Children’s Book “The ABCs Of Black Wall Street” Empowers Youth by Retelling the Stories of Black Entrepreneurship in Tulsa

Behind every Black-owned business is a story rooted in resilience. The creation of these ventures is often inspired by the legacies of ancestors and fueled by the vision of a brighter future. As the anniversary of the harrowing Tulsa race massacre nears, Oakland-bred educator and founder of HBCU Prep School Claudia Walker is using her family-owned multimedia education company to empower youth through amplifying the narratives of the Black entrepreneurial trailblazers who cultivated Black Wall Street.

For Walker, the different facets of Black history were largely omitted from textbooks and class curriculums while growing up. Her parents—both educators who were raised in the deeply-segregated South amid the Jim Crow era—curated a home environment that was celebratory of the richness of Black culture. She vividly remembers reciting Langston Hughes sonnets during church recitals and attending stage plays like Sarafina! that provided a lens into the experiences interwoven in the African Diaspora. Walker credits her mother—who was passionate about poetry and theater—for elevating her awareness of the activism and artistry that birthed the Black Arts Movement.

Her reverence for Black history and culture is what led her to further her education at Spelman College. It was at the HBCU, tucked in the heart of Atlanta, where she expanded her strong foundational sense of self-awareness and self-efficacy. “Spelman was an amazing experience for me because it celebrated who I was as a Black woman,” Walker told NewsOne. “It was a place where you have Black women from all over the world coming together for this common purpose of empowering ourselves, learning about our history, and finding ways that we can be changemakers within our communities.”

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SOURCE: NewsOne, Brandee Sanders