Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires

Black Fortunes tells the stories of six African American entrepreneurs who achieved financial success between 1830 and 1927, as the last generation born into slavery came of age. Mary Ellen Pleasant used Gold Rush wealth to support abolitionist John Brown. Robert Reed Church became Tennessee's largest landowner. Hannah Elias built a Harlem empire from land given by a New York City millionaire. Annie Turnbo-Malone, an orphan and self-taught chemist, developed the first national brand of hair care products. O. W. Gurley, a Mississippi school teacher, developed part of Tulsa, Oklahoma into a community for wealthy Black professionals and craftsmen known as "the Black Wall Street." Madam C. J. Walker is often called America's first female Black millionaire, but she was not; she was the first, however, to openly claim and display her wealth. Nearly all these figures faced attacks, demonization, or were swindled out of their wealth. The book reveals how these individuals became business titans during the Jim Crow era, illuminating a vital but often overlooked chapter of American and Black history.