How Black Americans Survived & Thrived During Segregation in the United States of America

Black Americans survived and thrived during segregation in the United States of America by doing a variety of things both individually and collectively. Prior to the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s, the USA was very much segregated and had been since the start of the country, and now since a brand new administration is in the White House in 2025, there are valid concerns about what will become of Black Americans if segregation is brought back as the law of the land?

First let’s understand that segregation and oppression are not the same things, however, one can be utilized with the other. Right now, segregation is used to oppressed. That hasn’t ever totally be discarded, and this is called de facto segregation. Right now, redlining, education, loans and grants and even real estate are constantly under the bombardment of de facto segregation while there is a law banning discrimination. Therefore, whether we know it or not, Black people have successfully navigated these challenges for decades, having become a population of people who are mostly middle class anyway and with about 2 million millionaires within their population which has a buying power of approximately 2 trillion dollars, making Black Americans the wealthiest and most successful Black population on the planet.

Now, how did this all start? It actually started during decades of segregation actually. Here’s how:

Forced to Provide for Themselves

From Ottawa Gurley’s founding of Black Wall Street, Isaac Dickson’s Young Men’s Institute in North Carolina, Dr. Matilda Arabella Evan’s founding of Taylor Lane Hospital, and even the phenomenal purchase of Harlem by African Americans kicking off the Harlem Renaissance and the Father of Harlem Philip Payton, there are countless examples of Black Americans not freezing in fear but developing strategic methods to not just gather money, education, and skills but put their money, education and skills to much needed purposes for Black America.

When white people didn’t allow Black people into businesses, Black people created their own. This led to one of the biggest booms in Black ownership in history. When white people didn’t allow Black people into their schools, this led to the largest and fastest development of Black institutions, from primary to university level, across the nation. When Black people couldn’t shop and be treated with dignity and respect in white owned establishments, like Reverend Sullivan, they would purchase own and operate their own stores and shopping centers.

So you see, money had a purpose during segregation. It wasn’t just to get rich, it was to provide security for one another when the government wanted them to fail. The necessity formed out of segregation created the Black owned and operated business boom, and all this was happening while Black people still worked 9 to 5s a white owned businesses because white owned businesses have never been able to thrive without Black people in the USA.

Some of the most abundant businesses were in media/newspapers, retail stores, funeral homes, banks, hair and beauty, medical and real estate.

Education

Education was a big deal when it came to Black Americans restructuring and keeping their lives afloat during segregation. Just as stated previously, Black Americans had their own businesses, and some of their own businesses were law offices. Black Americans were thorough in their understanding of the law and the importance of voting and running for office. Black Americans have been always been a very political people, knowing how to maneuver and secure rights through education.

One of the easiest ways to teach in mass during segregation was through newspapers targeted to just Black America. There were several Black-owned newspapers and magazines that not only showcases the vast variety of arts and talent, but most importantly politics and what was happening each day in the political arena which the white government wanted them out of since their small time of success in in right after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Another way Black Americans remained prepared and in the know was college enrollment. Booker T. Washington believed in Black people knowing how to build from ground up, knowing how to make the bricks to building the structure and also being a master at teaching others, which leads to the next surviving segregation tip-

Being Self-Sufficient

Black Americans never got too comfortable because they knew the machinations of a racist government was always watching and ready to create problems for them. Therefore, since they knew that the government was there to harm and not help for the most part, they didn’t waste time relying on them. Instead they resisted by being self-sufficient in all areas as much as they could. This meant treating each other with respect, teaching their own history and depending on each other – having one mind and goal.

It has been written that no other group in the USA has ever done what the Black American has done and in such short of time, and it is the complete truth. From slavery to all laws stacked against them, they have become the dominating culture in the USA, contributing much through inventions and the economy. The United States has become dependent on Black America. Without Black America, the USA would crash and burn. The reason for this is that Black America is the only self-sufficient group on the land that has been battle tested under the most harsh oppression for the longest period of time, since the TransAtlantic slave trade.

Anyone knows that a people who created something from nothing will out-survive a people who hasn’t. This is why Black America will continue to survive, even whenever a White House administration believes they can do without them. They have forgotten that they never have, and that the USA was cofounded by Black America whether they like it or not.

The segregator has always called on those they push out for assistance, at wartime (the American Revolutionary War when many white men refused to fight so they had to send Black men to do so in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment which cemented our co-founding of the USA) and even to hair cuts in the largest barbershops in the nation and globe – Alonzo Herndon’s Crystal Palace.

By going and reading the stories of these people and more right here at the links provided, one will learn exactly how to survive during segregation and win while setting up generational wealth. And this time, Black Americans need to never stop building and instead retain instead of selling what they owned when integration happened. Black Americans need to remain focused not just on getting money, but building equity and ownership, no matter what laws change.