Bed Stuy Café hosts Black Fortunes Author Shomari Wills Feb 24th

With Marvel’s Black Panther currently breaking box office records and the popularity of the 2016 hit Hidden Figures, it is clear that audiences are hungry for stories of black excellence.

Shomari “Sho” Wills, author of Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires, says he wrote the book because he wanted to dispel several long standing myths. “I wanted to push back against the stereotype that African Americans aren’t enterprising or capable of cultivating and wielding financial power,” Wills told Black Enterprise.

The Washington Post reports that while the individuals in Black Fortunes “demonstrated fierce determination and courage,” the fact is that there are countless other stories of accomplishment that remain “invisible.” What makes these success stories different says the newspaper is that Wills shines a spotlight on these achievements by African Americans, which have been heretofore overlooked.

According to the book’s publisher, Shomari Wills’ great-great-great-grandfather Napoleon Bonaparte Drew is one of the stories chronicled in the book. Drew was the first black man in Powhatan County (contemporary Richmond) to own property in post-Civil War Virginia. Another unknown black entrepreneur featured includes Mary Ellen Pleasant, who acquired her wealth during the Gold Rush and used it to help fund the abolitionist movement.

Wills appearance at Georges-André Vintage Café in Bedford Stuyvesant will be on Feb. 24th from 1:00 pm - 4:00pm.

Shomari Wills is a journalist. He has worked for CNN and Good Morning America, and has contributed to New York Carib News and Columbia Journalism Review. He received an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College and a graduate degree from Columbia University, where he was named a Lynton Book Writing Fellow. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.