A. G. Gaston had a knack for recognizing a void and figuring out how to fill it. He began as a coal miner, but because of his vision and drive, he transitioned from selling lunches to opening funeral homes and building up the Black business district of Birmingham, Alabama. John H. Johnson gave us the most notable Black publications to date, as well as one of the first Black-owned makeup brands. He read books on winning people over and public speaking, which garnered him the attention he would need to get his foot in the door of the publishing
Up Next in Season 1
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Maggie L. Walker & Earl Graves Sr.
Maggie L. Walker and Earl Graves, Sr. were born decades apart, but both understood the importance of economic independence for the Black community. Maggie L. Walker, the daughter of an Irish confederate soldier, saw her opening when the Independent Order of St. Luke’s needed help with membership ...
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Annie Minerva Malone & Janice Bryant ...
Annie Malone and Janice Bryant Howroyd have demonstrated that it takes ingenuity, grit, and work ethic to make something from nothing. Annie Malone began her career as a door-to-door saleswoman for her haircare products. She turned that into a global operation that employed thousands of people. J...
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O.W. Gurley & Reginald F. Lewis
O. W. Gurley and Reginald F. Lewis were two businessmen who turned their visions into reality. O. W. Gurley envisioned an enclave where Black people could thrive. He started Greenwood Avenue with one two-story boarding house and grew it into what would later be called Black Wall Street. Reginald ...
