5/26/2023 0 Comments Black fortunes by shomari willsIn fact, Leidesdorff’s estate was then worth $1.4 million ($38 million). However, reflecting the precariousness and short-lived nature of Black dynasties in the United States, Wills notes that a real estate investor convinced Leidesdorff’s sole heir-his estranged mother-to sign over his property in exchange for $75,000 ($2.1 million today). diplomat in California who in 1847 “built California’s first public school and a horse racing track for the citizens’ entertainment.” Passing away in 1848, Leidesdorff left behind an estate then valued over $1 million. Instead, the author explains that this title belongs to William Alexander Leidesdorff, entrepreneur and U.S. Walker (Sarah Breedlove) was the first Black millionaire in the United States. Editors’ Note: HistPhil co-editor Maribel Morey reviews Shomari Wills’s Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires (New York: Amistad, HarperCollins Publishers, 2018).ĭetailing a history of the “first cohort of black millionaires” in the United States, journalist Shomari Wills begins Black Fortunes by correcting the popular myth that haircare entrepreneur Madam C.J.
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