Steve Jordan talks to Brian and Dominique Brooks, co-owners of E. E. Ward Moving & Storage, the oldest African-American company in the United States.
Moving company E. E. Ward in Columbus, Ohio, is the oldest continuously operating Black-owned company in the United States. That’s not just moving companies, that’s all companies. Quite an achievement. Since John T Ward, a free Black man, born in Richmond, Virginia, moved to Columbus in the 1860s, the company he started there has been taking care of its customers, wherever they wanted to go.
At that time, slavery in the US had only just been declared illegal through the 13th Amendment. Nobody, of course, had taken the trouble to tell the slaves, so many of them made their escape by whatever means they could. One method was through the then nascent underground railway where John T Ward was a conductor. He did all he could then to help give them safe passage.
John had a wagon and horses, that he used to transport slaves to the next stop on the underground railroad. As freedom from slavery became more of the standard, John T began to use his wagon and horses to haul feed and grain, and eventually household goods. The moving company was born.
Brian Brooks, who owns the company with this wife Dominique, traced the lineage from there ...
Photo: Brian and Dominique Brooks.