ANAHEIM, Calif. (KNX) – Post 21, the first Black-owned business at the Downtown Disney District, will re-open Feb. 1.
Owned by Juana Williams and her daughter, Blair Paysinger, the online store, and kiosk at Downtown Disney, “focuses on modern and design forward products from black-owned businesses,” according to the store’s website.
“Our whole purpose is to advance Black businesses,” Williams told the Orange County Register. “We’re bringing all the Black businesses that we work with along with us so they have the Disney opportunity as well.”
The shop’s name derives from the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, when a white mob destroyed over 1,000 homes and businesses in Tulsa’s Greenwood District, which was also known as “Black Wall Street.” Over 300 Black people were killed during the riot.
99 years to the day of the tragic riot, Post 21 launched its online store.
“The innovative, sophisticated, and game changing ideas of “Black Wall Street” entrepreneurs, a drive that cannot ever be burned down or driven out, continues to live in Black entrepreneurs today,” the women wrote on their website.
“We see today, and every day since May 31,1921 as Post 1921. Standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us, we are ready to do what we have traditionally done – in a new and exciting way!”
On Nov. 26, Post 21 became the first Black Owned Operating Partner in Downtown Disney. The store closed briefly in January so that the kiosk could be reset.
“We definitely see a need for Black-owned businesses,” Downtown Disney property manager Robert Clunie told the O.C. Register.” We’ve been intentionally working to make sure that our slate of businesses and tenants are as reflective as possible of the community that we serve and that we are a part of.”
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