What I Learned About Black Wealth By Studying Black Millionaires
By: Kayus Fernander
Tags: Financial Freedom, Black Excellence, Wealth, Black History Month, Black Wealth

What I Learned About Black Wealth By Studying Black Millionaires

Photo by Blake Barlow on Unsplash

This past October, I did something that I’ve never done before. Here in the UK, we celebrate Black History Month in October and I typically observe the month with some activity at work or a one-off post about some black luminary, either living or dead. It usually feels perfunctory and not as much of a celebration as I’d like it to be, but I do it anyway.

Then this year, an idea swelled up inside me and came forth like this undeniable thing that I just had to do: what if I used every day of October to highlight examples of black wealth and financial excellence throughout history?

This idea came as an answer to a burning question that I’ve had for many years — have black people always struggled with attaining wealth?

I mean I know my fair share of successful black people, both personally and from a distance, but there seems to be some conventional wisdom that the experience of black people is one of scarcity, making ends meet, being disenfranchised and excluded from the power of the economic system.

Almost everything you hear or read suggests that black people, especially those minority populations living in western countries like the US and the UK, or even within those black majority countries in Africa and the Caribbean, are characterised by some inability to achieve and transfer wealth consistently over the generations. This article isn’t about whether that is true or not, but I’m interested in the prevailing perception of black wealth and achievement.

So I set out to find them: 31 men and women over the course of human civilization who achieved epic levels of wealth and prosperity. I wanted validation, I wanted to read those compelling stories, I wanted to see myself in those melanated kings and queens, who found their paths to financial abundance. I mean, it couldn’t be that hard to find 31 wealthy black people, right? Let me tell you what I discovered.

Surely, we can’t all aspire to being the next Oprah or Jay Z….so, I wanted to find other examples of black wealth, people whose stories were unfamiliar and who found success in areas that are unexpected.

But before I get started, let me explain my thought process and criteria for this search. If I were to look around today, I know that it would be pretty easy to find many, many, many examples of black millionaires. With the proliferation of black people (ie of African heritage) at the top levels of film, music, sports and entertainment around the world, it would be easy to fill my 31 slots with names that are pretty familiar to most.

In fact, according to Business Insider, there are (only) 7 black billionaires in the United States, but when you look at the names, these are people we’re already familiar with: Oprah, Jordan, Jay Z, Kanye (really?). The point is, this list tends to be dominated by those who made their wealth in the high-profile fields of entertainment and sports — which is already an incredible feat and not to be diminished — but, I was curious about other examples of where black excellence has led to massive financial prosperity. Surely, we can’t all aspire to be the next Oprah or Jay Z.

I wanted to find other examples of black wealth, people whose stories were unfamiliar and who found success in areas that are unexpected.

I also wanted to go as far back into recorded history as I could, to show that while there has been a long history of struggle and oppression, there are people who were able to overcome adversity and excel at whatever they put their efforts behind.

Here’s what I discovered:

1. It’s hard.

Look, I probably set myself up to fail with this criteria. Trying to find a diverse population of black millionaires and billionaires to fill 31 days of social media content is not an easy task. Why do I think that is? Well, first of all, it probably reflects the reality that black people have been subjected to such oppression and exclusion that it has been difficult to achieve economic equality and to then aspire to the heights of exceptional wealth.

The fact of the matter is that black people, especially in the wealthiest countries of the world, have been systematically excluded from the wealth creation engines of the last 2 centuries.

Whether through slavery, segregation, institutional racism, employment and housing discrimination or financial exclusion. It might also have something to do with the lack of representation and bias. If stories of black wealth haven’t been researched, highlighted and shared broadly, then it’s hard to find that evidence through a typical Google search. No, this might require some real digging and years of journalistic/academic investigation.

2. It’s skewed towards the USA.

Needless to say, the US has been the world’s economic superpower for at least a century if not longer, and despite its challenges with racial inequality that has disproportionately affected black people, most of my featured millionaires and billionaires created their wealth in America.

This is not to say that black wealth cannot be found in other countries, and there are certainly numerous examples in Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, but it was a lot easier to identify individuals meeting my criteria in the US. Again, this could be due to the fact that there haven’t been sufficient profiles of wealthy black people globally.

3. It is usually characterised by adversity that includes racism or discrimination.

The sad fact is that many of the people on my list faced huge challenges due to racism. For example, the founders of “Black Wall Street”, a community of black-owned enterprises in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, saw their years of community-building go up in flames due to race riots in the 1920s. Or Janice Bryant-Howroyd, who overcame living in segregated North Carolina to build a billion-dollar employment agency, the largest in the world.

I was also inspired by Chris Gardner, who wrote the book that would go on to become a film “The Pursuit of Happyness” — a gripping story about how he battled homelessness to become a stockbroker and multi-millionaire owner of a brokerage firm. These stories and many more all sound like fairytales, but instead of a prince riding in on a white horse, the real heroes are the main subjects, the people who radically altered the direction of their lives by taking decisive action and betting on themselves.

4. It is filled with uplifting, awe-inspiring stories.

Mansa Musa’s incredible wealth never ceases to amaze me. This King of the Malian Empire is consistently referenced as the wealthiest person to have ever lived (although this is disputed by some, given the difficulty in having accurate records of wealth dating from that time). But, it’s still incredible to see the depictions of a strong, savvy, wildly ambitious and powerful person of African heritage in the discussion of exceptional wealth.

5. There aren’t enough women.

Growing up surrounded by entrepreneurial women in my family, I have always known that women are capable of achieving massive financial success and so I wasn’t surprised by the women who appeared in my list. However, I wanted there to be more.

Of the 19 people I was ultimately able to profile, only 5 of them were women.

For some reason, when we think of millionaire status or monetary success, the image is typically male and clearly that is no reflection of any inherent, gender-based ability to create wealth. I’m sure there are many reasons for this, likely steeped in archaic ideas about familial wealth, transfer of assets, misogyny in the workplace and the well-known ‘glass ceiling’. So while I was thrilled at the incredible stories of achievement by women, it was hard to miss the fact that there were so few.

Nonetheless, the heights scaled by Madam C.J. Walker, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Janice Bryant-Howroyd, Sheila Crump Johnson and Oprah Winfrey are not to be under-appreciated. These women achieved exceptional success and paved the way for many more women of our generation to shatter their respective glass ceilings.

6. The areas of success are wide and varied.

If you look at the most successful black people in the world today, they tend to populate the expected fields of entertainment and sports, which might lead some to believe that these are the limits to our abilities. What my unscientific research uncovered is the variety of fields where black people have been successful, going back centuries. Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but in some ways I was surprised to learn about the feats of entrepreneurial excellence achieved by black people over the years. Whether it was The Potato King, Junius Groves, who pioneered the cultivation of potato crops in the early 1900s; Don Barden, who became the first African American owner of casinos and hotels on the Las Vegas strip; Robert Reed Church, who owned steamboats, investment properties and even shares of a commercial bank in 1906; Daymond John, who build a billion-dollar clothing empire from his mother’s living room; Mary Ellen Pleasant, who became an investor in gold mines, real estate and banking in the late 1800s. In fact, there were few, if any duplications of the fields chosen by the profiled individuals, further showing that we have been and can be successful at any endeavour.

To be honest, a part of me hesitated about writing this article, as if it somehow would validate the idea that it’s difficult to highlight black financial excellence over the years. And to be fair, it hasn’t been the easiest task. In the end, I struggled to identify 31 individuals to profile, but that could be because I chose criteria that eliminated many modern-day wealthy black people. Or I didn’t research diligently enough.

However, I am glad that I took the opportunity to dive into this history, to really explore some examples of where black people have defied the odds to create exceptional wealth. It says to me that we have a proud history that gives us inspiration to strive for excellence and financial freedom.

It’s not about becoming a millionaire, as much as it is about building a legacy of abundance and achievement that enables future generations to reach their full potential, without the struggles of economic hardship and scarcity.

Clearly, difficult conditions have served as a catalyst and motivator for the people who I profiled and perhaps can explain the drive that they all had to succeed no matter what. But I certainly believe that ours doesn’t have to be a legacy of struggle; instead, we can use these examples of black financial and entrepreneurial excellence as role models for creating something great with the skills and opportunities that we are given.

So, here is the full list that I compiled. Let me know if you have any more examples to share: