The Little Known History of Wealthy Black Americans
During my K-12 schooling, history was my favorite subject. For years I found myself immersed in books highlighting interesting facts and stories on how our world evolved.
In my forties, however, I had a revelation that changed the trajectory of my historical interests:
The books and courses I encountered during my high school and college years contained embarrassingly little coverage on great figures and major milestones in black history.
By way of example, stories of the wealthy elite were always punctuated by names like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Mellon with little mention of wealthy titans like an A.G. Gaston or a Mary Ellen Pleasant who played defining roles in our nation’s history
Or how about the groundbreaking achievements of business titan Reginald Lewis, a historical figure I have covered at length over the years.
In recent years, there has been much debate as to why there have been so few black billionaires in U.S. history. Moreover, little mention is ever made of the wealthiest black person currently in America, a man by the name of Robert Johnson.
If like me, you happen to have an interest in free enterprise and wealth creation, I highly recommend you pick up a great book called Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires by Shomari Wills.
This awe-inspiring book chronicles the lives of Mary Ellen Pleasant, Robert Reed Church, O. W. Gurley, Hannah Elias, Annie Turnbo Malone, and Madam C. J. Walker, America’s inaugural cohort of black millionaires, and their path to wealth and freedom. The historical achievements of these trailblazers are truly remarkable given the immense racial roadblocks and odds they had to overcome.
In the book’s introduction, author Shomari Wills sets the context for what readers will uncover by pouring through its pages:
The creation of black wealth is an important but overlooked subject in the economic and social history of the United States. African Americans were treated as property during slavery and were stripped of their economic and social personhood — reduced to commodities to be controlled, managed, bought, sold, underwritten, and leveraged. Attaining economic independence and power was a revolutionary act. Black millionaires disrupt stereotypes of black economic impotence. They remind us that African Americans do not lack the desire or ability to work or build businesses and wealth, but that instead, they have often had to overcome great struggles to achieve economic stability, let alone independence and power.”
In the ’80s during my time living in Indianapolis, I was introduced to the legacy of Madam C. J. Walker who is regarded as the first female, self-made millionaire in America. Black Fortune narrates her journey in great detail — not only how she built such tremendous wealth — but her audacity to flaunt it openly and without concern — a dangerous practice for any Black American in those days.
In recent years, the legacy of Madam C.J. Walker has captured the attention of a growing number of American’s of all races and stripes. By way of example, The New Voices Foundation in 2018 announced that it had acquired the estate of this historical figure with plans to convert it into a think tank for black women entrepreneurs. And if you are a Netflix fan, check out the launch of “Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker.
Says author Shomari Wills in the conclusion of the book:
“The establishment of wealth is fundamental to social and political progress. Wealth has the ability to transform communities and close gaps in racial disparities. During these individuals’ lives, which span the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an era when African Americans needed housing, jobs, and funding for political campaigns and activism, it was the black wealthy class that often supplied the means.”
Black Wealth offers an unmatched look at the untold legacy of Black American’s who have paved the road for racial advancement and economic freedom in this nation. Reading it has given me hope that this long-overlooked narrative of American history will finally gain the recognition that it so rightfully deserves.