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

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Then I'm glad I could do something to help a bit with this massive and
important effort, Fred.

-- Bonnie

On Sun, Jul 12, 2026 at 3:57 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

Thanks, Bonnie, for this great posting, which I have forwarded to the
> Oxford Dictionary of African American English.  In the past I have tried to
> research "Black Wall Street" and been surprised at the paucity of
> citations, even in databases with extensive coverage of Black newspapers.
> It is particularly puzzling that there is a lack of contemporaneous
> references to Tulsa as a Black Wall Street.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Bonnie Taylor-Blake <00001a89b77a7850-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2026 1:44 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Black Wall Street (Negro Wall Street; Colored Wall Street)
>
> 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
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> 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
> .]
>
> ----------------
>
> 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
> .]
>
> ----------------
>
> 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.]
>
> ----------------
>
> 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.]
>
> ----------------
>
> 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.]
>
> ----------------
>
> [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.]
>
> ----------------
>
> 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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