Black Fortunes..

Immediately following Emancipation there were approximately 4 million millionaires in the United States and 6 of them were black. Between 1830 and 1927, as the last generation of blacks born into slavery was reaching maturity, a small group of industrious, tenacious and daring men and women broke new ground to attain the highest levels of financial success.

Mary Ellen Pleasant used used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown. Robert Reed Church became the largest landowner in Tennessee. Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, used the property her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem. Orphan and and self taught chemist Annie Turnbo Malone developed the first national brand of hair care products. Mississippi school teacher O. W. Gurley developed a piece of Tulsa , Oklahoma, into a town for the wealthy black professionals and craftmens that would become known as Black Wall Street. Although Madam CJ Walker was given the title of America's first black female millionaire, she was not. She was the first, however, to flaunt and openly claim her wealth.