Do you support black businesses? Historically, the most prosperous, thriving community of black business was known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It had over “over 600 successful businesses… [and]…among these were 21 churches, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters, plus a hospital, a bank, a post office, libraries, schools, law offices, a half dozen private airplanes and even a bus system”.¹ It resembled what we know of Atlanta, Detroit, and New York in black business. Due to a close knit community of depending on one another, the dollars of buying black and supporting black stayed within the community creating a “successful infrastructure.”¹ The success and achievement blacks consistently made at this time was seen as a threat by whites. The jealousy sparked a riot, government aerial bombings, and mob lynching’s led by the KKK and thousands of blacks, along with their homes and businesses were destroyed in the heart of America’s Midwest. From 2002 to 2007, the number of black-owned businesses…was 1.9 million generating over $137.5 billion. (www.census.gov) “Black-owned businesses continued to be one of the fastest growing segments of our economy, showing rapid growth in both the number of businesses and total sales during this time period,” said Census Bureau Deputy Director Thomas Mesenbourg. It’s not far-fetched to believe we can rebuild the ‘hoods back home, invest in our schools and black owned businesses with our own money. Marching will not do it alone. We can’t act brand new. We know money talks, but what is our money saying? Where are we spending our money? Is there anything we have in our closet, home, or bookshelf that is made by black hands? “We must buy from ourselves in order to re-circulate Black dollars. If we want our dollars to return, we must spend them within our own community…make a commitment to yourself to do as much of your spending within our community as possible.” (Ujamaa Network)
