Triumphant Black Entrepreneurs of the Jim Crow South

If you think you know the biggest success stories from the Jim Crow South,

think again—because these three Black businessmen pulled off achievements so surprising,

they still feel unbelievable today. First up is Charles Richard Patterson, a former enslaved

man who built one of the only Black-owned carriage companies in America, then shocked the

industry by pivoting into automobiles. At a time when segregation was designed to limit everything,

he launched a car manufacturing company competing with giants. Next is Robert Reed Church,

a man who survived being shot during the Memphis riots and still rose to become the first

Black millionaire in the city. He quietly bought up land and storefronts when white businesses