Black Wall Street: The Economic Roots of Racial Violence

Show Notes 

Booker T. Washington once said: “An inch of progress is worth more than a yard of complaint.”  

A once enslaved man who became an author and speaker in the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow-era South, Washington famously advocated against protest and agitation tactics meant to advance civil rights. Washington’s position was that Black Americans should concentrate on economic progress, rather than desegregation efforts.   

Washington believed that economic success would advance Black people in American society and protect them from the violence of the Jim Crow era.  

However, this wasn’t always—or even often—the case.  

In a paper titled, “An Inch of Progress: Black Business and Black Accountants Fighting Jim Crow Violence,” researchers from the University of Denver have set out to set the record straight on how economics and accounting actually hurt or benefited Black Americans at the time. 

In this episode, Emma speaks with Daniels College of Business professor Tony Holder and history professor Kimberly Jones from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, plus grad student Mayowa Alabi, about their research into the history of racism and accounting. 

Anthony D. Holder, PhD, CPA (Inactive), is an associate professor at the University of Denver. He has previously taught at Case Western Reserve University, the University of Toledo and the University of Cincinnati. He also spent a semester teaching in Shanghai, China. He earned his BA in Accountancy at Park University, a Master of Accountancy at Wright State University and a PhD in Accountancy at the University of Cincinnati. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Prior to obtaining his PhD, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in their auditing and tax departments. 

Kimberly Jones is an associate professor of history in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Jones studies the experiences of enslaved and free black people across the Atlantic World. Her primary research is centered on the construction of racial identity through medicine and science. 

Mayowa Alabi is a graduate student in the Daniels College of Business.