Financial History Issue 128 (Winter 2019) | Page 29

“Black Wall Street” historical marker in Durham, NC. Morning Herald, “The NC Mutual build- ing is getting a dramatic makeover, one that will see its landmark name stripped from the top of the building. The 12-story, 1960s-era office tower has been renamed Legacy Tower by a development group led by Michael Lemanski, who plans to update the building to attract new tenants. “Earlier this year, NC Mutual announced it would shrink its footprint there from six floors to one, opening up 60,000 square feet of office space there. Lemanski bought the building in 2006 for $10.5 million. The renovations come as the 118-year-old NC Mutual reduces its presence in Durham. The naming rights of the building are also available for purchase, so potentially a new company name will adorn the top of the building.” The heyday of Black Wall Street was in the 1930s and ’40s, said Lee at the heritage center. “There was a real surge in black-owned companies. That continued through the Civil Rights Era. There was violence during that period, but not as much as in other cities. That tolerance has always been a part of the Durham DNA.” Part of it, she suggested, was the small number of wealthy white families that dominated local business and politics, notably the Dukes. In particular, Lee noted, Washington Duke (1820-1905) “had an affinity for the Hayti community,” when it was just coming into its own. “Uncle Wash” Duke cut the figure of a classic southern gentleman, but he was atypical in every way, according to the Dictionary of North Carolina Biogra- phy, edited by William S. Powell. Duke opposed secession, but he was drafted late in the war. He was captured near Richmond, Virginia, in the last month of the war, paroled and walked the 130 miles home. He joined the Republican Party in 1868, and invested in manufacturing rather than agriculture. An early indus- trialist and philanthropist, he had friends in the black community and gave promi- nently to Hayti causes and institutions. Lee stresses an important balance in the business and cultural growth and pros- perity. Acceptance by the white power structure at the time was necessary, but not sufficient. “Hayti community development had businesses established in every facet of life,” she stated. “There was critical mass for a self-sustaining community. The white power structure supported, even patron- ized the black businesses. Not everyone, of course, but a surprising number.” Notably there was a thriving enter- tainment community that attracted both white and black audiences, very similar to what was happening in Harlem in New York about the same time. There were stores, funeral homes, clothing and shoe makers, as well as a Spei- ght’s Auto Service Center, which still exists today. According to Durham’s Hayti, by Andre D. Vann and Beverly Washington Jones, “Theodore Roosevelt Speight came to Durham in 1932 with only 83 cents and took a job at a service station.” Just six years later he opened his own station, which thrived for more than two decades. It was forced to close in 1966 because of what was then called “urban renewal,” in this case the building of the Durham Freeway. Speight’s reopened at a new location a few blocks away and is today the only surviving auto shop from they heyday of Hayti. Another survivor is Scarborough’s Funeral Home, now in its third generation of family ownership. Along with NC Mutual, the other pil- lar of Black Wall Street is Mechanics and Farmers Bank (M&F Bank). It is a state- chartered commercial bank, first orga- nized in 1907. The original incorporators were a group of nine prominent business- men, headed by R.B. Fitzgerald. John Mer- rick and Aaron Moore, principals in the founding of NC Mutual, were also among the founders of the M&F. According to the bank’s official his- tory, “The founders and original custom- ers represented various trades, crafts and professions in which the African Ameri- can community had achieved success and prominence, so ‘mechanics’ likely was derived from the legal term ‘mechan- ics lien’ that grouped such occupations together.  Additionally, most of North Carolina‘s wealth at the turn of the 20th century was based on the ownership of real property, especially farmland, hence the term ‘farmers.’ [Thus] the bank is dedicated to serving all facets of the community.” Like NC Mutual, Speight’s and Scarbor- ough’s, M&F carries on today. Another Hayti original is the 1891 church that is now part of the Hayti Heritage Center. And while there is a prominent historical marker near Parrish Street in downtown Durham, it is the heritage center and the operating businesses that show Black Wall Street lives on.  Gregory DL Morris is an independent business journalist, principal of Enter- prise & Industry Historic Research (www.enterpriseandindustry.com) and an active member of the Museum’s edito- rial board. www.MoAF.org  |  Winter 2019  |  FINANCIAL HISTORY  27