Doni M. Glover - I Am Black Wall Street

I have always believed, for some strange reason, that a special kind of blessing awaits the persistent Black entrepreneur in America. I now know why.

We stand on the shoulders of a very long line of titans who literally fought the good fight with their blood, sweat and tears - some of whom even made the supreme sacrifice, so that we may live free and prosper.

This book is not about Tulsa, Oklahomas Greenwood District, but rather the story behind the story. How did those Black people get to what was then-Indian Territory in the first place? Who and/or what was the impetus?

Before performing the research for this book, I was in absolute awe of the success and accomplishments of the people of the Greenwood District, better known as Black Wall Street. After closer examination, I now possess a better understanding of how it evolved, the continuum of which Greenwood was a part, and the unsung warriors who led the charge to freedom and self-determination there and throughout the Western hemisphere since the 1500s.

All this to say, I have reached the conclusion and can affirm, without a shadow of doubt, that becoming an entrepreneur is literally the most liberating and revolutionary thing a Black person in America can do. In my 55 years of living, I have personally found that there is nothing more gratifying and more empowering than to witness the evolutionary journey of an entrepreneur - that person who has the audacity to risk it all and dare create something viable, marketable and profitable virtually out of nothing. This is particularly meaningful when one considers that the entrepreneurs in question are Black and living in a still racially-hostile 21st century America.

For a person to step outside of their comfort zone, pursue their vision, sacrifice everything, and build a business from scratch is simply a magnificent feat, a journey not meant for the faint at heart. Whether its a funeral home, like my parents had, or a restaurant, beauty salon, musical recording label, or even a community development corporation, there is something supernaturally beautiful about building ones vision into a profitable enterprise from the ground up and watching it go on to withstand the test of time. Now, for a group of these businesses to successfully band together and grow, in the midst of a mostly Black community in an unwelcoming land like the United States of America in the late 1800s, well thats called Black Wall Street!

As stated in Proverbs 29:18, where there is no vision, the people perish. Clearly, the leaders of these people had an extensive imagination for a new and better day in America that included the promise of increased opportunities and room for growth and expansion far beyond the perils of enslavement. Even the confines of slavery had not diminished their hopes and dreams. Instead, the people of Greenwood rose to the occasion and developed a thriving community.

I have always had this great affinity for business; it comes from my parents. Whether it was answering the familys business phone at age six in my most professional voice, Good evening, Glovers Funeral Chapel. How may I help you? or running my own news and marketing firm years later, my entire life has been spent in and around a family business. I can even remember my dad getting copies of Black Enterprise magazine in the mail. Sure, I had about 50 other jobs over the years - jobs that taught me what I did not want to do for a living and why; but invariably, there was some enterprise afoot on the home front involving commerce including my early years as an Afro American Newspaper boy.

Through these experiences, I have gained a deeper adoration, appreciation, and respect for Black business owners. As a conscious Black man in America, I am well-acquainted with the historical struggles we have faced and continue to face. From access to credit to redlining to changing laws to a less-than supportive and often betraying federal government, life for the Black man and Black woman in business in America has been and is no crystal staircase.

However, I have also come to know that countless Black people over the years have taken on these oftentimes brutal reigns of entrepreneurship, persevered, and succeeded against all odds despite the boatload of bricks thrown at them. They took those bricks and built communities. I have learned that this entrepreneurial spirit happened in more places than we might realize. Although not well-recorded in American history books, this zeal for self-determination, including the growth and development of Black businesses, is more common than we may think. For some, I personally think it is in our DNA.

Working for oneself offers a certain sense of freedom found nowhere else. I have tried the typical nine to five work schedule. Yet, that entrepreneurial bug was too deep-rooted in my soul. This orientation caused me to turn my focus on this long line of entrepreneurs out of which I come, including those brave hearts who weathered Kansas and Oklahoma just to build a freedom colony. It was mind-blowing research whereby the further I delved into it, the more intriguing the story got, and I realized how there was so much we do not know about our own people a lot of which would seemingly make most people of any race proud. Those early Black settlers, at least in my mind, epitomized the true power of the human spirit. They left the plantations and sharecropping of the murderous Deep South and headed for a new life west of the Mississippi River.