Our Mission

Speaker 1: My name is Roy Harris and I've lived in this neighborhood of the Southside neighborhood for the last 38 years. With almost 35 of those years in the resident that I live in, in the neighborhood, and raised a family there and did all of those kinds of things. So when you ask that question I go deep. Even though I've only been here for 30-something years, my soul is here. As I walked into the building, I noticed that there was water running. And I had never really paid much attention to it, but it's called Bayko Creek and the Bayko family were very well known family in this town. In fact, Mr. Bayko, who may be wanting to interview is coming later on. It's named after his family, and it runs right under this building, which is a city building. And the city has allowed Black Asheville and Black Wall Street to use it as one of their facilities. So it is almost like the start of the reparation process. Give us back.

I'm a historian and at this part of my life I don't care to talk a lot about the past. I'm here to talk about the future and what it's gonna be. We can get so tied up and romanticizing what it used to be that we forget about what is going to be and especially for the younger generation that it's unlimited. At 71 years of age, all I'm about right now is passing on knowledge to the next generation. So that you can take it, tweak it, turn it upside down, shake it, roll it around, put it in your mouth, swishing and everything. Spit it out, and do all kinds of stuff with it, but at least you start to see. It taste good or doesn't taste good. And you can start to build on that history.

I think a lot about what's gonna happen, when it's gonna happen, how it's gonna happen. And I won't see some of it. I won't be around to see it. But maybe my grandchildren will, or my great grandchildren will able to come and see what their granddaddy was all about in this town.

Speaker 2:

Hi, my name is Sophia Johnson, some people call me Lucky. I am the founder and lead Education Advisor for my company, STEPS Academic Advising and Education, LLC.

My fellow cohorts, the members of the Black Wall Street, I just first want to say thank you, right. Second, I want to really take some time to think about what all of us have accomplished in our respective businesses. How hard we work. I want to say that I appreciate having the opportunity to share those things, to talk about those challenges.

To have someone to identify with who can understand where I'm coming from and who can understand how hard I work every single day. And who can understand that I might not always be there because I may have this meeting I have to do, or I may have this paperwork that I have to write, and having someone in my corner who can understand so I don't have to go into detail. Just reminds me of how important it is to really have a cohort and to have a network of other entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs of color.

And last but not least, I want to just say that I think it's important that we should take some time to remind ourselves that we deserve it. So when we're out, if we decide to go out, we decide to hang out, and like when we're here today and we just want to celebrate our accomplishments, do that, right. And then understand that we deserve it.

We deserve to celebrate our accomplishments. We deserve to acknowledge what we've done to get us to this point. We deserve to take time for ourselves and to think about what we need to keep doing. We deserve to support one another. And we deserve to be here. It's not an entitlement. Some people might say, 'Oh, well you feel like you're entitled or you're cocky' or whatever they might say. But when you really think about all the things that you've accomplished in your life, and you take a moment to think about now like everything that you're doing, right, to really propel yourself forward. To really take advantage of the gifts that God has given you, and to really try to use all of the talents and the skills that you have just at your disposal to not only empower yourself, but empower others, and empower the community, and empower the cohort as a whole. That is not entitlement, right? We're not saying, or I'm not saying, I'm speaking for myself, that I feel entitled to do so. I don't have to do this. This is something that I've chosen to do. And so the rewards of that and the growth from that and even the direction that we're going individually, as with our own businesses or as people, we deserve that. And that was a long-winded answer, but deep down inside, that's how I feel. I deserve this. You deserve this. We deserve this. And don't let anyone tell you anything different.

Speaker 3: My name is Priscilla Robinson. I'm a resident of Asheville, North Carolina.

I was born and I grew up here on the Southside. We still say Southside, we don't say East of the Riverway. We don't say the River Arts District. Those are all new names to us. It's Southside, it will always be Southside.

When I think back about Asheville's… Black Asheville's past, I think about unity. Community being unity. I think about all of the Black owned businesses, thriving businesses. I think about Black homeownership. I think about the community being safe. Lots of laughter. No one was hungry. No one was homeless.

Presently, what I see when I look at Black Asheville is a lot of loss. We have very few Black-owned businesses. The Black-owned homeowners is very few, and even the few that are left are losing their homes due to increased taxes. Or, the homeowners now being with one fixed income and can't afford to maintain and keep their homes. The Black-owned homes are mostly within the redline. Redlining meaning that they're within a specific zip code that’s already pre-identified. And so when those homeowners can no longer afford their homes, they either lose them by foreclosure or unable to pay the taxes, and so you have other individuals who come in and can purchase those homes for little to nothing.

If I can share one thing with the members of Black Wall Street, I am so happy and so proud that you all have decided to stand up, stand in the gap, and make some things happen. I'm just proud of that. I feel like someone has been listening and not just talking and they're putting forth action. So I say, go for it.