dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563
DURHAM -- A century ago, Durham's Black Wall Street -- Parrish Street -- demonstrated to the rest of the country that a city can have a thriving black middle class and a business center downtown where both blacks and whites work as neighbors.
Parrish Street's history was recognized with the installation of three bronze sculptures a year ago. Three more are being unveiled at 5:15 p.m. today downtown.
The new sculptures, created by Liberty Arts downtown, will be placed at the east end of the street, up the block from West Parrish Street, formerly home to the N.C. Mutual Insurance building which housed more than just insurance offices. There was also a barber shop, tailor, haberdashery and newspaper. It also housed the dreams of a black middle class that reached success during a time when much of white society elsewhere in the country was trying to keep them down.
The officers of N.C. Mutual are familiar names in Durham's history and today -- including A.M. Moore, John M. Avery, John Merrick, Ed Merrick and C.C. Spaulding. Founded in 1898, it is the nation's oldest and largest black-owned insurance company. Also on West Parrish Street was Mechanics & Farmers Bank, founded in 1900 by R.B. Fitzgerald and other Durham businessmen. Other black-owned businesses filled in around them.
Durham wasn't the only city that had a street dubbed Black Wall Street, a nickname that developed over time, said Reggie Jones, coordinator of the Parrish Street Project. He said other cities with areas considered Black Wall Streets included Chicago, Tulsa and Richmond.
The Parrish Street Project is an initiative of the Parrish Street Advocacy Group. The group is a collaboration between the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, where Jones works, as well as volunteer members that include representatives from Greenfire Development, North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development, St. Joseph's Historical Foundation, Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, Historic Preservation Society of Durham, Downtown Durham Inc. and N.C. Central University, among others.
Last October, three bronze sculptures that double as historical markers were installed on Parrish Street. A penny, tobacco leaves and a coat and hat represent the impact of African Americans on Durham. Those sculptures' titles are "A Black Capital for the World to See," "Tobacco and E.J. Parrish," and "Visionary Leadership in the New South," respectively. The three new sculptures, also created by Liberty Arts, illustrate three more topics: "A legacy of community and institutional connections," "financial and professional impact in Durham," and "empowering and diverse opportunities."
Jones said Durham was a place that fostered a Black Wall Street for several reasons. The city wasn't incorporated until decades past the Civil War, so the vestiges of the old South were not here. There was also liberal Trinity College (now Duke), he said, and the working-class Duke family. The Blackwells, Carrs and Dukes all helped foster business.
"We want to recognize, commemorate the history, and spend time understanding this place called Durham and how its fits into this mosaic that is larger than Durham," Jones said. The future of Parrish Street includes plans for a Greenfire Development building that the Parrish Street Advocacy Group hopes will include a common room used as a community space.
WHAT: Unveiling of three new sculptures commemorating history of Parrish Street -- Black Wall Street
WHEN: 5:15-6 p.m. today
WHERE: Corner of East Parrish and Church streets, downtown Durham
