Asheville Black Wall Street: Reflecting on 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre

Dolly Parton just remade her song "9 to 5" for this year's Super Bowl to tell the story of today's entrepreneur.  They don't work 9 to 5 anymore.  They work 5 to 9. 

It's a struggle, but this is what it takes to get your idea off the ground and turn your hustle into a business. It was working 100 years ago, but white rioters burned, bombed and destroyed the Black Business District.

This story was not found in any history books. There were 1,256 homes burned or destroyed, 600 Black businesses bombed including churches, schools, shops, a hospital and a library. This was not a foreign town.  The Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK became the first US city to be bombed by air.  Greenwood was a thriving Black Business District known as Black Wall Street because of the number of businesses owned by Black folks.

We were not allowed to use the bathrooms downtown except for one facility at the top of an office building- accessible only by elevator. Then 19-year-old Derrick Rowland was a shoe-shiner that had mistakenly stepped on the foot of 17-year-old elevator operator, Sarah Page causing her to scream out. Later that day this Black man was accused of attempting to rape this white woman and was arrested. The proceeding newspaper article said, "a lynching is imminent."  The public response was a riot that killed around 300 people and totally wiped out an entire Black Business District.

Historically speaking, we know how this happened.  Does it still happen? Do people internally harbor bad feelings that could be incited by someone else's verbal triggers and create the momentum to behave as a mob hurting other people and destroying property? I'm not sure.

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Sadly, this young lady did experience some visceral level of fear otherwise she would not have screamed.  Maybe she had implicit bias and had not attended Lenoir-Rhyne's Equity & Diversity Institute.

The propaganda leftover from slavery had already stereotyped Black Men as violent oversexualized bucks, otherwise there would have been no receptor for the incendiary words to incite a riot. Gas was already in the air and was only ignited by the single strike of the "match" causing lots of people to do what they already wanted to do.

My momma said, "people only do what they want to do." Really.

A pot of something was brewing against people who were only trying to do business in accordance with the local laws.

Urban renewal in Asheville was a pivotal time where Black Businesses had previously thrived. Valley Street was bustling.  Stephens-Lee High School had produced amazingly talented professionals both locally and nationally, the YMI Cultural Center had received recognition as the country's first black cultural center. 

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Because of red-lining, Black neighborhoods had both doctors, lawyers, janitors, housekeepers, and homemakers sharing the same street name on their addresses and engaging in business with each other. It was insulated, but it worked. The response was interesting, though.  A Black professional in Asheville was enlisted to go door-to-door in what is today's Charlotte street, to convince Black property-owners to part with their properties with some promise that things will be better.  All of them were eventually displaced.  I wonder if this has happened again - gentrification. 

To be sure, there was no mass murder or bombing.  But I wonder if this was another type of violence.  Violence is defined as "behavior intended to hurt, damage, or kill something or someone".  Whether the violence is verbal or physical, it categorized as such because of the intended demise of the victim.  To me, it seems that violence can be physical, verbal, or sexual but it can also be professional, cultural, and historical.  So long as the action causes hurt or damage, it is violence. 

Consequently, I would say that Asheville experienced cultural violence that damaged the livelihood of a thriving Black Community. Asheville experienced professional violence that damaged the progress Black Business Owners who had found a way to participate in the American dream.   This model is called "Black Wall Street" and it is not exclusive.  It is inclusive.

People would intentionally spend their hard-earned dollars with black-owned businesses. This model was seen all over the country and they did not all end like Tulsa.  Some of them continued to thrive - Durham, NC; Richmond, VA, Birmingham, AL; and even here in Asheville, NC.

We can still do more.  Since this grant launched, we have had 15 partners and 45 black business owners sign up. But we only have funding to support 20. Our goal is to reach $250K as a cohort.

Target identified Black-owned products in their stores using hearts.  Etsy highlighted black-made products online. Yelp has shown a 20% increase in searches for black businesses.

We can do our part too, Asheville. We can take this year, the 100-year centennial of Tulsa, and turn 1,000 tears into 1,000 triumphs. In partnership with Aisha Adams Media Group, Hatch AVL, Asheville Rotary Club, Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation, Venture Asheville, the City's Business Inclusion Office, and local professionals we are pushing forward to help grow a more inclusive economy.

On February 13 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., we will host the first Black Wall Street Pop-up of the year at GRIND 346 Depot St. This is Asheville's Black Wall Street kickoff event of 2021.

By J Hackett is the Owner of GRIND, Pastor of New Mt Olive, and Executive Director of Jordan Peer Recovery.