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Black Is Beautiful 2021- Leola King

 

Born in 1919 on a Seminole reservation in Oklahoma, Leola grew up in LA immersed in the entertainment business working in theater, film, and partying. In 1946 (around WW2) she moved up to the Bay Area to help her father run a bbq business in Oakland. She started her own bbq business in San Francisco the same year and was hugely successful with Black folks and the many nationalities in SF. However in 1949 the US government created a federal policy called the Urban renewal housing act. Through this they seized Leola’s business; “Oklahoma King” at 1601 Geary street (Japantown today). She regrouped and started a new biz which she named “The Blue Mirror” in 1953 at 935 Fillmore (Blocks from today’s African American Arts & Culture Complex). The venue became one of the destination’s for the historic Fillmore district home to a huge portion of SF’s Black population and a historic home for music and culture. The Mirror had red carpet, elegant furniture, murals, and a stage where many of the best in Jazz and Blues performed and came to hang out. The venue could hold 300 and was said to be packed every night. Leola also had a beautiful mansion 711 Scott st across from Alamo Sq Park and “The Painted Ladies”. Again the redevelopment agency in SF came for her spot and many others in the neighborhood. But again she built herself back up with “The Birdcage” at 1505 Fillmore in 1964. Leola would host people like Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Sam Cooke, The Mills Bros, Dexter Gordon, even Willie Mays and Joe Louis. She was a biz savvy woman who was called the Queen of Fillmore. 
Leola fought tooth and nail with the city of SF who robbed her of several properties, her home, and so much life until she died. The agency would take her property in a pattern that robbed Black entrepreneurs and home owners in the Fillmore district (later dubbed Western Edition). This pattern is noticeable across cities where Black migrated to from the southern US. Somehow in the city of sin which she said was run by gangsters she managed to build monuments that cared for and welcome all people, especially Black folks. 
Sources: SF Public library, KQED Rebel Girls, Harlem of the West (book), SF Bayview 
Did you catch the story about Arlan Hamilton?
The last one before this was Cathy Hughes

February 16, 2021
in Black is Beautiful, General
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Black Is Beautiful 2021 – Cathy Hughes

Cathy Hughes was born in 1947 in Omaha Nebraska and knew from an early age knew what she wanted to be on the air. Before TV or the web was big it was all about radio. Cathy came from a family of entrepreneurs. Her mom was a professional trombonist with the group “International Sweethearts of Rhythm” an all ladies band. Her dad was a successful accountant and her grandfather founded a school for Black children. She became a teen single mother and began working for the Omaha Star which was one of the big Black newspapers owned by Mildred Brown. She went on to work for Omaha’s station Kowh before she met Tom Brown, a broadcaster who recognized her talent and asked her to come work for him as he established Howard’s (HBCU) first school of communications. There she helped build the station as a sales manager and eventually as general manager. Then the Washington Broadcasters brought her on to restructure and rebrand a failing station. When they wouldn’t make her an equal par owner she decided to start her own radio company and purchased 1450 Am WOL in 1980. She was turned down by over 30 banks and lending institutions when she wanted to buy it. And when she finally got it she had to live there with her son. She made it work. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week she was on the air or hired DJs tto be on the air. She developed a format most of us know from Black radio-the quiet storm. A program of sexy sweet soul and blues. She did well expanding to news coverage from a Black perspective and buying more stations. 
At the height of her company she owned over 70 radio stations. She founded a TV company (TV One) in 1988 which still runs today. Her son took over of the umbrella company “Urban One” as CEO in 1997, the largest Black owned company of radio in the country. And her son , now a business school grad took the company public making her the first Black woman to own a publicly traded company in history. She is a powerhouse of business and media achievement touching Black families all over the country. In this illustration I imagined she must have mentored some younger folks along the way and she is literally passing the microphone to them. Inspiring work and she’s still going!
Sources: BOSS-The Black Experience in Business (film), How I built this (podcast), Block Starz TV
Did you catch this one about Robert Sengstacke Abbott (Chicago Defender)? 
The last one from 2021 was Little Richard!

February 13, 2021
in Black is Beautiful, General
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