Photo Credit: Roel Dirven
Robert Hartwell is a Broadway actor best known for his time in the productions of “Hello, Dolly!” and “Motown the Musical” just made one of the biggest middle finger in the face of racism moves one could imagine. That move was for him to purchase a home previously built by slaves. How better to disrupt the legacy of a racist system by spending your money to purchase what would have otherwise been generational wealth for descendants of the original wrong.
In an Instagam post smiling from ear to ear, Hartwell shared a picture of his new home saying, “3 weeks ago I found this house online. I said ‘this is my house’. I called the seller and was told it was a cash only offer and that ‘I’m sure that takes you off the table,’” he wrote. “Don’t you ever underestimate a hard working black man.”
He went on to talk about the home being 200 years old this year and how it was built for the Russell family who owned a nearby cotton mill town and said the purchase was a “generational move.”
“I know this house is bigger than me,” the Broadway Collective founder wrote. “I wish I could’ve told my ancestors when they were breaking their backs in 1820 to build this house that 200 years later a free gay black man was going to own it and fill it with love and find a way to say their name even when 200 years later they still thought I would be ‘off the table.’”
He finished his post saying that he had “never been prouder to be a black man.” And we couldn’t be prouder for him. The act of what he did speaks volumes and we would like to see far more of this happening.
“We are building our own tables,” he wrote. “I’ve never been prouder to be a black man. Come to my White House any time. I can’t wait to have you! Glory to God in the highest. I’m a homeowner.”
