Join the conversation as we bring together scholars and academics from institutions around the country to share out their research in a discussion-based forum.
By studying the history of Black entrepreneurship and innovation, we can gain an understanding of the creative strategies these entrepreneurs employed to succeed. We will discuss how the constraints they faced have limited overall economics of not only Black communities but our society as a whole. We will explore how so many of these constraints, which have become institutionalized, can be overcome in the future.
Free and open to the public.
Upcoming events
April 7, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Dizzy Gillespie for President!
By Dr. Nicholas Gaffney
This presentation examines John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie’s campaign for the presidency of the United States in the 1964 general election. Gillespie’s run for the presidency was driven less by a genuine interest in capturing the Oval Office, and was more significantly motivated by a desire to use the power and influence of his celebrity to ensure that the goals and objectives of the Black Freedom Struggle remained a focal part of the 1963-1964 election season’s political discourse. Based on his experiences as a jazz world entrepreneur, Gillespie introduced a series of policy initiatives and potential political appointments that would transform the federal government into a vehicle that would position people of color within the United States and abroad to achieve economic and political self-determination. Gillespie performed the role of the candidate during live performances and interviews with the press to place his radical vision for America’s future into circulation.
Past events
February 24, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Dr. LaTanya White will present the first workshop in the History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States series for the spring 2023 semester.
Her talk will draw from her research on Black entrepreneurship and the racial wealth gap being perpetuated through intergenerational transfer of wealth in American business families. By definition, a family reaches dynastic status once they have maintained control of either their entrepreneurial wealth or business assets for three consecutive generations. As a result of systemic oppression and structural racism, there are very few Black business families that have reached dynastic status despite having the highest recorded levels of legacy motivation. Dr. White will share comparative insights from the published praxis of Black business dynasties and the emerging evidence-based construct of Dynastic Wealth.
February 2, 2023 at 12:30 pm
History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States Roundtable
This discussion weaves our past speakers together in their research and scholarship to help build an understanding of black entrepreneurship in America.
November 30, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Dreaming of Colored People: Black Women and Finance in the Jazz Age
Dr. Shennette Garrett-Scott's talk will explore how African American women in 1920s-era Harlem actively participated in the kinds of investment and questionable financing schemes that made the twenties roar. They often hoped to combine individual gain and collective uplift in their financial pursuits. The St. Luke Finance Corporation was one such scheme that showed great promise but struggled against structural inequities as well as criticism from some sectors of the Black community.
November 18, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Black Business Activism in the Mid- Twentieth Century South
Dr. Brandon Winford's talk will examine the activism of banker-lawyer, John Hervey Wheeler, during the modern civil rights movement. As president of Mechanics and Farmers Bank (M&F Bank), located on Durham's "Black Wall Street," Wheeler became North Carolina’s most influential black power broker and among the top civil rights figures in the South. While direct action represented a shift away from strict reliance on legal tactics, Wheeler recognized that ongoing civil disobedience meant that he was in a much better position than ever before to fulfill the ideals of New South prosperity through increased involvement in reform and policymaking at the local, state, and national levels.
November 2, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Drawn from his research on the first generation of African American U.S. consuls and diplomats, Dr. Allison Blakely's presentation will feature selected vignettes on three entrepreneurial aspirations abroad in the 19th and early 20th century, who were widely known then but are seldom mentioned now: Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (1823-1915), John L. Waller (1850-1907), and Richard T. Greener (1844-1922).
Dr. Blakely offers their experiences as exemplary evidence that what is generally known about achievements in Black entrepreneurship in American history barely begins to capture the broad scope and boldness of aspirations and accomplishments in that sphere over the centuries.
November 30, 2021 at 12:30 pm
History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States Fall Roundtable
The History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States initiative has aimed to provide the Keller Center community an opportunity to learn from the country’s most prominent academic scholars.
Join us for a roundtable as we gather our fall cohort of speakers. Attend this discussion to understand how these leaders weave together their research and scholarship to help build an understanding of black entrepreneurship in America.
November 4, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Decolonizing the Business Curriculum: Insights from Africana History & Philosophy
Dr. Leon C. Prieto, Clayton State University
This presentation will make the argument that integrating Africana history & philosophy into the business school curricula is a significant step toward embracing and enhancing the entrepreneurial knowledge, self-efficacy, and motivation of Black students. There is a growing body of scholarship, research, case studies, and business history to inform a more inclusive curriculum and this presentation will make the case that to truly decolonize the curriculum requires an engagement with 1) Precolonial African Entrepreneurship, 2) Slavery, Capitalism, and Modern Management, 3) the Golden Age of Entrepreneurship, and 4) Alternative Models of Enterprise.
October 28, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Working Twice as Hard to get Half as Far: Earning Legitimacy as a Black Business in History
Dr. Keith Hollingsworth, Morehouse College
Legitimacy, in a generally operative sense, suggests that a new organization or venture “belongs”, or fits within the social construct of its time period. To be legitimate, an organization must be accepted by the majority of evaluators within its social sphere. Historically and to the present day, Black businesses have had to work harder to earn this legitimacy. Du Bois said “Naturally business, of all vocations, was furthest removed from slavery”. Black businesses had to prove themselves, not only to the majority community but to the Black community as well. Dr. Hollingsworth will discuss numerous ways Black businesses worked to accomplish this using historical examples and in the present day.
October 21, 2021 at 12:30 pm
The Ties that Bind: Black Feminism, Intersectionality, and Black Women in Entrepreneurship History
Dr. Simone T. A. Phipps, Middle Georgia State University
Historically, Black women have experienced discrimination and marginalization in the workplace and society, and Entrepreneurship has played a role in facilitating their advancement. This presentation will discuss the importance of Black feminism and intersectionality, explore their roles in Entrepreneurship History, and make the argument that although coined later in terms of terminology, their essence has been historically recognized. The contributions of two Black women in Entrepreneurship History will also be acknowledged as they made significant strides to positively impact the economic and social development of Black women in particular, and the Black community in general.
April 22, 2021 at 12:30 pm
History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States Spring Roundtable
The History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States initiative has aimed to provide the Keller Center community an opportunity to learn from the country’s most prominent academic scholars.
Join us for a roundtable as we gather our spring cohort of speakers. Attend this discussion to understand how these leaders weave together their research and scholarship to help build an understanding of black entrepreneurship in America.
April 8, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Dr. John S. Butler, University of Texas at Austin
Using historical and present data, this presentation examines the contribution of black entrepreneurship to the continuous re-birth of people of means, shopkeepers, or the black bourgeoisie.
Forgotten data from works such as W.E.B. Dubois’ 1896 study Economic Co-Operation Among Negro Americans, his 1911 book The College Bred Negro, shows that by the 1940s, black families in this tradition were in their third generation of college matriculation (Charles Johnson’s The Negro College Graduate). Evidence from Monroe Works research on the Negro Business Leagues shows how by 1911 blacks were just as likely to be self-employed than most Americans.
Dr. John S. Butler will discuss his own work, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics, to compare black Americans with other self-help entrepreneurial groups which adopted the entrepreneurial model for adjustment to American Society.
This tradition continues today in the form of a value system which is grounded in black success, and shows how homophily continues to fuel the black bourgeoisie through organizations and endowments. The data explored from the 1700s to the present allows for the understanding and presentation of models which accounts for the continued success of black Americans in this tradition. Attendees will learn how this model can fuel a rebirth among communities who have been lost in the wilderness.
March 25, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Exoduster Entrepreneurs: Creating Black Business Communities in the West
Dr. Martin Ruef, Duke University and Ihsan Beezer, Rutgers University
This presentation will examine the historical creation of Black business communities in the context of the Exoduster movement, the first major migration of African Americans out of the southern and border states. The Exodusters initially included thousands of Black residents who signed emigration papers in the late 1870s, fleeing white terrorism and adverse economic conditions that made upward mobility and entrepreneurship unlikely in the post-Reconstruction South. Along with subsequent land rushes, the Exoduster movement catalyzed the emergence of African-American communities on the western frontier -- in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma -- between 1880 and 1910.
To illustrate the resulting pattern of Black entrepreneurship, this talk will focus initially on Nicodemus, Kansas, a National Historical Site with well-preserved archival information and historic maps. The town of Nicodemus also featured a confluence of African-American entrepreneurs whose views articulated different approaches to political economy and race relations within the Exoduster movement. It will then turn to Census data on more than one-hundred African-American communities that emerged on the Great Plains within the three decades after the Exoduster migration. These business communities inform a general model of minority-majority group relations and predictions of how this economic interface affects entrepreneurial activity.
March 18, 2021 at 12:30 pm
African American Business, Entrepreneurship and Capitalism, 1619-2021: Where Do We Go From Here?
Juliet E. K. Walker is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is also the founding director of the Center of Black Business History, Entrepreneurship, and Technology. Her scholarship has provided the foundation for recognizing black business history as a subfield in African American history.
March 4, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Owning Their Stories: How Black Abolitionists Survived– and Thrived– in Ireland
Dr. Christine Kinealy, Quinnipiac University
Between 1790 and 1860, over 20 Black abolitionists visited Ireland where they lectured and helped to build a strong transatlantic anti-slavery movement. For many, including Frederick Douglass, it was a ‘transformative’ experience, feeling both safe and equal for the first time in their lives. But how did these men and women, many of whom were not only self-emancipated, but self-educated, survive? What strategies did they use? Through an ingenious retelling of their stories using a variety of original approaches, these abolitionists proved adept at negotiated barriers, creating opportunities, and taking risks, even though failure could prove to be life-threatening.
This talk will explore the visits of a number of Black abolitionists to Ireland and show how they developed innovative ways to tell their own stories.