Blak Koffee To Host Blak Wall Street Saturday, June 29

Blak Wall Street is set for this weekend in Louisville on June 29. The Blak Koffee Cafe-hosted event will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. including over 70 black-owned local businesses across the City of Louisville at 1219 W Jefferson Street.

Black Wall Street holds significance across the United States as many black-owned businesses appeared and fell throughout the past century, including the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the most prominent “Black Wall Streets” in America during the 20th century.

However, in 1921, a local white mob gathered and attacked the area out of racial aggression, and what is known now as the Tulsa race massacre included burning the once prominent black business center down — leaving between 75 and 300 Americans dead and 5000 homes destroyed.

However, 10 years after the racial attack, the surviving residents rebuilt Black Wall Street despite rezoning laws to prevent reconstruction.

Black Wall Street survived and thrived until desegregation in the 1960s, when Black people could shop and expand into white shops and neighborhoods.

As Black-owned businesses are expanding and growing across the country, organizers like Blak Koffee are holding their own “Black Wall Street” events to shine a spotlight on successful Black business owners.

The event will also hold significance as a celebration of Juneteenth, the federal holiday celebrating the freeing of the remaining slaves in the U.S in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.