There’s a plan afoot to revive the old black business district along Desiard Street, but unless a few enterprising Black businessmen move quickly, black entrepreneurs may be left out of the picture altogether.
Beginning in the early 1920’s Monroe had a growing Negro business community. Racial segregation increased the demand for businesses that catered to the African-American community. Young Negro businessmen began opening professional and retail establishments along the Desiard Street strip from five points (the railroad tracks) to 14th Street.
It was ten city blocks that reflected a variety of retail outlets, hotels, and professional shops that grew to over 200 Negro businesses by the early 1960s.
The highlight of that achievement was the erection of the Miller-Roy Building on 10th and Desiard that was built in 1929. It housed several insurance companies, a black newspaper called the “Monroe Broadcast,” two life insurance companies, law offices, a dental office, the Recording studio of singing legend Ivory Joe Hunter, tailor shops, clothing stores, and the Savoy Ballroom.
It was followed by the adjacent Pierce Pharmacy building which housed similar tenants and the Ritz Theater.
The ten-block strip was the pride and joy of the Black community and was featured in Negro magazines across the state for the large collection of black businesses that included Watch repair, cab stands, hotels, barbershops, and even a casket factory.
With the advent of integration, the ten-block strip began to fade. Today, empty lots, memories, and shells of buildings are all that remain.
However, recently a group of white businessmen, using a variety of names to disguise their ownership are quietly making plans to buy up all of the property in the former Black business strip, connect it to developments the group already has in plan in play for downtown and plans to make tons of money in the former Negro Business district are in progress.
The legendary Miller-Roy Building has been purchased and a reported $10 million is being pumped into revitalizing it into affordable housing.
Other properties along the strip are quietly being purchased because the property value is gentrified or extremely low.
Just recently the group received approval from the Monroe City Council to take advantage of Tax abatement plans designed to rebuild dying areas.
The traffic along the strip has been changed to only one lane to allow parking for will be a lucrative area in just a few short years, and zoning is quietly being changed.
None of these actions are illegal. The businessmen involved see an opportunity and are taking advantage.
Black business leaders should get in on this as quickly as they can. They should form LLCs and pool resources to buy any available land along the strip.
If plans are being made for wheel barrels of money to be made buying up the cheap land of former black businesses, our young entrepreneurs should get them a wheel barrel and be ready to cash in.
As more developments begin the price of the property will rise.
Smart investors will buy the land while it’s cheap and make a profit on the flip.
The game is called monopoly, but this small group of businessmen and politicians shouldn’t be the only ones who have access to Boardwalk and Park Place.
