White people saw them as new competition for jobs and social standing. Even though they were free, many Black people still lived in poverty. About 85% of Black people were living below the poverty line in the late 1800s. They were often at the bottom of the social ladder and were denied many rights that White people had.

Key Leaders

The rise of John Merrick changed how people saw Black businessmen. Merrick became well-known in his community partly because of his long friendship with Washington Duke. Merrick was a barber, but he earned enough money and loans to open North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. This company later grew even more with the help of Charles Spaulding.

Charles Spaulding became the president of North Carolina Mutual in 1923. He was known as America's top Black businessman. In 1900, when Spaulding became general manager, NC Mutual was almost failing. But by 1910, it was called "the world's largest Negro business." Spaulding, John Merrick, and Dr. Aaron M. Moore (Spaulding's uncle) were celebrated in the African-American community as the "Triumvirate." They showed what Booker T. Washington called "black captains of industry." These leaders of Black Wall Street helped their community grow by creating jobs for other African Americans.

Location

Black Wall Street was a four-block area on Parrish Street. It got its nickname because it was like the famous financial district in New York City. Even though the name "Black Wall Street" became popular later, its importance as an economic center for Black people was clear since the late 1800s. Other cities in the South, like Tulsa, also had similar Black economic centers. Parrish Street was next to the Hayti community, which was the main residential area for African Americans in Durham. Together, these two areas were the heart of Black life in Durham.

How it Grew

Fights between White and Black communities were common in the South during this time. However, this was generally not the case in Durham. When Booker T. Washington visited Durham, he said that the White people there had the "sanest attitude" toward Black people compared to other southern cities he had seen.

Relationship with White community

The success of Black businesses in Durham was connected to the support and tolerance of some important White people in the area. These included Julian Carr, Washington Duke, and James Duke. This support was a key reason why Durham's racial community was different from many other southern cities. This help from some White people came in two ways: direct money investments and a more tolerant attitude.

Investment was a main reason why Black Wall Street came to be. Merrick's first insurance company received some funding from his friend Washington Duke and from Julian Carr. At the time, these were some of the largest investments by White people in Black-owned businesses. White bankers even helped set up the first Black bank. By helping to connect the past (after the Civil War) with the present for African Americans, White business leaders helped Black people continue to expand Black Wall Street.

Duke family

The Duke family actively helped fund many businesses on Black Wall Street. The Dukes were a highly respected family who made a lot of money from making Durham the tobacco capital of the world. Their positive relationship with Black business owners was a big advantage for Durham's Black business community. It allowed money to flow from the White economy to the African-American economy. This positive attitude from Washington Duke came from his opposition to slavery during the Civil War. Local historians often described Washington Duke as "philanthropic, accommodating, and welcoming." He believed that economic progress should not be held back by skin color. The Dukes often gave personal advice to Merrick and Spaulding. They did not separate themselves from the Black part of the city, unlike other rich business owners of their time. James B. Duke once said about Durham:

Durham, as a city, must be holistically judged for its economic merit. This means we musn't let our colored neighbors fall into economic depression.

The Duke Tobacco industry was much larger than the businesses on Black Wall Street. So, the Dukes saw helping Black Wall Street as no threat to their own business power in Durham.

Challenges from some White people

While some wealthy White people in Durham were tolerant and helpful, many typical White citizens did not share this view. White workers often saw the increased employment of Black workers as a threat to their own jobs. The Dukes tripled the number of Black employees in their tobacco factories around the turn of the century. This angered some White workers, who sometimes protested against it. Even though Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois said that Durham's White population was very tolerant, this was not always true. Some lower-class White people were envious of the rapid economic growth.

Black people in southern communities, including Durham, didn't always see independent business as a way to improve their social standing. However, some Black people in Durham chose to start their own businesses instead of doing manual labor. This determined attitude was partly due to the strong leadership of people like John Merrick. He once told the Hayti community, "I do think we [Black community] have done well and I think we could have done better. Now let us make better use of the years we have left, as we have the past to look back over and see mistakes." This positive leadership helped Black Wall Street succeed beyond many expectations.

Mechanics and Farmers Bank

It was hard for Black people to find safe places to deposit money and earn interest, because White banks often didn't allow them. To solve this problem, the founders of M&F Bank, Richard Fitzgerald and James Shepard, started the first African-American bank. M&F Bank became more than just a place for Black people to save money. It became a major source of loans for them. M&F Bank helped Black Wall Street become self-reliant in terms of funding. This led to a direct increase in the number of Black-owned businesses and organizations. Within twenty years of the bank's founding in 1907, the number of Black-owned businesses in Durham tripled. The bank itself has been profitable every year since it opened, even during tough economic times.

Economic growth

The area saw a steady increase in population, wealth, and different types of jobs. By 1890, there were 1,858 Black people in Durham, making up 33.8% of the total population. By 1910, the total population had more than tripled, and African Americans made up about 38% of it. This shows that White people were not stopping the growth of this population. The numbers for wealth were even more impressive. The total value of Black-owned property in the county was $8,696 in 1890. By 1920, this value had jumped to an amazing $4,298,067. Even when you consider inflation, the growth of Black Wall Street was incredible. Booker T. Washington mentioned the variety of jobs in Durham in his writings. 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."

It's important to know that these numbers show the total growth, but much of the wealth was held by a few successful Black business leaders, not everyone. Most Black people in Durham still worked in the Duke Tobacco factories or as farm laborers after emancipation, because they had limited money. The few who were able to start businesses often had personal connections, like John Merrick. Even among Black business owners, few reached the wealth of Merrick, Spaulding, or Fitzgerald. Most African-American business owners ran small stores that didn't always lead to huge successes. In a business survey in 1905, it was estimated that over 75% of the money earned on Black Wall Street came from North Carolina Mutual and M&F Bank. So, Durham was a special place for a select few Black business owners, but this wasn't the case for the average African American.

Social Impact

Black Wall Street had a big effect on social progress. In the late 1800s, the first Jim Crow laws were created. These laws forced racial segregation (separation) in all public places in the Southern United States. By 1890, the idea of "separate but equal" was common throughout the South. Black Wall Street indirectly supported this idea by creating a strong, separate Black community.

The social structure for Black people in Durham was changing quickly in the late 1800s. Self-made African-American businessmen gained high status and were respected by the older, White-focused business class. By the early 1900s, increasing segregation and the growth of cities encouraged the rise of a Black business class. This threatened to change the old social system for African Americans. Luckily for Durham, there wasn't a very strong old social order, so this social change happened with less trouble. High-ranking Black people like Merrick were considered upper-class and "new rich."

However, this social change did not mean that White and Black people became desegregated. Instead, two distinct social structures appeared because of Black Wall Street. The growth of an urban area that offered industrial jobs allowed a Black middle class to form. The only real interaction between the two separate social groups happened at the very top, like with Merrick and the Duke family or Julian Carr.

Legacy

By the end of World War II, the success of African-American businesses earned Durham the title "Capital of the Black Middle Class." However, in the 1960s, urban renewal projects removed much of Hayti and Durham's Black Wall Street. This urban development, along with the Civil Rights movements from the 1940s to the 1970s, began the first real desegregation of Black and White business areas. By the late 1900s, the Census Bureau reported that the city's population was 39.8% Black and 59.8% White. North Carolina Mutual remained the largest and oldest African-American life insurance company.

The impact of these original businesses is still seen in Durham today. Durham's downtown, which was once overlooked, is now becoming a very popular place. Today, historic Parrish Street is at the center of downtown revitalization. The Parrish Street Project was recently created by the City of Durham to honor the history of Black Wall Street and help bring economic growth to a key downtown area.

Images for kids

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  Memorial sign of Black Wall Street in Durham Downtown