By: Mya Reeves (with Chris Hostetler and Kali Whitaker)
A diverse, growing city with great food and inspiring arts, Durham, North Carolina, has a proud heritage as an economic powerhouse for black-owned businesses. Many of the institutions and traditions that took root more than a hundred years ago are still shaping business activity and lives, including mine.
“Black Wall Street,” a term coined by Booker T. Washington, describes the vast business developments on Parrish Street in the early 1900s. Located north of the Hayti Community, one of Durham’s largest African-American communities, Black Wall Street became a center of black life in Durham.
John Merrick, one of the primary founders of NC Mutual Life Insurance Co.
What we know of Durham today is a mosaic of institutions that sprung from the innovation and entrepreneurship of Black Wall Street’s leaders, many of whom were born as slaves. At a time when most black people struggled to r ...