February 1, 2022 • 11 mins
Nehemiah D. Frank is the founder & editor-in-chief of The Black Wall Street Times and is a descendant of the historic Greenwood Community, dubbed the Black Wall Street. Frank's work has been featured in TIME Magazine, Education Post, Tulsa People, and various other publications.
Our correspondent Mara Hall was on the streets of Tulsa, OK, and had an opportunity to sit in to interview this entrepreneur from the Historic district of Greenwood.
Nehemiah shares the journey of building The Black Wall Street Times and his personal connections to the Greenwood district.
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Guest IG @nehemiahdfrank
Guest site: The Black Wallstreet Times
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Our correspondent mar Hall
was live on the streets of Paulsa, Oklahoma, in the
(00:22):
historic district known as Greenwood also known as black Wall Street.
During her time there, she had the opportunity to speak
with Nemaya D. Frank. The Maya is the founder and
editor in chief of the Black Wall Street Times and
is a descendant of the historic Greenwood community. Let's hear
what he has to share. Hey, how you doing all
(00:44):
with Money Wall Podcast? How are you doing? I'm great,
Thanks for coming to black Wall Street? No problem. And
what is your name? So I Amna Maya Frank and
I'm the founder nitor in chief of the Black Wall
Street Times. Wonderful, Thank you so much for having a
Sonya Maya the Black Wall Street Times. How did you
get started? Yeah, so I started on a shoestring budget.
I used to be a full time teacher and uh,
(01:06):
that is pretty much how I started. I started a
website and at the time it was just blogging and
now it's turned into a full you know, newsroom. Retail space,
and we pretty much used the retail space to fund
the journalism that we do. Okay, wonderful. So you you
said you started on a shoe string budget. Basically you
had that small mustard seed and it just flourished into
(01:28):
what we're standing in this wonderful building today. Right. Yeah,
that's it. So on Money Moves we talked about how
to start from point A to point Z with the
shoe string budget, with the mustard seed of faith. What
did you do and how much did it cost for
you to start your business? Yeah? So I went to
word press, bought a template, right, a lot of template
(01:52):
and it was like three and fifty six bucks and
so so you started your business one word press for
three d and fifty six six bucks, right, Um? And
I just kind of got in there, did a little
bit of designing. It was pretty simple, right uh. And
just starting starting at that point, it was I had
to learn a lot uh YouTube it's a great teacher,
(02:15):
has a lot of great tools, and absolutely get a
lot of reading. Got a little bit of advice from
people who would build websites. Um. So I did not
hire a web developer. A lot of people do that.
That's not what I was about to do. I didn't
want to lose my money exactly, so I learned as
much as I could. UM. And I think that's probably
you know what we were able to grow so quickly. Okay,
(02:37):
So with your business, you were one man, army of one,
and you did everything. You were the web developer, you
were the business planner. Everything was on you. So with
money Moves, we talked about that, how to start businesses?
Do you need more than one person? You said, you
did it all on your own. I did it all
on my own. And you know, once I started to
pick up traffic and interest, you know, people started to
(03:00):
kind of pop up and say, hey, you know, we
want to write for the Black Wall Street Times. And
it was one person. The next thing, you know, there
were two people writing, and at the time they weren't
even working full time, like they were just freelance France.
And so I pay them, you know, a hundred hundred
and fifty dollars a pop for article, um, and sometimes
those articles would do really well. Um. And so over
(03:21):
time that's how our readership based grew. UM. And then
I figured, oh, you know, I need to make some
more money. How can I turn this into uh yeah,
into profit and because at the time, it was more
of like a you know, it was something that I
knew that my community needed. We need more black media
(03:42):
from our perspective and our perspective to tell our stories. Absolutely,
you know. So this is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful exploration.
A lot of people start YouTube channels, or they start magazines,
or they start business endeavors, and they only stopped at
that one point at eight. How are you taking this
to the level? And what were the steps that you
took to get to the next level, meaning getting the
(04:04):
word out there and making an actual profit from your newspaper? Right.
So I started doing a little bit of research, and
when I say research, I mean I literally Google, and
then I typed, you know, how to make money off
of a blog or how to make money off of
a website? And uh, you need ads? Right? And so
I started to sell ads. And it was a struggle
(04:25):
because at the beginning, a lot of people are like, no,
we're not gonna mess with that. Uh you know, what's
the click rate? And what's this A lot of stuff
I didn't even know how to do. Um, And so
I just started to read as much as I can
and learn about you know, click rates, Uh, how much
a space usually goes for, how much traffic needs to
come to determine, you know, how much you should charge
(04:48):
for an ad um. And so that's what I started
to do, and eventually somebody said yes, and that one
yes eventually turned into two yeses and three and now
we're selling ads for like five thousand dollars you know,
for particular space. Well, very very very very impressive. So
if anyone wants to find out about the Black Wall
Street Paper, where can we find you? Where are you located?
(05:10):
Where do you live? Yeah? So the Black Wall Street
Times is mainly digital and so we're everywhere digital. The
reach is far right. Uh, we do have a physical location.
We're born out of the Greenwood District, which is the
historic Black Wall Street Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yes, yes, so, Neia Maya,
you were born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Why is
(05:32):
it so important for you to have the Black Wall
Street Times here right now today? And what is your
personal connection to the Greenwood District here in Tulsa, Oklahoma? Right?
My family they came from Texas, they came from Kentucky.
They moved here to black Wall Street pre massacre, and
so they were entrepreneurs. We owned a tailor shop, which
(05:54):
is actually on the same street, so this is Archer Street.
The tailor's shop was literally across the street from where
we are today a hundred years ago. You know, So
I am moving in the following the tradition of my ancestors,
you know, Black entrepreneurship, and you're keeping the legacy going
very important. A hundred years ago your family was here
(06:15):
with their tailor shop right across the street on Archer Street.
But you are continuing the legacy of your ancestors and
just moving it forward with the black excellence that you exude.
And thank you. That's phenomenal. Appreciate it. Probably I see
right here we have Greenwood one hundred, one of your
your new issues of the Black Wall Street Times. Could
you tell us a little bit more about that, Yeah,
Greenwood one hundred, this is pretty much our version of
(06:37):
the sixteen nineteen project. So it's sixteen nineteen to uh one,
which is when Blackwall Street was destroyed by the mob,
and all the way to now two thousand twenty one,
and so the majority of the book is history. It
gives you an in depth detail about what happened during
the massacre, but we keep a spirit of Black Wall
(07:01):
Street going on because at the end we have multiple
black entrepreneurs who we showcase who are still doing great work,
great things here in tuls Oklahoma and in the Greenwood
community in the Greenwood District. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I
love that. So Black Wall Street Times Greenwood One. Where
can people get a copy of this or we can
find it online like you can find it online. We
(07:23):
have an online store where we sell all of the
gear as well. And then of course the magazine. In
the magazine, thank you so much. Over here. This is
of course our first print edition of the Black Wall
Street Times, created by Jared Key. He is he and
his brother they're they're amazing. They are graphic designers. They're
(07:45):
actual full on designers as well artists. And then of
course this is the first black paper ever published in
the United States. UM, and I'm thankful that it's extremely
legible bowl because it was produced in We had to
(08:05):
go and dig through some archives to try to find them.
This was really hard finding finding one that would be
able to be legible. UM. But then of course that's
the Tulsa Star, which is the original Oklahoma Eagle newspaper,
and so that newspaper was born out of the Tulsa Star.
(08:29):
The Oklahoma Eagle. They found the printing press in the
ashes and it was you know, preserved enough to where
they could fix it. And then they started the Oklahoma Eagle.
And yesterday at our grand opening. Uh, the third descendant,
I think our fourth descendant, Jerry Goodwin. Uh, he is
the editor over there now. So he came over here
(08:51):
and we both cut the ribbon together, like it was
like passing the torch goes pretty nice. This is mother Randall,
so she is the second oldest living survivor of the massacre.
And then the third is Viola's brother, who's a hunter.
He was six months at the time. But the interesting
thing about their two testimonies is that Viola, when she
(09:14):
was at the U. S. Congress building, she said, um,
you know, my life was easy until the massacre. Like
she remembers how like she felt safe in her community. Um,
nothing but positive things. But her brother, we call him
Uncle Red. He his testimony. You can tell this the
(09:35):
difference right in between the like they're like as they've grown. Um.
His pretty much what he was saying is that his
life was difficult, like his childhood was extremely hard because
they had very little when they used to have very much.
Before we go to a maya, what are some tips
that you could give perspective business owners or people that
(09:58):
are willing and wanting to get into business for them sales,
What advice do you have? My advice would be start
a small side hustle that you can manage um and
don't be afraid to do it. And if you have,
thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Just learning everything nets
(10:24):
so monumental for the total Oklahoma community, for black people
from doing more and I'm very body whether until Thank
you so much for having us, Thank you for joming. Thanks,
thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
(10:49):
i heeart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcast on iHeart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
get your podcasts from.
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Our correspondent mar Hall
was live on the streets of Paulsa, Oklahoma, in the
(00:22):
historic district known as Greenwood also known as black Wall Street.
During her time there, she had the opportunity to speak
with Nemaya D. Frank. The Maya is the founder and
editor in chief of the Black Wall Street Times and
is a descendant of the historic Greenwood community. Let's hear
what he has to share. Hey, how you doing all
(00:44):
with Money Wall Podcast? How are you doing? I'm great,
Thanks for coming to black Wall Street? No problem. And
what is your name? So I Amna Maya Frank and
I'm the founder nitor in chief of the Black Wall
Street Times. Wonderful, Thank you so much for having a
Sonya Maya the Black Wall Street Times. How did you
get started? Yeah, so I started on a shoestring budget.
I used to be a full time teacher and uh,
(01:06):
that is pretty much how I started. I started a
website and at the time it was just blogging and
now it's turned into a full you know, newsroom. Retail space,
and we pretty much used the retail space to fund
the journalism that we do. Okay, wonderful. So you you
said you started on a shoe string budget. Basically you
had that small mustard seed and it just flourished into
(01:28):
what we're standing in this wonderful building today. Right. Yeah,
that's it. So on Money Moves we talked about how
to start from point A to point Z with the
shoe string budget, with the mustard seed of faith. What
did you do and how much did it cost for
you to start your business? Yeah? So I went to
word press, bought a template, right, a lot of template
(01:52):
and it was like three and fifty six bucks and
so so you started your business one word press for
three d and fifty six six bucks, right, Um? And
I just kind of got in there, did a little
bit of designing. It was pretty simple, right uh. And
just starting starting at that point, it was I had
to learn a lot uh YouTube it's a great teacher,
(02:15):
has a lot of great tools, and absolutely get a
lot of reading. Got a little bit of advice from
people who would build websites. Um. So I did not
hire a web developer. A lot of people do that.
That's not what I was about to do. I didn't
want to lose my money exactly, so I learned as
much as I could. UM. And I think that's probably
you know what we were able to grow so quickly. Okay,
(02:37):
So with your business, you were one man, army of one,
and you did everything. You were the web developer, you
were the business planner. Everything was on you. So with
money Moves, we talked about that, how to start businesses?
Do you need more than one person? You said, you
did it all on your own. I did it all
on my own. And you know, once I started to
pick up traffic and interest, you know, people started to
(03:00):
kind of pop up and say, hey, you know, we
want to write for the Black Wall Street Times. And
it was one person. The next thing, you know, there
were two people writing, and at the time they weren't
even working full time, like they were just freelance France.
And so I pay them, you know, a hundred hundred
and fifty dollars a pop for article, um, and sometimes
those articles would do really well. Um. And so over
(03:21):
time that's how our readership based grew. UM. And then
I figured, oh, you know, I need to make some
more money. How can I turn this into uh yeah,
into profit and because at the time, it was more
of like a you know, it was something that I
knew that my community needed. We need more black media
(03:42):
from our perspective and our perspective to tell our stories. Absolutely,
you know. So this is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful exploration.
A lot of people start YouTube channels, or they start magazines,
or they start business endeavors, and they only stopped at
that one point at eight. How are you taking this
to the level? And what were the steps that you
took to get to the next level, meaning getting the
(04:04):
word out there and making an actual profit from your newspaper? Right.
So I started doing a little bit of research, and
when I say research, I mean I literally Google, and
then I typed, you know, how to make money off
of a blog or how to make money off of
a website? And uh, you need ads? Right? And so
I started to sell ads. And it was a struggle
(04:25):
because at the beginning, a lot of people are like, no,
we're not gonna mess with that. Uh you know, what's
the click rate? And what's this A lot of stuff
I didn't even know how to do. Um, And so
I just started to read as much as I can
and learn about you know, click rates, Uh, how much
a space usually goes for, how much traffic needs to
come to determine, you know, how much you should charge
(04:48):
for an ad um. And so that's what I started
to do, and eventually somebody said yes, and that one
yes eventually turned into two yeses and three and now
we're selling ads for like five thousand dollars you know,
for particular space. Well, very very very very impressive. So
if anyone wants to find out about the Black Wall
Street Paper, where can we find you? Where are you located?
(05:10):
Where do you live? Yeah? So the Black Wall Street
Times is mainly digital and so we're everywhere digital. The
reach is far right. Uh, we do have a physical location.
We're born out of the Greenwood District, which is the
historic Black Wall Street Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yes, yes, so, Neia Maya,
you were born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Why is
(05:32):
it so important for you to have the Black Wall
Street Times here right now today? And what is your
personal connection to the Greenwood District here in Tulsa, Oklahoma? Right?
My family they came from Texas, they came from Kentucky.
They moved here to black Wall Street pre massacre, and
so they were entrepreneurs. We owned a tailor shop, which
(05:54):
is actually on the same street, so this is Archer Street.
The tailor's shop was literally across the street from where
we are today a hundred years ago. You know, So
I am moving in the following the tradition of my ancestors,
you know, Black entrepreneurship, and you're keeping the legacy going
very important. A hundred years ago your family was here
(06:15):
with their tailor shop right across the street on Archer Street.
But you are continuing the legacy of your ancestors and
just moving it forward with the black excellence that you exude.
And thank you. That's phenomenal. Appreciate it. Probably I see
right here we have Greenwood one hundred, one of your
your new issues of the Black Wall Street Times. Could
you tell us a little bit more about that, Yeah,
Greenwood one hundred, this is pretty much our version of
(06:37):
the sixteen nineteen project. So it's sixteen nineteen to uh one,
which is when Blackwall Street was destroyed by the mob,
and all the way to now two thousand twenty one,
and so the majority of the book is history. It
gives you an in depth detail about what happened during
the massacre, but we keep a spirit of Black Wall
(07:01):
Street going on because at the end we have multiple
black entrepreneurs who we showcase who are still doing great work,
great things here in tuls Oklahoma and in the Greenwood
community in the Greenwood District. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I
love that. So Black Wall Street Times Greenwood One. Where
can people get a copy of this or we can
find it online like you can find it online. We
(07:23):
have an online store where we sell all of the
gear as well. And then of course the magazine. In
the magazine, thank you so much. Over here. This is
of course our first print edition of the Black Wall
Street Times, created by Jared Key. He is he and
his brother they're they're amazing. They are graphic designers. They're
(07:45):
actual full on designers as well artists. And then of
course this is the first black paper ever published in
the United States. UM, and I'm thankful that it's extremely
legible bowl because it was produced in We had to
(08:05):
go and dig through some archives to try to find them.
This was really hard finding finding one that would be
able to be legible. UM. But then of course that's
the Tulsa Star, which is the original Oklahoma Eagle newspaper,
and so that newspaper was born out of the Tulsa Star.
(08:29):
The Oklahoma Eagle. They found the printing press in the
ashes and it was you know, preserved enough to where
they could fix it. And then they started the Oklahoma Eagle.
And yesterday at our grand opening. Uh, the third descendant,
I think our fourth descendant, Jerry Goodwin. Uh, he is
the editor over there now. So he came over here
(08:51):
and we both cut the ribbon together, like it was
like passing the torch goes pretty nice. This is mother Randall,
so she is the second oldest living survivor of the massacre.
And then the third is Viola's brother, who's a hunter.
He was six months at the time. But the interesting
thing about their two testimonies is that Viola, when she
(09:14):
was at the U. S. Congress building, she said, um,
you know, my life was easy until the massacre. Like
she remembers how like she felt safe in her community. Um,
nothing but positive things. But her brother, we call him
Uncle Red. He his testimony. You can tell this the
(09:35):
difference right in between the like they're like as they've grown. Um.
His pretty much what he was saying is that his
life was difficult, like his childhood was extremely hard because
they had very little when they used to have very much.
Before we go to a maya, what are some tips
that you could give perspective business owners or people that
(09:58):
are willing and wanting to get into business for them sales,
What advice do you have? My advice would be start
a small side hustle that you can manage um and
don't be afraid to do it. And if you have,
thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Just learning everything nets
(10:24):
so monumental for the total Oklahoma community, for black people
from doing more and I'm very body whether until Thank
you so much for having us, Thank you for joming. Thanks,
thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
(10:49):
i heeart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcast on iHeart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
get your podcasts from.
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