“OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : JOHN MERRICK

John Merrick was born into slavery on September 7, 1859( in Clinton, North Carolina ). His parents were so poor, that he had  to start working at an early age, in order to help support his parents and siblings. It was during the Reconstruction period that John Merrick was able to learn how to read and write at a local Reconstruction school. As he grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina , he learned the brick mason trade[  and during the construction lulls , he practiced and learned the barber trade as well ]. When John Merrick moved from Raleigh to Durham, North Carolina, he got a job as a barber working for a man by the name of John Wright. He and Mr Wright later  became business  partners, and when   Mr Wright  retired, he became sole owner of the barber shop. If John Merrick would have stopped at only being a barbershop owner, he still would have been considered successful. However, he did not stop there! He went on to establish several other businesses in Durham, North Carolina. Some of his numerous businesses included The North Carolina Mutual Company, the Merrick-Moore-Spaulding Real Estate Company, several Barbershops, The Mechanics and Farmers Bank, and The Bull City Drug Company that he founded with his two Negro partners Charles C Spaulding Sr and Dr Aaron Moore. When the famous educator Booker T Washington toured Durham, North Carolina in 1910, he made special mention of John Merrick and his contributions to the city of Durham. Furthermore, on November 2, 2019, John Merrick was recognized alongside Charles C Spaulding Sr and Richard Fitzgerald as main honouree's  by the Sesquicentennial Honors Commission at the Durham 150 Closing Ceremony in Durham, North Carolina. John Merrick died in 1919, and He was buried in Sumter, South Carolina. In closing, I would like to ask the question that Booker T Washington asked about the poorest Black people of Durham, North Carolina{ except, I would like to ask it about the poorest Black citizens of Monroe, Louisiana }. The question is this : What are the poorest Black people in Monroe doing and how are the poorest Black people in Monroe living? Booker T Washington went on to say that it is upon the “CONDUCT” of this “CLASS” of Blacks that the “real estimate”  of our race is generally formed.