Black Fortunes_The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires by Shomari Wills
Author:Shomari Wills [Wills, Shomari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-01-29T21:00:00+00:00
THE WORLDâS FAIR BEGAN ON APRIL 30, 1904, HAVING BEEN POSTPONED a year due to its growing in scope and size. The event was staged on a 1,272-acre park in the middle of the city. President Theodore Roosevelt attended the fair along with more than two hundred thousand Missourians and tourists from all over the country and the world. There were nine hundred buildings made of white stone, statues, man-made lakes, a zoo, and villages where Apache Indians, Congolese Pygmies, and Filipinos lived in huts and tepees and wore tribal garb. The grounds, which were interconnected by looping dirt roads, curved through the grass. There was also a train, which visitors could ride for ten cents.
Annie, at thirty-four years of age, had never left the Midwest. The Worldâs Fair, however, brought the world to her. At the fair Annie met black tourists from the South, the West, the East, and the Caribbean and pitched their selling her products in their hometowns. She used the opportunity to begin building a national sales network and take her company from a regional business to a global brand.
Annie visited the fair as often as she could for the year it ran. She was particularly fascinated with the exhibit of Africans at the fair called âAfrican Wilds.â The exhibit spanned more than 40 acres of the park. There, hundreds of African men, women, and children lived in huts made of sticks and leaves and dressed in loincloths. Around this time, she named her company Poro Products. She chose the name, in part, because it sounded like an African word, and Annie was fascinated with the continent of the tribesmen at the fair and her ancestors.
Shortly after the Worldâs Fair, Sarah Breedlove met with Annie to tell her she was moving to Denver, Colorado. Her hair had grown back in and was full and thick. She offered to sell Annieâs product in Colorado. Annie agreed that it was a good idea and wished her well in her travels. She did not have a sales rep in Colorado, whose black population was growing rapidly as so-called Exodusters, black refugees from the Jim Crow South, were settling there by the hundreds.
Breedlove took the train to Denver with her daughter, her belongings, and a supply of Poro products to sell. She sold Poro products in her new city and worked part-time as a laundress. A few months into her move, her boyfriend from St. Louis, a traveling salesman named Charles James âC. J.â Walker, moved to Denver. They married a few months later. Charles convinced his new wife that she should stop selling Annieâs products and they should start their own line. Annie hadnât trademarked the name or the formulas and was powerless to stop the copycatting.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
What's Done in Darkness by Kayla Perrin(25499)
Shot Through the Heart: DI Grace Fisher 2 by Isabelle Grey(18218)
Shot Through the Heart by Mercy Celeste(18160)
The Fifty Shades Trilogy & Grey by E L James(17774)
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) by McCray Carolyn(13189)
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson(12905)
Scorched Earth by Nick Kyme(11831)
Stepbrother Stories 2 - 21 Taboo Story Collection (Brother Sister Stepbrother Stepsister Taboo Pseudo Incest Family Virgin Creampie Pregnant Forced Pregnancy Breeding) by Roxi Harding(11036)
Drei Generationen auf dem Jakobsweg by Stein Pia(10216)
Suna by Ziefle Pia(10185)
Scythe by Neal Shusterman(9259)
International Relations from the Global South; Worlds of Difference; First Edition by Arlene B. Tickner & Karen Smith(8608)
Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses: Using Knowledge Management ot Win Govenment, Private Sector, and International Contracts 3rd Edition by Robert Frey(8418)
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay(7693)
Dirty Filthy Fix: A Fixed Trilogy Novella by Laurelin Paige(6450)
He Loves Me...KNOT by RC Boldt(5804)
How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired by Dany LaFerrière(5378)
Interdimensional Brothel by F4U(5303)
Thankful For Her by Alexa Riley(5159)