“What does it look like for Black Wall Street to not be a relic?” asks Justin Minott, community builder and entrepreneur developer for Provident1898, Durham’s Black-centric co-working community.
The space is named after the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, a Black-owned financial institution that was one of the pillars of Durham’s Black Wall Street in the 19th century. In this interview, Justin and the company’s founders, Carl Webb and Peter Cvelich, discuss the legacy of Black Wall Street and the future of Black entrepreneurship in the city.
Carl and Peter, what parts of your lived experiences led you to start Provident1898?
Carl: I’m a native of Durham, North Carolina. We have several historic distinctions, one being the success of Black entrepreneurship in the late 1800s and early 1900s along the Parrish Street, Pettigrew Street area, eventually becoming known as the Black Wall Street.
Being able to witness that history of Black success growing up was inspirational for me, even when I didn't realize I was being inspired. I just assumed that it was pretty normal for most people to have accomplished successful Black men and women around them. Still, it really gave me the grounding and the foundation that I needed to believe that I could do anything.
Peter: For me, Durham is really an adopted community. I've been here for a dozen years now. My life before coming to Durham was characterized by having experiences in a lot of different communities where I was trying to live cross-culturally; I grew up as a white missionary kid in the Philippines, and then coming back to the U.S., that by itself was its own cross-cultural experience reacquainting.
Early in my career, I learned that I prefer to work in a place where I can impact the community that I live in. After going back to grad school, I met Carl doing just that: real estate-focused placemaking, specifically in Durham. We connected around the idea of trying to create and preserve space that had historical significance, but at the same time re-envisioning it by making it more relevant to the modern economy.
How does history play into the story of Provident1898?
Peter: Provident1898 exists as a physical, social, and professional community in Durham to elevate and reinvigorate Durham's Black Wall Street legacy of entrepreneurship. We do this by providing flexible workspace and supportive services for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and ventures in Durham's community – particularly those who are underrepresented in the prototypical entrepreneur profile.
Carl: Preserving, sharing, and making history are integral to Provident1898. Our history grounds the story that we want to tell. Durham was founded in 1881 when Dr. Bartlett Durham donated land to the North Carolina Railroad. It was just a few years after emancipation, and all of these formerly enslaved people were looking to use their labor in different ways. Durham became one of the places that a lot of that labor gravitated to from the farming, agricultural, and textile fields.
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company has been around almost all that time. The first headquarters of the company was on Parrish Street. At the time, it was the largest Black-owned financial institution in the world. The city decided that the headquarters needed to be built so it would not be taller than the city’s tallest building at the time, which was owned and occupied by white people. So, to have our space located on this sacred ground is significant. It points to the challenges we have had to overcome, and it should give us some hope and inspiration about what we can achieve as we move forward.
Peter: In fact, history-telling is a distinct part of how we've laid out space. As you move throughout our space, you see touches that are both specific to Durham's history and more specific to Durham's Black entrepreneurship and community development history.
You'll see a representation of some of the founders of North Carolina Mutual – Merrick, Moore, Spaulding – on signs and the names of our meeting rooms. In our common area, we have a preserved sign from the first sit-in protest in the country that took place several years before the sit-in protest at Woolworths in Greensboro at North Carolina A&T, when students protested at the Royal Ice Cream Shop in Durham seeking integration of that shop.
Justin: And to piggyback on that, we aim to create an entirely Black-centric experience. Our community is not Black-exclusive; we have members from all different walks of life, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, all that. However, we've been intentional about making sure that it is Black-centric and feels like it was made for Black people. So, the music that we play is from the African diaspora. The speakers, trainings, and programmatic elements center Black speakers and entrepreneurs. As much as possible, the caterers we use for our events are local Black entrepreneurs. It’s unlike any experience that you'll get in another co-working space.
Carl: We have also integrated art in our space from Black and other underrepresented artists. My community development and real estate development background has helped me to develop a level of sensitivity around walking into spaces where clearly nobody was thinking about me. They're great spaces, but they just didn't think about me. So, one of the things that we wanted to do was to make sure that when you walked in, you could just feel that Black people must have something to do with this.
What types of programs and events do you provide for workspace members and the broader community?
Justin:We're running a monthly Pull Up at Provident1898. A networking mixer for Durham-based founders and business owners to connect monthly for learning and support. It has been incredible. We also host a lot of LinkedIn Live interviews with different entrepreneurs and resource partners, again with a Black-centric focus. As part of a grant from Forward Cities, we’re helping entrepreneurs gain access to the people who can help them navigate the ecosystem, find funding, and locate the connections they need.
Peter: There’s also the Acquire program, a course in the development phase that is focused on equipping prospective entrepreneurs with an understanding of acquisition entrepreneurship. We identified that there was an under-appreciation for all the different ways that someone can get into business. The typical entrepreneurship stereotype involves building a fast-growth startup, usually technology-oriented, and raising venture capital. So, the course will introduce folks to the stages of identifying industry types and business types that are a good fit for them. We plan to connect those participants to resources to further their discovery of acquisition entrepreneurship.
Carl: We also host a monthly artist talk event. I've served on some museum boards, and there's this snootiness about art and art collecting that keeps regular folk from getting in the game. This is a way to demystify that, educate the audience and get Black artists some airtime and attention, and hopefully help them sell some of their work. As part of the series, we speak to the artists about business and how to set up their practice so they can really scale their business and not be a starving artist.
What’s your vision for Provident1898 for the next few years?
Carl: In the next few years, I'd love to see Justin Minott running Provident, being able to share these stories and these ideas with his peers and his daughters, adding some energy and excitement to the space. Being able to say, "I was raised in the business. I sat on my father's knee while he worked.”
Justin:In the next few years, I want to see Provident become the first place where folks think of when they land at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and say, "I want to get plugged into the Black entrepreneur community.” And I want to see more and more stories of our businesses saying, "I'm hiring people and my revenue's grown because I was involved with this community and received this support.”
We have an opportunity to build on the foundation that has already been laid. North Carolina Mutual fueled the success of not just its founders, but so many other businesses around it. The networking, the entrepreneurial development, and everything we're doing is really in the soil. It's in the spirit of that building. We have the opportunity to carry that torch forward.
I often think, What does it look like for Black Wall Street not to be a relic? It can’t be a relic. I want it to be something that we're building on. I want it to be the shoulders that we’re standing on as we champion the next generation.
“What does it look like for Black Wall Street to not be a relic?” asks Justin Minott, community builder and entrepreneur developer for Provident1898, Durham’s Black-centric co-working community.
The space is named after the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, a Black-owned financial institution that was one of the pillars of Durham’s Black Wall Street in the 19th century. In this interview, Justin and the company’s founders, Carl Webb and Peter Cvelich, discuss the legacy of Black Wall Street and the future of Black entrepreneurship in the city.
Carl and Peter, what parts of your lived experiences led you to start Provident1898?
Carl: I’m a native of Durham, North Carolina. We have several historic distinctions, one being the success of Black entrepreneurship in the late 1800s and early 1900s along the Parrish Street, Pettigrew Street area, eventually becoming known as the Black Wall Street.
Being able to witness that history of Black success growing up was inspirational for me, even when I didn't realize I was being inspired. I just assumed that it was pretty normal for most people to have accomplished successful Black men and women around them. Still, it really gave me the grounding and the foundation that I needed to believe that I could do anything.
Peter: For me, Durham is really an adopted community. I've been here for a dozen years now. My life before coming to Durham was characterized by having experiences in a lot of different communities where I was trying to live cross-culturally; I grew up as a white missionary kid in the Philippines, and then coming back to the U.S., that by itself was its own cross-cultural experience reacquainting.
Early in my career, I learned that I prefer to work in a place where I can impact the community that I live in. After going back to grad school, I met Carl doing just that: real estate-focused placemaking, specifically in Durham. We connected around the idea of trying to create and preserve space that had historical significance, but at the same time re-envisioning it by making it more relevant to the modern economy.
How does history play into the story of Provident1898?
Peter: Provident1898 exists as a physical, social, and professional community in Durham to elevate and reinvigorate Durham's Black Wall Street legacy of entrepreneurship. We do this by providing flexible workspace and supportive services for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and ventures in Durham's community – particularly those who are underrepresented in the prototypical entrepreneur profile.
Carl: Preserving, sharing, and making history are integral to Provident1898. Our history grounds the story that we want to tell. Durham was founded in 1881 when Dr. Bartlett Durham donated land to the North Carolina Railroad. It was just a few years after emancipation, and all of these formerly enslaved people were looking to use their labor in different ways. Durham became one of the places that a lot of that labor gravitated to from the farming, agricultural, and textile fields.
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company has been around almost all that time. The first headquarters of the company was on Parrish Street. At the time, it was the largest Black-owned financial institution in the world. The city decided that the headquarters needed to be built so it would not be taller than the city’s tallest building at the time, which was owned and occupied by white people. So, to have our space located on this sacred ground is significant. It points to the challenges we have had to overcome, and it should give us some hope and inspiration about what we can achieve as we move forward.
Peter: In fact, history-telling is a distinct part of how we've laid out space. As you move throughout our space, you see touches that are both specific to Durham's history and more specific to Durham's Black entrepreneurship and community development history.
You'll see a representation of some of the founders of North Carolina Mutual – Merrick, Moore, Spaulding – on signs and the names of our meeting rooms. In our common area, we have a preserved sign from the first sit-in protest in the country that took place several years before the sit-in protest at Woolworths in Greensboro at North Carolina A&T, when students protested at the Royal Ice Cream Shop in Durham seeking integration of that shop.
Justin: And to piggyback on that, we aim to create an entirely Black-centric experience. Our community is not Black-exclusive; we have members from all different walks of life, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, all that. However, we've been intentional about making sure that it is Black-centric and feels like it was made for Black people. So, the music that we play is from the African diaspora. The speakers, trainings, and programmatic elements center Black speakers and entrepreneurs. As much as possible, the caterers we use for our events are local Black entrepreneurs. It’s unlike any experience that you'll get in another co-working space.
Carl: We have also integrated art in our space from Black and other underrepresented artists. My community development and real estate development background has helped me to develop a level of sensitivity around walking into spaces where clearly nobody was thinking about me. They're great spaces, but they just didn't think about me. So, one of the things that we wanted to do was to make sure that when you walked in, you could just feel that Black people must have something to do with this.
What types of programs and events do you provide for workspace members and the broader community?
Justin:We're running a monthly Pull Up at Provident1898. A networking mixer for Durham-based founders and business owners to connect monthly for learning and support. It has been incredible. We also host a lot of LinkedIn Live interviews with different entrepreneurs and resource partners, again with a Black-centric focus. As part of a grant from Forward Cities, we’re helping entrepreneurs gain access to the people who can help them navigate the ecosystem, find funding, and locate the connections they need.
Peter: There’s also the Acquire program, a course in the development phase that is focused on equipping prospective entrepreneurs with an understanding of acquisition entrepreneurship. We identified that there was an under-appreciation for all the different ways that someone can get into business. The typical entrepreneurship stereotype involves building a fast-growth startup, usually technology-oriented, and raising venture capital. So, the course will introduce folks to the stages of identifying industry types and business types that are a good fit for them. We plan to connect those participants to resources to further their discovery of acquisition entrepreneurship.
Carl: We also host a monthly artist talk event. I've served on some museum boards, and there's this snootiness about art and art collecting that keeps regular folk from getting in the game. This is a way to demystify that, educate the audience and get Black artists some airtime and attention, and hopefully help them sell some of their work. As part of the series, we speak to the artists about business and how to set up their practice so they can really scale their business and not be a starving artist.
What’s your vision for Provident1898 for the next few years?
Carl: In the next few years, I'd love to see Justin Minott running Provident, being able to share these stories and these ideas with his peers and his daughters, adding some energy and excitement to the space. Being able to say, "I was raised in the business. I sat on my father's knee while he worked.”
Justin:In the next few years, I want to see Provident become the first place where folks think of when they land at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and say, "I want to get plugged into the Black entrepreneur community.” And I want to see more and more stories of our businesses saying, "I'm hiring people and my revenue's grown because I was involved with this community and received this support.”
We have an opportunity to build on the foundation that has already been laid. North Carolina Mutual fueled the success of not just its founders, but so many other businesses around it. The networking, the entrepreneurial development, and everything we're doing is really in the soil. It's in the spirit of that building. We have the opportunity to carry that torch forward.
I often think, What does it look like for Black Wall Street not to be a relic? It can’t be a relic. I want it to be something that we're building on. I want it to be the shoulders that we’re standing on as we champion the next generation.