Excerpt from th Intrduction: Durham, like most Southern cities in the 1880s and 1900s, had rigidly segregated communities. The majority of African Americans resided in the southern and southeastern sections known as Hayti, pronounced as "hay-tie."

In 1920, W. E. B Dubois, a prominent African American historian, referred to Durham, specifically the Hayti area, as the "Negro business mecca of the South."