Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk
Back in the day when the Civil Rights Act was passed, I don't think any of us ever thought there would be a day that white people would like us. We didn't expect to be liked. The black guy just wanted access to the same resources as the white guy, and hopefully not get killed when he became successful.
That access was more useful to the black guy in the south because blacks in the south were already doing what immigrant communities do to get ahead. We had colleges, we had entrepreneurs, we had an intelligentsia and a bourgeoisie. "Black Wall Street" was possible in the South--white people had to go on a violent rampage to stop it, and white people in the south frequently took extreme steps to prevent blacks in the south from advancing on our own...because we pretty frequently did.
But the oppression in the north was so total in its systematic pervasiveness that a Black Wall Street was never even possible in the North. Even today, I can far more easily set up a small business in a southern city than a northern one, remaining segregation not withstanding.
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I think you may just not be familiar with the Midwest and black history in the Midwest and Northeast in particular.
In the Midwest blacks also were like immigrant communities as well. There are HBCUs in Ohio where I'm from. They also had entrepreneurs, had intelligentsia and a black bourgeoisie community (I have a line of my family that were black bourgeoisie entrepreneurs in the 1820s-1850s in SE Ohio, one was a clergyman who moved to NW Ohio, which is how my family settled here). There were black commercial districts in every major city with a decent black population in the Midwest.
What is deemed "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma was just another of the many black commercial/business districts in various cities, all of which existed because of legalized discrimination that denied blacks equal opportunity in the greater communities, similar to immigrants.
Indianapolis, IN also had a successful commercial district and a very large black population. So did Chicago. So did Detroit. So did NYC. On a smaller front, so did Cleveland and Columbus and Cincinnati here in Ohio. I am from Toledo, OH and even we had a black commercial district (that was destroyed in the 1970s via "urban revitalization").
You are proving to others though what I stated in regards to there being much more overt sorts of racism and violence against black people in the south versus the north. Southern successful blacks did have to fear mob violence of whites based on their success, and especially so post 1900.
Successful black people did not fear this sort of thing in northern communities. The old black business districts as a result dissipated naturally in the Midwest especially after legalized segregation ended between 1965 and 1980. Black people, like ethnic European immigrants "up north" essentially moved away from the "old neighborhood" and as such, the black commercial districts failed and are now blighted areas or completely demolished areas.
If you are ever in Indianapolis, you should check out the Madame CJ Walker Theater as they give a tour and a lot of good information about Indianapolis' black community and thriving commercial district, along with the involvement of Madame Walker, the first black millionaire who resided in the city and headquartered her company there.
The legacy of Indianapolis' black commercial district and neighborhood is pretty much the same as all other larger cities in the Midwest in particular whereas the districts ceased to exist or were demolished due to both integration/rise of fair housing compliance and "urban planning/revitalization" whereas local municipalities destroyed the old neighborhood and forced the residents to move (mostly to public housing, which is how many inner city ghettos of today were created).
ETA: I will also note that in my family in particular, they never cared whether or not whites "liked" us and they like you mentioned only wanted the rights afforded to them as American citizens. Many black people in the Midwest in particular, especially those in my family who I have interviewed for a family history I'm compiling, did not think much of white people at all and had a poor view of whites in general as "morally beneath" black people. I also think that that is a cultural aspect that I grew up with in my extended family and which caused me to have issues ever feeling truly comfortable in the south. Many of my black co-workers in Atlanta were from "black bourgoisie" families and IMO they thought way too highly of white people and felt that we (black people) should speak or act in a certain way in order to "prove" to white people that we are "good." IMO that is a sickening mindset and wreaks of an inferiority complex. I frequently encountered such attitudes. Where I'm from and I have found this to be true as well of my in-laws who are from Chicago, they could give a rat's you know what about how white people think we should act or speak or behave or if they "like" us at all. They don't care if whites ever "like" us. I am similar in thought and just cannot fathom trying to impress white people and that attitude in the south was just way to pervasive IMO on the black populace in Atlanta and it was a big reason why I didn't want to rear my children there or stay forever and would never permanently move back to the south again.
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