By the 1920s, the landscape of Fountain Heights had changed. What started as a space for the select few had become home to a large percentage of Birmingham’s middle class immigrants and blacks. Several prominent members of Fountain Heights’ black community found great success through their entrepreneurial mindset. While segregation laws essentially created two separate market forces for the white and black communities, people like Charles Harris, Ruth Jackson, and A. G. Gaston succeeded in earning great wealth serving a market all to their own . These resources would become essential for Civil Rights leaders such as Reverend Shuttlesworth, Arthur Shores, and Martin Luther King in the decades to come.

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DarlenaWilliams

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