The History of Black Entrepreneurship in America, Part I
Learn some of the History of Black Entrepreneurship and meet your first Black Veteran Entrepreneur of the Month
The History of Black Entrepreneurship in America, Part I
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
— Barack Obama
A Rich Black History
Black Americans have a long and rich history of entrepreneurship.
Unfortunately, until recently, many of these stories were overshadowed, distorted, or forgotten due to the lack of black representation in American business culture and the overemphasis on music and entertainment.
Most people assume I have an MBA, given my involvement in the business community, not knowing that my educational background is in History and American studies focused on race, culture, and business.
In December of 2019, I exposed myself to the vastness of our history when I threw myself headfirst into research on the history of black entrepreneurship in America for my master’s thesis at Rutgers-University Newark. At the time, my final paper was the only thing standing between me and my degree in American Studies with an emphasis on Public History.
I look forward to the day when I’m a Professor of entrepreneurship at Rutgers with my background in humanities.
Initially, my goal was to be a boxing historian. But as I pursued my entrepreneurial endeavors with IRONBOUND Boxing and IRONBOUND Media, I became more interested in learning about other black entrepreneurs.
I’d planned to finish my thesis and graduate in 2018, but due to the realities of leaving my full-time job to focus on IRONBOUND Boxing, the last thing on my mind was writing a thesis paper.
After some reflection, I decided to give it a shot, contacted my advisor, and asked when the latest was that I could submit the paper. After ghosting her for almost a year, she responded that I had two weeks to submit my paper if I wanted to earn my master’s.
For my thesis title, I chose Booker T. Washington and The Public Historians: How Public History can Inform, Inspire, and Sustain Black Entrepreneurship in the Digital Age.
Despite his shortfalls, in my mind, Booker T. epitomized black entrepreneurial success during the early 1900s.
During my younger days, I was critical of Washington and his philosophy of social uplift. This philosophy encompasses the typical “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality, which I felt gave racism and discrimination a pass for the economic plight of Black Americans.
Originally born into slavery, he founded the iconic Tuskegee Institute, a black college in Tuskegee, Alabama. Washington also promoted blacks to pursue education in trades and other forms of labor, common at today’s technical colleges, as opposed to studying philosophy, history, and other liberal arts. In Washington’s point of view, blacks needed to create an economic base, which he was willing to pursue at the expense of equality, which led to many other black leaders criticizing him.
This also rubbed me wrong when I first learned about him, but now I’m more understanding of where he was coming from at the time and can appreciate his sentiment. Too often, we look down on black leaders instead of recognizing them as human and acknowledging their efforts to bring change in their way.
Like Washington, I believe as a society that we undervalue the importance of meaningful jobs and our responsibility to create them for the communities we care about the most, in my case, the black community.
As the leader of the IRONBOUND Movement, I look to Washington and his accomplishments more and more for inspiration. I figured he was an excellent place to start my research into the History of Black Entrepreneurship.
Black Entrepreneurship
I started my research by scouring online journals, books, and anything else I could find. When I typed in “Black Entrepreneurship” on Amazon, I was disheartened by the limited number of titles, especially audiobooks, as I consider myself an audio junkie.
Before George Floyd, when America turned the lights on and found we’re not as colorless as we like to think, there were few conversations in the mainstream media or corporate America regarding black entrepreneurship.
During my initial research, I came across Professor Natasha N. Jones, a professor and communications specialist on the rhetorical narrative about black business. She argues that Black Americans are constantly exposed to the narrative of “the failure of African Americans to enhance their status and wealth through self-employment, and their under-representation in the ranks of small businessmen.”1
I’ve caught myself playing into similar narratives several times, emphasizing our inability to create sustainable businesses today while not acknowledging those who’ve done so already and continue to do so.
Even amid slavery, Jim Crow, and ongoing racial discrimination, Black Americans still established a history of business ownership, no matter what we battled in society.
We’ve always managed to get in the game.
Following the Civil War and Abolition movement, African Americans established several thousand successful businesses, many of which thrived in predominantly African-American communities.
These businesses included domestic services and retail, such as dry cleaning, grocery stores, and burial services, creating small business community infrastructure and a sense of economic independence within the black community. Black Americans also opened banks, where, at least for a time, black business owners could acquire loans and receive lines of credit to fund their businesses.
This black economic ecosystem was encouraged by various black leaders throughout history. From Booker T. Washington to Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist, and leader of the Pan-Africanist movement of the 1920s, to New Negro luminaries such as Andrew F. Hilyer, a famous black businessman from the early 1900s, to Malcolm X, leader of the Black Muslims and the Nation of Islam in the 1960s.
Even today, I still gravitated towards Malcolm and his unapologetic love for his people and his ability to use his gift of gab to promote his beliefs. Both Malcolm and Washington understood the importance of Black Americans owning, operating, and establishing businesses in black communities to create economic opportunities for the nation’s disenfranchised black populace.
In his famous speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm encourages Black Americans to control the economies in their community, stating: “If we own the stores, if we operate the businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own community, then we're developing to the position where we are creating employment for our own kind.”
This call to action is the same call I hope to pass on to Black Veteran Entrepreneurs (BVE), encouraging them to pick up the mantle from Malcolm X and others and continue carrying it forward.
In the years before Malcolm’s speech, we had examples of what he preached in Greenwood, a black community near Tulsa, Oklahoma, commonly referred to as Black Wall Street.
Black Wall Street
Professor Jones states, “from the early 1900s until 1921, the number of Black-owned businesses grew to more than six hundred, including a Black-owned bus line, six real estate companies, wealthy oilmen, construction firms, and other entrepreneurs.”
However, due to the escalation of racial tensions and constant oppression found in the Jim Crow Era, Black Wall Street was burned to the ground in a white supremacist terrorist operation, like many other thriving black communities of its era. And in general, Black businesses that offered products or services in competition with those of whites faced increased scrutiny and resistance.
Due to the already limited resources available for Black Entrepreneurs, such blatant attacks and violent repression had devastating repercussions within the black community. Repercussions we are still recovering from today, contrary to the majority opinion.
During Jim Crow, black business owners had limited resources to build their community and little in the way of social insurance to cover losses; consequently, attacks like Greenwood would have the effect of virtually eliminating future wealth overnight.
Despite such hardships, we still had black entrepreneurs succeeding, such as Madame C.J. Walker, who managed to find success in the hair product industry.
In The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, Mehrsa Baradaran notes, “the few black businesses that experienced sustained and profitable growth, for which there was a large demand that white businesses were unwilling or incapable of meeting.”
Walker became one of the nation’s first black entrepreneurs to bootstrap herself to millionaire status, leading the way for future black entrepreneurs like our Black Veteran Entrepreneur of the Month, Haley Marie McClain Hill.
Black Veteran Entrepreneur of the Month
Meet the CEO
Haley Marie McClain Hill
Dancer & Cheerleader | United States Air Force Officer | World Traveler | Reader | Music Lover | Daughter | Sister | Great Friend
Haley Marie lives a fearless life. The trials of becoming an officer in the United States Air Force and the successes of an accomplished NFL Cheerleader gave birth to an extraordinary character; daring, free, and ahead of her time. Her thirst for culture, discovery and travel has helped shape her personality.
Her vision for a wardrobe free from constraints and shapelessness, tweaked with tactical accents, created a visionary allure that is timeless and wildly modern. Boots and camo casually paired with iconic bodysuits have created a signature style... That of a modern-day woman, a pioneer whose lifestyle and multiple facets forged the values of the brand she founded, and who will forever inspire all women warriors.2
TORCH Warriorwear
MISSION:
To be industry leaders in modern-day apparel for women warriors who are fearless in the pursuit of what sets their souls on fire.
VISION:
To inspire women with tactical but comfortable uniform options they can't imagine living without
Support
Check out TORCH Warriorwear and send it to your friends. Let’s support our BVEs! You will hear more about Haley’s story in the book.
We’ll see you soon for The History of the Black Veteran Entrepreneur Part II!
All the Best,
14 Natasha N. Jones. “Rhetorical Narratives of Black Entrepreneurs: The Business of Race, Agency, and Cultural Empowerment.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication Vol. 31,3 (2017): 319-349 15
www.torch-by-haley-marie.myshopify.com
Nice work Mike and Alana! Very informative article. Thank you.