Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite

In his book The Black Wall Streets of America: Towards a Black Stock Exchange, Woody R. Clermont identifies thriving Black communities with diverse businesses, stating how Black-owned banks and credit unions offered loans that enabled homeownership and business growth. Informal savings groups in churches are discussed, and how they helped entrepreneurs access startup capital and credit, with schools, newspapers, and civic organizations creating networks of community trust. Clermont talks about how music, theater, and festivals reinforced cultural identity while attracting visitors to neighborhoods, and that segregation forced parallel economic systems that concentrated wealth locally. Clermont uses many historic examples, including Greenwood, Sweet Auburn, Jackson Ward, and Bronzeville, as self-reliant economic ecosystems, and encourages harnessing modern technologies to aid Black entrepreneurs in reaching global markets.

Woody R. Clermont’s The Black Wall Streets of America is an extraordinary look at how Black communities across the United States built thriving centers of commerce, culture, and innovation. Clermont does an excellent job of leaning into the ingenuity, organization, and resourcefulness that transformed neighborhoods. The most interesting to me is his discussion of West Las Vegas, a portion of a city that is almost exclusively associated with, historically, Italian-Americans. I could genuinely read an entire book on Las Vegas from a Black entrepreneurial perspective on its own. Clermont discusses timely and very space-critical uses of tech, like AI and 3D printing, in empowering entrepreneurs to expand into any world market without sacrificing creative and financial control. Overall, as both an informative guide on the history of Black business and as a blueprint to the progression of Black Wall Streets, this is a fantastic testament to the enduring vision and entrepreneurial spirit that shaped and continues to shape Black economic life in America.