[[email protected]]

From the late 1800s to the early 1960s there were lots of successful
black entrepreneurs. Almost all had businesses catering to other
blacks. There were black car dealers, black shoe stores, black
restaurants, black everything. Some did some white business as well,
many refused it on the grounds that they didn't want the white
merchants selling to blacks and undercutting them and they honored the
same principle. Some were very good businesspeople.

When desegregation came in blacks abandoned black businesses in
droves. The black merchants that survived were those with a
multiracial clientele already or who quickly adapted. That was a small
fraction. Most left business and retired if old enough or went to work
for big companies. Big companies sometimes hired them to reach the new
black clientele, but more often to fill quotas, and the big businesses
could pay bright blacks way more than small business afforded most.