Persistent Black entrepreneurs scaled up ventures despite weighing constant racial risk

Evidence

That’s how Elmore Bolling grew up, thinking a few steps ahead of white people, always weighing the risks of being Black and ambitious against new business opportunities. He leased his farmland and raised his animals and then got into transportation and deliveries, too. He started with a mule and a wagon and eventually upgraded to a Model T, which he converted into a truck. Bolling transported cattle and feed and anything that anyone wanted to move between Lowndes County and Montgomery. Soon, his Model T grew into three tractor-trailer trucks. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 884

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The Model T as hand-built truck, the man who ‘thought a few steps ahead of white people’ — a portrait of ingenuity under threat that could seed a character sketch or scene.