Existing comment:
African American Business:
In the late 1800s, Virginia adopted laws that made racial segregation mandatory in education and transportation, and by custom white-owned businesses, from funeral and beauty parlors to hotels and restaurants, would not accept black customers. White banks seldom made loans to blacks, and white newspapers seldom covered developments in African American communities. African Americans has to establish a whole parallel series of businesses to cater to their own needs. Black business districts emerged, like Richmond's Jackson Ward, Charlottesville's Vinegar Hill, Roanoke's Henry Street, and Martinsville's Fayette Street, and the owners of these shops, theaters, restaurants, and banks became role models to the black community. In an ironic consequence of integration, many of these businesses failed because of competition from better-financed white enterprises in the 1960s and 70s. |