WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – August is National Black Business Month and a local owner hopes he can inspire change in others to bring more of them back.
Dwight Haywood, Owner of Wangs and Thangz restaurant in Wichita Falls reopened his business earlier this year after closing down in 2007.
His restaurant is on the east side of Wichita Falls and he hopes more black-owned businesses can come back to that side of town.
“At one point man it was a little bit of everything, the only thing we didn’t have was a bank” Wangs and Thangz Owner, Dwight Haywood said.
“The east side was self-sufficient and the money would stay in the neighborhood for about a month before it had to go to a bank. We were trading money so you got a barber shop, I got an eating place, and he’s got a gas station so the money would stay in the neighborhood” Haywood said.
“The way it is now, it’s nothing here. So, soon as someone gets paid over here the money has to leave because it is nowhere to spend it” continued Haywood.
Haywood says everything changed during integration in the 60′s for the city. He believes it was a good move for the city as a whole, but not for the east side.
“The change happened so fast that the black community and black businesses couldn’t keep up,” Haywood said.
Dwight closed his first Wangs and Thangz restaurant for personal reasons and felt now was the best time to open back up.
“A community that’s not thriving is going to die you know and I just don’t want it to die. I’ve seen it when it was at its best and it might take years for it to get back there but you got to start somewhere” Haywood said.
You can visit Wangs and Thangz Wednesday-Saturday from 11:30 am to 10:00 pm on 1400 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
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