Financial History Issue 128 (Winter 2019)

In the 1970s when the St. Joseph’s AME Church congregation moved to a new building, the original structure became the catalyst for the formation of the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation (SJHF), which has a mission to preserve and advance the heritage and culture of historic Hayti. The church complex, renamed the Hayti Heritage Center, is listed on the register of national historic landmarks. jobs, investments, loans, contributions and support of social programs. The company followed its own advice in 1906, moving its headquarters to a two-story brick building on Parrish Street in the heart of downtown Durham. That formed the foundation of what became known as Black Wall Street. In time, the firm acquired other buildings on Parrish Street and rented them to other black-owned businesses. Those included a drugstore, a tailor, barber and beauty shops, clothing stores, law offices and the Mechanics and Farmers Bank, which was charted in 1907 and offered many black citizens funding for start-up businesses and new homes. The prosperity and growth of Parrish Street was the hard work of its entrepre- neurs, managers, workers and customers. It also must be noted that the white business and political powers in Durham were sup- portive, or at least tolerant. A 1908 issue of Durham’s white newspa- per, The Morning Herald, described Parrish Street as a “beautiful business block” man- aged by “these thrifty people…who have not only an eye for business but one for beauty… Not a street in this town would object to having an outside or an interior as attractive as these stores that form Parrish Street.” The citation is noted in Black Busi- ness in the New South, by Walter B. Weare. Acceptance by Durham’s white residents led to national attention for Parrish Street, particularly as African-American leaders like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois visited Durham during the busi- ness district’s heyday. Washington and DuBois praised the black entrepreneurial success and the white acceptance of these activities, which was exemplified by the fact that several white-owned businesses oper- ated on the eastern end of the street. DuBois’s and Washington’s comments were especially significant because many viewed Parrish Street as a compromise between their conflicting opinions of how best to deal with the Jim Crow laws. Washington was willing to accept dis- crimination and focus on gaining respect through hard work and economic pros- perity. DuBois advocated educating an elite corps of black Americans to facilitate political and economic prosperity. Beyond bricks and mortar, the effects of Parrish Street were far reaching in Dur- ham’s communities. Executives from NC Mutual, in particular, were instrumental in the growth and development of local African American institutions, including White Rock Baptist Church, Lincoln Hos- pital, North Carolina Central University and the Durham Colored Library (now known as the Stanford L. Warren Library). “People came to Durham to learn how 26 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2018 | www.MoAF.org to do it,” adds local historian Kelly Bryant, who worked for NC Mutual from 1944 to 1981. “As a college student, I had a busi- ness class that came to Durham just to talk about it and visit the businesses here.” “Parrish Street was the financial dis- trict,” Bryant explains. “The people there had the ideas and could provide the finan- cial help that was necessary to build the black community. It was the center of activity that helped in the development of the Hayti, the primary black residential area, by providing financial support and community leadership.” In 1921, NC Mutual marked its success by expanding the corporate headquarters to a prominent six-story tower that, at the time, was the second tallest building in Durham. That was on purpose. Com- pany officials designed the structure not to exceed the height of the tallest, and white- owned, building. Today NC Mutual asserts primacy as “the only insurance company domiciled in North Carolina with a charter dated before 1900. With more than $2.4 billion dollars of insurance in force and surplus exceeding $9 million, NC Mutual is the oldest and largest African American life insurance company in the United States.” The building is still a landmark for the city, but according to a May 5, 2017 article in the Durham Herald-Sun, successor to the

Financial History Issue 128 (Winter 2019) | Page 28