In Asheville’s segregated past, most black-owned businesses were concentrated in small  neighborhoods, where interdependence, close kin and long community relationships built a ready, steady supply of business and money circulated for a long time within the neighborhood. Desegregation and later the destruction of some parts of those neighborhoods in “urban renewal” broke the bonds between the people and their local businesses. For all the progress and increased potential desegregation brought, it came at a price in the loss of tight-knit neighborhoods that supported local livelihoods. Over the years Asheville’s African American people have been proud of their business accomplishments, and keeping a display like this (which looks like a collection cut out of a phone book or some other directory) was a way of celebrating them. The spirit of entrepreneurship is still going strong in Asheville, and can only get stronger with the vital support of the black community!