(soft rock music) - My dad thought he would start a funeral home here.

He went to all the banks, tried to borrow money.

None of the banks would let him borrow money, even though he was a veteran.

- Being a Black business owner, especially a Black restaurant, you know, some people come in with the perception of mediocracy.

My thing that I tell my team, "We need to prove 'em wrong every single time."

We do everything with integrity and we gonna do unto others like we would like others to do unto us.

- If you want to be successful in business, be honest and truthful, and get what you can do, don't look for nobody to give you nothing.

(soft blues music) - My dad came to Arizona as a Tuskegee Airmen, of 1 of 11 men to integrate Luke Air Force Base, of 1 of 11 men to integrate Luke Air Force Base, as an experiment to see if integration would work moving forward in the armed forces.

And that is how he came to Arizona, and as a fighter pilot, in advanced gunnery training in the P-51 Mustang, in 1945 through 1946. of 1 of 11 men to integrate Luke Air Force Base, My father, when he came out here, he saved his money and all the money that he saved, he ended up buying a lot off 1100 East Jefferson Street.

You couldn't buy property north of Van Buren at the time.

So he bought a lot there and in wanting to build a funeral home, because my family comes from the funeral home industry, we started in the mortuary business back in 1896, '97 in Oklahoma, when it was still a territory in Muskogee.

He went to all the banks, tried to borrow money.

None of the banks would let him borrow money, even though he was a veteran.

And so he didn't know what to do, after he had submitted his last request from one of the bankers to bring the paperwork in, and on his way out, the gentleman said, "Lincoln Ragsdale, I just wanna let you know "that this bank will never, ever let you borrow any money."

A gentleman had walked past him, walked by and saw my father, he left going home, my father's still standing in the same place.

He turned to my father and said, "Excuse me, sir, why are you still standing here?

"You've been here all afternoon."

My father said, you know, "I'm trying to borrow money."

he told him the story.

And he said, "Well, come on up to my office."

This gentleman name was E. Harry Herscher.

Went up there, started talking to each other.

The gentleman said, "Ragsdale, I will let you borrow the money from me.

"I'm an architect, "but you have to let me design your building for you."

My father said, "That will be fine."

So, the gentleman let my father borrowed $35,000, gave him 15 years to repay him back.

My dad paid him back within 10 years.

And so my dad built the funeral home.

My dad had gone to Arizona State University and had a degree in economics, and so he started a real estate company.

He also started a insurance company, so he could sell insurance to, of course, predominantly Black people.

He started trying to do land development, in which we ended up building some buildings in the '80s.

(traffic humming) (soft acoustic music) - Well, we came because I had a brother here.

So, he asked me to come and help him with the church, and he had a cafe at 1029, up the street.

It was called Church Cafe.

And so we came, me and my four children, the oldest one stayed with his dad, 'cause we were separated, and we came to Phoenix in '63.

We left the last day of '62.

We was riding New Year's '63.

When we first got here, those jobs wasn't open, and it was just a few Blacks coming in, and just like I said, all we had was the people that worked on city at night.

And but when the jobs came forth, then everybody started coming to the cafe.

A lot of people started coming, from the word of mouth.

When the people would come and eat, they'd say, "Oh, you should go to Mrs Whites."

And I was making pies and cobblers, and greens and cabbage, and red beans, black eye peas.

People started calling it Mrs White's Golden Rule, so that's what it's called.

- You know, from a young age, I was always in the kitchen with my grandmother.

I'm my grandmother's first grandchild, so she always wanted to have me around.

Every day I'm with my grandma, and she's going to get chicken from Food City, and she's going to get collard greens from Willyard Chile, and candy yams, and you know, she's cutting them, cleaning them greens, and cleaning chitlins and frying chicken, and cutting yams.

You know, I'm just thinking, "Oh, I know how to cook."

I never wanted to go into the restaurant business because I always saw how hard my father and my grandmother worked and how dead-beat tired they would be.

And I was like, "Oh man, I know there gotta be a better way," you know.

(Larry laughing) But you know, once again, they were working for themselves, and I'm young, but now that I'm older, it all makes sense.

(upbeat rock music) (oil sizzling) (people chatting) I graduated high school in 1990 and, you know, you graduate high school, you're trying to figure out what you're gonna do.

So I joined, I signed up for community college, and I was like, "You know, I'm tired of school."

So I started an independent record label in 1992.

(soft hip hop music) We started doing some recordings with LA artists, and we would be in the recording studios, and after those late night sessions we would always end up at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

And man, when I found out about Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in the early '90s, I fell in love.

I loved the combination of sweet and savory.

So when we'd be doing late night sessions here at our recorded studio in Phoenix, Arizona, a lot of the guys would say, "Man, I sure could go for "some Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles."

So, I'd go to Kmart of all places and I buy a little waffle baker, and I go to my house, and I get my grandmother's pancake recipe, and on my electric stove and cast iron skillet, I start frying up some fried chicken.

So after the next session, some guys made the comment, "Oh my goodness!

"Oh my goodness!"

Everybody's ranting and raving and talking about my chicken and waffles.

When I asked my grandmother for the opportunity to showcase my Lo-Lo's Chicken & Waffles, she said, "Yes, of course."

I got my first brick and mortar, on this same corner where we're at today, Central and Yuma Street.

It was a little small house, about 800 square feet.

I was only able to seat 20 people at a time.

I got that building in 2000, and it took me about two years, 2002 before I was able to open my doors to the public, to let everybody come in and sit down.

(soft music) - I think being a Black business owner is one of the hardest jobs in America, because you don't have support from, at least, especially during the time my dad started, you don't have the bank support, you don't have a lot of the support system that another person might have, who works for corporation.

Of course, there were no jobs for Blacks in upper management.

I think also the disadvantage my dad had, that he wished he could have had, and somewhat myself too, was that when you're members of like maybe a country club or whatever, they talk among each other and they make the deals, and so you aren't able to be in the conversation as they would say, "I'm not in the room."

So you aren't in the room where the deals are made and obviously they were not interested in helping Black people.

You are forced to stay within a realm of which the people of power will let you move within.

Being a black businessman in Arizona is a big challenge.

I take my hat off to all Black businessmen and all self-employed businessmen, because I know how difficult it is and especially when you're a person of color, how much extra you have to work.

- You have to be a mother and a business woman, and it go together.

You have to take care of your children and see what they need, and you have to take care of the business and supply that.

So, it keeps you on your toes.

Work hard, be honest, and get what you can do, don't look for nobody to give you nothing.

If you work for what you need, get yourself in a position.

I don't have degrees, I have certificates in business, but what I have, I work with it.

Me and the Lord.

If you want to be successful in business, first, be honest, be honest and truthful, and don't try to cheat nobody, do everybody the same way.

(traffic humming) - Being a Black entrepreneur, it can be tricky sometimes, you know, there's a lot of assumption and a lot of people think just because you are entrepreneur, you're a business owner, that you're still not a real person.

And I'm as real as they come.

To some other entrepreneurs, you know, maybe outside of my race, I might be considered a threat.

Being a Black business owner, especially a Black restaurant, you know, some people come in with the perception of mediocracy.

They think just because it's a Black-Owned business, that it's not gonna be ran successfully.

And my thing that I tell my team, "We need to prove 'em wrong every single time."

That's why we keep an impeccable, clean establishment.

You know, we do everything by code.

You know, we do everything with integrity.

(soft rock music) (soft rock music)