"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : John Gilmore Riley

For those who didn’t know, the reason why I chose to write my “Our Rich Black Heritage” articles is to highlight other African-Americans besides the ones that we are use to hearing about during Black History Month. Also, I did it to help other Black People to realize that our Black ancestors were more than just slaves for White People, and they had Black-Owned Insurance Companies, Black-Owned Hotels, and Black-Owned Banks! Not only that, but they were able to establish Black Business Districts in just about every major city in America( and many of the small towns). Also, they had their own Black-Owned funeral homes,Movie Theatres, and Grocery Stores[ there was even a Black-Owned Dairy, owned by the “Willis family” in West Monroe, Louisiana ]. Recently, I discovered that there were “8 Black Millionaires” in the state of Florida, between 1870 - 1955! You see, we as Black People need to do as my dad use to say,”Go Back And Check The Record!” When you go back and check the record, you’ll see that our Black ancestors were more than slaves for the White People!Now, back to this week’s Black Hero, John Gilmore Riley.