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..AND NOW FOR ANOTHER MOMENT IN BLACK HISTORY
Ladies & Gentlemen allow me to introduce you to Mr. Alonzo Herndon, the 1st black millionaire in Wakanda, I meant Atlanta. How did he make his money? He sold insurance. Full disclosure. My family were good friends with his family.
Ladies & Gentlemen allow me to introduce you to Mr. Alonzo Herndon, the 1st black millionaire in Wakanda, I meant Atlanta. How did he make his money? He sold insurance. Full disclosure. My family were good friends with his family.
In fact, we lived right across the street from his mansion below in Atlanta. My 3 greats grandfather was the first black contractor in Atlanta who built much of old Buckhead & a shit load of homes in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward. Our family's contracting business made it to the-
3rd generation or the 1st 2 men in this picture who are Alexander Daniel Hamilton II & Alexander Daniel Hamilton III or my great great grand father & my great grand father respectively. At the turn of the 20th Cent, the Hamiltons & Herndons were Atlantas wealthiest black families
I am Alexander Daniel Hamilton VI, the 3rd great grandson of a former slave who left a plantation in Lumpkin, GA at the end of the Civil War & traveled by horseback to Eufaula, AL. Fresh out of slavery, this nigga started raising hell. So much so, in the 1874 Barbour County, AL-
election, when Klansmen Democrats threatened 2 kill any nigga who attempted 2 vote, my 3greats grandfather & a 1,000 nigga brigade broke n2 a local armory stealing a shit load of guns & ammunition & marched down the middle of town 2 the polls daring any white mafucka 2 stop them-
from voting. Now thats what I call marching & dem niggas weren't singing "We Shall Overcome." Nevertheless, when the voting started, the shooting started. A riot broke out. Supposedly, my 3 greats grand helped quell the violence. Dey gave dat nigga the key 2 the city. True story.
Now, U will find this story chronicled in many ways OUTSIDE of Barbour County, AL. Some authors will say that the lowly Eufaula niggas simply rolled over & took whatever the good white folks doled out. Bullshit. It wasnt until I actually took a pilgrimage to Eufaula, AL & spoke-
directly w/local librarians & historians there that I was able 2 secure the oral history of what actually happened. I was even able 2 find the old house the city gifted my 3greats grandfather 4 helping quell the violence. Now some black folk there labeled him a snitch, claiming-
that he didn't actually fight, but he told the good white folks what niggas were planning to do & then played both sides until the shit went down. Then after niggas start getting killed, he put down his gun & act like he was trying to stop the violence. I tend to side with those-
local niggas as that sound like some shit a high yella light bright damn near white AL B. Sure looking nigga would do. Besides, how the hell these good white folks gift yo ass a key to the city & a damn house if you was one of da niggas rioting? Naw gramps, love you, but U a Tom.
I'm also more inclined 2 believe the local niggas b/c not long after dat shit went down, great gramps dipped from Alabama& magically appears in Atlanta by next census count. What nigga in the late 1800s bout 2 just pick up & leave a bighouse& farm gifted 2 him by good white folk&
just start all over in an entire different city? Naw nigga, U running from something. If I had to guess, I'd bet dem Eufaula niggas peeped gramps' snitch game & threatened 2 kill his mulatto ass if he wasnt out of town by sunset. Even in 1874 niggas didn't play dat Tekashi shit.
So now, my 3 greats grand in The ATL setting up shop. The good white folks in Eufaula taught dat nigga how to build houses. So he started Hamilton & Son's contracting. He was HJ Russell b4 HJ Russell. If you don't know who that is, just google Maynard Jackson, the 1st black-
Atlanta mayor who just started putting niggas on as soon as he got elected. Real talk. Maynard Jackson made more nigga millionaires than any1 in history. Maynard Jackson did affirmative action how it was meant 2 B. He gave so many set aside contracts for niggas. He used to make-
it rain in city hall. One of the 1st niggas 2 get in on the ground floor was the black contractor HJ Russell. Regardless, my 3 greats grand was HJ Russell b4 HJ Russell & he was HJ Russell WITHOUT a "downtown nigga" like Maynard Jackson. Again, this is probably more evidence dat-
da good white folks, 4 some reason, loved my 3gramps' mulatto ass. Just like the they gave him the key to the city & a farm w/a house in Eufaula, AL, somehow dis nigga was able to just pop up in Atlanta & start building white folks houses in Buckhead. Dat shit just don't add up.
Now I'm not mad either way b/c I didnt see none of that money. As Cee-lo said "Dat lil money be gone." By the end of the Great Depression, our family was damn near broke. The housing contracts stop coming in & my great grandpappies had lent out too much money to struggling-
black families around the city. They had a shitload of rental properties in black communities, but when the Depression hit, niggas lost jobs & couldnt pay rent. An argument brokeout b/t my 2greats grandfather (w/wife below) who wanted 2 put niggas out & sell the properties & his-
son, my great grand (ADH3), who wanted 2 work w/black families until the Depression was over. This argument was bitter & it destroyed the company. By the middle of 20th century, Hamilton & Son's Contracting was just about defunct & insolvent, having barely made it 3 generations.
By the time my grandfather & father came along, the so-called black sheep of the Hamilton clan, they had all but rejected the family business. They were unable to live up to it & spent their lives running away from that legacy. By the time I was born, nobody had shit 2 leave me
Now lets flip back 2 the man we started this history trip with, Alonzo Herndon. A lot of Wakandans, I meant Atlantans, think Herndon made his 1st million selling life insurance , but he really became a millionaire off barbering. Here's his main shop, "The Palace"
Now heres the kicker: his barbershop was WHITES-ONLY. Dis nigga founded a black-owned barbershop that serviced only white people. Black folk could work there as barbers & janitors, but they were NOT allowed 2 get hair cuts there. A nigga became a millionaire off excluding niggas.
How many niggas we know like that to day? Thats another post. Nevertheless, My 3greats grandfather & Alonzo Herndon are buried right next to each other in Atlanta's Southview Cemetery, 2 niggas who made it 2 the top catering 2 good white folk. One died rich. The other died broke.
That means niggas can increase dey likelihood of becoming rich by at least 50% if we just serve good white folk our whole life. Yes suh boss. Now, 2 be clear, there's no guarantee. You could still end up broke like my 3great grands & the myriad of other niggas throughout history-
who thought successfully navigating plantation politics would give them a good life & score them a guaranteed seat in heaven. That is until they died & discovered heaven was segregated & white Jesus escorted dey black ass 2 the back & not to that "deluxe apartment in the sky."
