Photo Courtesy of Hill Harper/ Instagram
You may know actor Hill Harper for his various small-screen performances, including his recurring roles on CSI: NY and The Good Doctor. But now Harper is switching gears to launch The Black Wall Street, a digital wallet and smartphone app, in hopes of increasing financial literacy in the black community.
An actor, author and now businessman, Harper announced the new platform appropriately during Financial Literacy Month. According to PR News Wire, The Black Wall Street will be the first Black-owned digital wallet and “cryptocurrency exchange platform” established in the United States. Also referred to as an e-wallet, a digital wallet allows users to pay for goods with their smartphone, instead of a traditional plastic debit or credit card.
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Helping to educate members of his community on the importance of money management, The Black Wall Street will start a financial literacy campaign and bus tour this summer, starting in Los Angeles, California, and ending in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The campaign will be led by Harper himself, along with Najah Roberts, a black female cryptocurrency expert.
Tulsa holds significance due to its once prominent “Black Wall Street,” after which Harper named his platform. The Black Wall Street’s May 2021 summer tour will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre.
Located on Tulsa’s Greenwood Avenue, the once prominent Black Wall Street was filled with doctors, lawyers, Black-owned restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and other businesses. However, in May 1921, a vicious white mob burned down and looted the area, along with other Black neighborhoods. Hundreds of Black Tulsans lost their lives in the massacre.
The Black Wall Street’s launch will notably include an app, which users can use to invest and educate themselves on cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. “It’s not just about transferring money to folks, it’s about transferring information, ideas, and building community, and we see that that is the real value and the real differentiator,” Harper
told CNBC about his new project.Harper hopes that his new app and digital wallet will lead to better jobs, entrepreneurship and overall better financial practices.