Keith Battle - Cash Apps The Black Wall Street Mindset - Part 1

For many of us watching this series right now, we are facing some of the most perilous times we’ve ever encountered in our lives. For many of you, you’re dealing with unemployment or underemployment right now, and even if you’re employed, there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the stability of your job. When you find yourself in a situation like this, where it seems like there is no way out, you have to learn to create a way and be creative, looking for alternative methods to strengthen your life economically. This shutdown, for example, has placed people in situations where we just don’t know, from one week to the next, what we will need to do to survive. Furthermore, when you think about the grace period running out on rent and mortgage payments, and the leniency landlords and mortgage lenders might extend, those bills will soon come due. The pressing question becomes: what will the pressure force us to do? Pressure can be a privilege if it encourages us to think creatively.

What we can learn from the story of Greenwood, South Carolina, is invaluable. Have you ever heard of Black Wall Street? Yes, I have heard of Black Wall Street. It was a place created in the early 1900s, and it tells a phenomenal story about the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This place is such an economically powerful story that it almost seems unreal to us. Imagine a community with nearly 50 blocks of Black-owned businesses, where Black people owned property, land, and their own homes—homes that even included indoor plumbing, schools, and more. What is incredible is not just what they built but when they built it: during a time of racial injustice and amidst Jim Crow segregation laws.

The significance of this is remarkable. During what was called the oil boom, when Black individuals migrated to the Tulsa area, many sought a piece of that financial pie. I will discuss this further later. When Black people first arrived in the area, they were barred from enjoying the benefits of white establishments; they couldn’t vacation in white hotels or enjoy performances in theaters. While they could work in hotels, make beds, dispose of trash, and clean up, they couldn’t partake in recreational activities. They couldn’t fill prescriptions at white pharmacies, receive education in white schools, or take clothes to white dry cleaners. This segregation forced us into a position where we had to become creative, and Black individuals established their own institutions.

So, what did they do? They created their own banks; unable to secure loans from white banks, they developed their own. They built schools, hotels, theaters, dry cleaners, clothing stores, and restaurants—all of which thrived. More importantly than their success was the context in which they built: they faced opposition and racism. If they could achieve that in the early 1900s, not long removed from slavery, how much more can we accomplish with the creativity and economic opportunities available today?

I want to say to everyone listening to me right now that in the midst of these perilous and challenging times, what creative opportunity is God prompting you to pursue in order to provide economic strength and stability for you and your family? What is it that you’re meant to develop? Let’s face the truth: those stimulus packages are running out; that government financial assistance is coming to an end. I’m saying that crises can spark creativity, and that’s what we need to focus on right now—this is our goal. In these times, we must think outside the box, and it all begins with mindset.

How could these individuals have had the audacity to build under such tense circumstances? It came down to mindset. They overcame their challenges not just by examining what they faced but by identifying the opportunities available to them. I am praying for all of us in this series that God might grant us a mindset capable of seeing not only obstacles but also opportunities for wealth. Proverbs 21:20 states: «The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.» What a contrast! Wise people save; fools spend. Wisdom grows wealth; foolishness squanders it. Wealth is a mentality; wealth is a mindset. The Latin word for capital (c-a-p-i-t-a-l) refers to funding, and it literally means 'head'—the top of one’s head. That’s where we derive the term when someone wears something on their head for coverage.