[Ads-l] Black Wall Street (Negro Wall Street; Colored Wall Street)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Perhaps not surprisingly, the OED doesn't have an entry for Black (or Negro
or Colored) Wall Street, which has been used to describe a thriving
business/financial district owned by and run for Black Americans. I've
collected a few early appearances of the phrase reserved for these
historically and economically important parts of various cities. See below.

BTW, it's said that Booker T. Washington coined the phrase when he called
the Greenwood District (Tulsa), a prosperous enclave for Black business
before 1921, "the Negro Wall Street" in or around 1906, but there seems to
be no documentation for this claim. (For more, for example, see RJ Young,
_Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and
Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot_ [Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2022].)

-- Bonnie

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The Negroes have a Negro Patti, a Negro Sullivan, a Negro Gladstone, and,
in Washington, to be up with the imitation, we have a Negro Wall street.
Eighth street, N.W., opposite the post office department is our Negro Wall
street, and just around the corner, in the same building, is our Negro
bank, all domiciled in the Le Droit building, owned by a man who was first
attracted to Washington by a position tendered to him in part by Negroes.
He has now grown rich, and has served notice on these Negro brokers,
bankers and real estate agents to "vamose the ranch," quit! get out!! go
away! go to -------- anywhere. You are a nuisance. Well, the Negroes
attribute it all to everything but the right thing. They think the white
man is jealous of the business capacity of the colored man, and that he is
standing in their way financially.

["A Blow Between the Eyes; Why It Is So Difficult to Rent and Retain Places
Rented," The Cleveland Gazette, 28 May 1892, p. 1. Via geneaologybank.com.]

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Of the four big colored organizations of Richmond doing a National
business, perhaps the Independent Order St. Luke, is the most prominent.
Its phenomenal progress within the last two or three years has astounded
the Southern whites and created a sensation fever of push and go even
within the strenuous confines of what is called the colored Wall Street, in
Richmond.

["The Old Dominion; Colored Banks and Insurance Companies Thrive," The
Colored American (Washington), 5 December 1903, p. 7. Via geneaologybank.com
.]

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St. James church served dinner on Bridge Street, Saturday, the busy men and
women on Colored Wall street, always appreciate the dinners.

["Waco," The Dallas Express, 4 October 1919, p. 8. Via geneaologybank.com.
I'm uncertain whether "Colored Wall street" here denotes a business
district or something else.]

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When this has been done, when the Negro is a commercial factor to be
reckoned with, as is the Jew, when he controls the industries located in
that section of this and other countries where he outnumbers the whites,
when, for example, he is able to establish a Wall Street of his own -- A
Black Wall Street -- he will be in a commanding position to dictate the
political policies of the government and can, by his own means as a
commercial power, cause instantly to cease all forms of discrimination and
injustice against which he now has just reason to complain.

[From "Summarized Report, Second Week of the Convention," Negro World (New
York), 19 August 1922, pp. 3 and 6. Text in question appears on page 6. Via
geneaologybank.com.]

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THE NEGRO WALL STREET

Parrish Street, Durham, which houses assets of some $50,000 was frequently
referred to as the Wall Street of Black America. Indeed, it was the
consistent successful conduct of big business affairs of the Durham group
which won for the "Bull City" the headquarters of the Finance Corporation.

["Corporation Officially Launches; Moton Heads Organization; Durham Lands
Home Office," The Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City), 27 November 1924, pp. 1
and 8. Via newspapers.com.]

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[J.A. Blume] spoke of Durham, the leading city in the country for negro
finance and enterprises, and said that it was only a short time until the
negro Wall street of America would be located in Durham.

["Owens Talks to Colored Masons," The Winston-Salem Journal, 10 December
1924, p. 10. Via newspapers.com.]

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It is only here and there that you will find a flourishing business among
our people. Auburn avenue, in Atlanta, Ga., which was once known as the
"Black Wall Street of the South," is in mourning as a result of the
migration of the majority of its black capitalists.

[Henry F. Arnold, "Laborers Moving Northward; Professional Men Follow," The
Afro-American (Baltimore), 21 March 1925, p. 16. Via newspapers.com.]

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