Posted by In this Black Wall Street history spotlight is well respected businessman John Merrick of North Carolina. He rose out of the ashes of slavery in the 1850s with an insatiable spirit of entrepreneurship to start several businesses that would later become the foundation of North Carolina’s Black Wall Street in Durham. Merrick left his business mark on a town called Hayti, now part of Durham. Merrick first flipped a barbershop into 8 barbershops, some black only, the others white only.
He used some of those profits to buy real estate, becoming the largest property owner in the area. He later partnered with Black Wall Street leaders Charles Spaulding and Dr Aaron Moore to form a land company. Merrick later co founded what became the largest black owned insurance company in the nation. All of his efforts prove that nothing, not even racism, can limit us.
So be like John Merrick.
Affluent Blacks of Dallas 