Landmarks of Black Wall Street

Parrish Street is widely known as Durham's Black Wall Street, an important center of business and commerce for Durham's African American community, and the site of many of the largest black-owned-businesses in American history.

While the idea of "Black Wall Street" is widely known and one of Durham's most famous historic places, the specific histories of its key people, buildings, and businesses remains more obscure. Our goal is to ensure those interested in the history of Black Wall Street can uncover more of these histories. Our goal is to placing historic markers that commemorate the history of specific sites, as well as offering supplemental online resources to aid in personal exploration of these fascinating stories.

John Merrick

William G Pearson

104 W Parrish Street: "Royal Knights of King David" Building

“Come brothers, let us all unite

To stay the hurtful tide

Against the world we’ll bravely fight,

And spread our order wide.”

-Ode of the Royal Knights of King David

In 1883, local African American businessman and barber John Merrick decided to purchase the rights to a struggling Georgia-based fraternal organization called the Royal Knights of King David. The group was committed to the goals of community service, brotherhood, and was an officially Christian group. After purchasing the rights to the group, Merrick organized a Durham chapter and appointed his friend and local educator William Gaston Pearson as its first president. Known widely by their abbreviation "RK of KD", quickly grew in size and scale, particularly due to the attractive benefits they offered to members. In addition to access to meetings, members also received access to health and funerary insurance. The group had thousands of members by the year 1898, while also featuring a women's branch called the "Lady Knights", and a children's branch called the "junior knights."

The RK of KD's success was seen as a major surprise. Founded less than two decades after abolition, many people in the late 19th century assumed that there was no demand for insurance among African Americans. Poverty rates among African Americans were high at the time, and lack of access to healthcare made life expectancy for African Americans significantly shorter than their white counterparts. Contrary to stereotypes, the success of the RK of KD showed that African Americans were willing and excited to think about long-term future plans, and to invest in their own health and wellbeing.

The Royal Knights' success later inspired key figures in the local black community to approach John Merrick about the formation of North Carolina's first black-owned insurance company. Merrick, Dr. Aaron Moore, Pearson, and several others would co-found the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association in 1898. The company, later known as North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, offered many of the same benefits of membership in the RK of KD.

Despite the foundation of NC Mutual Life Insurance, the Royal Knights continued to find success well into the 1920s. The organization remained an important institution for the social and charitable lives of Durham's black middle and upper classes. By 1909, the group decided to move out of their original headquarters on Main Street into the newly constructed Clements Building at 104 W. Parrish Street. They would use the building as their headquarters for many years, hosting meetings within, while the Junior and Lady Knights held their meetings next door. By 1927, the group reached the height of its power, boasting a total net worth of over $180,000, a considerable sum at the time.

However, the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 severely hurt the group. Many members struggled financially, and the group struggled to raise sufficient funds. The group had sold off all of its assets, including the building at 104 W. Parrish, to NC Mutual Life Insurance by the end of the 1930s.

Richard Fitzgerald

William G Pearson

James E. Shepard

George W. Powell

111 Orange: American Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co.

“Colored insurance company has evidences of material prosperity”
-Durham Morning Herald, 1909

Not to be confused with the better known NC Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. has a very different story. When NC Mutual Life was first started under the name "Mutual and Provident Association", the firm soon gained competition. Several of the Mutual and Provident Association's early investors, including Dr. James E. Shepard, had been frustrated by John Merrick's reorganization of the company in 1899.
In 1903, Dr. Shepard and several other investors created the American Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company to compete with Merrick. While Dr. James E. Shepard left the company shortly after its founding, his brother and fellow doctor, Charles, stayed on as the firm's medical advisor.

The small insurance outfit received a major windfall when brickmaker Richard B. Fitzgerald invested heavily in the company and became its first president. As the Herald-Sun reported in 1909 - "R.B Fitzgerald, the wealthiest colored man in the state, is at the head of (the company) and, as president, has given the association a start and permanency that assisted it greatly in getting hold upon the colored people." Local businessman George W. Powell was appointed as company manager, handling day-to-day operations, and William G. Pearson as its auditor. With Fitzgerald's capital and Powell's leadership, the company expanded rapidly, In 1909, the firm erected a new corporate headquarters on Orange St, just on the corner of Parrish. In 1911, Carolina Mutual purchased numerous smaller firms across North Carolina, including the "Sun Mutual Insurance Company" of Fayetteville and "Upright Mutual" in Rocky Mount. Later that year, the company merged with "American Life and Benefit Company", adopting a new combined name of "American Carolina Mutual Life Insurance," American Carolina Mutual had attained over 100,000 members, and was the second-largest black-owned insurance company in America, after only John Merrick's Mutual and Provident Association, with local newspapers speculating that it could soon overcome the NCMPA as the largest insurance company of its kind.

However, American Carolina Mutual had overstretched its limit. The company did not post a profit in 1911, largely due to enormous spending on expansion efforts. The next year, the company was sold to the "American National Insurance Company" of Texas, which liquidated the firm's assets.

While the American Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company had a short lifespan, it left behind a major legacy. Many of the company's old customers, staff, and executives would do business with and work at the Mutual and Provident Association. In 1916, the Mutual and Provident Association official changed its name to "North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance", likely in an effort to further consolidate their hold on old American Carolina Mutual Life customers and represent in the informal merger between the companies.

Soon after the old headquarters was sold, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance moved in and used the building as a corporate auditorium. In 1966, NC Mutual moved away from its Parrish St. headquarters and sold many of its old assets nearby, including the old American Carolina Mutual Building. It was soon renovated and transformed into Croft Business College that same year.

Landmarks of Black Wall Street

104 W Parrish Street: "Royal Knights of King David" Building

111 Orange: American Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co.

“Colored insurance company has evidences of material prosperity” -Durham Morning Herald, 1909

“Colored insurance company has evidences of material prosperity”
-Durham Morning Herald, 1909