Communities that existed during Garvey's time.
Greenwood/Black Wall Street—Tulsa, Oklahoma
Hayti District—Durham, North Carolina
he Hayti District, also known as “
The Black Capitol of the South” among Black leaders in Durham, North Carolina, became a successful Black community soon after African Americans migrated to the city to work in tobacco factories in the
local area of Fayetteville Road. The land where the neighborhood emerged was initially owned by white merchants but was eventually purchased with capital that Black residents earned over time. In its prime from the 1880s to the 1940s, the district was one of the most successful Black communities in the country.
The city was home to the historic North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, Lincoln Hospital, as well as over 200 other Black-owned businesses. Upon his visit to the district in 1911,
Booker T. Washington stated that he found a "a city of Negro enterprises" whose citizens were "shining examples of what a colored man may become.”
U Street—Washington, D.C.
Historically known as “Black Broadway,” Washington, D.C.’s U Street corridor was known as the epicenter for Black excellence and talent at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. U Street was the home of Black social, cultural, and economic prosperity, despite “racial and political tension” in the country. Some of the most prominent entertainers, activists, educators, and artists in the country have walked the legendary corridor, shaping its history into what it is known for today. Pioneers like Carter G. Woodson, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary McLeod Bethune, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, and more “
found refuge in Black Broadway” to unapologetically celebrate Blackness.
Sweet Auburn Historic District—Atlanta, GA
Dubbed the
"richest Negro street in the world," by John Wesley Hobbs, Sweet Auburn was a haven for Black Atlanta residents before the Civil Rights movement. The district’s cultural and social landscape shaped the Black experience in the city, birthing now-historic Black churches, businesses (such as the second largest Black insurance company in the country, Atlanta Life Insurance Company), talent and more. The Sweet Auburn district is also the birthplace of
Martin Luther King Jr.
