Rebuilding what was extracted: Black entrepreneurship, HBCUs and Missouri’s future

By: Stacy Gee Hollins

Outlets: Missouri Independent

Published: March 6, 2026

Words: 807

Last Updated: 4 days, 12 hours ago

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We often treat Black history as a February retrospective, but the work of rebuilding what was extracted from communities like Mill Creek Valley requires a calendar without an expiration date.

Mill Creek Valley was a once-thriving Black community dismantled in the name of urban renewal. Its destruction wasn’t caused by a lack of talent, entrepreneurship, or leadership; It was caused by decisions about whose futures mattered. That lesson remains urgent today, far beyond …

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