There was a scene in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Will and Carlton were pledging a Black Fraternity. Carlton’s tasks were more difficult than the other pledgees because he had grown up with long paper and his appearance was outwardly different. As evident by his pleated trousers, penny loafers, and sweater vests… regardless Carlton still completed his tasks without question with the hopes of gaining membership and acceptance into the brotherhood. Only to later find out that he was denied because he didn’t fit the normative or stereotypical black male disposition. Carlton confronts his dean of pledges to get clarification as to why he didn’t cross the burning sands. He charged his dean with the question “I’m running the same race and jumping the same hurdles as you, so why are you tripping me up?” Fresh Prince has been in syndication for years now, and every time I catch that episode, that question always sticks with me. It has really been at the forefront of my brain since the death of Nipsey Hussle.
Nipsey Hussle’s death was a big blow to the Hip Hop community, but perhaps an even bigger blow the Black community. Nip was murdered at the hands of a Brother. The news reported that Nipsey was murdered by a Brother, whom he had grown up with. To make matters worse, Nipsey was murdered while helping out another Brother that was incarcerated a few months prior, by providing him clothing from his Marathon Clothing store. The Marathon Clothing Store is located in a strip mall that Nip purchased, that included several other of his businesses that provided jobs to the economically disenfranchised. Nipsey was murdered in his own Marathon strip mall, where he had put up capital and sweat equity to build up the historically distressed community on Slauson and Crenshaw Ave. Nipsey’s life was taken by somebody that looked like him, somebody that weathered the same storms and jumped the same social hurdles. Only for that same person to trip Nipsey up and sabotage an entire community and maybe worse, an entire race. Black people have a hard enough time with systemic oppression, provided by our white hegemonic forefathers, we cannot afford to hate ourselves. Historically, when Black people built communities of our own, that provides goods and services for our people, they have been taken away from us by violence or rule by political thumb. Nip had a vision for Black people to be economically empowered through ownership and assets, and took it upon himself to buy back the block. Nipsey was truly creating his very own Black Wall Street.
I had some business travels this month that allowed me to travel back home to Little Rock, Arkansas to attend an HBCU Summit. However, in the process of flying from D.C. to Little Rock, I was suppose to have a layover in Dallas as part of a connecting flight. Dallas had bad weather so we had to do an emergency landing in Tulsa Oklahoma. This emergency landing altered my entire trip because my connecting flight to Dallas was cancelled. So I asked my aunt Cheryl, if she could pick me up from Tulsa to head back to Little Rock and she obliged. Which meant I had 3 1/2 hours to kill until she arrived. I decided to visit Black Wall Street. In the 1920’s Black Wall Street was a Central Black District and economic hub for African Americans in the Greenwood area of Tulsa Oklahoma. That was, until there was a race riot which white residents bombed and destroyed Black businesses, that would leave 26 Black people dead and hundreds more injured. Black Wall Street or “Negro Wall Street” as Booker T. Washington called it had Black dentists, barbershops, hotels, etc. This race riot devastated Black families and businesses that many would not rebuild, and if they did rebuild it was impossible to recapture their glory days in fear there would be another race riot. There would forever be a gray cloud that covered Black Wall Street.
Me standing in front of the “Black Wall Street” sign.
Photo image of the massacre of Black Wall Street during the race riot… I took this photo in the Greenwood Cultural Arts center in Tulsa OK.
There are several of the placards along the sidewalk on the Black Wall St. strip. These placards recognized businesses that were once there before the race riots.
Inside the Dreamland Ball Room. This Ballroom has not been renovated at all, since it closed. Everything is in its original structural form.
I eventually made it to Little Rock tired as hell, but the ride up with my aunt was nice. The following day I made it to the HBCU Summit, which was held at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. The purpose of the HBCU Summit was to figure out how to bring more resources to HBCU’s in Little Rock that students could benefit from. The summit was great, however, it was the location that made it significant. The Mosaic Templars is on the corner of West 9th Street corridor. in the 1950’s and 60’s, the height of Jim Crow South; West 9th Street was the epicenter of Black business in central Little Rock. The strip was a place you could go to get a suit tailored, experience a taste of the nightlife, get groceries, attend church, visit a Black doctor, etc. It was a safe space for Black people… In fact, West 9th street brought in acts through the Chitlin Circuit at a venue called the Dreamland Ballroom. Dreamland hosted talent such as Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. “The Line” was truly a Black economic stimulus package. That was until the state hated on my people; State government told business owners that a freeway was going to be developed that would run through 9th street and insisted that owners needed to disburse, exercising the use of eminent domain… The freeway was indeed built, but it was never developed near West 9th street. Business store owners were lied to, many sold their merchandise at discounted rates in hopes to gain something from being pushed out. Many of the businesses never rebuilt, I’d imagine it was more difficult to rebuild especially when you’re confined certain areas of the city due to segregation.
HBCU Summit inside the Mosaic Templars Cultural center in LR Arkansas.
Painting of Duke Ellington that performed inside the Dreamland Ball Room.
Painting of Cab Calloway and original promotional artwork for those that performed at Dreamland Ball Room.
There have been plenty of Negro leaders pushing the agenda of Black capitalism in America. Such as Booker T. Washington and his self help and racial solidarity ideology; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. founded Operation Breadbasket, an organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of Black communities across the United States of America. Malcolm X gave several speeches about job creation and spending within our communities to have control over our labor and not be exploited….Slauson & Crenshaw Ave, Black Wall Street, and West 9th Street are just three examples of Black people looking to take control of their own economic destinies and not relying on others to fund their dreams. However, it’s rather unfortunate that when getting closer to the finish line, especially when you’re Black that line can and will get pushed back and you’re forced to muster up a second and third wind to push through, because as we know it’s not a sprint but rather its a Marathon.
Photo of the balcony inside the Dreamland Ballroom, where patrons viewed artists performing. Everything still in it’s original form.
The performing stage. Notice the original lighting fixtures along the stage.
Booker T. Washington display inside the Mosaic Templars.