October 7, 2022 • 10 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.
Guest IG: @nehemiahdfrank
Website: The Black Wallstreet Times
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
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 abundant. Hey, how you doing
(00:21):
with money mov podcast? How are you doing? I'm great,
Thanks for coming to Black Wall Street no problem? And
what is your name? Sorry? And Maya Frank And I'm
the foundering adder in chief of the Black Wall Street Times. Wonderful.
Thank you so much for having Sony and 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, that is pretty
(00:44):
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. Uh, and
we pretty much used the retail space to fund the
journalism that we do. Okay, wonderful. So you said you
started on the shoe string budget. Basically you had that
small mustard seed and it just flourished into what we're
(01:05):
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 and it
(01:29):
was like three fifty six bucks and so so you
started your business one word press for three d and
fifty six dollars 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 have to learn a lot. Uh.
(01:49):
YouTube is a great teacher, 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
(02:09):
I think that's probably you know why we were able
to grow so quickly. Okay, 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
(02:29):
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 kind of pop up and
I say, hey, you know, you want to write for
the Black wall Stree 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'd pay them,
(02:50):
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 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 a profit. And because at the time
(03:10):
it was more of like a you know, it was
something that I knew that my community needed. We need
more black media from our perspective and our perspective to
tell our stories. 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
(03:31):
only stopped at that one point at eight. How are
you taking this to the next level? And what were
the steps that you took to get to the next level,
meaning getting the 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 type, you know,
how to make money off of a blog or how
(03:53):
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 because at the beginning, a
lot of people are like, no, we're not going to
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,
(04:15):
you know, click rates, uh, how much a space usually
goes for, how much traffic needs to come to determine
how much you should charge 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
(04:39):
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? Where do you live? Yeah?
So the Black Wall Street Times is mainly digital, and
so we're everywhere digital, the reach us far right. Uh,
we do have a physical location. We're born out of
(05:00):
the Greenwood District, which is the historic black Wall Street Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yes, yes,
Sonia Maya, you were born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Why is 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.
(05:21):
They moved here to black Wall Street pre massacre, and
so they were entrepreneurs. We owned a tailor shop which
is actually on the same street, so this is Archer Street.
The Taylor's shop was literally across the street from where
we are today a hundred years ago. You know, So
I am moving into following the tradition of my ancestors,
(05:46):
you know, black entrepreneurship, and you're keeping the legacy going
very important. A hundred years ago, your family was here
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 exist.
And thank you. That's phenomenal. I appreciate it. Probably I
see right here we have Greenwood one hundred, one of
your your new issues of the Black Wall Street Times.
(06:09):
Could you tell us a little bit more about that, Yeah,
Greenwood one hundred, This is pretty much our version of
the sixteen nineteen project. So it's sixteen nineteen to uh nine,
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
(06:31):
gives you an in depth detail about what happened during
the massacre. But we keep the spirit of Black Wall
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 Tulls, Oklahoma and in the Greenwood
community in the Greenwood District. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I
(06:51):
love that. So Black Wall Street Times, Greenwood one hundred.
Where can people get a copy of this or we
can find it online like, ok, you can find it online.
We have an online store where we sell all of
the gear as well. UM. And then of course the magazine.
In the magazine, thank you so much. This is of
course our first print edition of the Blackwall Street Times,
(07:15):
created by Jared Key. He is he and his brother
they're they're amazing. They are graphic designers. They're 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 because it was
(07:38):
produced in We had to 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 a Tulsa Star, which is
the original Oklahoma Eagle news paper, and so that newspaper
(08:02):
was born out of the Tulsa Star. 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
(08:26):
there now. So he came over here and we both
cut the ribbon together. Like it was like passing the torch.
It was 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 was a hunter.
He was six months at the time. But the interesting
(08:47):
thing about their two testimonies is that Viola, when she
was at the US Congress building, she said, um, you know,
my life was easy until the massacre. Like she remembers
how like she felt say from her community, um, nothing
but positive things. But her brother, we call him Uncle Red.
(09:09):
He his testimony, you can tell this the 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.
(09:29):
Before we go near Maya, what are some tips that
you could give perspective business owners or people that are
willing and wanting to get into business for themselves. 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 the
money to be able to just you know, jump jump
(09:50):
into your dream wanted to present, go for it. Go
for it. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us here.
I really really appreciate it, and just learning everything that
you've done is so dful and so monumental for the Tulsa,
Oklahoma community, for black people in general, and I'm very
proudy brother, So thank you so much for having us,
Thank you for coming problem O, thank you, thank you
(10:11):
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. Funny Moves is an i heeart
radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i
(10:33):
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 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 abundant. Hey, how you doing
(00:21):
with money mov podcast? How are you doing? I'm great,
Thanks for coming to Black Wall Street no problem? And
what is your name? Sorry? And Maya Frank And I'm
the foundering adder in chief of the Black Wall Street Times. Wonderful.
Thank you so much for having Sony and 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, that is pretty
(00:44):
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. Uh, and
we pretty much used the retail space to fund the
journalism that we do. Okay, wonderful. So you said you
started on the shoe string budget. Basically you had that
small mustard seed and it just flourished into what we're
(01:05):
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 and it
(01:29):
was like three fifty six bucks and so so you
started your business one word press for three d and
fifty six dollars 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 have to learn a lot. Uh.
(01:49):
YouTube is a great teacher, 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
(02:09):
I think that's probably you know why we were able
to grow so quickly. Okay, 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
(02:29):
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 kind of pop up and
I say, hey, you know, you want to write for
the Black wall Stree 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'd pay them,
(02:50):
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 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 a profit. And because at the time
(03:10):
it was more of like a you know, it was
something that I knew that my community needed. We need
more black media from our perspective and our perspective to
tell our stories. 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
(03:31):
only stopped at that one point at eight. How are
you taking this to the next level? And what were
the steps that you took to get to the next level,
meaning getting the 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 type, you know,
how to make money off of a blog or how
(03:53):
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 because at the beginning, a
lot of people are like, no, we're not going to
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,
(04:15):
you know, click rates, uh, how much a space usually
goes for, how much traffic needs to come to determine
how much you should charge 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
(04:39):
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? Where do you live? Yeah?
So the Black Wall Street Times is mainly digital, and
so we're everywhere digital, the reach us far right. Uh,
we do have a physical location. We're born out of
(05:00):
the Greenwood District, which is the historic black Wall Street Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yes, yes,
Sonia Maya, you were born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Why is 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.
(05:21):
They moved here to black Wall Street pre massacre, and
so they were entrepreneurs. We owned a tailor shop which
is actually on the same street, so this is Archer Street.
The Taylor's shop was literally across the street from where
we are today a hundred years ago. You know, So
I am moving into following the tradition of my ancestors,
(05:46):
you know, black entrepreneurship, and you're keeping the legacy going
very important. A hundred years ago, your family was here
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 exist.
And thank you. That's phenomenal. I appreciate it. Probably I
see right here we have Greenwood one hundred, one of
your your new issues of the Black Wall Street Times.
(06:09):
Could you tell us a little bit more about that, Yeah,
Greenwood one hundred, This is pretty much our version of
the sixteen nineteen project. So it's sixteen nineteen to uh nine,
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
(06:31):
gives you an in depth detail about what happened during
the massacre. But we keep the spirit of Black Wall
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 Tulls, Oklahoma and in the Greenwood
community in the Greenwood District. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I
(06:51):
love that. So Black Wall Street Times, Greenwood one hundred.
Where can people get a copy of this or we
can find it online like, ok, you can find it online.
We have an online store where we sell all of
the gear as well. UM. And then of course the magazine.
In the magazine, thank you so much. This is of
course our first print edition of the Blackwall Street Times,
(07:15):
created by Jared Key. He is he and his brother
they're they're amazing. They are graphic designers. They're 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 because it was
(07:38):
produced in We had to 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 a Tulsa Star, which is
the original Oklahoma Eagle news paper, and so that newspaper
(08:02):
was born out of the Tulsa Star. 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
(08:26):
there now. So he came over here and we both
cut the ribbon together. Like it was like passing the torch.
It was 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 was a hunter.
He was six months at the time. But the interesting
(08:47):
thing about their two testimonies is that Viola, when she
was at the US Congress building, she said, um, you know,
my life was easy until the massacre. Like she remembers
how like she felt say from her community, um, nothing
but positive things. But her brother, we call him Uncle Red.
(09:09):
He his testimony, you can tell this the 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.
(09:29):
Before we go near Maya, what are some tips that
you could give perspective business owners or people that are
willing and wanting to get into business for themselves. 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 the
money to be able to just you know, jump jump
(09:50):
into your dream wanted to present, go for it. Go
for it. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us here.
I really really appreciate it, and just learning everything that
you've done is so dful and so monumental for the Tulsa,
Oklahoma community, for black people in general, and I'm very
proudy brother, So thank you so much for having us,
Thank you for coming problem O, thank you, thank you
(10:11):
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. Funny Moves is an i heeart
radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i
(10:33):
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts from
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