Financial History Issue 128 (Winter 2019) | Page 28

In the 1970s when the St. Joseph’s AME Church congregation moved to a new building, the original structure became the catalyst for
the formation of the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation (SJHF), which has a mission to preserve and advance the heritage and culture of
historic Hayti. The church complex, renamed the Hayti Heritage Center, is listed on the register of national historic landmarks.
jobs, investments, loans, contributions
and support of social programs.
The company followed its own advice
in 1906, moving its headquarters to a
two-story brick building on Parrish Street
in the heart of downtown Durham. That
formed the foundation of what became
known as Black Wall Street. In time,
the firm acquired other buildings on
Parrish Street and rented them to other
black-owned businesses. Those included
a drugstore, a tailor, barber and beauty
shops, clothing stores, law offices and the
Mechanics and Farmers Bank, which was
charted in 1907 and offered many black
citizens funding for start-up businesses
and new homes.
The prosperity and growth of Parrish
Street was the hard work of its entrepre-
neurs, managers, workers and customers. It
also must be noted that the white business
and political powers in Durham were sup-
portive, or at least tolerant.
A 1908 issue of Durham’s white newspa-
per, The Morning Herald, described Parrish
Street as a “beautiful business block” man-
aged by “these thrifty people…who have
not only an eye for business but one for
beauty… Not a street in this town would
object to having an outside or an interior as
attractive as these stores that form Parrish
Street.” The citation is noted in Black Busi-
ness in the New South, by Walter B. Weare.
Acceptance by Durham’s white residents
led to national attention for Parrish Street,
particularly as African-American leaders
like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B.
DuBois visited Durham during the busi-
ness district’s heyday. Washington and
DuBois praised the black entrepreneurial
success and the white acceptance of these
activities, which was exemplified by the fact
that several white-owned businesses oper-
ated on the eastern end of the street.
DuBois’s and Washington’s comments
were especially significant because many
viewed Parrish Street as a compromise
between their conflicting opinions of how
best to deal with the Jim Crow laws.
Washington was willing to accept dis-
crimination and focus on gaining respect
through hard work and economic pros-
perity. DuBois advocated educating an
elite corps of black Americans to facilitate
political and economic prosperity.
Beyond bricks and mortar, the effects
of Parrish Street were far reaching in Dur-
ham’s communities. Executives from NC
Mutual, in particular, were instrumental
in the growth and development of local
African American institutions, including
White Rock Baptist Church, Lincoln Hos-
pital, North Carolina Central University
and the Durham Colored Library (now
known as the Stanford L. Warren Library).
“People came to Durham to learn how
26    FINANCIAL HISTORY  |  Summer 2018  | www.MoAF.org
to do it,” adds local historian Kelly Bryant,
who worked for NC Mutual from 1944 to
1981. “As a college student, I had a busi-
ness class that came to Durham just to talk
about it and visit the businesses here.”
“Parrish Street was the financial dis-
trict,” Bryant explains. “The people there
had the ideas and could provide the finan-
cial help that was necessary to build the
black community. It was the center of
activity that helped in the development
of the Hayti, the primary black residential
area, by providing financial support and
community leadership.”
In 1921, NC Mutual marked its success
by expanding the corporate headquarters
to a prominent six-story tower that, at
the time, was the second tallest building
in Durham. That was on purpose. Com-
pany officials designed the structure not to
exceed the height of the tallest, and white-
owned, building.
Today NC Mutual asserts primacy as
“the only insurance company domiciled
in North Carolina with a charter dated
before 1900. With more than $2.4 billion
dollars of insurance in force and surplus
exceeding $9 million, NC Mutual is the
oldest and largest African American life
insurance company in the United States.”
The building is still a landmark for the
city, but according to a May 5, 2017 article
in the Durham Herald-Sun, successor to the