Black Wall Street exhibit located in the College of Business; Photo by Kalin Norman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJackson State University held a grand opening of a brand-new exhibit spotlighting Black Wall Street in the College of Business building on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n
Mac\u2019Quinn Norris, a junior business management major from Lansing, Mich., Maney Darbey, a freshman psychology major from West Point, Miss. and Makyla Simmons, a freshman journalism and media studies major from Jackson, Miss., toured the exhibit and expressed how it made them feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s makes me mad. It\u2019s kind of infuriating. [Black] people were still being wrongly treated. Even during that, we were still able to overcome and build our self, our community, and our economy,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
Norris also stated that he was shocked at the number of students who have never heard about Black Wall Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just shows that the education system is terrible. They always talk about slavery. Everybody knows about slavery. But people don\u2019t know that during a very segregated time, we were able to build ourselves up, build business, support each other, gain wealth and make a good economy. If they could do it back then, with the rights we have now, it should be easy to do that now,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
Darbey and Simmons toured the exhibit together and expressed what made them check it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always had an interest in history. But, not only history, black history. And I feel like it\u2019s important for us to know what we\u2019re capable of and how we have always persevered. This Black Wall Street exhibit is an example of how we came from so little, built it, and was able to bounce back with so much,\u201d said Darbey.<\/p>\n
Simmons hopes knowledge of the successes achieved by African-Americans helps younger generations achieve more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s important as African-Americans to know as much as you can about your history,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cWe had our own businesses. We had everything thriving for ourselves. We had a whole community like churches, our own schools, six private airplanes and for the white people to feel some type of jealousy and hatred towards us. They just burnt it down, killed our people. It\u2019s just sad to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darbey feels that the black community is still influential, but the sense of community that they had fifty years ago is not the same.<\/p>\n
Zaniqua Bullock, the vice president of Student Government Association and chair of the Black History committee, said the exhibit was a learning experience for all students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something we can learn from. One of the questions I asked on the floor is, \u2018Do people really think this is possible to happen again? Is it feasible?\u2019 Many people said no because of things like complacency, our current economy, and our current state in America with the president [Trump]. But, when you look at this, this happened immediately after World War 1,\u201d said Bullock.<\/p>\n
Bullock continued, \u201cThey still weren\u2019t the most popular people in America. But they still made it happen. So, with examples like this, it just kind of makes you think. We can make this happen again. So, I think its inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bullock expressed how happy she is with the recent growth of black-owned businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s [black-owned businesses] amazing! But, if the support of black owned businesses could increase as well, then we\u2019ll have us a show,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Black Wall Street exhibit is just one of the many Black History Month events taking place in February.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Candice Tinnon Staff Writer\/MC301 Jackson State University held a grand opening of a brand-new exhibit spotlighting Black Wall Street in the College of Business building…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_plus_post_options":"{}","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/files\/2020\/02\/Black-Wall-Street-Exhibit.jpg\")
<\/a>