Students in Free Enterprise hosted a seminar titled “The Black Wall Street Journal….Lesson of Success Through Unity,” seeking to educate young students on the subject of economic empowerment.
S.I.F.E historian, Harun Jones, the program’s coordinator, said “We must be educated on how to empower the African-American economy. If we don’t know, we won’t care.”
Jones was accompanied by Dr. Edward Udell, who is a minister, activist, speaker and writer, and Craig L. Amos founder of the “Houston Black Book.” Both Amos and Udell joined Jones in a panel discussion concerning the success and demise of The Black Wall Street.
Amos said, “Students on this campus represent a huge un-camped army that we want to help organize. We want them to realize that in order to build a successful business, you have to gain experience, get funding, have a business plan and a marketing strategy.”
Founded in Tulsa, Okla. in 1921, The Black Wall Street was 34 blocks of successful black owned businesses, which were destroyed in a violent race riot. According to Udell and Amos’ accounts, the race riot began when Udell’s cousin, Dick Roland, was accused of raping a white woman.
Although it was said that Roland and the young lady had been intimate for some time, white bystanders accused Roland of raping the young lady.
In Roland’s defense a group of black business owners gathered to assure Roland’s justice.
As they marched through town, rumors were being put out that blacks were starting a riot, and whites responded with violence. From that point, violence between both races reigned throughout the city, eventually leaving Black Wall Street in shambles.
Throughout the seminar, Jones, Amos and Udell, used Black Wall Street as an example of how blacks possess the capability of being successful in the business world.