Booming Biz: Black America’s Historic Business Districts
Greenwood, Jackson Ward and other centers of Black commerce.
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Booming Biz: Black America’s Historic Business Districts - In the days of segregation in the United States, it was common for many American cities to have thriving, bustling centers of Black-owned businesses. They included banks, newspapers, insurance agencies and a host of enterprises owned by African-Americans. — Jonathan P. Hicks (@hicksjonathan) (Photo: Ken Levine/Getty Images)
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The Greenwood Section of Tulsa, Oklahoma - One of the most successful and wealthiest African-American communities in the country was in Tulsa, a section known as the “Black Wall Street.” It thrived until the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, which devastated the community. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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Jackson Ward, a Celebrated Richmond Enclave - The Jackson Ward section of Richmond, Virginia, was a center of Black commerce after the Civil War. Its business leaders included John Mitchell Jr., editor of the Richmond Planet, and Maggie L. Walker, the first woman to charter and serve as president of an American bank. (Photo: Wikicommons)
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Durham’s Hayti District, a Black Economic Engine - The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Mechanics & Farmers Bank were among the Black business powerhouses along Parish Street in the Hayti section of Durham, North Carolina. It, too, would be referred to as a “Black Wall Street.” (Photo: Charles 'Teenie' Harris/Carnegie Museum of Art/Getty Images)
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In the Nation’s Capital, the Greater U Street Historic District - In the years between 1900 and 1950, the U Street area in Washington, D.C., was the home to a vibrant community of Black-owned business. It included the Lincoln Theater, which was built in 1921 as a first-run house for Black clientele. (Photos from left: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/GettyImages, Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
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Chicago’s Bronzeville Was Home to Thriving Black Businesses - Located between the crowded corners of 35th and State Street and 47th Street and South Parkway Boulevard, people came to see and be seen, shop, conduct business, dine and experience this bustling Black metropolis in Chicago. (Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images)
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The Ville in St. Louis, a Center of Business and Culture - During the 1920s, the Ville in St. Louis was home to an elite community that included Black professionals and business owners including Annie Malone, one of the country’s first African-American millionaires. It thrived in the 1920 and 1930s. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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More Than Just Jazz at Kansas City’s 18th and Vine - Once the center of African-American Kansas City, the 18th & Vine District was a prime destination for Black jazz clubs. It was also a hot spot for restaurants and was also a center of Black business in Kansas City. (Photo: Beth Gauper/St. Paul Pioneer Press/MCT /Landov)
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Sweet Auburn in Atlanta, “The Richest Negro Street in the World” - The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 helped create Sweet Auburn as a significant Black business district. It was home to Atlanta Mutual, the city’s first Black-owned life insurance company and to businesses and newspapers. Fortune magazine coined it “the richest Negro street in the world.”(Photo: David Goldman/AP Photo)