They come alive in his pages and their stories move quickly. Their million in assets is worth tens of millions by today’s standards, making it all the more impressive.Shomari Wills has to be a fine storyteller to fill in the gaps in these largely unrecorded lives, and he is. They became lenders to help build local businesses that helped them rent their buildings, or in one case, became the kept woman of a white multimillionaire. They leveraged the mobility of America, taking advantage of the California gold rush or the Oklahoma land giveaway. Every story is different, every fortune is different. And half of them were women.Unlike todays’ millionaires who can set out to make a fortune and just do it, the first six black millionaires often backed into it. That they rose to wealth in such a hostile environment – civil war, reconstruction, Jim Crow – makes them all the more impressive. These unlikely individuals started off with huge disadvantages, from race to skin color to illiteracy to being slaves or the children of slaves.

But the first six black American millionaires is a terrific story. Black Fortunes illuminates as never before the birth of the black business titan. Nearly all the unforgettable personalities in this amazing collection were often attacked, demonized, or swindled out of their wealth. She was the first, however, to flaunt and openly claim her wealth-a dangerous and revolutionary act. J Walker was given the title of America’s first female black millionaire, she was not. Gurley, developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a “town” for wealthy black professionals and craftsmen that would become known as “the Black Wall Street.” Although Madam C. Orphan and self-taught chemist Annie Turnbo-Malone, developed the first national brand of hair care products. Hannah Elias, the mistress of a New York City millionaire, used the land her lover gave her to build an empire in Harlem. Robert Reed Church, became the largest landowner in Tennessee.

Mary Ellen Pleasant, used her Gold Rush wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown. “By telling the little-known stories of six pioneering African American entrepreneurs, Black Fortunes makes a worthy contribution to black history, to business history, and to American history.”- Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times Bestselling author of Hidden Figuresīetween the years of 18, 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.

Black fortunes by shomari wills