Bronzeville
I have written previously about the current state of the black dollar in America which currently circulates and lives the community in an estimated 6 hours. This number is a stark contrast from the estimated year in which it took for the black dollar to leave the community in the 1960’s. According to the NAACP black owned businesses are vastly underrepresented, accounting for less than 7% of all small owned businesses, even though we account for 13% of the population. Research suggests that communities’ generational economic empowerment is linked to entrepreneurial success. Therefore, if we are serious about improving our communities, improving our schools, providing jobs we must return to the communities of yesterday year..
During the start of the 20th Century we saw many areas become hubs for African American culture and development. Between 1910 and 1920, a tremendous number of African Americans journeyed to many areas including the south side of Chicago . The Douglas community area received the moniker “Bronzeville” because of the large African American presence in the area. The 7 mile area included over 300,000 people before its down turn beginning around 1950.
Bronzeville’s businesses and community institutions included Provident Hospital, the Wabash YMCA, the George Cleveland Hall Library, Parkway Community House, the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, Binga Bank and the Overton Hygienic Company. The businesses were more than alternatives to racially restricted establishments downtown. They were pillars of the community which helped to instill pride and contribute to the upward mobility of African Americans.
Bronzeville’s 20th century resurgence, which rivaled the Harlem Renaissance, is responsible for tremendous cultural and social advances. Pulitzer Prize recipient Gwendolyn Brooks, civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, and legendary musician Louis Armstrong were profoundly responsible for the area’s development and subsequent cultural crusade, which included advances in civil rights, jazz, blues and gospel music as well.
One school of thought advises that Bronzeville fell into decline after the end of racially restricted housing. Upper and middle class families moved away, and over-population and poverty overwhelmed the neighborhood. During a recent interview Larenz Tate submits another school of thought which involves the Mafia and the Illinois State Lotto.
The Harlem Renaissance is mentioned in this piece that detailed the rise and fall of a similar but, little known black community. However; I would be re-missed if I did not inform you that there where countless thriving all black communities around the nation. Black Wall Street was a very successful all black community in Tulsa Oklahoma which thrived from 1900-1921.
The area encompassed over 600 businesses and 36 square blocks with a population of 15,000 African Americans. There were pawn shops , brothels, jewelry stores, 21 churches, 21 restaurants , two movie theaters and a medical school. It was a time when the entire state of Oklahoma had only two airports, yet six Blacks owned their own planes. A local physician Dr. Berry owed the bus system and his average income was $500 a day in 1910. I said previously that the community thrived until 1921 because it was burned to the ground by the KKK on 6/1/1921. In the aerial attack which spanned 12 hours an estimated 1500-3000 people where killed. This was the first and only time in United States history that our military has ever dropped a bomb on U.S. soil.
Overtown” is one of Dade County’s poorest communities. The type of community like many around the nation that is filled with housing projects, easy access to guns and alcohol which begets the high crime rate. During the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s Overtown was Black Miami’s showcase, centerpiece, and mecca: a self-sustaining community filled with an entertainment district, shops, groceries, law offices — even a hospital.
Overtown was home to many of Miami’s successful black families. William A. Chapman Sr., a prominent black physician, lived and worked there. His house at Northwest Third Avenue and 11th Street is now used by Miami-Dade County Public Schools as a research center. There’s Dana Albert Dorsey, Miami’s first black millionaire, who made his fortune buying land. By 1965 much of Overtown had been razed for highway construction and “urban renewal.” Interstate 95, a ten lane expressway which today is Miami’s primary north-south artery, along with the East-West Dolphin Expressway (State route 836) were both constructed directly through the heart of Overtown during the 1960s. Later Metrorail, Miami’s new billion dollar urban mass transit system, was routed directly through the community causing further dislocation.
I choose these three examples of self sustaining black communities to shine a light on the disintegration of the black community. The destruction of the black community has happened overtly, covertly and systematically . In the first paragraph we see another example of how integration covertly weakened the black community. The body of the work provides light on the direct unwavering racism that still existed and still exits in this country. Have you checked Twitter or better yet, listened to Donald Trump? The ending section of the work highlights the systematic form of racism which is the deadliest form. Anytime blacks are not represented in “the meeting” but, more importantly “the meeting before the meeting” we will always get the short end of the stick. We don’t have to have the worse schools, gentrified neighbors or leaders that don’t reflect our needs etc but, we first have to awaken to the possibility.
“Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go”.- James Baldwin.
The Weary Blues 