Donald Griffin and RoMar Tolliver on Black Wall Street Reno

Black Wall Street was the name of a thriving black-owned business district and surrounding residential area in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1921, just over 100 years ago, it was destroyed in a racial massacre that left many residents and business owners dead or injured, and their businesses burned to the ground. It is among the worst cases of racial violence ever recorded in the United States.

This week on the podcast, we welcome Donald Griffin and RoMar Tolliver. Together, they have founded Black Wall Street Reno, a nonprofit named after the original Tulsa district and guided by a mission to build up the black community in the Reno/Sparks area.

Conor, Don, and RoMar talk in this episode about the origins of Black Wall Street Reno, services they provide to the community, developing their organization based on local needs, the different approaches and effectiveness of political and direct aid organizations, sobriety and recovery from addiction, the challenges of raising funds and recruiting volunteers as a new nonprofit, Reno's racial history, spoken word poetry, creating generational wealth for black communities, teaching accurate history in schools, and a whole lot more.

Please be sure to check out Black Wall Street Reno at http://www.blackwallstreetreno.org and follow them on social media!

Thank you for listening!