African American owned businesses opened on the Avenue by at least by 1865, including a grocery store owned by Samuel G. Smothers and a "peddler shop" owned by William Franklin. The Indianapolis Leader, the first black owned newspaper in Indianapolis, catered to the interests of the growing African American population and featured advertisements for Indiana Avenue businesses. The Leader began publishing in the 1870s.
In 1870, 974 African Americans (one third of the city's African American population) called Indiana Avenue home. This represented a shift in racial demographics away from the mostly working class poor population of Irish and German immigrants that lived around Indiana Avenue during the early years of Indianapolis. As the African American population increased, black entrepreneurs opened businesses on practically every corner.