Capitalism and Racism
I do not own the copyright/license to the visuals below. These visuals are literally lifted from my teaching binder in composition class, and as an educator, they are not included here for personal gain, but for an educational demonstration.
There have been times in American history when Black people have been ostracized and even killed for owning successful businesses.
In 1892, three Black men owned a successful grocery store. Called The People’s Grocery Store, Thomas Moss, Will Stewart, and Calvin McDowell pioneered the grocery delivery service. The store was located near current-day Walker Avenue and Mississippi Boulevard near downtown Memphis, Tennessee.
This area is not too many miles away from the Mississippi, Beale Street, Black Millionaire’s Row, and white Millionaire’s Row (In another post, I will explain how Memphis lost its nascent Black middle class due to racist jealousy). The neighborhood was a relatively mixed-race one, and the horse and buggy made deliveries to the various Black communities in the vicinity.
The business was successful. In fact, the business began to shrink a white grocer’s profits and the local owner, William Barrett, became enraged. In early March, rumors were trumped up against the three Black entrepreneurs. By March 9, 1892 the men were arrested. The arrested men were taken from the jail by a lawless crowd. Not willing to go passively, they fought back until they were shot point-blank and their bodies left to the elements. Before dying, Thomas Moss, a friend to the revolutionary scholar, Ida B. Wells, said, “Tell my people to go West. There is no justice for them here.”
Later, Ida B. Wells wrote in her book, Crusade for Justice, that the city and county officials helped white businessmen put an end from earnest competition from Black grocers in Memphis. Unwilling to serve Black customers the same as white ones, they were troubled at the loss of Black dollars, but could not stomach Black business acumen, either.
Ever the speaker for the oppressed, this lynching of her friends for no other reason than their business success, prompted Ida B. Wells, then the editor of Memphis Free Speech, to go on her famous Crusade against lynching. Here was a learned Black woman speaking on behalf of victimized Black men. An attempt was made on her life in Memphis, and her newspaper site was burned to the ground by white men. But Wells was out of town and someone warned her. She did not return to Memphis, but moved to Chicago. Sadly, this was not the first time, and would not be the last, when racialized jealousy would be used to kill Black people and Black entrepreneurial aspirations.
Many historians keep asking what happened to Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Of course, there was a trumped up story: a Black man was accused of “rape,” he was arrested, and a lawless mob showed up to serve extralegal justice. By 1921, however, this was not some loose formation of Black men. They were World War I veterans who had been trained to kill or be killed. They, like the three men in Memphis, did not allow the young man “accused” to be taken without force. They met at the courthouse, where to his credit, the sheriff did not allow the white mob to take the young Black man away from the jail house. Actually, the sheriff cleared the young, Black man of any wrongdoing, and he was slated to be released that day. But the white residents of Tulsa DEMANDED that he be released to them. The Black men heard, and they went to the courthouse to guard the young man. The two groups facing off were the Ku Klux Klan and Black World War I veterans, and both groups were armed to the teeth. A shot rang out, and the riot was on. For 18 hours, May 31-June 1, the Black neighborhood in an area known as Greenwood was looted and burned. Black people, many of them women and children unaware of the disturbances down town, were shot and killed. Finally, a bomb was dropped on the neighborhood. Nobody knows how many people were killed, really. And nobody knows how many people were harmed, really. And nobody knows what stoked the hatred against otherwise peaceful Black people, really.
May I posit that it was jealousy? Tulsa, Oklahoma was a racially segregated city. The city had long ago passed an ordinance that whites and Blacks could not buy houses in the same neighborhood. An oil boom was enriching Oklahoma, and Tulsa was rapidly growing. City officials proactively passed the ordinance in order to maintain firmly-entrenched racial boundaries. The Black neighborhood was relatively self-sufficient: it had good schools with indoor plumbing, theaters, doctors, dentists, and grocery stores. Some people speculated on the Stock Market (hence the nickname, Black Wall Street) quite efficiently, winning more than they lost. It was not perfect, but it was successful. The economic success of the Black neighborhood fanned the flames of jealousy in some of their white neighbors, even some city officials, who wanted to know what these Black people were doing to ensure success. Even some white people did not have indoor plumbing. Even some white people did not have homes the size of some of those well-to-do Black people in Tulsa. The Tulsa Tribune ran a story that stoked racist jealousy against earnestly earned Black money.
Why would I say that this was deadly, racist jealousy? After all was said and done, the lands that once held Black Wall Street were confiscated by the city. The newspaper stories that stoked racial violence were totally destroyed, erased, removed…aside from college classrooms, Black Wall Street is rarely mentioned in academic circles — and certainly not taught in primary and secondary schools outside of Oklahoma. Obliterated from popular memory, the survivors of the attack were given no reparations. Only a scholarship exists and white dominated businesses and municipal buildings stand where their homes once were. It was the second deadliest riot (outside of a New York Riot in 1863), but that’s another posting. It was also the greediest land-grab since the Salem Witchcraft Trials. The Tulsa Race Riots were placed back in history books in 2004.
From Reconstruction to the end of segregation, there are many, many examples of successful Black business owners. While historians focus on the transparent yell of “Rape” as an excuse to take the lives of innocent Black males, the academic community should seriously look at another reason: honest competition with a newly-freed, oppressed population. Mercantile capitalism EXISTS because of slavery and colonialism. If it were not for slavery, Europe may still exist in a state of feudalism today! And in spite of all the idealistic talk about competition making the markets equal, what if there is something wrong with the rules of the competition itself? What if some groups and genders were never meant to compete?
As always, if you like this story, clap back at me (seriously, press the little hands). Or, you could always register for one of my classes. This passage of examples came from my Comp II class discussion. At the time, I was working at an HBCU. Sadly, this discussion drew heat from the administration.
