Robert W. Woodruff
Library
Walter R. Davis 111 Fund
PRESIDENTS OF NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE.
(1) Booker T. Washington, President. (2) Chas. Banks, Mound Bayou,
Miss., 1st Vice-President. (3) Fred D. Patterson, Greenfield, O.,
2d Vice-President. (4) S. G. Elbert, M. D., Wilmington, Del.. 3d Vice-
President. (5) Harry T. Pratt, Baltimore, Md„ 4th Vice-President.
(6) J. A. Lankford, Washington, D. C., 5th Vice-President.
FROM STEREOGRAPH COPYRIGHT DY UNDERWOOD £ UNDERWOOD, NEW YORK.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
THE
NEGRO IN BUSINESS
BY
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Author of "Working With the Hands," "The Story of
My Life and Work," "Character Building," Etc., Etc.
3IUuatrat?ii
PUBLISHED BY
HERTEL, JENKINS & CO.
BOSTON CHICAGO
Copyright, 1907
by
Hertel, Jenkins & Co.
typography and plates by
The Vail Company, Coshocton, Ohio
PREFACE
Some time ago my publishers asked me to prepare
for the public a volume which should take note of the
undoubted business awakening among the Negro peo¬
ple of the United States, and suggested further that
such a volume should include some general discussion
of those factors and conditions that make for the per¬
manent economic success of the Negro race. ✓
It is not my purpose in this volume to attempt a
statistical study of the business enterprises of the
Negro people in the United States, or to give a de¬
tailed and consecutive history of their business de¬
velopment. I desire rather to tell in as direct and sim¬
ple a manner as I am able what a number of our
more successful men have been able to do in the field
of business, with the hope that an increasing number
of our young men may be encouraged by these ex¬
amples to take advantage of the opportunities open
to them in this direction.
As I have traveled through the country, I have
been constantly surprised to note the number of
colored men and women, often in small towns and
remote districts, who are engaged in various lines of
business. In many cases the business has been very
humble, but nevertheless sufficient has been accom¬
plished to indicate the opportunities of the race in this
i
2
PREFACE
field. Not infrequently, moreover, I met men who
have been unusually successful, whose business en¬
terprises and wealth would be creditable to any man
of any race. It is the achievements of these men of
which I shall try here to give an account.
In my opinion, the National Negro Business
League, formed for the purpose of bringing our busi¬
ness men together for mutual help and encourage¬
ment, deserves a place in this book, because of the
far-reaching influence it has exerted, through its
annual meetings and the numerous and vigorous local
leagues affiliated with it, in the way of encouraging
our young men and women to go into business, and
of heartening those already engaged in it to renewed
efforts and greater achievements. I shall therefore
give proper space to the history and effects of the
National Negro Business League.
A chapter which I think- will be of interest con¬
cerns the subject of Negro towns, several of which
have sprung up in the South, and which seem to
me significant and important as examples of that
pioneer spirit which we must show more and more
if we are to succeed as a race.
In addition, I think I am safe in saying that some
discussion of the subject of industrial education and
of the Negro's commercial and social relations with
the South, bearing ~directly on his business activity,
will not be out of place in this book.
Some of the material in these latter chapters has
already appeared in print, and I am under obliga¬
tion to the publishers of The Tradesman, Chattanooga,
PREFACE
3
Tenn., The Atlantic Monthly, Boston, Mass., and the
International Monthly, now the International Quar¬
terly, for permission to reprint that portion of the
material which has appeared in the columns of their
publications.
One point upon which I wish to be thoroughly
understood is that this volume is not intended to
include, or even to name, all the successful colored
men and women who are engaged in business. The
space allotted to me has permitted me to make men¬
tion of only a few, who will serve as examples of
what hundreds of others are accomplishing. I also
desire to make plain the fact that if any individual
or organization is not mentioned in this volume it
does not mean that he or it is not, in my opinion,
worthy to have such mention. Many of those who
are entitled to be mentioned here are left out simply
because of lack of space or because I had neither
from my own knowledge nor from the records of
the Business League and other sources of informa¬
tion, sufficient details at hand to give an adequate
account of what they have accomplished.
My main object in preparing this volume has been
to set forth some examples from among the members
of the Negro race that may serve to encourage other
men and women of the race to go forward and win
success in business directions. I have sought rather
to refer to such examples as would show the va¬
riety of business enterprise in which colored people
are engaged rather than the total amount of business
being done by Negroes. Furthermore, I have in every
4
PREFACE
case been influenced in making my choice less by
the actual material success gained, measured in dol¬
lars and cents, than by the enterprise and energy and
moral earnestness displayed. I have done this because
I believe that the success won by hard work, rather
than by lucky chance, is the only success that is of
any importance to the race as a whole.
Finally, if I seem to have chosen my examples of
business success too exclusively from the ranks of the
National Negro Business League, it is not because
I am unaware that there are many successful busi¬
ness men who have never become members of it but
because the men whose stories I know best are men
with whom I have become acquainted through the
medium of the League.
I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to my friend,
Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, of New York, for very
valuable help in the preparation of this volume; and
also to make acknowledgment of my indebtedness to
my Secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott, for services ren¬
dered in the same direction. Mr. Fortune has been
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National
Negro Business League since its organization, and
Mr. Scott, Corresponding Secretary ; both have had
much to do with the upbuilding of this potent factor
in the development of our race.
— The Author.
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama,
June i, 1907.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
Chapter Page
I. Introduction n
IL The Negro in Agriculture 21
III. Junius G. Groves, "The Negro Potato King".. 29
IV. The Negro Caterer 38
V. John S. Trower, A Successful Caterer and
Man of Business 47
VI. The Negro as a Hotel-Keeper 54
VII. E. C. Berry, Hotel-Keeper and Business Suc¬
cess 62
VIII. The Negro as Town-builder 68
IX. Isaiah T. Montgomery, the Founder of Mound
Bayou 82
X. The Negro Undertaker 94
XI. James C. Thomas, Undertaker and Business
Man 104
XII. The Negro Banker 110
XIII. W. R. Pettiford, A Minister-Banker 126
XIV. The Negro Inventor and Manufacturer 138
XV. Samuel Scottron, Inventor, Manufacturer, and
Friend of the Negro Race 150
XVI. The Negro as a Financier and Capitalist 159
XVII. The Negro Publisher 174
XVIII. The Story of the National Baptist Publishing
Board 186
XIX. Philip A. Payton, Jr., and the Afro-American
Realty Company 197
XX. Negro Business Enterprise in the Southwest . 206
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
XXI. Hon. John E. Bush and the Business League
of Little Rock, Arkansas 218
XXII. Pensacola, a Typical Negro Business Com¬
munity 230
XXIII. Some Conspicuous Business Successes 237
XXIV. Three Personal Narratives of Business Suc¬
cess 251
XXV. The National Negro Business League 268
XXVI. The National Negro Business League in New
York 276
PART II
XXVII. -Progress of the American Negro 293
XXVIII. The Negro and the Labor Problem of the
South 3°3
XXIX. The Negro and His Relation to the South... 313
XXX. The Fruits of Industrial Training 322
XXXI. The American Negro and His Economic Value 344
PART III
Appendix 359
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS #
Booker T. Washington Frontispiece
President and Vice-Presidents op Negro Business
League Frontispiece
Hotel Berry, Athens, 0 28
J. G. Groves, Potato King 29
Chas. H. Smiley, Caterer 42
Home op F. J. Moultrie 43
Hotel-Cafe of Nail Bros 54
J. L. Thomas and Family 55
City Council and Jail, Eatonyille, Fla 78
J. E. Clark's Pineapple Farm 79
Residence op Eatonyille's Mayor 80
Residence of Eatonyille's Postmaster 81
Isaiah T. Montgomery 90
Bank of Mound Bayou and Directors 91
Elijah Cook, Undertaker 98
Preston Taylor, Undertaker 99
W. R. Pettiford, Banker 126
W. E. Mollison and Family 127
E. J. Reid, Salesman 142
Mrs. H. C. Haynes 142
Middleton's Up-to-Date Market 143
Office of Haynes Razor Strop Co 148
s. R. scottron and family 149
Philip A. Payton, Jr., and Wife 200
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Directors op Afro-American Investment Co 201
M. M. Lewey and Family 236
R. B. Hudson and Family 237
Business of J. N. Vandervall 242
J. M. Hazelwood's Tonsorial Parlors 243
»
Residence Built by Colored Contractors 272
Officers of Negro Business League, 1904 273
Officers of Negro Business League, 1907 276
Executive Committee of Negro Business League, 1907. 277
Office of Dr. Furniss 290
The Carolina Light Infantry 291
James and Allen's Pharmacy 316
Office of Virginia Insurance Co 317
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
PART I
9
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In slavery days the Southern Negro had, except in
very rare cases, no opportunity to engage in business
on his own behalf, and was very seldom permitted,
on account of the stringency of the laws against
teaching a slave to read, write and cipher, to do busi¬
ness to any great extent for his master. He was,
however, very often skilled in trades which proved to
be for him the thresholds to business enterprise in
a condition of freedom. The slave skilled as a
butcher, for instance, after emancipation often opened
a butcher shop of his own; the skilled carpenter taught
himself to read and cipher and became a contractor;
and the skilled plantation poultry-man in some cases
gradually built up a trade reckoned by the car-loads.
At the close of the Civil War the South was, from
one point of view, an extremely unfavorable field for
Negro trade. The whole section was in a condition
of extreme poverty. The Negro himself was turned
out to face the world without a penny. In addition
to this, the South as a whole had been so demoralized
by the system of slave labor that once promising cen¬
ters, like Beaufort, S. C., Charleston, S. C., and Sa¬
il
12
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
vannah, Ga., had lost to Philadelphia, New York and
Boston the international commerce they formerly pos¬
sessed. Mr. Hinton Rowan Helper, a North Caro¬
linian, and the son of a slave-holder, in a notable
book, " The Impending Conflict," published in i860,
wrote with reference to the languishing- condition of
business in the South:
" It is a fact well known to every intelligent South¬
erner that we are compelled to go to the North for
almost every article of utility and adornment, from
matches, shoepegs and paintings up to cotton-mills,
steamships and statuary; that we have no foreign
trade and no princely merchants; and that, owing to
the lack of a proper system of business amongst us,
the North becomes the proprietor and dispenser of
all of our floating wealth. The North is the Mecca
of our merchants, and to it they must and do make
two pilgrimages per annum — one in the spring and
one in the fall. All our commercial, mechanical and
manufactured supplies come from there. ... In
some way or another we are more or less subservient
to the North every day of our lives. In infancy we
are swaddled In Northern muslin; in childhood we are
humored with Northern gewgaws; in youth we are in¬
structed out of Northern books; ... in the de¬
cline of life we remedy our eyesight with Northern
spectacles, and support our infirmities with Northern
canes; in our old age we are drugged with Northern
physic; and finally, when we die, our inanimate bodies,
shrouded with Northern cambric, are borne to the
grave in a Northern carriage, entombed with a
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
*3
Northern spade, and memorized with a Northern
slab!"
Henry W. Grady, the brilliant Georgian, corrob¬
orates Mr. Helper's description of the commercial
lethargy of the South rn the sixties with an humorous
account of a funeral which took place in Georgia
shortly after the war. " The grave," says he, " was
dug through solid marble, but the marble headstone
came from Vermont. It was in a pine wilderness, but
the pine coffin came from Cincinnati. An iron moun¬
tain overshadowed it, but the coffin nails and screws
and shovels came from Pittsburg. With hard woods
and metals abounding, the corpse was hauled on a
wagon that came from South Bend, Indiana. A hick¬
ory grove grew near by, but the pick and shovel han¬
dles came from New York. The cotton shirt on the
dead man came from Cincinnati; the coat and breeches
from Chicago; the shoes from Boston, the folded
hands were encased in white gloves from New York,
and round the poor neck, that had borne all its living
days the bondage of lost opportunity, was twisted a
cheap cravat from 'Philadelphia."
One of the most remarkable events in the history
of our country has been the rapid recuperation of
the South from the demoralization of slavery and the
desolation of the war. The far-reaching influence of
the Emancipation Proclamation is manifested in the
fact that it freed not only the millions of slaves of
my race, but also, no less truly, the millions of white
people of the South. Without the emancipation of
the slaves, the South would not be as great com-
14
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
mercially as it is to-day. I think I am safe in say¬
ing also that without the loyal and industrious as¬
sistance of the Negro the South could not have devel¬
oped as it has done since the war.
As I have said before, the Negro at the South had
little to gain from his environment in the way of
business example. This was, however, not an un¬
mixed disadvantage. He was not suddenly brought
into competition with a highly organized and pitiless
commercial system such as obtains at the North." The
wind was tempered, in this case, to the shorn lamb,
and the inexperienced Negro was permitted to learn
the lessons of business gradually, without being mo¬
lested and pushed to the wall by keen and superior
competition.
The Negro was also fortunate enough to find that
while his abilities in certain directions were opposed
by the white South, in business he was not only un¬
disturbed but even favored and encouraged. I have
been repeatedly informed by Negro merchants in the
South that they have as many white patrons as
black; and the cordial business relations which are
almost universal between the races in the South prove,
as I have elsewhere said, that there is little race prej¬
udice in the American dollar.
On the other hand, as there is little prejudice against
a man in business, there is also little prejudice in his
favor. A merchant, unlike a physician, for example,
is not patronized because he is white or because he is
black; but because he has known how to put brains
into his work, to make his store clean and inviting, to
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
15
arrange his wares in attractive order, and to foresee
and provide the commodities which his patrons are
likely to desire. I am convinced that in business a
man's mettle is tried as it is not, perhaps, in any-
other profession.
If I have spoken hitherto more particularly of con¬
ditions in the South it is because seventy-eight per
cent, of the entire Negro population of the United
States lives in the ex-slave states. From these states
came seventy-two per cent, of the delegates to the
Nashville meeting of the National Negro Business
League, in 1903.
But in considering the" general conditions which
have either favored or hindered the advancement of
the Negro in business, certain more remote influences,
which have made that advancement less rapid in the
past than it is likely to be in the future, should not
be left out of account.
Immediately after emancipation the one great aim
of the Negro people was to fit itself as quickly as
possible for citizenship. The Fourteenth and Fif¬
teenth Amendments to the Constitution had given the
Negro people the right to vote and hold office under
the governments of the several states and of the United
States. It seemed to the Freedmen, and this belief
was shared to a large extent by the white people of
the North, to whom after the war they looked for
guidance, that all that was necessary to fit them to.
take the positions in life thrown open to them, was
to make themselves masters of the knowledge and
i6
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
learning that had hitherto been the special privilege
and peculiar possession of the white race.
Immediately after emancipation the whole body of
the Freedmen seemed to have been seized with a de¬
sire for education. During the forty years si&ce that
time the great mass of the Negro people have prob¬
ably made greater sacrifices to obtain an education
than any other portion of our population, or indeed
of any other people in the world, with the possible
exception of the Japanese. This is shown by the fact
that in 1900, of the 76,026 persons of Negro blood
in this country, who are engaged in the professions and
in the trades requiring skill, 21,261 were teachers and
professors. Only 9,838 were in business requiring
capital.
Up to the present time the greater part of the sur¬
plus energy of the race has been expended in the
effort to secure for the mass of the people the mere
rudiments of civilization, namely, the ability to read
and write. This task is by no means accomplished.
As long as 54 per cent, of the ,Negro people are still
unable to read or write, a large part of the effort for
the progress of the race must still be directed to
supplying this want.
It was said at one time that the Negro race was
incapable of acquiring the highest knowedge and cul¬
ture which, in a period of over 2,000 years, has come
into possession of the Aryan people. But the rapidity
with which, in the professions, in pure science, litera¬
ture and the arts individual members of the Negro
race, who have had the opportunities for higher edu-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
17
cation, have mastered its different branches has made
it impossible longer to assert that the Negro is unable
to learn.
The Negro is now called to face a severer test.
The time has arrived when he must prove not merely
his capacity to learn what others have done but to
act on his own initiative, and do things new and dif¬
ferent.
The very conditions under which we are compelled
to do business demands that we show the energy and
initiative of pioneers. The task of the Negro busi¬
ness man is not merely to develop the latent wealth
in the soil and in the mountains but still more the
latent capacity of the Negro peope. The Negro race
must learn to make the most of its own peculiar qual¬
ities, learn to turn the very obstacles and difficulties
of its position to advantage. In this work the Negro
business man has a peculiar opportunity for service,
an opportunity that is offered to no other class among
the members of his race.
Few members of the Negro race have had the op¬
portunities usually open to the young men among
their white neighbors, of first serving an apprenticeship
as a clerk, a bookkeeper or manager, before embark¬
ing in business on their own account. Some of the
more successful of Negro business men have been those
who were born in slavery. Entering thus without
special education or experience into fields in which in¬
dividual enterprise and initiative count for more than
they do elsewhere, these men have often had special
and peculiar difficulties to meet. In the beginning
i8
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
they have very often had to deal with a people who
were still very poor, who had not learned habits of
thrift and saving and who frequently have very crude
notions of the meaning and nature of business obli¬
gations. It has been their task to encourage and edu¬
cate the members of their race in that thrift in the
management of their affairs and precision in meeting
their obligations which makes business possible and
profitable.
It is because they have so often succeeded in spite
of these difficulties; because I have observed in our
business men the patience, persistence and willingness
to learn by experience which is the hope of a rising
race that I was never more proud than f am to-day
that I am a Negro. I am proud and grateful to be
identified with a race which has made such creditable
progress in the face of discouragement and difficulty.
Hon. Jas. G. Blaine once said that he always found
a boy more interesting than a man, because one can
never tell what possibilities are buttoned up under
the boy's jacket. In a like manner, it is a source of
deep gratification to me to see, as I believe I do, those
great possibilities of the Negro which will be one
day completely unfolded, and which I count it my
greatest privilege to have been permitted to assist in
an humble way to develop.
The advent of the Negro business man has given
great encouragement to those who have confidence in
his abilities and future. We have been charged as
a race with shiftlessness and extravagance; but our
business men show that we can be far-sighted and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
19
thrifty. We are said by some to be vicious and crim¬
inal; but our business men correct this impression by
the sobriety and uprightness of their lives. When we
are accused as a race of indulging too much in mere
useless complaint and denunciation, we can clear our¬
selves by pointing to our manly, courageous and hope¬
ful business men, who show in practice that an inch
of achievement is worth a yard of complaint. Indeed,
one of the greatest benefits we have received from
going into business is the proof we have thus afforded
that we are well able to develop those sturdy and
enterprising qualities without which the highest civili¬
zation is impossible.
It has been said that I oppose what is known as
higher or*college education. I hardly need say this
is not true. I realize that a people so largely segre¬
gated as is the case with the members of our race,
must have its own teachers, doctors, lawyers, scholars
and professional men of all kinds, and I have taken
occasion to express many times in public places my
sense of the obligation we are under to the institutions
of higher education for a large proportion of our
highly trained and influential men. On the other
hand, I also see that our professional classes will flour¬
ish and prosper directly in proportion as their patrons
are prosperous in business, industry and trade. When
I advocate that a considerable number of our young
men should enter business, I am rendering our pro¬
fessional men I believe the most direct service in my
power.
More and more thoughtful students of the race
20
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
problem are beginning to see that business and in¬
dustry constitute what we may call the strategic points
in its solution. These fundamental professions we
are able to occupy not only without resistance but
even with encouragement, and from them we shall
gradually advance to all the rights and privileges
which any class of citizens enjoy. It is in buisness
and industry that I see the brightest and most hope¬
ful phases of the race situation to-day.
CHAPTER II
THE NEGRO IN AGRICULTURE
Agriculture has not infrequently served as an en¬
trance for members of the Negro race into business.
As by far the maj ority of slaves were engaged in some
form of agriculture it is but natural that their knowl¬
edge of farming should have been made the basis of
the business undertakings of a number of the Freed-
men.
As an illustration of the way in which the Negro
farmer often passes from agriculture into business I
might mention the Reid brothers, Frank and Dow,
who live in Macon County, Alabama, about twelve
miles from Tuskegee, at a' little place called Dawkins.
The father of these young men had for a very long
time leased and worked a large tract of land, of
some i,roo acres. He was enabled to send his sons
to school at Tuskegee for a time and after their re¬
turn from school they leased 480 acres more on long
time and subsequently added to that by purchase 605
acres, making a total of 2,185 acres under their con¬
trol. A large portion of this land they sub-let to
tenants and then, as the necessities of the little com¬
munity made themselves known, they established a
store, a cotton gin, blacksmith shop, and a grist mill.
Starting with no capital of their own these young men
21
22
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
have, in a very few years, been able to buy and pay
for 605 acres of land. In the year 1904 alone they
paid out $5,000 covering debts on land, fertilizers,
and money borrowed with which to carry their thirty
tenants. Besides that they have considerable capital
in horses, mules, and stock, and are entirely out of
debt.
As soon as the colored farmer acquires a sufficiently
large amount of land he becomes of necessity a busi¬
ness man. The methods he must employ in conduct¬
ing his plantation and disposing of his crops make
him one.
It is an interesting fact, that, as every year shows,
an increasing number of ministers find their way into
the ranks of the business men of the race. A fair
example of these men, whom I wish I had time to
give credit to one by one, is Rev. H. W. Key, of Nash¬
ville, Tenn. He is one of the increasing number of
our ministers who illustrate in practice what they
teach by precept. Mr. Key was born a slave in Ten¬
nessee, and brought up on a large plantation. At the
close of the war, he leased a farm and started in
business for himself. By 1870 he had saved enough
money to buy 75 acres of land, and since then has
gradually increased his holdings until he now possesses
360 acres, valued at $25,000, unmortgaged and un¬
encumbered. He gives employment to about seven
families, and manages his business with such shrewd¬
ness as to have every year at the end of the season
a considerable surplus. Besides his business interests,
he is a presiding elder in the Methodist Church, and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
23
a trustee and financial agent of Walden University, at
Nashville.
An interesting story of the way in which farming
may lead into a successful business career was told
at the New York meeting of the National Negro Busi¬
ness League. In 1892 there was living upon a rented
farm, twenty miles north of Indianapolis, Ind., Albert
Carter and his wife with three sons and three daugh¬
ters. Mr. Carter was making every effort pqssible to
keep his sons in school and give them the advantages
of an education. He found, however, that the produce
of his rented farm was not sufficient to permit him to
do this. In looking about for some means or method
by which he might make a little more money, he no¬
ticed that there seemed to be a considerable surplus
of hay scattered about on the farms in the neighbor¬
hood. He at once conceived .the idea of getting this
hay to market and selling it. He decided, finally, to
buy a load of hay and haul it to Indianapolis and sell
it. This first trip was successful and after that, when¬
ever his work on the farm allowed him time, he would
buy a load of hay and take it to town. It took two
days to make the trip. Often times the market was
dull and it would be very late at night before he
reached home again. Gradually, however, he suc¬
ceeded in building up the trade and then as more hay
was offered him he would hire teams to help him
haul it into town.
In 1894 he bought a hand-baler with which he was
able to " loose-press " the hay. He found that it was
easier to sell the hay in this form than when it was
24
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
taken to market loose on the wagon. As his sons
grew up they did the baling during the school vacations
or at spare times when they were not looking after
the crops.
In 1899 the farm upon which Mr. Carter and his
sons had been living was sold. He was not able to
rent it from the new owner, so he moved into the
nearby town of Westfield and set up in the hay busi¬
ness in earnest. He and his sons purchased a horse¬
power tight-press baler and began to ship hay by the
carloads.
With each year the business has been extended.
They soon began purchasing the hay in the field, cut¬
ting and harvesting it themselves. They purchased
hay-land and raised a considerable portion of their
product themselves. In 1903 the firm purchased a
steam baler which is able to bale from 25 to 40 tons
a day. In order to care for the large quantities of
hay which they purchase, the firm has recently added
to its other properties in land and buildings a large
building 100 feet long by 42 feet wide which has a
capacity of 228 tons of loose hay and 500 tons of
baled. They ship their produce not only to Indian¬
apolis, Ind., and Louisville, Ky., but to markets as
far away as Chicago, 111., New York City, Philadel¬
phia and Baltimore.
Another business which grows naturally out of ag¬
riculture is dairying. At Wilberforce, O., there is a
young man who has known how to take advantage of
the opportunities which many of the Northern uni¬
versities offer for obtaining an education in agricul-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
25
ture. * Mr. A. A. Turner came over to Wilberforce
with has father from Kentucky in 1898. In leaving
their native place and moving into a new country the
family wisely determined that it would find some
business that would hold all of its members together.
At first father and sons worked as day-laborers, but
after a short time they were enabled to purchase three
cows and with this they started a dairy business.
These cows soon paid for another, and very soon the
herd was increased to 33. In the meantime, making
use of his spare time, Mr. Turner was enabled to com¬
plete a short course in business at Wilberforce Uni¬
versity. Later Mr. Turner was a student in the de¬
partment of agriculture and domestic science at the
Ohio State University at Columbus. He learned
while there that he was the first colored student at the
University to choose that course. With this prac¬
tical education he is enabled to materially assist his
father in the dairy business and in the stock-farm of
286 acres which they are now conducting in connec¬
tion with it. At the present time, in addition to
horses, beef and hogs for which they find a ready
market near at hand, they ship something over 100
gallons of milk daily to Springfield, O.
Still another line of business which has its begin¬
nings in agriculture is the business of raising and
shipping fruits. Enormous quantities of fruits are
shipped North every year from the Southern States.
Within the last ten years strawberry culture has as¬
sumed such large proportions in some of the Southern
states, as for instance in North Carolina, that it has
26
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
come to be treated as a separate crop. There is in
North Carolina a section, extending from Chadbourne
in Columbus County, eastward to Wilmington a dis¬
tance of fifty-five miles and thence northward along
the Atlantic Coast Line railway to Mount Olive, a
distance of seventy-five miles, known as the " straw¬
berry belt." The number of carloads of this fruit sent
Northward daily from this region during the berry-
picking season in April sometimes reaches into the
hundreds. It was estimated that more than 2,000,000
crates were shipped from this region during the sum¬
mer of 1905.
Of the business, which the marketing of these
enormous crops has created, colored men have, in
recent years, been getting a considerable share.
Prominent among the berry-growers is Rev. I. M.
Powers, of Wallace, who has a farm of his own from
which he ships a considerable quantity of fruit every
year and is, besides, agent for several commission
houses in the North. I have been informed that some
of the very best white inert in the country turn part
of their crops over to him to be shipped.
Another successful colored man in the berry busi¬
ness is Calvin Brock, of Mount Olive, N. C., who in
1904, at the close of the berry season, had a bank
account, I have been told, of something over $4,000
as the proceeds of his berry crop.
Another form of agriculture in which Negroes have
engaged on a scale sufficiently large to require the
investment of considerable capital and methodical busi-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
27
ness management is that of raising sugar cane and
manufacturing sugar.
M. S. Alexander, of Maillard, Louisiana, is an ex¬
ample of those men who have gone back to the soil
and gained a fortune. He left the city, as a compara¬
tively young man, with a capital of $150. With this
sum he was enabled to purchase twelve and one-half
acres of land. He has added to this small sum from
year to year until he now owns 360 acres. Under
modern methods of culture, Mr. Alexander says, it is
possible to produce from 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of
sugar per acre. The returns are from $85 to $90 an
acre under this system of culture. Mr. Alexander
produces on his farm something like 600,000 or 700,-
000 pounds of sugar a year, besides rice and cotton.
He is a large employer, of labor on his plantation, and
maintains friendly relations with his white neighbors.
The names I have mentioned are examples which
" illustrate not only what is being done by Negroes in
the way of business advancement in different lines of
agriculture and in various parts of the country, but
they show more particularly the possibilities for busi¬
ness which a cultivation of the soil offers, and offers
particularly to Negroes, who, as a whole, are more
familiar with this form of labor than most others and
probably better adapted to it than the white emigrants
which the Southern people are seeking to divert to
the Southern plantations and lands in the South.
It is probable that in the present time there is no
medium through which a large number of the Negro
race can so quickly and easily acquire not merely
28
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
economic independence but the capital which opens
the door to business and the larger administrative
tasks, as in agriculture.
ED. C. BERRY
MRS, ED. C. BERRY.
JUNIUS G. GROVES,
Potato King, Edwabdsville, Kans.
CHAPTER III
JUNIUS G. GROVES —" THE NEGRO POTATO KING "
Perhaps our most successful Negro farmer is Junius
G. Groves, of Edwardsville, Kansas, who is often re¬
ferred to as " The Potato King." Mr. Groves is a
full-blooded Negro, and was born a slave in Green
County, Kentucky, in 1859. He and his parents were
made free a few years later by the proclamation of
Abraham Lincoln. As soon as he was old enough he
began attending the public schools of his neighborhood,
but as he could be in school only during two or three
months in the year, he did not secure a great deal
of book knowledge. What he learned was enough,
however, to give him a desire for education; for we
find him, after he left school, continuing to study as
best he could. By the time he reached manhood he
was able to read and write and had some knowledge
of figures.
In 1879 occurred what was known as the " Kansas
Exodus," and Mr. Groves, with a large number of
other colored people from the South, caught the emi¬
gration fever. When he reached Kansas he had just
ninety cents in his pocket. The sudden influx of so
many colored people into the state caused it to be
somewhat overrun with cheap labor, and employment
was hard to find. After an earnest search of some
29
30
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
days Mr. Groves succeded in finding employment at
a farm at forty cents a day. He has told me that
he agreed to begin work for this wage because he
knew that within a few days he could convince his
employer that he was worth more. So faithfully did
he work that by the end of three months his wages
had been increased to seventy-five cents a day. This
was the pay which the very best farm hands were re¬
ceiving in that neighborhood. Out of this small sum
he had to pay for his board and laundering.
By the end of the year he had saved enough to go
in search of what he hoped would be a better job.
His travels through different parts of the state availed
him nothing, and he finally decided to return to the
place where he had first found employment. He had
made such a favorable impression upon his old em¬
ployer that the latter offered to let him have a portion
of his farm to cultivate on " shares." The conditions
of the contract were that the employer should furnish
nine acres of land, a team, seed and tools, and Groves
should plant, cultivate and harvest the crop for one-
third of what was made. This offer was gladly ac¬
cepted, and Mr. Groves planted three acres in white
potatoes, three in sweet potatoes, and three in water¬
melons.
Soon after getting the crop planted Mr. Groves de¬
cided to-marry. When he reached this decision, he
had but seventy-five cents in cash, and had to borrow
enough to satisfy the demands of the law. But he
knew well the worth and common sense of the woman
he was to marry. She was as poor in worldly goods
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
31
as himself, but their poverty did not discourage them
in their plans. Mr. and Mrs. Groves have told me
with a great deal of satisfaction how they managed
with much difficulty, the day after their marriage, to
get a few yards of calico to make a change of clothes
for Mrs. Groves so that she might begin work at once
in the field by his side, where she has ever since been
his steady companion. During the whole season they
worked with never-tiring energy, early and late; with
the result that when the crop had been harvested and
all debts paid they had cleared $125. Notwithstand¬
ing their lack of many necessaries of life, to say noth¬
ing of comforts, they decided to invest $50 of their
earnings in a lot in Kansas City, Kansas. They paid
$25 for a milk cow, and kept the remaining $50 to
be used in the making of another crop.
The success of the first year's work had convinced
the landlord that he would be taking no risk in rent¬
ing Groves and his wife a larger acreage; so their
holding the second year was increased to twenty acres.
From his year's earnings they purchased a team.
They now began to feel that they could take an even
more independent step. I say they advisedly, because
all through these laborious years Mrs. Groves worked
on the farm constantly at the side of her husband, and
even now, when occasion demands it, she does active
work in the field.
The third year they-rented sixty-six acres of good
farm land near the town of Edwardsville, Kansas, at
an annual rental of $336. Of this amount they were
able to pay one-third in cash in advance. As this was
32 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
more land than they could personally cultivate, a small
portion was sub-rented. Seldom have two people
worked harder or sacrificed more than did Mr. and
Mrs. Groves that year. They not only worked the
farm, but raised pigs and fowls and sold milk and but¬
ter. In the winter, when other farmers were idle, they
cut wood and sold it in town. They were determined
to succeed.
Space will not permit me to mention all the de¬
vices Mr. and Mrs. Groves employed or relate all the
adventures he met in accumulating his first capital.
Suffice it to say that at the end of the year, in 18(84,
after they had paid all debts, and their bank-book was
balanced, they found that they had to their credit in
the local bank, as the result of their labor for the
three previous years, $2,200. During the greater por¬
tion of the time they were earning this money, this
young man and his wife were living in an old shanty,
with one broken-down room. They decided now that
they would buy a farm for themselves, and agreed to
pay $3,600 for eighty acres of land near Edwards-
ville, in the Great Kaw Valley — a section compris¬
ing about 3,400 acres of the most fertile land in the
state. Mr. and Mrs. Groves paid on the land the
$2,200 which they had saved, and closed a contract
to pay the remaining $1,400 at the end of the year.
Letting the hired man live in the house on the place,
they built a shanty for themselves on the place until
the crop was grown. After Mr. Groves had taken
possession of the farm, nearly all of the neighbors
began to tell him that he had made a bad bargain, and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
33
to prophesy that he would not only be unable to pay
the .$1,400 at the end of the year, but would lose his
$2,200 besides. Mr. Groves told me that this was the
first and only occasion in his life when he became dis¬
couraged ; and that he would not take heart again until
he began to inquire who they were who were seeking
to discourage him, and found that they were poor,
shiftless people who owned no land themselves. Mr.
Groves then determined to succeed, not only for his
own sake, but to disappoint those who had predicted
his failure. Enough was realized from the one year's
crop to pay for the whole farm, with a neat little
surplus, which they used in improving their house and
stocking their farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Groves continued to work-hard and
with success on this farm until they were able, in
1887, to pay cash for two small adjoining farms. In
1889 they bought a fourth farm, and in 1896 the
fifth one. They now own 500 acres of the finest land
in the Kaw Valley — land that is easily worth from
$125 to $250 an acre. They no longer occupy the
little one-room shanty, but have advanced to a large,
beautiful, well-appointed dwelling, built at a cost of
$5,000. It has fourteen rooms and modern improve¬
ments, including a private gas-plant which furnishes
twenty-seven lights, a private water system, and a local
telephone. The house is supplied with bath-rooms and
everything necessary to make it comfortable and con¬
venient.
There are eleven children in the family, three girls
and eight boys. The children are all being educated
34
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
with care. Three of them — two boys and one girl,
are already in the Kansas Agricultural College, and
their oldest boy completed the course in June, 1904.
All the children take as much interest in the success
of the farm as do the parents.
In addition to the dwelling house, one finds upon
the farm a modern two-story, well-painted barn, which
cost $1,500, a smoke house, a granary, tool-house, and
a ware-house, in which are kept six thousand bushels
of seed potatoes during the winter. Mr. Groves' busi¬
ness has grown to the extent that he has a private
railroad track which leads from his shipping station
to the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad, which
runs through Edwardsville. They also own and
operate a general merchandise store, in which they
carry a large stock of goods. They have several
fine orchards on their farm. In the apple orchard
there are seven thousand trees, six years old, from
which last year four carloads of apples were gathered.
There are eighteen hundred trees in the peach or¬
chard; seven hundred in the pear orchard, and two
hundred and fifty in the cherry orchard. They also
grow extensively apricots and grapes.
But why is Mr. Groves called " The Negro Potato
King? " Let me answer. In one year alone he pro¬
duced upon his farm 721,500 bushels of white pota¬
toes, averaging 245 bushels to the acre. So far as
reports show, this was 121,500 bushels more than any
other individual grower in the world had, at that
time, produced. And besides the potatoes raised on
his own farm, Mr. Groves buys and ships potatoes on
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
35
a large scale. In 1905 he bought from white growers
in the Kaw Valley and shipped away twenty-two cars
of white potatoes. He also bought fourteen cars of
fancy seed potatoes in North and South Dakota, which
he sold to growers in the Kaw Valley, and in Okla¬
homa and the Indian Territory. Mr. Groves says
that he ships potatoes and other farm products to
nearly every portion of the United States, and to
Mexico and Canada.
He says that he has never found his color to be
a hindrance to him in business. During the busy sea¬
son as many as fifty laborers, white and black, are
employed on his farm. It is maintained at its highest
productivity by persistent effort and constant energy
on the part of Mr. Groves. As I have said, he re
ceived little education when a boy, but he has per¬
severed until he has now reached the point where he
can analyze and classify the soils upon his farm, and
apply just the proper fertilizer to the various plots.
He uses nothing but the latest improved cultivators,
potato-planters, potato-weeders, and diggers, and in
fact, all work that can be done with machinery is
done in that way.
Besides their farming interests, Mr. and Mrs.
Groves have large holdings in mining stocks in the
Indian Territory and Mexico, as well as banking
stock in their own state. They own four-fifths in¬
terest in the Kansas City Casket and Embalming Com¬
pany, of Kansas City, Kansas, and take the deepest
interest in the progress of the race both in their own
state and throughout the country. Mr. Groves, in
36
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
speaking of his larger interests, always says " we,"
meaning Mrs. Groves and himself. In the most beau¬
tiful manner, and with the greatest tenderness, he
never fails to give Mrs. Groves due credit for all that
she has helped him to accomplish.
Having prospered in a material way, the Groves do
not overlook the moral and spiritual side of life.
They are both members of the church, as are also
their older children. In fact, the little church near
their home was organized by Mr. Groves and his wife,
and they gave $1,500 for the erection of the church
house. Mr. Groves drew the plans for the building
and directed the work of construction.
Mr. Groves is held in very high esteem by men
of wealth and standing in his state. Mr. Porter
Sherman, President of the Wyandotte State Bank,
Kansas City, Kansas, in speaking of him said: " I
regard Mr. Groves as a man of especial ability. We
have no better customer in the county than he is.
He is a man of peculiar tact and ability. His stand¬
ing as a citizen and business man is high in the county,
and his papers never pass due. He is easily worth
between $40,000 and $80,000 after all obligations are
met."
Mr. J. D. Waters,1 cashier of the Farmers' State
Bank of Bonner Springs, Kansas, said of Mr. Groves:
" I have known Mr. Groves for fifteen years, and
during that time have heard nothing but good about
him. He is a first-class business man, and stands Jaigh
in his community. His character is unquestionable.
For several years he was Secretary of the Kaw Val-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
37
ley Potato Association, of which Senator Taylor was
President, and while in this position exhibited unusual
ability in conducting the affairs of the Association."
Senator Edwin Taylor, of Edwardsville, Kansas, is
a near neighbor of Mr. Groves, and like him, is a
potato-grower of note. In speaking of Mr. Groves he
said: " I regard Mr. Groves as one of the best men,
white or black, in the valley. He is not only one of
the most progressive and astute potato men of the
valley, but is also a man of acknowledged general in¬
telligence. Some twenty years ago Mr. Groves came
to the valley almost penniless, whereas he is now a
man of enviable financial standing. He is a man of
quick perception, of fertility of resource; a man in¬
terested in every movement making for the good of
the community — in fact, a good all-round citizen."
In speaking of what they have been able to ac¬
complish, Mr. Groves said in a very modest way (both
he and his wife are among the most simple and modest
people I have ever met) : " I think that our success
shows that a Negro can and will make his way if
given a chance. If we could start with but seventy-
five cents and succeed as we have, other people of our
race can do the same thing."
CHAPTER IV
THE NEGRO CATERER
One of the professions which was once largely
monopolized by the members of our race but which
has since been, to a large extent, lost, is that of
catering. It is not difficult to see how the Negro
should have found his way into the catering busi¬
ness. Indeed, in the Northern cities like Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, he seems to have been almost
a pioneer in that line of trade. My friend Samuel R.
Scottron, of Brooklyn, N. Y., has recently' placed
in my hands some very interesting information in
regard to the history of the early New York colored
caterers which has enabled me to follow the history
of the connection of the Negro with the catering busi¬
ness in New York from the days when the city did
not extend much above Wall street.
The catering business in New York seems to have
begun, as far as we are concerned, with colored wo¬
men. It was no doubt a reputation, gained in service
as a cook, that gave the first of them their oppor¬
tunity to enter this business. Among the most not¬
able of these early women caterers, who held sway
in New York somewhere between the dates of 1780
and 1820, was Cornelia Gomez, the great grandmother
of the late Dr. P. W. Ray, of New York. She
38
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
39
catered for the most prominent old families in the
city of that day, among whom were the Rhinelanders,
Goelets, Robinsons and Gerrys, all well known in
New York still. - Her successor was " Aunt" Katie
Ferguson who kept the business until about 1820, when
it came into the hands of a white man who greatly
enlarged and increased it. Up to this period, Mr.
Scottron informs me, the business had been almost
wholly in the hands of colored people, the men taking
it up where the women left it.
From that time down to the present a considerable
number of men and women of Negro ancestry have
gone into the business of catering in New York and
made fortunes. Sometimes these fortunes have been
considerably increased by their children. In most
cases, they have at least given to the children higher
and better opportunities in an intellectual and social
way, than their fathers had.
Among those who made fortunes were Peter Van
Dyke, who owned a place at 133 Wooster street. He
became wealthy and left his children and grandchildren
in good circumstances. Another of these early col¬
ored caterers was Boston Crummell, father of the
late Alexander Crummell, and Thomas Downing, who
kept the once famous " Downing Oyster House " and
was the father of George T. Downing, who built the
Sea Girt House at Newport, R. I., afterwards a
caterer at the Capitol Building, Washington, and a
friend of Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Henry
Wilson, John Andrews and others. Peter Downing,
another son of Thomas Downing, of Oyster House
40
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
fame, went to Africa, as the representative of a New
York company and, after his return, went into the
catering business at the New York Custom's House
on Wall street.
Perhaps the most successful of all these early ca¬
terers was David Roselle, of the firm of Roselle and
Barnswell. Barnswell's holdings in the property of
the firm have passed away but the estate of Roselle is
still growing in the hands of his daughter, Mrs.
Rebecca Barefield.
At the present time there are no less than twenty-
one colored caterers, of which I have information, in
New York City. Several of these I am informed have
done exceptionally well. Among these are Mr. and
Mrs. W. H. Smith, who have a place on Cedar street
and serve regularly a " lunch " to a prominent bank
force of Wall street as well as to officials of other
companies in that district, and William A. Heyliger,
whose business covers the same field as the Smiths
and who, in addition caters extensively for evening
entertainments. William E. Gross is also a prom¬
inent and successful caterer, enjoying flattering pat¬
ronage. Jacob and Charles Day, sons of Jacob Day,
Sr., an old-time caterer, are carrying on their father's
business and, I have been informed, are increasing
the fortune he left them.
In New York City, George Moore, who has a place
on Fifth avenue, has the reputation of possessing
the most valuable and most extensive " loan " of any
of the colored caterers in New York.
The men I have mentioned as connected with the
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
41
caterers' business in New York represent a class of
colored business men which will be found in almost
any large city. As this was one of the first lines of
business to which colored men found entrance it is
possibly the one in which the largest number of for¬
tunes have been made by the colored people. Where
these fortunes have been wisely administered and in¬
creased they have contributed to the formation of a
leisure class from which we may hope to see issue
a type of trained, disciplined and public-spirited young
men, who should become the leaders, teachers and
active workers in the uplifting of the Negro race. If
at present so few young men of this type have issued
from this well-to-do element of the Negro people, it
is because the members of our race have yet to learn
the true value and meaning of money and the freedom
that it buys.
Among the men who have been successful in the
catering business, there is one whom, through his
connection with the National Negro Business League
and his interest in the progress and fortunes of his
people, I have become better acquainted than with
some others. This man is Charles H. Smiley, one
of the leading caterers of Chicago, 111. Mr. Smiley
was born in 1851, at St. Catherines, Canada. Like
most of our successful business men, he was very
poor. The pressure of his parents' poverty deprived
him of the advantages of education, and compelled
him early in life to begin earning his own living. His
youth and early manhood were spent in hard manual
labor, at pitifully small wages. When he was fifteen
42
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
years of age, his family removed to Philadelphia,
where he remained until 1881. During this year, he
resolved to try to better his condition, and decided to
go to Chicago, where he landed with fifty cents in
his pocket. He possessed, however, several assets
more valuable than mere money. He had a resolute
character, good powers of observation, ambition, and
brains.
He began life in Chicago as a janitor, and employed
his spare time working as a waiter at dinners and
parties. His determination to do whatever came in
his way, small or large, soon made for him a wide
and friendly acquaintance among the wealthy white
people of the city. After a short time he was able
to give all of his time to " waiting," and soon de¬
cided that he would go into the catering business
for himself. Mr. Smiley's success seems to have been
due, in great part to the enterprise he displayed in
meeting every new want that manifested itself in
connection with his business. As caterer for a wed¬
ding he did not merely provide the wedding cake but
was ready, if required, to furnish appropriate floral
decorations, canopies, calcium lights, pillows, ribbons
and kneeling altars,— even ushers. He advertised
that he was willing to deliver invitations, to guard
wedding presents with male and female detectives,
in fact to take entire charge of the social function
at which his services were required. His son, Mr. J.
Hockley Smiley who has grown up in the business, is
a great help to his father, and relieves him of many
of the cares of the business.
CHAS. H. bftllLEY,
Caterer, Chicago, and his place op business.
Home or Francis J Moultrie, Yonkers, N. Y.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
43
Mr. Smiley is said to give employment to more col¬
ored men than any other man of his race in the West.
He uses sixteen horses for his delivery wagons. Mr.
Smiley and his son are always prominent figures at
the meetings of the National Negro Business League.
One of the leading caterers in the State of New
York is Francis J. Moultrie, who conducts the largest
catering establishment in Westchester county, one of
New York's wealthiest settlements. In this business
he has accumulated a small fortune, which, as Presi¬
dent of the Yonkers Investment Company, he is em¬
ploying in a way useful to the members of his own
race, who have in recent years settled in large num¬
bers in Yonkers, Mr. Moultrie's home.
Mr. Moultrie was born in Charleston, South Caro¬
lina, in 1842. He received his school training there,
and came N6rth soon after the close of the Civil
War. He worked in various catering houses in New
York until he had mastered the details of the busi¬
ness. Shortly after coming North, he permanently
settled in Yonkers.
Not having sufficient capital to enter business for
himself, he accepted employment in private families,
while his wife, who, through all the years in which
he has been in business has rendered him invaluable
assistance, carried on a small catering business from
their home. In this way, Mr. Moultrie was able to
save his entire monthly earnings, which, together with
the small income from the business, were placed regu¬
larly each month in a savings institution in Yonk¬
ers.
44
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
When enough had been accumulated in this way, Mr.
Moultrie purchased a home, and then began to plan
for a permanent and central place of business. There
was a steady increase in the volume of trade carried
on from Mr. Moultrie's home, and his wife soon found
that she could not manage the growing business and
at the same time properly superintend the preparation
of the articles which they served and sold. The de¬
mands for their services soon increased to such an
extent that Mr. Moultrie was compelled to give up his
work in order that he might devote his whole atten¬
tion to the development of what has proved to be
a rare business opportunity. The trade increased out
of proportion to the capital at his command. He soon
foresaw that he could not hold the trade he and his
wife had gained unless he could open a store and get
a general trade to support the catering business.
In 1878, Mr. Moultrie rented and opened a down¬
town store in the heart of Yonkers. At the end of
the first day, Mr. Moultrie says that he had not had
a single customer and that he did not possess a dollar
in ready cash. He has since known nothing like this
first day's experience. The business now carried on
by this establishment amounts to $25,000 annually.
At the beginning, when his business was small, he
delivered his goods from his house on foot; when large
parties were to be served, he was compelled to make
two and three trips, carrying his burden upon his
shoulders. At the present time Mr. Moultrie has
regularly in his employ, I am informed, no less than
ten wagons.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
45
Shortly after he opened his down-town store, and
in order to be more centrally located, and have still
more room to meet his growing trade, Mr. Moultrie
moved into a store in the Music Hall building. The
building is located on the main thoroughfare, and is
the public gathering place of Yonkers. In this build¬
ing is a concert hall, the main post office, and other
public offices. Mr. Moultrie went into this building
as a renter; he is now one of its owners.
Mr. Moultrie's business is not confined to Yonkers
or Westchester county. He has a permanent and
valuable trade among the wealthy people of New York
City. The citizens of Yonkers have been taught
to believe that no person can excel the wares turned
out by the Moultrie Company. Mr. Moultrie has
made nearly all that he now possesses out of this
business. He is one of the largest tax-payers of
his city. He is the proprietor of the largest apart¬
ment house in Yonkers, and owns valuable realty in
other sections of the city. He owns stock in several
of the Yonkers banks and is an important factor in
the commercial life of the community. His name has
been upon the bond of more than one of the county
officers. In his early years at Yonkers, there was one
man who took special pains to befriend him when he
was struggling. That man has since been several
times elected judge of one of the county courts. Mr.
Moultrie now assumes entirely the required bond of
his early friend.
The representative organization of Westchester
county is the Citizen's Association. Mr. Moultrie is
46
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
the only colored member of the body. There is noth¬
ing touching the interests of the colored people of
his community in which he is not deeply concerned.
The building of the church to which he belongs was
due almost wholly to hi'm. In the courts he stands
always as the colored men's spokesman and repre¬
sentative, and in every organization among colored
people, he is a leading and a. helpful member. There
are two financial institutions conducted by colored
men in Yonkers. Of one he is president, and of the
other treasurer. In several large banks of the city,
of which twenty years ago he could not borrow a
penny, he is now substantially interested, and upon all
questions which have to do with the municipal gov¬
ernment, his advice is invariably sought. There are
few colored men in the country who have remained
in one place and built so well.
In 1870, Mr. Moultrie was married to Miss Fannie-
J. Alston^ of Charleston. Mrs. .Moultrie has now, as
she has always had, direct charge of the wares to
be sold or to be served, as well as the manufacture
of all confections. In their early struggles, Mrs.
Moultrie did most of this work with her own hands.
CHAPTER V
JOHN S. TROWER, A SUCCESSFUL CATERER AND MAN OF
BUSINESS
Among the men who have made fortunes in the
catering business, John S. Trower, of Germantown,
Philadelphia, is one of the men best known to the
members of his own race.
Mr. Trower was born in Northampton county, Vir¬
ginia, in 1849. His parents, Luke and Anna M.
Trower, were among those sturdy Eastern Shore farm¬
ers who were known as the farmers of Indiantown.
These people of Anglo-Saxon, Indian and Negro
blood, were known the country over for their indus¬
try, thrift and frugality. No slaves were ever among
them; they boasted of their manhood and independ¬
ence. Nat Turner's insurrection brought to the peo¬
ple of this town many cruelties by the whites. Their
independent spirit forced many of them to leave their
homes and settle in the different sections of the North.
A considerable number of these Indiantown farmers
found refuge in Philadelphia. The names of Stevens,
Bivins, Press and Trower are among Philadelphia's
most successful colored citizens. It was from this
stock and out of such early traditions that John S.
Trower came.
Young Trower seems early to have made the im-
47
48
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
pression on those about him of a young man of un¬
usual ability and determination. Old friends of the
family used to shake their heads prophetically and
say: "There is something great about that boy."
These sayings seem, at any rate, to have had the
effect of convincing young Trower that he was fitted
for something better than the conditions in which he
found himself and of sending him forth at an early
age in search of adventure.
But young Trower did not simply wander away.
He earned his freedom. From sixteen to twenty-
one he worked upon the farm, saving all that he
could. Although the farmers of Indiantown were
proud of the fact that they had never been slaves
they do not seem to have escaped the serfdom of debt¬
ors. All through his early life young Trower was
hobbled with the necessity of raising the debt on the
farm. By the time he was twenty-one he had saved
enough to lift this burden from his family and he
felt free to go in search of a fortune.
With a feeling of pride such as he has experienced
from no single success since that time, he presented
his mother with the deed of the farm and bade her
good-bye. At that time, the tide of immigration had
already set in from the Virginia plantations toward
the cities and young Trower drifted with it in the
direction of Baltimore. There was $52 surplus after
the farm was paid for and with this sum the young
man, wholly inexperienced in the difficulties and dan¬
gers of city life, landed in Baltimore.
He was fortunate there in gaining admission to
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
49
the family of Mr. and Mrs. Mack with whom he
made his home during the larger part of the time that
he was in this city. Here he received a home and
the benefits of paternal counsel and advice which
proved of great value to him in his later life.
While he was in ^Baltimore he obtained work in
a restaurant as an oyster-opener and soon began, in
spite of the small salary he received there, to ac¬
cumulate a small capital. Partly because he believed
he could better his condition in a Northern city and
partly, no doubt, led by mere desire to see more of
the world, he determined in 1870 to leave Baltimore
and go to Philadelphia.
Mr. Trower decided to settle in Germantown, one
of the more wealthy and prosperous quarters of the
city, and with the little capital that he had managed to
get together, he opened a restaurant. He found a
modest place in Chelton avenue in the neighborhood
of the Philadelphia and Reading depot. This business
seems to have prospered from the beginning. Very
soon, Mr. Trower was doing, in addition to his res¬
taurant business, a very respectable trade as a catefer.
He managed to win the favor of the fashionable peo¬
ple of Germantown and his increasing trade forced
him rapidly into a larger and more lucrative busi¬
ness.
Within two blocks of his restaurant stood the old
Germantown Savings Fund building. Fortunately for
Mr. Trower this building was left vacant at this
time, the bank having just completed a new building
into which it established itself. There was a demand
50
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
for a first-class caterer's establishment in German-
town. Mr. Trower had succeeded in winning the
good will of some of the wealthy citizens and, with
their encouragement, he purchased and refitted the
Savings Fund building and made out of it, at a cost
of $25,000, a first-class caterer's establishment. He
was now fairly on his feet in a business way and
began to make money rapidly. It was at this time
that he made the acquaintance and won the good will
of some of the officers of the Cramps Ship Building
Company. Soon after this, in 1889, Mr. Trower had
his first opportunity to cater for the Cramps. The
firm have employed him steadily since that time.
Many of the world's most renowned war vessels were
served upon their trial trips by Mr. Trower, among
them the Yorktown, the Philadelphia, the Vesuvius,
the-New York, the Iowa, the Columbia, the Baltimore,
the Minneapolis, the Newark, the Brooklyn, the
Variag, the Retvian, the Mejedia, the Colorado and
the Pennsylvania.
Mr. Trower's place of business is one of the most
complete of its kind in the country. On the first
floor are his offices, dining-room, delivery department
and ice cream plant, which is run by electricity. On
the second floor is a reception-room and a dining hall,,
which seats one hundred and fifty guests, and the
baking department. On the third floor are the store¬
room and laundry. In the basement are china closets
and storage-rooms. In his office he employs five
clerks, all of whom are colored young men and women.
The culinary, ice cream, baking, and delivery service
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
51
departments employ twenty persons. The estimated
value of the building that Mr. Trower occupies at
the present time is $75,000. Since purchasing-, he has
spent $30,000 for improvements and has added $20,-
000 for machinery and equipment. A large element
of Mr. Trower's success must be attributed to the
fact that he has constantly sought to improve and
extend his business. His trade is not limited to Ger-
mantown and Philadelphia, but extends throughout
the state. On several occasions he has served large
orders in the South and West. At the time when
the Hon. John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, was Post¬
master General, Mr. Trower served him as caterer in
a reception which was at that time one of the most
elaborate that had ever been given in Washington.
Although Mr. Trower's business occupies the greater
part of his time, he has always found time for cer¬
tain other interests. He is a member of the well
known Cherry Street Baptist Church, of which Rev.
William A. Creditt, D. D., is the pastor. He is a
member of the board of deacons, and of the board of
trustees, and superintendent of the Sunday school.
The National Baptist Convention made him recently
the National Baptist Superintendent of the World.
He is the President of the Sunday School Convention
of Pennsylvania, which position he has held for the
past nine years. Mr. Trower has contributed largely
to the building up of a number of Baptist churches
of his city and state. His advice is frequently sought
in matters of finance and church policy in the Bap¬
tist denomination. He is president of the Cherry
52
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Building and Loan Society; treasurer of the Reliable
Mutual Aid and Improvement Company, and treasurer
of the Reliable Business Men's Building. He is a
member of the board of trustees for the Home for
Aged and Infirm Colored People, and member of the
board of trustees for the Olive Cemetery. As presi¬
dent of the Pennsylvania Sunday School Convention,
it was he who suggested the necessity of the estab¬
lishment of an Industrial and Theological School in
the State of Pennsylvania. He purchased a farm
in Downingtown, Pa., and held it in trust until the
Baptists of the state were enabled, at their last con¬
vention, to assume the responsibility of the pur¬
chase. Mr. Trower is very'active in charitable work
where he is performing a service which the ordinary
person cannot see and know. In addition to his ca¬
terer's trade he. does a lucrative real estate business.
He owns considerable property both in Germantown
and Ocean City, New Jersey, where he has his sum¬
mer residence.
Mr. Trower's wife was Miss Matilda Daniels, of
Haymarket, Virginia. Mrs. Trower is a very amiable
wife and mother and takes an active part in the
business as well as rearing- a family of six children.
The position that Mr. Trower has obtained in the
community in which he lives has made it possible for
him to be of great service to other members of his
race. He has established a business in which a num¬
ber of them find employment and have an opportunity
to obtain a business experience and training. His'own
success and, in many cases, his positive aid and sup-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
53
port has given encouragement to a number of young
men, and his influence in the community has enabled
him to be in many ways a friend of the colored people
and a leader of his race.
CHAPTER VI
THE NEGRO AS A HOTEL-KEEPER
The hotel business is one which it is natural to
expect would offer easy access to the Negro. The
training that Negroes obtained as servants both before
and after emancipation should have given them a
certain capital in the way of experience with which
to go into business on their own account. In several
instances I have found in my travels about the coun¬
try, colored men prospering as managers and pro¬
prietors of Negro hotels. There is, however, still
great room for Negro enterprise in this direction.
There are still few cities in the South where it is
possible for colored people to obtain respectable ho¬
tel accommodations. This is one of the things that
makes race prejudice particularly burdensome for col¬
ored travelers, especially for those of our race who
come down here comparative strangers from the
North.
It should, however, be borne in mind that every
condition which creates a new want offers at the
same time a new business opportunity. As the mem¬
bers of the colored population become more pros¬
perous, as business develops and travel increases, this
demand for accommodation for colored travelers in the
South is going to become more urgent and the op-
54
Hotbl-Cafb op Nail Bros,, New York. Ed Nail
Dining Room.
John B. Nail Billiard Hall.
Planting peas in peach orchard op J. L. Thomas, Union Springs, Ala.
MR THOMAS AND FAMILY.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
55
portunities for business enterprise more inviting. Of
course hotels cannot exist without the patronage of
fairly prosperous people, and as the different forms
of business are gradually developed by our people,
it is certain that new and better hotels will spring up
to meet the demands which this class will make for
such service.
In some of the Northern cities considerable prog¬
ress has been made in this direction. In New York
City, for instance, there are a number of hotels run by
colored men for colored people, and all of them are
quite prosperous. The Marshall Hotel, managed by
Dr. Charles Marshall, is one of the best, and is
frequented by the fashionable colored set of the city.
One of the most successful of the Negro hotels in
New York is that of the Nail Brothers. John B. and
Edward Nail began the hotel business by establish¬
ing in 1877, the Shakespeare House in Washington,
D. C. This venture was successful and was sold in
1887 to advantage. In the meantime, they had opened
a hotel in New York on Sixth avenue and were the
pioneers in the colored hotel business in that city.
By 1893 ^e firm had prospered to the extent that a
new building was bought on Sixth avenue at a cost
of $50,000; and improvements made at a cost of
$10,000. The present value of the property is $75,-
000. In 1899 Mr. John B. Nail suffered the loss of
his brother, and has since conducted the business him¬
self, with the aid of his son, Mr. John E. Nail.
An interesting life story is that of Mr. J. L. Thomas,
who for some time ran a successful hotel for whites
56
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
at Union Springs, Alabama. Mr. Thomas was born
a slave on the O'Neal plantation near Troy, Alabama.
Soon after the end of the war, his mother, with her
four sons and »one. daughter, moved to Pine Level,
about thirty miles south of Montgomery, and rented
a small piece of land for farming. After two years,
seeing that at the end of each season the family was
as near starvation as ever, they moved to Union
Springs. They arrived at this- place without money,
without a mouthful of food, and with no clothes,
except the rags on their backs. For twenty-four
hours they lived in the two-horse wagon which had
brought them to Union Springs. At last the mother
secured employment as a cook at two dollars per
month, with the privilege of occupying a one-room
house. Young Thomas was soon hired out at fifty
cents a month and keep, which included one hat,
one pair of shoes, and two very cheap suits of clothes
per year. After a year, he got work at two dollars
per month with a man for whom he worked eighteen
months. During this time he received five or six dol¬
lars, and this employer owes him to-day about $30.
The Sunday suit which he received while working for
this man was made up of a strip of blue jeans which
had served for five or six months as a rug on the
dining-room floor. He did not stay long with this
employer, however, but was hired out by his mother
to an old colored farmer named Thompson, who, to
the surprise of Mr. Thomas, owned his own farm,
mules and horses. Mr. Thomas had come to the con¬
clusion that colored people were made to have nothing
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
57
but hard times and poverty and the sight of this
well-to-do and independent colored farmer marked an
epoch in his life. He determined that he, too, should
own some property, and to this end he has labored
faithfully ever since.
Thompson contracted to pay young Thomas five dol¬
lars per month, with the privilege of coming to town
every other Saturday afternoon to see his mother.
He was allowed to stay over Sunday, but was obliged
to be on hand at sunrise Monday morning to catch
his mule and go to plowing. He was always on time
early Monday morning.
The colored farmer took such a liking to the boy
that he gave him a little patch of land to cultivate him¬
self. This land was planted in peanuts, and yielded
between ten and fifteen bushels, which were care-
fuly dried and housed.
At that time it was the custom among the colored
people to give big corn-shuckings and suppers which
were attended by people from ten miles around.
Whenever Mr. Thomas heard of one of these events,
he would parch about one-half bushel of his peanuts
and carry them to the gathering to sell. By offering
them at five cents a pint he was able to make as much
as three dollars per bushel. He often walked as far
as eight miles with his peanuts to a big supper or
dance, after plowing hard all day, and with another
hard day before him. He parched them during din¬
ner hour, when the other hands were resting, and
was often up as late as three o'clock in the morning
58
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
to sell them, although he had to go to work at day¬
break.
He also learned to make wash-baskets and scrub-
boards, which he peddled at large gatherings and in
town every other Saturday afternoon, and was thus
able to add from a dollar and a half to three dollars to
his earnings every other week. These baskets and
scrub-boards he was in the habit of making at night
by firelight. He usually worked until twelve or one
o'clock every night in the week except Saturday and
Sunday, and then went to his plowing at the rising
of the sun.
Up to this time, Mr. Thomas' earnings had all
been appropriated by his mother and step-father. He
now decided that he was himself entitled to his wages,
and hired himself out to run a public dray at ten
dollars per month. In a few months his salary was
raised to fifteen dollars per month, and finally his
employer, seeing that Thomas brought him in from
fifty to seventy-five dollars every month as the earn¬
ings of one dray, thought that he could make two or
three times as much with three drays, and offered to
put Thomas in charge of them at a salary of twenty-
five dollars per month. Thomas was to hire such
men as he wished to drive the other two drays. He
gladly accepted the opportunity, and worked on this
basis for over a year, making money for his em¬
ployer all the time.
Fortunately Mr. Thomas, was economical as well as
industrious. While other men of his class were spend¬
ing all that they made for whiskey, tobacco and dress,
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
59
he tried to see just how little he could spend. The
result was that after about eighteen months of work
on the drays, he was able to buy the best team and
wagon his employer had, and go into the business him¬
self. At the end of two months the former, who had
not been able to find a man to take Thomas' place,
came to him and offered to sell him the other
two teams on credit, and Thomas bought one of them.
At this time he married. His wife owned $2,500
worth of property, which was encumbered to the
amount of $600. Mr. Thomas was himself in debt
for $400. He and his wife decided to put their heads
as well as their hearts together, and to pay off as
soon as possible the indebtedness which hung over
them both. Mr. Thomas has always found pleasure
and profit in confiding all of his business matters to
his wife. He had had about six months' schooling
in his life, and she encouraged him to study, and
taught him to read and write. He attributes much
of his success to the fact that his wife identified "her¬
self thoroughly with him in his business. '
After operating his drays with success for a few
months, he closed a contract with the Central Rail¬
road of Georgia to furnish it with 6,000 cords of
wood, and another with a farmer who lived near the
railway to clear up for him fifty acres of woodland.
Thus making money at both ends, he found, at the
close of the contract, that he had enough money to
pay off the whole indebtedness of himself and his wife,
and to purchase for cash a home worth $1,500.
While he was working for the railway he was also
6o
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
engaged in a business which finally led to his be¬
coming a hotel-keeper. He ran a fish-stand on the
streets of Union Springs, at which he sold fish both
raw and cooked. His wife began to cook pies and
cakes to sell on the stand, which gradually developed
into a restaurant and grocery. When he got to the
place where this new business was paying very well,
he disposed of his drays and gave his entire atten¬
tion to the restaurant and grocery, whose stock gradu¬
ally increased from $300 to as high as $8,000. Mr.
Thomas says that he has done as high as $40,000
worth of business a year.
Several years ago Mr. Thomas opened the Com¬
mercial Hotel in Union Springs for white patrons,
there being as yet no call for a hotel on the part
of colored people in that section. The hotel was very
successful and paid very well. Mr. Thomas found
that the longer he ran it the better he liked it. The
following conversation shows the popularity his hotel
won among traveling men:
One day two drummers got off the train at Union
Springs and got into Mr. Thomas' hack to ride up
to his hotel. A white man stepped up and asked
them if they knew they were going to a hotel run by
a Negro. " Yes," replied one of the drummers, " and
we are going there. We don't care if it is run Jby
forty Negroes. We have heard all about the place
from dozens of traveling men who say that it is as
good as any hotel in the South." They did go to
the Commercial, and declared that it was better than
the reports they had. heard about it.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
61
The times proved unfavorable, however, for a
Negro to run a hotel for whites, and Mr. Thomas soon
decided that it would be wise for him to sell out.
He did so with a good profit to himself, and began
to make investments in real estate. He bought about
350 vacant lots in the town, and is building houses on
them to sell. He has already built and sold twenty-
houses and expects to sell 200 more. He also has
a large orchard of fruit trees on-which he makes to¬
ward $1,000 a year. He is said to be worth about
$16,000. Few men have started life with a greater
handicap than Mr. Thomas. The fact that he has
been able to win a comfortable financial position in¬
dicates what other men with fevuer obstacles to face
can and should do.
CHAPTER VII
E. C. BERRY, HOTEL-KEEPER AND BUSINESS SUCCESS
The leading hotel-keeper of color in this country is
perhaps, E. C. Berry, of Athens, Ohio. Mr. Berry is
one of those pioneers of our race who has conquered
race prejudice by achieving a business success. The
story of his hard struggle is one of the valuable tra¬
ditions of the colored people and deserves to be
known.
Mr. Berry was born at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1854, and
was taken by his parents at the age of two years
to Albany, Ohio, where unusual school facilities were
offered colored children. When he was old enough,
he was sent to the Albany public schools, and when
the Albany Enterprise Academy, a school for colored
children, was erected, he was able to attend it for
a short time. Unfortunately, his father died in 1870
and young Berry was compelled, at the age of six¬
teen, to leave school and help provide for his family,
in which there were eight children younger than him¬
self.
In his search for work he walked ten miles to Ath¬
ens, Ohio, and was very happy to secure work in
a brick yard at fifty cents a day. In a short time
his work improved until he was earning $1.25 a day,
the greater part of which he was able to divide with
62
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
63
his family. He was never too proud to do any kind
of honest labor, and although his work was hard and
not inviting, it was the best he could do, and he de¬
cided to do it well. During the summers he remained
at the brick yard, and in the winters was usually able
to find employment in stores or elsewhere as a delivery
boy or clerk.
It was during these difficult years that he learned
to practice economy, which is fully as important as
diligence and efficiency. He did not use tobacco or
intoxicants; because he could not afford them then.
He says he has not been able to afford them since.
He also learned to seize opportunities which other boys
allowed to slip by them. Whenever a circus came
to town the other boys eagerly spent some of their
hard earned money to see the show, but young Berry
turned the circus to profit. He would rig up a re¬
freshment booth and thus make more money than he
would had he stayed at the brick yard. Whenever
there were excursions, that form of extravagance in
which so many of our people sink their savings, Berry
would always get the privilege of selling refreshments
- on the train, thus enjoying the excursion and making
a ; "ofit at the same time.
Speaking of economy he said once that on many
occasions he has walked ten miles to his home so
that he might have an additional twenty-five cents for
the dear ones there. While he was working at the
brick yard, it was his custom to work every day and
half the night, thus making the week nine days long.
On rainy days when the brick yard was idle he would
64
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
find some chores to do, or go to the country after
cream for the ice cream makers. The first winter
after the death of his father he worked at hauling
bricks until his hands were cut to the quick by handling"
the rough surfaces. He was more than rewarded,
however, by earning enough to take home four barrels
of flour which were all paid for, at $7.80 per barrel.
His first indoor work was in Parkersburg, West
Virginia, where he was employed as errand boy in a
dry goods store at $10 per month. Of this amount
he regularly sent his mother $8 every month. It was
in Parkersburg that he first secured work along the
line in which he was afterwards to make so great a
success. He got work in an ice cream parlor, where
he served as a waiter.
Returning to Athens, he secured employment in a
restaurant, where he picked up the profession of cater¬
ing. He soon became so proficient in this profession
that he became personally in demand among the cus¬
tomers of his employers. The thought naturally oc¬
curred to him that if he could do so well for others
he could do still better for himself.
Meanwhile, in 1878, he married his schoolmate, Miss
Mattie Madry, and began housekeeping in one room,
in which, however, everything was paid for. He ad¬
mits ungrudgingly that the counsel and advice of his
wife have been everything to him.
The idea of setting up in business for himself would
not leave his mind, but as he had no capital and no
credit, the way seemed dark before him. His wife
came to his aid. By her intercession her parents were
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
65
persuaded to allow Mr. Berry to put the three dollars
which he had been paying them weekly for his wife's
board into what they called the " business capital."
In a few months he was able to start with his elder
brother in the restaurant business with a capital of
forty dollars. They commenced as " Berry Brothers,"
but, as the business was not large enough for two, Mr.
E. C. Berry bought his brother out and went along
alone.
When Mr. Berry's employer learned that his best
employee was about to set up as his rival, he was
angry, and warned Mr. Berry that if he failed and
returned looking for employment he would not get it,
or even a meal if he were hungry. Mr. Berry had
the pleasure some time later of materially assisting
this man when he himself got into trouble.
The business prospered from the first, and by 1880
Mr. Berry was able to buy a lot for $1,300. As soon
as the lot was paid for, Mr. Berry secured a loan of
$2,000 and put up his first building, which is to-day
a part of the Hotel Berry. He did a prosperous
trade as caterer and confectioner and soon had to hire
a young man as assistant.
This success continued until 1893, when Mr. Berry
was led to enter the hotel business. At first the out¬
look was gloomy. In the first place, the merchants
of Athens met and decided to boycott any drummer
who stopped at the " Hotel Berry." In July of 1893
occurred the great panic, and on many a night Mr.
Berry closed up with only one guest on the register.
He had incurred a mortgage of $8,000 at seven per
66
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cent, and was compelled to apply at the banks to bor¬
row money to meet his notes. On one occasion both
banks in the city refused to let him have money. He
was almost in dispair. As Mr. Berry was going out
of the secqnd bank a friend of his, who was standing
by, seeing the look of distress on his face, asked him
what the trouble was. Mr. Berry told him. The
friend drew $500, the sum needed, from his private
deposit and handed it to Mr. Berry, telling him to
take it and use it without interest until he could repay
it. This is the only time in his career, Mr. Berry
says, that any person offered him any encouragement
beyond empty words.
The panic subsided, and the merchants were unable
to drive the drummers from the colored man's hotel.
One example will show the methods used by Mr.
Berry to make his hotel popular. At night, after his
guests had fallen asleep, it was his custom to go around
and gather up their clothes and take them to his wife,
who would add buttons "\yhich were lacking, repair
rents, and press the garments, after which Mr. Berry
would replace them in the guests' rooms. Guests who
had received such treatment returned again and
brought their friends with them.
Mr. Berry has now the leading hotel in Athens.
In the hotel are fifty rooms, with baths and all modern
conveniences. He has an elevator. The plant is eas¬
ily worth $50,000 and the business amounts to $25,000
to $35,000 annually. The hotel has become so popu¬
lar that men come from considerable distances just
to spend Sunday, at the " Hotel Berry." It is a land
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
67
mark on the trail of commercial travelers and is
known far and wide. Mr. Berry has never refused
to serve colored men at his hotel — indeed, he says
he would rather lose his customers than to be guilty
of that sort of disloyalty. He attributes his success
to the influence of his mother and of his wife. He
says that he has always tried to make his services
worth more than he received, and that such efforts
have been always recognized and rewarded.
Congressman Chas. H. Grosvenor of Ohio pays the
following tribute to Mr. Berry:
" As a citizen Mr. Berry stands high. He is a
man of first rate character, a devoted and active mem¬
ber of the church, taking a leading part in Sunday
School work, and a friend of his own race, to more
than one of whom he has given a quiet lift of which
the public has never known. He is intelligent and ca¬
pable, and a man of high principles and exemplary
life. He is appreciated in this intelligent and educated
community not only as an efficient business man, but
as a worthy citizen."
CHAPTER VIII
THE NEGRO AS TOWN-BUILDER
In all the experiments which the Negro people have
tried for the betterment of their condition as a peo¬
ple none have brought them more substantial returns
in moral and material improvement than those which
have taken them back to the soil, to found towns and
build up communities of their own. Not all of these
experiments have been successful. I do not believe
it possible to build up a community by merely herding
together. Any one who attempts to build up a Negro
town as a mere land speculation, is, in my opinion,
pretty likely to fail. But where our people have
gone back to the soil in good faith, for the purpose
of living on it and tilling it, there is a positive ad¬
vantage in having their own communities.
There is always a large amount of wealth created
wherever people come together with the determination
of living in an orderly way for the solid interests of
life. This wealth, which is the source of pretty near
all that we call capital, is often spoken of as " un¬
earned increment." The unearned increment usually
goes to the man who gets on the ground first or to
the man who knows best how to manage and direct
his affairs. Under ordinary circumstances it goes to
the white man. But in the towns established and
68
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
69
conducted by Negroes it goes to Negroes. I believe,
under existing circumstances, it is exceedingly impor¬
tant that we should increase the amount of capital
owned by members of our race. In the Negro town,
under normal circumstances, Negroes are made to feel
the responsibilities of citizenship in ways they can¬
not be made to feel them elsewhere. .If they make
mistakes they, at least, have an opportunity to profit
by them. In such a town individuals who have execu¬
tive ability and initiative have an opportunity to dis¬
cover themselves and find out what they can do.
A few years ago I had an opportunity to visit a
Negro community in Cass county, Michigan, which
has been in existence since 1840. Certain portions
of Cass county, what are known now as Calvin and
Porter townships, were settled by Quakers, who did
not believe in holding slaves, and had left their homes
in the South in order to escape the influences of that
institution. It became known- that runaway slaves
would receive a friendly welcome among these people
and in course of time this community of Quakers be¬
came a station of the Underground Railway. In 1847
a determined effort was made by a party of Kentucky
Slave-holders to recover their runaway Negroes but
the effort to regain possession of their property was
successfully resisted by the Quakers, the colored people
and the other residents of the community. The effect
of this raid was to advertise Cass county, Michigan,
and to increase still more the colony of colored people
already gathered there. It was not, however, until
1849 that one of these townships, Calvin, began to as-
7°
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
sume the character which invests it with special inter¬
est for the purposes of this chapter. In 1847 a Vir-
ginia slave-holder, by the name of Saunders, left a
will in which he not only set his slaves free but pro¬
vided that they should be sent to a free state, and
each family provided with a house and tract of land.
The executors decided that they could best fulfill the
purposes set forth in the will by sending these free'd-
men to Cass county, Michigan, which had already
gained a reputation as an asylum for Negroes.
For several years the Saunders families were a ma¬
jority in Calvin township and for a time they pros¬
pered, to a reasonable degree. But in the course
of time they began to show the tendencies which have
so often ascribed to Negroes. They began mort¬
gaging the property that had been given to them and
lived sumptuously for a time off the proceeds. In
the course of time most of the property once owned by
the Saunders' community passed out of their hands.
A large portion of it went to neighboring white peo¬
ple. A smaller portion fell into the hands of a few
shrewd colored men who had settled in the same town¬
ship. I found only one of the original settlers who
at the time of my visit still owned any of the land
bought by the Saunders' estate.
From what I have written thus far it might be con¬
cluded that the experiment was a failure. Such, how¬
ever,, is not the case. I have thus far been relating
what has become traditional in Calvin township.
What my visit and inspection of the country proved
was that the community as a whole had profited by
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
71
its experience. I noticed that the bare mention of
" a Saunders family " was likely to cause a quiet smile
to creep over the face of the old inhabitant, who did
not happen to be a member of that group. I found
that at about the time things were at their lowest ebb,
industrially and morally, the more level-headed of the
colored people, realizing the situation, started a strong1
and earnest effort for reform. At about this same
time a different class of people began to settle in the
township. These people came mainly from Ohio,
North Carolina, and Virginia. As a rule they repre¬
sented the class known as Free Negroes, a class much
despised in slavery days by Negro slaves. Freedom
had already given these people some knowledge of the
responsibilities of their position, and the experience
and the money that these people brought with them
gave new impetus to the movement for reform already
begun.
When I visited this community in 1903 there were
759 Negroes and 512 whites in Calvin township. A
portion of the Negro population had overflowed into
the adjoining township of Porter and to some extent
to all but two of the towns of the county. In com¬
pany with Hon. L. B. Des Voignes and with Jesse W.
Madry, the latter one of the most prosperous colored
families of the county, I drove from Cassopolis, the
county seat, in the direction of Calvin township which
is six miles distant. The farms, for the most part,
compared favorably in their general appearance with
the average of the farms we saw in Michigan. The
yards were beautiful with shrubbery and flowers. The
72
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
barns, stock, poultry and other accessories of farm were
in keeping with everything else we saw. In our drive
of nearly ten miles, in which we covered nearly thirty
miles of territory, through Calvin township and part
of Porter, the adjoining township, we saw little, ex¬
cept the color of the faces of the people, to indicate
that we were in a Negro town. There are few town¬
ships in the South among the agricultural classes that
could compare favorably with this Negro township
in Michigan.
One of the farmers I met, William Allen, owned
700 acres of land and paid in the preceding year
$191 in taxes. He had been Justice of the Peace for
eighteen years, I learned, but finally resigned the office
because it took too much of his time away from his
farm. Another colored man, Samuel Hawkes, I
found, pays the largest taxes of any man in his county.
Mr. Hawkes is worth $50,000. He owns 500 acres
of land free and unencumbered. Mr. Hawkes came to
Calvin county in 1853. He had at that time $800
with which he purchased 80 acres of land upon which
he still lives. He is engaged now in managing his
farm, loaning money and dealing in real estate. Mr.
J. W. Madry, who accompanied me on my ride
through the county, informed me later by letter that
he had thrashed the grain I had seen in the stack on
his place in one day from which he obtained 944 bush¬
els of oats and 884 bushels of wheat. A few days
later he shipped a car-load of hogs and sheep of his
own raising to Chicago and received in return for
them $707.30. He had 167 sheep and 80 hogs left.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
73
I met another colored man in the township, Mr. C.
W. Bunn, who owns two sawmills and much other
real estate. He is said to be worth $50,000.
There are, I was informed, eight schools in Calvin
county. Four of them were taught by colored teach¬
ers. The superintendent of schools, C. F. Northrop,
is a Negro.
Perhaps the most instructive bit of information I
obtained in regard to this community during my visit
was contained in the statement of Hon. L. H. Glover,
a prominent lawyer of Cassopolis. He said: " The
first generation of settlers were fine men — none bet¬
ter. The second generation was bad. The third gen¬
eration shows a very marked improvement. There is
a steady improvement morally, and this compares fa¬
vorably with that of the whites. There is no social
mingling, but otherwise the relations of the races are
entirely friendly. I do not know of more than a
dozen marriages of whites and blacks in the entire
county. So far as prejudice toward the colored resi¬
dents of the county is concerned, the farther away
people live, the greater the prejudice. As they ap¬
proach it grows less. These people have contributed
as much to the prosperity of the county as ought to be
expected of them."
In all this there is nothing startling nor remarkable.
It indicates, I am convinced, merely what we ought to
expect under normal conditions and the " Square
Deal."
I have told at some length the story of this col¬
ony because the circumstances under which it was
74 the negro in business
>
founded makes its history peculiarly interesting and
because its history extends over a sufficiently long pe¬
riod of time to make it possible to permit the funda¬
mental racial traits of the Negro, so far as they are
peculiar or different from that of the white race, to
clearly manifest themselves. No doubt a careful
study would reveal many things peculiar and interest¬
ing in the life of this community which would mark it
as different from a white community. But the only
thing that impressed itself upon me<was the remarkable
ability and willingness of our people to adapt them¬
selves to their conditions and to learn.
A different type of Negro community has grown
up in other parts of the South, as a result of the
process of segregation of the races which is now tak¬
ing place, not only in the towns but on the land as
well. In many cases, particularly in the cities, the
result of this segregation has been far from happy.
The Negroes which generally represent a large pro¬
portion of the shifting property-less class, have been
huddled into cheap and unhealthy quarters which have
bred both crime and disease as well as habits of ir¬
resolute shiftlessness.
In some of the Southern cities, however, members
of the race have had the courage and initiative to go
outside of the cities and establish settlements on high
and healthy land with the purpose of building up or¬
derly property-owning and educated communities.
Recently I had an opportunity to visit such a com¬
munity, located outside of the city of Winston-Sa¬
lem, North Carolina. This suburb, which calls it-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
75
self Columbia Heights, is situated on a fine piece of
property just outside of the city, commanding a mag¬
nificent view of the surrounding country.
This suburb was founded by Prof. S. G. Atkins.
In 1891, while he was principal of the colored graded
school in Winston-Salem, he conceived the idea that
it would materially improve the condition of the mem¬
bers of his race and at the same time be a good busi¬
ness investment if a sufficient number of t-he more
thrifty colored people could be induced to settle in
some convenient suburb and build homes for them¬
selves and become property-owners.
For this project he secured the support of a num¬
ber of prominent white men in Winston-Salem, who
were interested in the welfare of the colored citi¬
zens and at the same time desired to see some effort
made to improve the character of the Negro labor
that is largely employed in the tobacco factories at
this place.
For a time Prof. Atkins lived in the new suburb
practically alone, still maintaining his position at the
head of the colored school in the city. Shortly af¬
ter his settlement there Mr. Atkins started in a small
way an industrial school, believing that it would aid
in building up the community and be an inducement
to other families to settle in the new territory. Af¬
ter a short time the industrial school made such prog¬
ress that Mr. Atkins was enabled to devote all his
time to it and after that he remained permanently at
Columbia Heights. This was the origin of the Slater
Industrial and State Normal school.
76
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Meanwhile a settlement consisting of forty fam¬
ilies, nearly all of whom own their own homes, has
settled there. Adjoining the Normal School a hand¬
some brick hospital has been erected for the use of the
colored citizens of Winston-Salem and the surround¬
ing country. This hospital was built largely by the
labor of the students in the school and is conducted
in conjunction with it. All this has tended to pro¬
mote an understanding between the best elements of
both races such as one rarely meets in the South at the
present time.
There is at present or, at least at the time I visited
it, no business done in Columbia Heights, except such
as was directly connected with the school. But there
are a large number of prosperous Negro business men
in Winston-Salem. The colored people are repre¬
sented in the professions by men who seem to have
earned the entire respect of their white neighbors.
A Negro town of an entirely different sort is that
at Buxton, Iowa. Buxton is a town of some 4,500
inhabitants, controlled entirely by Negroes. It is
made up of the colored men employed in the coal
mines of the Consolidated Coal company at that place.
The town is not incorporated and according to the
reports that I have been able to obtain from there jus¬
tice is administered in a rather summary frontier
fashion. Persons who misbehave are waited upon by
a committee and requested to behave themselves or
leave town. If the culprit persists in making him¬
self objectionable he is given a certain number of days
or hours to leave the community and if found in the
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
77
town after this time he is taken to the edge of the town
and " shoved off," according to the picturesque phrase
in use there.
This reminds one of the methods formerly em¬
ployed in some of the frontier towns farther west.
The town seems to be controlled thus far by a rough
but healthy public opinion which is probably pretty
well adapted to meet the conditions in So new a com¬
munity.
The government proper is in the hands of two
Negro Justices of the Peace, Spencer Carry and
George Terrell. Two colored constables, John
Brown and Nelson Walker and a colored deputy-
sheriff, A Perkins, are said to form Buxton's police
force.
If this new and large community made up largely
of miners, has been able to prosper thus far, it is due
I am inclined to believe in large part to the influence
of the Young Men's Christian Association located
here. This association has a large and handsome
building and the membership in the association, I am
informed, is exceeded only by the membership in the
colored Young Men's Christian Association in New
York. The school at Buxton is said to be a good
one. It occupies a teii-room building and the super¬
intendent, who is an educated colored man, is said to
be an excellent teacher.
The town of Buxton is still in the experimental
stage. It is at present only four years old.
Twenty years ago, three colored citizens of Mait-
land, Fla., J. E. White, Allen Ricket and T. W. Tay-
78
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
lor, not quite satisfied with their condition in that
town, left it and settled about a mile and a half away.
Many colored citizens of Maitland followed them, and
soon a respectable little village was formed and named
Eatonville. One of the first things done by^the com¬
munity was to build a church, and the next was to
provide educational facilities for the children. In
fact, the church was used first as a school building.
The town was soon incorporated, and organized with
a mayor, marshal, town clerk, aldermen, tax assessor
and chief of police, all colored.
With the advice of white friends, the people of the
little town began to set out groves of orange trees,
which paid well for ten years. In 1896 occurred
what is known in Florida as the " Great Freeze,"
which ruined millions of dollars worth of orange trees
in that state. The people of Eatonville suffered with
the rest, and the growth of the town was severely
retarded. They came to the conclusion that it was
not wise to pin their faith to orange trees alone., and
began to plant other farm products, with which they
have been very successful.
Notwithstanding the failure of the orange crops,
which has since been repeated in Florida, Eatonville
continued >to attract Negro settlers. Soon an Odd
Fellows' Hall arose. A post office was secured and a
Negro postmaster appointed. But the greatest ad¬
vance was made in education. As soon as the church
proved inadequate, the Odd Fellows' Hall was pressed
into service, and a graduate of the Tuskegee Institute
was secured as teacher.
CITY COUNCIL AND JAIL, EATONVILLE, FLA.
J. E. CLARK'S PINEAPPLE FARM, EATONVILLE, FLA.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
79
The coming of this man was the most fortunate
event which has happened in Eatonville. R. C. Cal¬
houn proved to be one of those leaders for the crea¬
tion of whom Tuskegee exists, and he was filled with
the enthusiasm for unselfish and devoted service to
his fellows which we attempt to instill at Tuskegee.
While teacher of the public school, Mr. Calhoun con¬
tinually told his townsmen of the school at Tuskegee,
and of their need for such an institution, in which
young men and women could not only secure excellent
academic and moral training, but also receive such in¬
struction in industries and handicrafts as would fit
them directly for life.
But Mr. Calhoun did more than talk. He began to
work to obtain funds with which to establish such a
school as he had advocated. Mr. Geo. B. Childs, of
Saratoga, N. Y., donated $4,600 with which to build
a boys' dormitory. Mr. Robert Hungerford, of
Chester, Conn., owned a large tract of land near
Eatonville, and offered to give it to the colored peo¬
ple if they would build on it an industrial school.
The offer was taken up by Mr. Calhoun, and the new
institute was named in honor of the generous donor,
the " Robert Hungerford Industrial School."
In the first year of the school's existence, 1899, the
attendance was only nineteen; but has since that time
almost tripled itself. The school owns two hundred
and eighty acres, twenty-nine of which are under cul¬
tivation by student labor. For the work they do, the
students are given credit on their accounts with the
school treasurer, and are enabled to work out a great
8o
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
part of their expenses. The products of the farm,
dairy, and poultry yard are used by the commissary
of the school and assist materially in keeping down
expenses. The school has now six teachers, of whom
three are graduates of Tuskegee. Two new dormi¬
tories have recently been added, and the future of the
institute is bright. The influence of the school on
the community has been very valuable.
Eatonville has now 250 inhabitants, of which the
great majority own their homes. Mr. S. M. Mose-
ley, the mayor, is a successful farmer, stock raiser and
liveryman. Mr. J. E. Clark, the postmaster and
chairman of the city council, is the leading merchant
of the town, and has also done a good business in real
estate. He is one of the largest farmers in the
county, and has been largely instrumental in build¬
ing up Eatonville to its present status.
Another type of community of which one will meet
numerous examples in the South is the Negro farming
village. An interesting example of this type of vil¬
lage is a little Negro community called Mamiesville,
in Pickens county on the Mobile and Ohio railway.
The origin of this community is interesting. About
the time the railway was built through this region
or shortly after, the white people began to buy land
to build houses in the neighborhood of the railway
about two miles away. The town that grew up there
was called Ethel'sville, after the daughter of one of
the leading white citizens. The movement of the
white people toward the railway left a considerable
amount of land on the market and one of the more
RESIDENCE OP S. M. MOSELEY, MAYOR OF EATON VILLE, FLA.
RESIDENCE OF J. E. CLARK, POSTMASTER, EATONVILLE, FLA.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
81
enterprising Negro farmers conceived the idea of buy¬
ing land. The notion presently got hold of a number
of other Negro farmers in the same region and the re
suit was a prosperous Negro town. The Negro vil¬
lagers, following the example of their white neigh¬
bors, decided to call their village Mamiesville, after
the daughter of the farmer who had first bought land
there. The town consists of about 1,000 acres of
land, worth $15 an acre. There are a number of re¬
spectable dwelling houses, a church, a school and a
store, conducted by the ten Singleton brothers, who are
a strong element in the town.
At the Tuskegee Negro conference in February,
1905, a very interesting report from this place was
made by J. M. Sanifer. According to this report it
appeared that there were 104 families in the village,
owning some 4,300 acres of land. They own 312
cows, 76 horses, 132 mules and 321 hogs.
He reported that the Negro village was on the best
of terms with its white neighbors. Several white
men in the neighboring village had aided them in get¬
ting land and had contributed to the church and the
school and the two villages were living on terms of
mutual friendliness and cooperation.
The subject of Negro communities and the methods
of their upbuilding rs one that deserves more study
from students of the race problem than it has thus
far had.
CHAPTER IX
ISAIAH T. MONTGOMERY THE FOUNDER OF MOUND
BAYOU
One of the most interesting and successful busi¬
ness experiments which has yet been made by a Ne¬
gro was the founding of the town of Mound Bayou,
Bolivar county, Miss., by Isaiah T. Montgomery.
This town, as it exists to-day, did not happen. It
was planned and made, and the capital, which is cre¬
ated wherever men live and labor together for a com¬
mon end, has gone into the hands of Negro business
men.
Mr. Montgomery was born on the plantation of
Joseph Davis, a brother of Jefferson Davis, subse¬
quently President of the Confederacy. This planta¬
tion known as " The Hurricane," was situated in
Warren county about 30 miles south of Vicksburg.
Mr. Montgomery was born there a slave, on May
21st, 1847. His father and mother were both able to
read a little and he received his earliest instructions
in reading from his mother. On Sundays another
slave named George Steward, gave him lessons from
the old fashioned blue-back speller, so popular in those
days. When he grew older his father took him in
hand and heard his lessons at night after the work of
the day was over. He taught him to write by making
82
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
83
the letters on cardboard and covering it with tissue
paper. When he was about eight or nine years old
his father discovered a white man by the name of
George Metcalf, who was making a poor living cut¬
ting cord wood but who seemed to be well informed
and he hired this man to teach young Montgomery
and his sister. When it became known that a school
teacher was to be had in the neighborhood, Metcalf
and his wife were induced to move nearer to the plan¬
tation and four or five white children, among them
two boys from the Davis dwelling, were added to the
class. This school was, however, finally discontinued
because its existence became noised abroad.
The boy Montgomery continued his studies at
home until he was nine or ten years of age. At this
time it was determined that he should make his home
in the " Big House " where he was quartered on a
pallet in the room adjoining that of Mr. and Mrs.
Davis.
His duties at this time consisted in sorting and
copying, filing letters and papers and caring for the
office generally. In addition to this he was assigned
to carrying the mails which had to be transported
across the Mississippi river some four times a week.
In this he was assisted by two smaller boys.
After leaving his father's house and going to the
Davis mansion he had no opportunity to study but he
read the newspapers with great eagerness. These
were always conveniently at hand about the office.
After General Grant began his campaign in north¬
ern Mississippi Mr. Davis went with his slaves to the
84
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
interior of the state and afterwards to Alabama.
Young Montgomery was left with his father in
charge of the plantation. Mr. Davis first carried him
away with him but sent him back with the others
occasionally after stock. On one of these trips his
father kept him with him to help care for the planta¬
tion.
Shortly after Admiral David Dixon Porter suc¬
ceeded in running past the Vicksburg batteries
with a portion of the Federal Squadron young
Montgomery met him, became his cabin boy and
spent nearly all of 1863 in the U. S. service. Dur¬
ing the first cruise of the Federal fleet up the Red
River young Montgomery lost his health, as a conse¬
quence of drinking the waters of the river and was
discharged in mid-winter at Mound City, 111. His
parents and his two sisters had been assisted to Cin¬
cinnati by Admiral Porter and young Montgomery,
after his discharge, joined them there.
It took nearly a year to restore his shattered health.
His father was an expert carpenter, painter and gen¬
eral mechanic and both he and his brother worked
with their father at his trade until times settled so
that they could return to the old Hurricane Planta¬
tion.
William Montgomery went back first, Isaiah fol¬
lowed, and lastly their father came down. After a
short period Isaiah returned for the family and
brought them all back from Cincinnati by river.
Sometime in 1866, when Isaiah was about 19 years
of age, the father and the two sons began business
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
85
under the name of Montgomery & Sons. Isaiah was
assigned to do the bookkeeping and take care of the
correspondence. He soon found that he was defi¬
cient in his knowledge of mathematics and, to over¬
come this difficulty, obtained special instruction at
night for a term from one of the pioneer teachers
who came South immediately after the war. This
teacher is well remembered by Mr. Montgomery.
Her name was Miss Lou Smith, of Urbana, Ohio.
She carried him, he says, through Ray's Third Arith¬
metic and did him a service for which he has ever
since been grateful.
About this time he began studying bookkeeping.
He made the acquaintance of some of the clerks on
the Mississippi packets and they would occasionally,
at his request, bring him a book on bookkeeping or
something else that he needed, to continue his studies.
The circumstances under which Mr. Montgomery,
his father and brother, came to have the management
of the Hurricane Plantation, after the war are pe¬
culiar and interesting. It was the express wish of
Mr. Joseph E. Davis, after the close of the war, that
all of his ex-slaves should remain on the plantation
that had been their home and the home of their chil¬
dren.
" Indeed," says Mr. Montgomery, " most of them,
300 or more, were born there and the big books of
the plantation, formerly kept by my father, were the
histories of all that was known of their ancestry."
In order to effect this purpose Mr. Davis specific¬
ally conveyed his Warren County properties to Ben-
86
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
jamin T., William T., and Isaiah T. Montgomery by
an act of sale and in order to better carry out his pur¬
pose Mr. Davis made an effort to reach all of his for¬
mer slaves whenever they were overtaken by any se¬
rious mishap. Mr. Davis at the time of conveying
this property to his former slaves was well advanced
in years and did not long survive the sale. An earn¬
est attempt was' made by his executors after Mr.
Davis's death to carry out the provisions of the will.
One of these executors was Mr. Davis's brother Jef¬
ferson Davis, ex-president of the Confederacy.
In attempting to operate the plantation along the
lines indicated difficulties were soon encountered.
Among the first was the arrangement of the living
premises. In slavery it had been found desirable to
.have " quarters " located within a limited area. This
was for the convenience of supervision. In freedom
it was necessary to have the buildings located on the
holdings of tenants. Many more buildings were re¬
quired and it was necessary to have them of improved
construction. They suffered also from competition
with cheaper properties, offering lower rents to la¬
borers and in some instances practically a year's free
use of the land in order to induce laborers to settle
upon them. High waters' occasionally came, causing
overflows which made it necessary for large expendi¬
tures in the construction of levees. In order to meet
these expenses the managers, the elder Montgomery
and his sons, applied to the executors for a reduction
in the annual payments, which approximated at that
time $14,000 per annum. The heirs, however, re-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
87
sisted any reduction that would trench upon their in¬
come. The original price of the plantation, which
comprised 4,000 acres was $300,000 in gold, bearing
interest at six per cent. The price of the land was
high and under all the circumstances, in spite of the
effort made, could not always be made to meet the an¬
nual payments. The contract was finally dissolved
by the mutual consent of both parties after it had
been in operation from 1867 to about 1885.
" One of my most vivid experiences," says Mr.
Montgomery in some of his reminiscences, " came
during what was known as the Kansas Higera, when
thousands of laborers from the Mississippi valley
crowded the steamers and poured into Kansas by way
of St. Louis. A large body of these emigrants left
our plantation and as nothing could be learned of
these people as to their future I determined to look
into the matter myself. I procured letters of credit
and went first to St. Louis and thence to Kansas City,
where I found large numbers of them very scantily
provided for and housed in churches and public build¬
ings. After providing for their comfort and arrang¬
ing for those who wished to return I pushed on to
Lawrence, Kansas, where the sentiment was partic¬
ularly bitter against any effort to induce the refugees
to return. I went directly among the crowd that had
left our plantation and camped with them in their
crowded quarters. In the course of a long conference
with the leaders they revealed to me that they had
come to Kansas in quest of lands to be purchased
for the permanent homes and if these could not be
88
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
had they preferred to go back with me. I had them
name a committee to accompany me to Topeka, where
I presented the case to Gov. St. John and his board
of managers. The means at the command of those
men was limited, but they decided to make a location
and a colony called Nicodemus was located near Coun¬
cil Grove in Waubaunsee county, on condition that
I buy a half section of land in it. We improved our
lands there and owned them for a number of years
under the supervision of my brother, who finally sold
them and invested in North Dakota. The colony
maintained itself for a number of years. I returned
home from the trip and set myself to mending our
broken fortunes, closing as best I could, the drama
of a fruitless struggle. Father died not long after
this. Mother soon followed him to the old plantation
burying ground, where they rest in the reserve held
sacred for the immediate members of the Davis fam-
ily"
This closed for Mr. Montgomery a disastrous but
instructive experience. He had gained some knowl¬
edge, under his father's instruction, in the manage¬
ment of the large property and he had learned some¬
thing of the conditions of pioneering in his efforts to
found the Negro colony of Nicodemus upon the
prairies of Kansas. About the year 1885 he wound
up his connection with the cotton planting industry
and started out to conduct a little mercantile and res¬
taurant business near the National Cemetery at Vicks-
burg, Miss. It was while at that place that Maj.
George W. McGinnis, Land Commissioner of Jthe
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
89
Louisville New Orleans and Texas Railway began
correspondence which resulted in a conference and
then in a trip through the Delta and selection of
Mound Bayou as the site for a Negro settlement.
As the Delta land was subject to malaria, obstructed
with great forests of timber and tangled thickets of
cane and briers, and burned by the Southern sun, it
was deemed unsuitable for white immigrants, and ca¬
pable of being exploited only by means of black labor.
The land commissioner of the railway consulted Mr.
Montgomery, with the result that the latter undertook
to plant a Negro colony on these lands if the rail¬
way would furnish the land.
Mr. Montgomery's description of his first visit to
the site of the ■ new town is an interesting one.
Mound Bayou is situated near the center of the great
Yazoo Delta about midway between Memphis and
Vicksburg and nearly twenty miles east of the Mis¬
sissippi river and a like distance from the hills that
form the western boundary of the delta. The name
is derived from a large mound, the relic of a pre-his-
toric people, situated at the junction of two prominent
bayous, which compose the most important part of
the natural drainage system of the region.
"On a summer morning in July, 1887," said Mr.
Montgomery, " the fast express dropped me at a
cross-road sawmill. I was accompanied by a civil
engineer, with whom I had spent the day previous in
the trackless forest northwest of the town of Shaw.
It was not yet day when we disembarked from the
train. We went a short distance to the quarter mill
9°
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
and were generously treated to a hearty breakfast.
" Immediately afterwards we started to tramp
northward on the line railway. After a walk of nearly
three miles my companion paused and said: ' Here
is the land.'
" I gazed north and south along the railway right
of way, which cut a wide path, something like the
street of a great city, through the forest and jungle.
On either side were impassable barriers of cane, which
stood twenty-five feet high, interwoven with briers
and thickly studded with mighty trees, some of them
one hundred and fifty feet in height.
" I tramped up and down," continued Mr. Mont¬
gomery, " looking for a place of entrance. Finally
I found a hunter's trail which had been kept open by
wild beasts and wandering cattle. This led along the
bank of the bayou, from which the locality derived its
name. A mile further along this path came out to
the railway again. We, however, turned further
north and found the woods somewhat more open. As
the falling shadows reminded us that the day was
nearly done we stood upon the spot now occupied by
the town.
"' This will do/- I remarked to the engineer.
' Draw a plat of these lands stretching four miles to
the east and west, north and south. Send me one to
the land office and make a duplicate. That will be
notice, when it reaches me, that your task is done and
mine is begun.' "
The first settlers began to move into the new town-
site in February, 1888. They did not stop there but
ISAIAH T MONTGOMERY,
Founder of Mound Bayou. Largest Colored taxpayer in Mississippi
Bank of Mound Bayou, Miss.
Hon. John W. Cobb, Ex-Mayor
Officers and Directors, Bank of Mou. d Bayou.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
91
went directly to the log shanties that had been built
upon the lands they were to occupy. A month later
ground was broken for the first small store-house and
two dwellings, one to be occupied by Mr. Montgom¬
ery and the other by the family of a cousin.
Since there were no lands available for immediate
cultivation the little community had to support itself
by cutting the timber until the area cleared was suffi¬
ciently large to permit cultivation.
The original survey of the town was made in 1890
when it was regularly incorporated. At that time it
embraced about twenty acres. At that time there
was one country store and two small business houses
employing altogether about $3,000 capital and do¬
ing an annual business of possibly $5,000. At the
present time the to\yn embraces an area of 75 acres,
with a population of 400. The agricultural settle¬
ment about the town covers about 40 square miles,
or over 30,000 acres, owned and occupied by 2,000
colored people. Mound Bayou is the tenth station in
importance between Memphis and Vicksburg, and af¬
fords the railway company an approximate revenue
of $30,000 per annum in freight and passenger traffic.
The forests of oak, elm, hickory, ash, cypress and
gum afford an annual business of almost $9,000.
In his work of founding the city, Mr. Montgomery
spent a great deal of time traveling in Mississippi,
Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama, keep¬
ing before the race the subject of home and farm
owning, and conducting prospectors and settlers to
Mound Rayou. Mr. Montgomery was the first
92
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
mayor of the town; the present mayor (1907) is B.
H. Creswell.
One of the most helpful and interesting phases of
the settlement of Mound Bayou has been the amount of
original business enterprise shown by the various set¬
tlers. Besides the great majority, who are prosper¬
ously engaged in agriculture, a considerable class of
business men have sprung up. In the town there are
22 mercantile houses, such as groceries, dry goods
stores, etc., which do an annual business of one hun¬
dred thousand dollars. There are three blacksmith and
wagon repair shops, whose yearly business amounts
to $3,000. One live newspaper, the Mound Bayou
Demonstrator, does the unusual business of $1,500 a
year. There are one practising physician, one photog¬
rapher, who does $1,000 worth of business every year,
one harness maker, with an annual business of $1,000;
three restaurants and boarding houses, one gin and
saw mill, with a yearly business of $5,000; and two
gins whose business amounts to $5,500 yearly. The
Bank of Mound Bayou, which is more fully consid¬
ered in the chapter on Banking, has an authorized
capital of $10,000; fully paid up and deposits amount¬
ing to $40,000. The Mound Bayou post office, es¬
tablished in 1888, has an annual stamp sale of $850.
The annual stamp cancellations amount to $700, and
the annual money order receipts and disbursements
are as much as $30,000. In the town are a Baptist
High and Normal Institute and the American Mis¬
sionary school, both of which are endeavoring to add
industrial departments; a public school, employing
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
93
three teachers; and five public schools in the surround¬
ing country. There are two Baptist Churches, worth
together $3,000, two Christian Churches, worth to¬
gether $1,500; one A. M. E. Church, worth $3,000;
and one M. E. Church, worth $800. The cotton pro¬
duction for the season of 1905 was 4,000 bales.
CHAPTER X
THE NEGRO UNDERTAKER
The interest and even fascination with which the
Negro people have always viewed the great mystery
of death has given the ceremonies that are connected
with this dread event a special and peculiarly impor¬
tant place in their social life. Out of this instinctive
awe and reverence for the dead has arisen the demand
for solemn and decent and often elaborate burial serv¬
ices. To meet this demand there has grown up a
prosperous business. It is a curious fact that with
the exception of that of caterer there is no business
in which Negroes seem to be more numerously en¬
gaged or one in which they have been more uniformly
successful.
This is due to the fact that here, as in the case of
schools and churches, racial instincts and interests
have created demands which the white business men
could not or were not able to properly provide for.
A prominent feature of the secret organizations, which
have sprung up and become extremely popular in re¬
cent years among the colored communities, has been
the provision for sick benefits and burial expenses.
This demand and these organizations have created a
special business opportunity for Negro business men
•of which they have very largely taken advantage.
94
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
95
One of the men who early perceived an opportu¬
nity for the colored business man in the direction I
have indicated was Elijah Cook, the Negro under¬
taker of Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Cook was born
a slave over sixty years ago in Alabama. He was
several times sold on the auction block, and at one of
these sales was separated from his brother, of whom
he has never heard since. When he had become a
youth, Mr. Cook asked his master to allow him to
learn the carpenter's trade, at which he spent several
years as an apprentice. At the end of this time, he
hired his time from his master for twenty-five dol¬
lars a month. When the war broke out, Mr. Cook
continued to pay his master's wife the stipulated sum
per month, and continued to faithfully do so until he
was emancipated.
At the close of the war, the trade that Mr. Cook
learned in slavery stood him in good stead, as he was
immediately able to get work. The laws against
teaching a slave to read and wirte had fired Mr.
Cook with a desire to acquire those forbidden accom¬
plishments, and, like many other freedmen, his first
thought was to procure an edt\cation for himself.and
for his people. He was the leader in founding the
first colored school in his city, which was held in a
basement dug under, a dilapidated church. He him¬
self, with that devotion that proves the capacity of
the race, attended night school after working most
severely all day long.
Looking about him, Mr. Cook saw that there was
no colored undertaker in the city, and that the corpses
9 6
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
of the colored people were being hauled to the ceme¬
tery in rough wagons. He therefore bought a hearse,
and went into business for himself. He has con¬
ducted this business for twenty years, with such in¬
dustry and wisdom that he has accumulated towards
twenty thousand dollars. He is one of the most re¬
spected citizens of Montgomery, and is foremost in
every plan for the betterment of the race. Another
successful undertaker of Montgomery is Mr. H. A.
Loveless. He, too, conducts a profitable business.
Much enterprise has been shown by Mr. Wm/ M.
Porter, of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born a slave in
Tennessee, in 1850, and was well grown before op¬
portunities for education came to him. At the end
of the war, he went to Cincinnati, and hired out as a
hackman, working in this capacity for ten years. At
the end of this time he went into the undertaking
business and married Miss Davis, a teacher in the
public schools of Cincinnati, to whose efforts and
judgment much of his success is due. For more than
twenty years he was the only colored undertaker in
Cincinnati, and used his monopoly so well that his
real estate holdings in Cincinnati amount to about
$25,000, to say nothing of the value of his horses and
rolling stock.
After his success in Cincinnati, Mr. Porter looked
about him for new opportunities, and opened a branch
office in Lexington, Kentucky, with Mr. J. C. Jack¬
son in charge. A few years later, another office was
opened in Chicago, and gradually since, other offices
have been opened by him in small towns in Kentucky
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
97
and Ohio, and put in charge of competent men. Mr.
Porter has been fortunate in finding men to work for
him who are reliable and honest.
He is one of the most successful undertakers that
we have.
The life of Mr. J. C. Jackson, mentioned above as
the Lexington, Kentucky, partner, of Mr. Porter, has
been a most eventful and busy one. He was born in
1848, and worked on a farm in Kentucky until he
reached his majority. He then came to Lexington
with his small savings which he invested in a small
fruit and confectionary store. His thrift, honesty,
and busines ability in the management of this store
recommended him to the notice of the officials of the
Lexington branch of the Freedman's Bank, of which
he was soon made teller. He was promoted to the
cashiership of the Little Rock Branch of the same in¬
stitution, which position he held until its failure in
1874. He then returned to Lexington and secured a
position as gauger under the United States Govern¬
ment, which positiqn he held for seven years. He
also tried his hand at running a newspaper, and the
" American Citizen," edited by him, was an able and
excellent journal. He sold the paper, however, to
become the partner of Mr. Porter in an undertaking
establishment in Lexington. They started on a small
scale, with one funeral car, a team of horses and a
small stock of goods. Largely owing to the fidelity
and ability of Mr. Jackson, the establishment has
grown to the point where it is considered by many to
be the finest in central Kentucky. A new building
98
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
has recently been built, which has in connection with
it the best equipped livery stable in Lexington, with a
capacity of one hundred horses.
Mr. Jackson was extremely happy in his marriage,
as his wife identified herself with his interests, and
has been of invaluable assistance to him.
I cannot pass over his activity in public life. He
has served as a trustee of Wilberforce University; as
a representative of his church in the General Con¬
ference of the A. M. E. Church, was chairman of
the committee which secured an equal division of the
public school funds for the support of colored schools;
was a member of the committee which persuaded the
city council of Lexington to establish that city's first
Negro School; was a member and a spokesman of
the committee which secured from the Kentucky leg¬
islature the enactment which established the State
Normal School for Negroes at Frankfort, Kentucky;
and was for twelve years a member of the trustee
board of Berea College. He yvas a life long friend
of Rev. John G. Fee, the founder of Berea College,
and was first man asked by Rev. Fee's family to
serve as pall-bearer at his funeral.- He is an influen¬
tial member of the Executive Committee of the Na¬
tional Negro Business League.
One of our very successful men is Mr. G. W. Frank¬
lin, Jr., of Chattanooga, Tenn. He was born in 1865
in Quitman, Ga., and began learning the blacksmith's
trade at the age of ten. Long before he became of
age, he was operating four distinct lines of business,
a blacksmith shop, a hack line, a coal yard, and an
Elijah Cook's Residence.
Elijah Cook. Undertaker, Montgomery, Ala.
Place of Business.
Mrs. Elijah Cook.
PRESTON TAYLOR.
Undertaker, Nashville, Tenn.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
99
undertaking establishment. He concluded finally to
concentrate his efforts in one direction, however, and
decided to devote himself to undertaking. His first
few years as undertaker were spent in Rome, Ga.,
but he moved to Chattanooga in 1894. He found the
new field unfavorable, as other colored men preceding
him there in this business has abused the people and
lost their confidence. Mr. Franklin had labored to
overcome this handicap so well that he is to-day one of
the most prosperous colored men in Chattanooga.
His rolling stock and general equipment are equal to
the best in Chattanooga, white or black. He has
bought and operated two cemeteries for colored people,
the East View and the Pleasant Garden. -He owns his
own place of business in the heart of the business sec¬
tion of Chattanooga, within a block of the Union Sta¬
tion, and within forty steps of the First National
Bank. He also owns valuable real estate in exclusive
portions of the city. Mr. Franklin built with his own
1 hands some of the hearses, and one of these, exhibited
at the Nashville meeting of the National Negro Busi¬
ness League, was a feature of the meeting. His
business gives employment to seven people, besides
three members of his own family, whom he has taught
to be of great help to him in his work.
I have, before now called attention to the fact some
of our most successful business men have come from
among the ranks of our ministers. These men have
very often had opportunity to develop a latent talent
for administrative work and business in looking after
the affairs of their churches. One such as these is
IOO
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Rev. Preston Taylor, who early in life learned a trade,
has been a contractor, assistant baggage-master as
well as preacher, and has finally become comfortably
well off in the business of undertaking.
Rev. Preston Taylor was born in Shreveport,
Louisiana, November 7, 1849, of slave parents. In
early childhood he expressed a desire to become a min¬
ister, and this ambition has directed his life. He has
interested himself along other lines; but not for a sin¬
gle year since arriving at maturity has he neglected
what he regarded as his highest calling.
His spirit of patriotism was shown when in 1864
he saw a band of soldiers marching along the road and
determined to join them; he enlisted as a drummer
and was at the seige of Richmond, Petersburg and
at the surrender of Lee. Later he learned the stone
cutters' trade and became skillful in monument work
and also engraving on marble. He found much work
to do in Louisville, Kentucky, but the white men re¬
fused to work with him because of his color. He
was then offered a position as train porter on the
Louisville and Chattanooga Railroad, and for four
years he was classed as one of the best railroad men
in the service. When he resigned, he was requested
to remain with a promotion as assistant baggage-
master, but as he could be no longer retained, he was
given a strong recommendation and a pass over all
the roads for an extensive trip which he took
through the North.
On his return he accepted the pastorate of the
Christian Church at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, where he
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
IOI
remained for fifteen years devoting his time to the
building up of the congregation and the erection of
meeting houses. It was at this time that he did a
great deal toward helping the people in an educational
way. One thing that deserves special mention was
the purchase of the old college property at New Cas¬
tle, Kentucky, at a cost of $18,000, where to-day
stands a thriving Bible college, of which he is still a
trustee and financial agent. For a number of years
he was editor of the " Colored Brethren," a depart¬
ment in the Christian Standard, and has also written
for many books and periodicals.
Some idea can be gathered of his courage and en¬
ergy from a passage in his life. When the Big
Sandy Railway was under contract to be completed
from Mt. Sterling to Richmond, Virginia, the contrac¬
tors refused to hire colored men to work on it. He
at once made a bid for Sections 3 and 4 and was suc¬
cessful ; he then erected a large commissary and quar¬
ters for his men, bought seventy-five head of mules
and horses, carts, wagons, cans and all the necessary
implements and tools; with one hundred and fifty
colored men he led the way. In fourteen months he
completed the most difficult part of this great trunk
line at a cost of about $75,000. The president of the
road, Mr. C. P. Huntington, said that he had built
thousands of miles of road but he never before saw a
contractor who finished his contract in advance. He
was then requested by the chief engineer of the works
to move his force to another county and help out some
of the white contractors.
102
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
During the past twenty years he has occupied as
pastor the pulpit of two of the leading Nashville
churches. The Lee Avenue Christian Church, where
he has' been for seventeen years, is a large, strong
and imposing edifice, of which the congregation and
citizens of Nashville are proud. It was built under
his direction and through his personal effort.
His philanthrophic spirit is strong, and a deed of
charity rendered by him during a recent severe win¬
ter will forever live in the hearts of the people of
Nashville; for through his own warm and tender
feeling for suffering humanity, individual help, so¬
licitations from friends, he was enabled to feed, warm
and clothe almost a thousand suffering poor people
and shield them from the cold.
In the Spring of 1888 he embarked in the under¬
taking business and has met with unusual success.
He stands well toward the head of his profession not
only as a funeral director, but as a safe and wise busi¬
ness man.
Mr. Taylor employs twenty-one men and often has
to call in extra help. He bears the distinction of di¬
recting the largest funeral procession that has ever
passed through the streets of Nashville; it was that of
three colored firemen that were killed in the great
conflagration of January 2, 1892. He built a large
catafalque with the aid of his own men, which held
all three of the caskets, and was drawn by six beau¬
tiful, black horses followed by sixty carriages, two
abreast, occupied by all the officials of the city, and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
103
accompanied by the police and fire departments, the
schools, the lodges, and citizens by the thousands.
Aside from his regular profession, he is, president
of the Odd Fellows' Association, the Knights of
Pythias' Temple Association, the Steam Railway Em¬
ployees' Association, and the Rock City Coal Com¬
pany; he is also director of the "Negro Combine"
and the One Cent Savings Bank, and Chaplain of
Co. " G," the Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias.
Recently Mr. Taylor purchased beautiful " Green¬
wood Cemetery," a tract of forty acres of land lo¬
cated four miles southeast of Nashville, laid out in
lots, walks and' drives, ornamented with shrubs and
trees.
In all his efforts he has had the aid of his wife,
formerly one of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, and
a woman of strong sympathies, and invaluable to
her husband.
CHAPTER XI
JAMES C. THOMAS, UNDERTAKER AND BUSINESS MAN
It is said that the richest man of African descent in
New York is James C. Thomas. He is an under¬
taker. Although colored men have been in business
for nearly 150 years in New York City, there are
very few if any of these men or their descendants who
have had more success in business than this man who
came to New York as a cabin boy on one of the
Southern steamers, and worked for sixteen years af¬
ter that as the hotel steward. This is one of the
facts, of which there are many similar mentioned
in this book, which indicate that, however great an
obstacle prejudice may be, it is not the determining
factor in the success or failure of colored men. The
same conditions which have made members of the
white race who had advantages fail and those who
have not had advantages succeed hold also in the case
of the colored man. It is thrift, industry, moral
earnestness that makes success.
James C. Thomas is a Texan. He was born at
Harrisburg, Texas, in 1864. He received very little
education. At the age of nine his father and mother
died, and he had after that, to take care of himself.
He had six sisters, some of them older, and others
younger than himself. As soon as he was able to
104
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 105
earn anything, he was compelled to contribute to the
support of the family.
Beginning life thus early, he managed to pick up
a living for himself, and to contribute his share to the
support of the other members of the family.
He drifted with some other members of the family
to Galveston, and after doing odd jobs about there
for a time, he found a place as a cabin boy on a steam
boat. A few years ago, and indeed to a large ex¬
tent still, the position of cabin boy on one of the
steamboats was the goal of every colored boy's am¬
bition. To be nimble and handy enough at running
on errands; to be able to ingratiate himself into the
good will of the captain or steward of one of these
boats, was the secret hope and ambition of every
lively and alert young Negro boy.
Many a colored boy has been started out on a life
of aimless wandering, drifting about from place to
place, in consequence of the attractions of a place
on one of these boats. On the other hand, not all
the men who have started out in this way have been
injured by this experience. This life appeals to a very
natural spirit of adventure, the desire to see new and
strange places and people. To many a young man
who had no opportunities for learning at home, these
voyages have been in the nature of an education.
It has given him a bigger idea of the world, caused
him to realize the possibilities of his own life, and
given him the courage to attempt things that he would
never thought himself or members of his race able
1.06 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
to do. This seems to have been the case with Mr.
Thomas.
He first found a place upon the boat running be¬
tween New Orleans and Galveston. In those days,
Galveston was not the important port it has since
become, and New Orleans had not yet lost the prestige
she had before the war as the port at which the
great traffic of the Mississippi Valley was discharged.
Life on the levees and along the docks was in its
glory and was full of attractions for young men in
search of adventure. Young Thomas was attracted
by all this, and lingered about New Orleans working
on the boats for the most part, in the capacity of cabin
boy, until he was seventeen years of age.
At this time, in 1881, young Thomas was employed
on a steamer plying between New Orleans, Cuba, and
Mexico. At this time the yellow fever appeared at
Havana and New Orleans. Both cities were quar¬
antined. Rather than go into quarantine, the boat
upon which Mr. Thomas was employed, came to New
York. It was thus, quite by accident, that Mr.
Thomas became a New Yorker.
In the meantime he had learned a good deal about
the business in which he had been engaged, and in
New York he was able to obtain a position as stew¬
ard in some of the hotels at New York, Boston, and
Saratoga. Mr. Thomas was employed in these dif¬
ferent places* for sixteen years, from 1881 to 1897.
He had always been thrifty and saving and during
these years, particularly after his marriage, he worked
with a definite purpose in view. He saw others about
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
107
him getting money easily and spending it freely, but
he had determined to accumulate sufficient capital to
enable him to go into business for himself. He was
married in 1884 but he did not begin business until
1897.
There were already several Negro undertakers in
New York but Mr. Thomas believed that there was
room for another, and if possible, a better one than
any of those then existing. He decided to begin in
a very small way. He had never been in business for
himself, and there was much that he had to learn
by experiment. He rented a house on Seventh avenue,
and after buying his stock, fixing and furnishing it
to begin business, he found that he had but four dol¬
lars left.
When Mr. Thomas began business there were but
two colored undertakers in the business in New York
and Brooklyn. The larger part of the business which
should have come naturally to colored undertakers
was in the hands of white men. At the present time,
Mr. Thomas not only does more business than any
other colored undertaker in New York, but there is
but one undertaker in the city who has more funerals
in the course of the year than he. In spite of that
fact there are now eight colored undertakers doing
business in the city, Mr. Thomas, largely as a result
of his economical, careful, and conscientious dealings
with his colored patrons, and by his ability to meet
their peculiar needs, has enabled him to compete so
successfully with white undertakers that he has se-
108 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cured the colored business largely for colored business
men.
When he started in business, Mr. Thomas rented
the building on Seventh avenue, in which he did busi¬
ness. He is still occupying that house, but at the
present time he owns it and the adjoining property as
well. He has several times, refused $65,000 for the
two buildings. These valuable holdings, and other
property in New York City, Mr. Thomas has acquired
since he engaged in business.
He jvas the first president of the Afro-American
Realty Company, and is still one of its heaviest stock¬
holders, and a director in the company. He likewise
owns stock in the Chelsea National Bank of New
York, one of the larger banks of that city.
He'is a member of the New York Undertakers' As¬
sociation, to which he has been sent on several oc¬
casions by the local association to represent them.
He has the confidence and respect of his fellow-
undertakers, because he has demonstrated that he un¬
derstands the business as well as they. The $20,000
business yearly that he does, is earned, not because
he is a colored man, but because he has been able
to measure up to the best and highest in his profes¬
sion. And in this measuring up, he has taught the
colored people that there are colored men who are
competent, honest, and reliable. Since 1897, Mr.
Thomas has superintended the funerals of some thirty-
five hundred persons, including the raising and re-
interring of bodies that have been buried for as many
as eighty years. This of itself is an art separate
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
and apart from the general work of an undertaker.
In Greater New York and adjoining towns in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, especially among the colored
people, there are constant calls for Mr. Thomas' serv¬
ices, so much so that he has found it necessary and
profitable to open branch offices in a number of places.
To be known as the second largest business house
of this character in New York, is a real distinction
which is to be gained only by keen business foresight,
and the mastery of the field in which one may be
engaged. Where white undertakers had charge of
the undertaking work of the various colored lodges
and churches in New York before Mr. Thomas' tiipe,
it is now handled almost exclusively by colored un¬
dertakers. He keeps constantly employed a number
of men and women, some of whom have gained com¬
plete knowledge of the business in his establishment.
In 1884, Mr. Thomas was married to Miss Ella
Rollins, of Richmond, Virginia, and she has been of
great assistance to him in his business, having entire
charge of the work in his absence. They have seven
children, all of whom are being educated, in addition
to their school training, in their father's business. -
CHAPTER XII
THE NEGRO BANKER
As our people have made progress in the various
lines of business a demand has arisen among them for
savings banks. 'That this demand has arisen speaks
well for the industry and thrift of the race. That
it has been met by the establishment of more than
thirty successful banks operated wholly by members
of our race, testifies to its capacity to meet the demands
which its new necessities impose. I cannot here do
justice to all of these new and important institutions.
I am compelled to limit myself to writing of those
with whose workings I am more familiar and whose
stories seem to me most interesting and instructive.
The first bank conducted by Negroes was estab¬
lished directly after the war as part of the work of
the Freedman's Bureau. This bank was a failure.
The little savings of thousands of industrious freed-
men were lost. Widespread as was the confidence
and the hope that this institution inspired among all
classes when it was first founded, the discouragement
caused by its failure was even more wide-reaching.
It was years before the Negro people regained
sufficient confidence in banks and in themselves to
make a Negro bank possible. In March, 1888, the
legislature of yirginia granted a charter for a sav-
110
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
III
ings bank to the Grand Fountain of the United Order
of True Reformers. The bank was opened for busi¬
ness April 3, 1889, and received deposits to the amount
of $1,268.69 the first day.
It is said that when application for a charter for
this bank was first made to the Virginia legislature
it was not treated seriously. The idea of a bank con¬
ducted by Negroes was at this time so novel that many
members of thq legislature voted for it out of a
spirit of fun, never expecting to see a real Negro
savings bank in operation in Virginia.
In a recent report to the Hampton Negro conference
W. P. Burrell, secretary of the True Reformer, tells
a very interesting anecdote in regard to the origin of
the True Reformers' Bank.
" It might be interesting to know," says Mr. Burrell,
" that this bank, founded by William W. Browne, had
its origin in a lynching which occurred in Charlotte
County at a point called Drake's Branch. A branch
of the organization of True Reformers had been
founded at Mossingford and the fees of the members,
amounting to nearly $100, had been deposited in the
safe of a white man, who had thus an opportunity
to see that the Negroes of the county had some money
and that they were organizing for some purpose. We
decided that this was an unwise thing and so de¬
termined to break up the organization. This fact
was reported to Mr. Browne and by a personal visit
to the place he succeeded in saving the organization
and at the same time had his attention called to the
need of a colored bank, where colored people could
112
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
carry on their own business and not have it exposed
to unscrupulous whites. The idea of a bank was
first advanced by a countryman named W. E. Grant
and immediately adopted by Mr. Browne. Thus it
came to pass that because of an unpleasant race feel¬
ing in Charlotte County, Virginia, the oldest incor¬
porated Negro bank came into existence."
In the report to which I have referred Mr. Burrell
calls attention to one important fact in regard to the
colored banks of Virginia, namely, that three of them
have started since the passage of the suffrage laws
of the state requiring Negro voters to be property-
holders, to be well educated and to be war veterans.
In the early history of the colored banks in Vir¬
ginia considerable difficulty was experienced becaus:
they were not directly connected with the clearing
. house, through which an exchange of checks among
the banks is ordinarily effected. This made " col¬
ored " depositors unwilling to open accounts in these
colored banks because their checks could not be han¬
dled without trouble and inconvenience. The white
banks refused to accept them because they could not
" clear" them in the ordinary way. This form of
boycott was broken up, however, by white merchants
who threatened to withdraw their deposits from the
" white " banks unless they made some arrangement
by which the checks of " colored " banks could be
cashed. This led finally to the voluntary offer on
the part of the leading national banks to act as clear¬
ing house agents. They did this not so much, per¬
haps, to help the colored man as to facilitate the busi-
The negro in business
ness of the white depositors. At the present time all
of the " colored " banks, clear through some member
of the clearing house, for which privilege they pay
a small annual tax.
At the meeting of the National Negro Business
League in New York in 1905, Rev. W. L. Taylor,
President of the True Reformers, stated that at that
time the bank held in the deposits $350,000 of money
belonging to Negroes. The capital stock of $100,-
000 has all been paid up and there are over 11,000
depositors. During the twenty-six years it has been
in existence this institution has. done more than $14,-
000,000 worth of business. Since it was started there
have been established in different parts of the world,
according to Mr. Taylor, nineteen other Negro banks.
That number has since been increased until in 1907
there are thirty-three such institutions. ' The* cashier
of the True Reformers' Bank is Mr. R. T. Hill.
Shortly after the founding of the True Reformers'
Bank in Richmond and largely as a result of the
apparent success of the experiment a Negro bank was
established in Birmingham, Alabama.
The president of the new bank was Rev. W. R.
Pettiford. The circumstances which turned his
thought toward the founding of a bank for Negroes
are interesting.
" I was riding on the electric railway through a
district in the suburbs of Birmingham," he says,
" where a large number of colored people were em¬
ployed. There were a number of these colored
people on the car who had just been paid off. I had
114
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
not gone far when I was shocked by seeing a woman
among the crowd on the. car, drinking whiskey.
Though I was a minister and she knew me, I had no
influence over her. It was at that time that the
thought came to me that there should be some sort
of business which should take care of the money of
that class of people and that such an institution would
enable me, as a minister, to instruct them in ways in
which they might better dispose of their earnings. It
was in the early part of the year 1890 that the first
notion of establishing a bank came into my head."
Shortly after this Mr. W. W. Browne, President
of the True Reformers' Bank, of Richmond, Va., vis¬
ited Birmingham. Mr. Browne was an old acquaint¬
ance of Mr. Pettiford's and they talked the project
of forming a bank in Birmingham, similar to one
in Richmond, over together. Mr. Browne suggested
that the colored people of Birmingham form a branch
bank, but after talking it over with some of his
Birmingham friends it was decided that it would be
better to start an independent institution.
In order to arouse interest in the proposed scheme
meetings were held in different parts of the city and
the adjoining towns. It took about three months
agitation to get enough sentiment back of the project
to make sure of its success. The organization was
completed in August and the formal. opening was set
for October, 1890.
But even this preliminary action was not taken with¬
out considerable difficulty. In offering the stock for
sale among the colored people the promoters were
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 115
met with the statement that, " Negroes can't run a
bank; that it had been tried by the Freedman's Bu¬
reau and had failed." Some of the leading white
citizens, upon hearing the proposition, predicted that
the new bank would not last three months. Others
said six, and those who were most favorable to the
project gave the institution a year as the limit of
its existence. All this was, of course, discouraging.
But the promoters did not lose heart and preparations
went forward. A building was rented for $30 per
month for three years. A vault was constructed,
furniture ordered purchased and the books ordered.
When all this had been accomplished a new dif¬
ficulty arose. While the president was absent from
the city the vice-president and the cashier were in¬
formed by their attorney that to incorporate, under
the laws of Alabama, it would be necessary to begin
with a paid-in capital of $25,000 with $25,000 more
subscribed. As the company only had at that time
$2,000 in cash this seemed a rather serious obstacle.
The officers in charge were so disheartened by this
news that they stopped the work of the carpenters,
the masons and the book-binders and the whole en¬
terprise came to a standstill.
Mr. Pettiford first learned of the condition of af¬
fairs when he returned to Birmingham. He refused
to be discouraged. He learned that it would be
possible to do business as a private concern and ac¬
complish practically the same results that he had
hoped to attain as a regularly incorporated bank. The
book-binders, the carpenters and the masons were
Il6 THE NEGRO.IN BUSINESS
again set to work but the work had received such a
set-back as a consequence "of this delay, that it was
feared it would not be possible to open the doors of
the new bank upon the date appointed. It was de¬
cided, however, that it would be better to keep their
promises to the public even if they were forced
to receive deposits on an ordinary table, rather
than put off the day of opening. Thus it was
that the Alabama Penny Savings and Loan Com¬
pany opened its doors on the day set, October
15, 1890, and received on deposit that day $555.
This added to the $2,000 already paid in from
the sale of stock constituted the capital of the in¬
stitution. This amount of capital did not justify pay¬
ing salaries so the officers worked for the time being
without pay.
Meanwhile the president and the cashier had been
studying bookkeeping under a special teacher and in
other ways acquainting themselves with the banking
business and preparing themselves for their novel ex¬
periment. Like so many other of our business men
who have succeeded in business they have had to
gain their knowledge of the thing they sought to do
by the hard and expensive method of experience. The
sum of the business knowledge of all the officers of
the new bank did not amount to very much at this
time. The president, who was a minister, had had
some business experience as financial agent of Selma
University. The cashier, who was a graduate of Tal¬
ladega College, was formerly the first colored school
teacher of Birmingham and was at this time a sue-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
117
cessful grocer. The vice-president was a bartender,
but he had a reputation for honesty and had also
the confidence of the colored population generally.
The necessities of the business, however, were soon
to increase the business knowledge of the directors of
the new bank and that in directions of which very
little is to be learned in books. They found that
in starting a Negro bank they had a task before them
quite different from that which confronts the average
white banker. They had to make known to the col¬
ored people of Birmingham what the uses and value
of a bank were. They had to instruct them in meth¬
ods of saving and show them later how to make
investments with the money they had saved. In order
to accomplish this the officers of the bank began a
campaign of education. It was here that the advan¬
tage of having a preacher attached to a Negro busi¬
ness organization became apparent. In order to in¬
struct the colored people in the value of saving their
money and depositing it in the bank it was necessary
to preach to them the importance of securing homes
of their own, of providing for the education of their
children.
During the next five years the bank continued to
prosper, notwithstanding the panic of 1893, in which
eleven hundred banks throughout the country are said
to have closed their doors. The First National Bank
of Birmingham (white) failed and filled the people
with fright. They crowded to the colored bank de¬
manding their money, but such was the confidence
in its officers that their word that the bank was all
Il8 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
right persuaded the people not to withdraw their
money. During this panic the Penny Savings Bank
was enabled to relieve the First National Bank con¬
siderably by advising colored depositors of that bank
to continue their confidence in it. This act won the
colored enterprise the friendship of" the white banks
of the city.
In 1895 the bank was incorporated under its pres¬
ent name with a capital of $25,000, of which $10,000
was paid up. In 1896 a three-story building was
bought for $6,500 and the bank moved into it. This
new building, with its elegant fixtures, had a great
effect on the people, who were more convinced than
ever of the stability of the enterprise.
As an instance of the good feeling toward the bank
of the white people of Birmingham, when the rumor
got abroad a few years ago that the bank was hav¬
ing a run on it owing to the great number of deposi¬
tors who came in the day before Christmas to draw
money to buy presents, a white gentleman came in
and told Rev. Pettiford that in case money was
needed he and his banker would render any assistance
needed, as the colored bank was rendering too much
service to the community to be allowed to go to the
wall. Two banks in the city also proffered assistance
at this time, which fortunately was not needed.
In October, 1904, the resources of the bank were
$144,354.45. Its deposits were $118,943.14. It
owned furniture and real estate valued at nearly $28,-
000. It had cash in hand in other banks amounting
to about $9,000.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
119
In addition to the banks of Richmond and of Bir¬
mingham, which are the pioneer Negro banks, there
has grown recently, practically since the formation of
the National Negro Business League in 1900, a number
of Negro banks. One of these, The One Cent Savings
Bank of Nashville, Tennessee, was founded by J. C.
Napier. Mr. Napier received his collegiate education
at Oberlin. He did not graduate, however, but left
in his junior year to accept a position in the Depart¬
ment of War, at Washington, D. C/ Like many
other young colored men in the departments, he took
advantage of his residence in Washington to take
the law course at Howard University. When he had
passed the bar examination in the District of Columbia
he was appointed under the civil service to a first-
class clerkship under the Sixth Auditor, from which
position he soon received a promotion. Following
this he was for several years revenue agent for the
district embracing Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Alabama and Louisiana. When he resigned this posi¬
tion, he was appointed gauger of the Fifth Internal
Revenue District of Tennessee and served for several
years in this capacity with honor to himself and his
race. He finally gave up government service in oi;der
to devote his entire time to his profession and to
business. How he has succeeded is known to all.
The Napier Court," owned by Mr. Napier, three-
story brick building located on one of the best streets
of Nashville, and containing offices, a bank and a
spacious hall, excited "the interest and surprise of the
delegates to the National Negro Business League meet-
120
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
ing in Nashville in 1903. He is rated as one of the
largest tax payers of his city and state.
The enterprise in which he takes most pride is the
One Cent Savings Bank, which he founded and guided
through its early and experimental stage. Although
this institution is still (1907) young, it has become
recognized as one of the substantial business institu¬
tions of Nashville. It enjoys the perfect confidence
of all the people, "black as well as white.
Mr. Napier has been four times a member of the
city council of Nashville and is in good repute with
his white neighbors. For four years he has been a
member of the executive committee of the National
Negro Business League, and to him was due in large
measure the success of the Nashville meeting of that
organization. Like most of our successful men, Mr.
Napier attributes much of his good fortune to his
wrfe, who was Miss Nettie D. Langston, daughter of
Hon. John M. Langston, the Virginia congressman.
In speaking of the Negro town of Mound Bayou I
promised that I should consider in greater detail the
Bank of Mound Bayou. On January 13, 1904, Mr.
Charles Banks, vice-president of the National Negro
Business League, inspired by the stories of business
success which he had heard at its Nashville meeting,
called together a number of the business men of
Mound Bayou and organized the Bank of Mound
Bayou. The bank was capitalized at $10,000. The
editors of the Chattanooga Tradesman, the first trade
paper in the South, impressed with the success of
the Bank, of Mound Bayou, sought from Mr. Banks
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
121
recently a statement concerning its affairs. Under
the head, " Financiering By Negroes," Mr. Banks
wrote as follows:
" The institution was organized to accomplish at
least two or three special ends, besides doing the
commercial business of a bank for the Negro farmers
and merchants of this section, viz.: To form a
nucleus for the savings of those who have learned
to save, and to teach, by the best lessons practicable,
the benefits and advantages accruing from a constant
and systematic saving to those who have not maae
a beginning.
" Of course, it will be borne in mind that the
originators of the movement foresaw what could be
done in the way of financing worthy and deserving
enterprises among our people when the funds were
gotten together and the influx thereto properly ar¬
ranged. Just how much success a Negro bank has
made in a Negro town is evidenced by the following
comparative statement: Opening for business March
8, 1904, with a paid in capital of $3,400, the bank
showed total resources, $25,000, on Dec. 5, of the
same year, at which time a 10 per cent, dividend was
declared and 7 per cent, passed to surplus fund; all
in a period of less than nine months. During the
cotton season the total clearing of the bank through
its correspondents, other banks, etc., reached over
$190,000 in one month. In this connection it may be
of some interest to state that our institution receives
all the business courtesies that our business ability
and daily balance warrant, from our correspondents,
122
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
notwithstanding our bank is owned and controlled ab¬
solutely by Negroes.
" Seeing the necessity of creating, by the Negroes'
own effort, a fund to take care of mortgages held by
the ' long time' loan companies, such as the Colonial
and Middlesex, in this section, and realizing that
the future identity of this as a Negro colony depends
in a large measure upon the continued ownership of
the lands by Negroes, the promoters of this same bank
have recently launched a company to be known as
the Mound Bayou Loan and Investment Co., with an
authorized capital of $50,000. It will, in some re¬
spects, be conducted like a building and loan associa¬
tion especially with reference to payments, with the
purpose of taking care of maturing mortgages 011
lands more than for building houses. Money paid into
this department is to remain a number of years, with
annual interest or dividend payments, thus avoiding
the hazard such a bank as ours would undergo even
with time deposits, to take care of. the business cited.
In this, too, we have had the encouragement of white
men of standing in this section."
Another successful bank is the Central Trust and
Investment Company of Jacksonville, Fla., of which
Mr. S. H. Hart is president and cashier. It was
opened for business on October 6, 1902, with a capital
stock of $10,000, only partly paid. When the doors
were opened the bank had $406 in cash and $800 in
securities. The success of the institution is shown by
the fact that in May, 1904, its balance was $20,000,
and that in the first two years of its existence alone
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
123
it did a business of more than half a million dol¬
lars. It has 500 depositors, of whom about 20 are
white. It is one of the designated depositories for
the funds of the city,— a fact which speaks loudly for
the integrity and standing of the institution. It has
three New York correspondents and is a member of
the American Bankers' Association. It is owned
and officered entirely by colored men. The follow¬
ing quotation from the Jacksonville (Fla.) Evening
Metropolis pays a high tribute to Mr. Hart's bank:
" The last annual report of the American Bankers'
Association, held in San Francisco, Cal., has on its
long list of banking institutions the Central Trust
and Investment Company, of Jacksonville, a financial
institution at whose head stands S. H. Hart, and
whose treasurer is George H. Mays.
" What is important about this is that the Central
Trust and Investment Company is the only institu-^
tion south of Richmond, Va., that has a membership
in that association, and they have exchange relations
with several of the large banks in the city of New
York, and also belong to the Bankers' Money Order
Association, issuing money orders that are payable
anywhere in or out of this country.
" All of Florida knows that the Central Trust and
Investment Company is owned, manned and managed
wholly by colored men.
" From the start it has steadily gained the business
confidence of the community, and among their long
list of heavy depositors are many of the best and
largest business men of both races in Jacksonville.
124 the negro in business
Every feature of their business enjoys a steady and
most encouraging growth, a fact that can only be at¬
tributed to the business methods that are pursued in
the management."
The Independent Order of St. Luke, with head¬
quarters at Richmond, Va., has in connection with
it St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank, of which Mrs.
Maggie L. Walker, is president. Although this bank
is not very old, and although it has to compete with
older and larger banking institutions, it has prospered
surprisingly, its assets being reckoned in 1905 as
$25,000. Mrs. Walker is also editor of the St. Luke's
Herald, the official organ of the Order.
Another philanthropic organization with a bank
connected with it is the Knights of Pythias, of which
Mr. John Mitchell, Jr., is the head. Mr. Mitchell is
the editor of the Richmond Planet, one of the best
of our race newspapers, and is well known all over
the country. The bank of which he is president is
known as the Mechanics' Saving Bank. It began
business in 1902 with a capital stock of $25,000 and
deposits amounting to $4,000. Its assets are now
over $50,000.
Mr. Mitchell had the honor in September, 1904, of
attending the National Bankers' Convention in New
York city. He was the first colored delegate that
ever attended one of these conventions, and he made
an address which was well received by the newspapers
of the country.
Mr. Mitchell is a good type of the sane and sensible
business men of our race who are doing much to win
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
125
tor us as a race the respect of our white neighbors.
Other banks established by Negroes and which are
meeting with satisfactory success are: The Lincoln
Savings Bank, Vicksburg, Miss.; the Nickel Savings
Bank, Richmond, Va.; The Dime Bank, Kingston,
N. C.; the Gallilean Fishermen's Bank, Hampton,
Va.; the Capital City Savings Bank, Little Rock,
Ark., and the Unity Savings Bank and Trust Com¬
pany, carried on under the direction of Mr. J. N.
Donahoo, at Pine Bluff, Ark. The colored people of
Muskogee, Indian Territory, recently established two
banks, The Creek Citizens' Bank, with a capital of
$50,000, of which A. G. W. Sango is president and
the Gold Bond Bank, with a capital of $20,000 of
which Dr. Sims is president.
In addition to these may also be mentioned the
following Negro banks: The Union Savings Bank,
Vicksburg, Miss.; the Wage Earners' Bank, Savannah,
Ga.; the American Trust and Savings Bank, Jackson,
Miss.; the Delta Savings Bank, Indianola, Miss.; the
People's Penny Savings Bank, Yazoo City, Miss.;
the Bank of the Sons & Daughters of Peace, Newport
News, Va.; the Isaac H. Smith's Bank, Newbern, N.
C.; the Solvent Savings Bank & Trust Co., Memphis,
Tenn.; the-Bluff City Savings Bank, Natchez, Miss.;
the Gideon Savings Bank, Norfolk, Va.; the Southern
Bank, Jackson, Miss.; the People's Savings Bank,
Hattiesburg, Miss.; the One Cent Savings Bank, Co¬
lumbus, Miss., and the Metropolitan Bank, Savannah,
Ga.
CHAPTER XIII
W. R. PETTIFORD, A MINISTER-BANKER
It is a matter of some interest and importance that
so large a number of our ministers have found their
way, for one reason or another, into the ranks of
our business men. That so many Negro ministers
are able to go into business and succeed is due, I
am inclined to believe, to the fact that they usually
have a much wider training in practical affairs than
ministers of the white race. If they are sometimes
short on theology they are usually long on experi¬
ence of men and things. Many of them have worked
at the trades in different parts of the country. It
usually requires considerable executive ability to keep
a Negro church together. Thus, in one way and an¬
other, they get a training for which there is no pro¬
vision made in the curriculum of the ordinary the¬
ological seminary and often turn out valuable business
men. It does not appear that they lose anything as
preachers on that account. It has generally happened
that the motives that first induced them to go into
business have been the desire to aid their people by
helping them to help themselves. It was considera¬
tions of this kind that induced Rev. W. R. Pettiford,
of Birmingham, to interest himself in the establishment
of the Alabama Penny Loan and Savings Bank.
126
W. R PETTIFORD, President
Alabama 1'enny Savings Bank, Birmingham, Ala.
(1) W, E. Mollison, Lawyer, and President Lincoln Sayings Bank.
Vicksburc,, Miss. (2) Mrs. W. E Mollison, Graduate Pisk Univer¬
sity. (3) Miss Willy E. Mollison, Musician and Writer. (4) Miss
Mabel Z Mollison, Stenographed-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
127
Mr. Pettiford was born in Granville county, N. C.,
January 20, 1847. His parents were William and
Matilda Pettiford, both free. His grandmother on
his mother's side was a white woman and his grand¬
father on the same side was an Indian. His father
was an African. Their being- free, of course, he never
was a slave. While a boy he had but little oppor¬
tunity in getting an education. His father induced
a prominent white man to stand for a neighborhood
school on Saturdays and Sundays only, schools among
colored people being objectionable, for fear the slaves
would take advantage of them. At the age of ten,
his father sold his little farm and moved to Person
county, N. C. He was the oldest of four children,
and, therefore, had to work on the farm, while the
younger children had the privilege of attending school.
At night when they were in from school and he
from the farm, he would get them to show him some
of the lessons they had gone over during the day.
In this way he received some instruction in arithmetic
and geography. He learned to write a little by taking"
letters he obtained from friends and examining them
in order that he might learn how to make the alpha¬
bet. He found he could do very well after a little
while, and continued this effort until he gould write
letters enough to make himself understood.
"To hear my younger brothers and sisters recit¬
ing their lessons," said Mr. Pettiford,—" they ap¬
peared to know so much more than I did — made me
feel very bad, so much so, that I said to myself, ' If
ever I get an opportunity, I will know something.'
128 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
I sought an opportunity to get private instruction of
a teacher of the district school who boarded with my
mother, and through each term I received some help
in that way."
At the same time he was dependent upon the one-
horse farm carried on by his father. After he had
arrived at the age of seventeen, he saved up enough
money to buy a pig from his brother and began to
raise hogs. His father allowed him the use of a
parcel of land, on which he sowed oats to fatten his
hogs in the fall. Afterwards he converted these hogs
into cash. This bit of independent business encour¬
aged him very much, as it led him to see that he could
make some money for himself, even though he was
working for his father.
Soon after this he made a contract with a farmer
to clear a lot of land, and after he was through with
his father's work he would go to this land, cut and
burn brush, until he got it in good shape. In that
way he was enabled to earn something additional.
" Near the end of the war," said Mr. Pettiford, " I
lived close by a tan-yard, where I worked at night,
often making one dollar a night in Confederate
money. When the war closed it left a nice little sum
on my hands worthless. Just before the end of the
war my services were secured by a wealthy farmer
who had become a member of the cavalry company,
and I was to be his body-servant. The company was
made up at Yanceville, N. C. For one cause or an¬
other the company was detained at this point, and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
129
just as we were ordered to Richmond and before
the order could be executed the war closed."
Whn he came to be twenty years of age his father,
as Mr. Pettiford expresses it, " gave him one year "
and he became his own man. Then he engaged him¬
self to work in a tobacco factory in Roxbury, N. C.,
where he worked for a number of years for small
wages. Afterwards, business grew so dull that he
was compelled to leave the tobacco factory and did
any kind of work that he could find. He got a spade
and shovel and ditched a number of summers
by which means he made a little money. It was very
encouraging to him to be able to handle his own funds.
He would engage himself to split rails, clean wells,
or do any kind of work for which he could get pay.
July 4, 1868, he was converted, and baptized August
3, of the same year, by Ezekiel Horton of Salisbury,
N. C. This event filled him with new hope and
stimulated his ambition to accomplish more in life.
He was elected clerk of the Pleasant Grove Bap¬
tist Church, Roxbury, N. C., and it was at this time
that he was converted. July 4, 1869, he was married
to Miss Mary Jane Farley, daughter of Joseph, Bethel
Hill, Person county, N. C.
Scarcity of business forced him to leave North
Carolina, looking for higher wages and better oppor¬
tunities. Having this in mind, he addressed a letter
to the postmaster at Memphis, Tenn., requesting him
to hand it to any one who wanted work done. He
gave the letter to Gen. N. F. Forest, who was then
building a railway from Selma to Greensboro, Ala-
13O THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
bama. He wrote to him to come and bring with him
as many men as he could get. Arriving at Marion,
Alabama, the terms of railway work did not suit
him, and having paid his own fare, as well as his
wife's, he did not feel like returning so he went on
a farm near Uniontown, Alabama, under a contract
for twelve months.
Up to this time he had picked up some of the rudi¬
ments of education, still studying and teaching others
at night, as his brothers and sisters had taught him.
At the end of the year he had lost his wife. He
had, however, saved up enough money to enter school.
He attended the Marion Normal School, continuing
there for seven years. " During my vacation," said
Mr. Pettiford, " I cut wood to sell, hauling it with an
ox-cart until I was able to pass the examination to
teach a'primary school. Then I taught school through
the spring and summer and went to school in winter.
One year I failed to collect any money for teaching,
because the state superintendent refused to pay in
script as he had been doing, deciding to wait until
the taxes were collected and pay in cash. This left
the teachers of the state without money until July
of the next year. However, I was determined to
make -the nine months' term at Marion. I sought
work before and after school for the purpose of mak¬
ing enough money to pay my board, that I might be
able to attend the sessions. I would rise early in
the morning in order to prepare my lessons before
the ringing of the college bell. Then I would go to the
garden where I was engaged to work at ten cents an
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 131
hour, putting in two-and-one-half hours before school
and two-and-one-half hours after school, caring for
a horse, waiting on table, serving in the kitchen in
order to keep myself in school and buy my clothes
for the term of nine months. This I did without los¬
ing one day. At the end of this term I owed for
only one month's board, nine dollars. This was paid
soon after I received a notice that the $250 I had
earned in teaching could be collected. Mr. Adam
Moore, for whom I worked at this time, informed
me that he could get plenty of laborers for five cents
an hour, but since he saw that I meant to help my¬
self he would give me the job and let me be my own
4 boss,' giving me ten cents an hour. I still feel
grateful to him for this act of kindness."
After he had continued in this school for about
seven years, Mr. Pettiford was elected principal of
the school in Uniontown, Ala., where he served for
four years. On July 24, 1873, he married Miss Jen¬
nie Towell, who died September 5, 1874. He re¬
mained single for six years, continuing his school
work, teaching and studying. In this place he was
elected by the board of Selma University as assistant
teacher, with the privilege of studying theology, re¬
ceiving twenty dollars per month for his service. He
refused a scholarship offered him at Talladega and
Nashville because of his anxiety to help in building
up a school for the education of the young ministers
in his own state. In his vacations he served as mis¬
sionary and agent, going on the field without any
appointed salary, doing what he could in collecting
132
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
money and getting students for Selma University.
However, at the opening of each school year the
board would vote him a small amount of money for
the work done in the summer months. One summer
he purchased a horse and buggy, using these a whole
summer, taking an assistant with him without cost
to the board. In 1879 he was elected general financial
agent for the school, working a year in this capacity,
he resigned, against the wish of the board, to accept
the pastorate of a church at Union Springs, Alabama.
On November 23, 1880, he was married to Miss
Ella Boyd, daughter of Richard and Caroline Boyd
of Selma, Ala. Then he moved to Union Springs
and took up the work of the pastorate. The church
was repaired, the belfry built and the indebtedness
paid off during the time he was there. At the same
time he held the principalship of the public school.
He worked there for over two years.. Here, too, he
continued the study of theology under a private in¬
structor. On the last Sabbath of February, 1883, he
resigned this charge and accepted a call to the Six¬
teenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.
Many offers were made by the church at Union
Springs to have him remain there. The church of¬
fered to raise his salary and a number of the leading
white citizens offered to contribute annually to his
salary if he would only remain. After weighing the
matter well he decided that he could do better work
for his people in Birmingham. He resigned a salary
of $800 to accept one of $500. Many of the leading
colored men of the state felt that his experience in
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
133
money matters prepared him for the Birmingham pas¬
torate, where a church had to be built.
When he took charge in Birmingham there was a
membership of about 150, holding services in a store¬
room down town and the organization was in debt
to the extent of about $500. His first effort was
directed toward cancelling this debt and erecting a
building suitable to present needs and future growth.
In this he was successful, the building costing $14,-
000.
At the National Convention at St. Louis, which
nominated President McKinley for the first time Mr.
Pettiford was a delegate-at-large from the State of
Alabama. He was also honored by the convention
by being chosen as a member of the notification com¬
mittee to notify Vice-President Hobart of his nomi¬
nation. He was elected president of the Alabama
Penny Savings and Loan Company the first time in
August, 1899, and has been re-elected every year for
fifteen years.
I am convinced that Mr. Pettiford has performed no
greater service for the Negro race and for humanity
as a minister of the gospel than he has as president
of this bank.
One of the things of first importance, which this
bank has been able to do for the Negro people of
Birmingham has been to encourage the building of
homes. This work has been so that, of the 10,000
depositors of the bank at the present time, more than
1,000 of them have purchased and own their own
homes. Nearly all the depositors of the bank are
134
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
colored. The few white men who have made use
of it are those who have close and constant dealings
with the colored population.
" It is my opinion," says Mr. Pettiford, " that ninety
per cent, of our depositors never carried an account
with any bank before the establishment of our in¬
stitution. Our work is that of reaching out and touch¬
ing a class of people that has not heretofore been
reached by any other banks. We are changing the
wasteful expenditure of their money in such a way as
to make its use profitable to themselves and a good
to the community. It has been the constant aim
and policy of our bank, through its officers, to teach
and encourage our people not only to save their earn¬
ings but to make wise investments as well. By this
means it has been possible to stimulate a wholesome
desire among our people to become property-owners
and substantial citizens."
The Alabama Penny Savings and Loan company
has become, during the fifteen years of its existence,
an agency through which a large class of worthy
citizens have been able to secure loans to assist them
in legitimate enterprises.
" As a rule," says Mr. Pettiford, " the officers of
banks conducted by persons of the other race are
not well acquainted with the colored man who ap¬
plies for a loan, and, therefore, are unable, in most
cases, to accommodate him. The colored banker,
however, knows his own people well and is thus en¬
abled to extend to them credit with safe discrimina¬
tion. In this way the money of our people is kept
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 135
constantly in circulation in our immediate community,
instead of finding investment in stocks and bonds and
similar securities elsewhere."
This is an important consideration when one re¬
flects that it is just because the money of the country
banks has been so largely invested in these sort of
securities that has given Wall street and New York
the tremendous power of which it exercises at the
present time in the business world.
" By very safe and careful methods of extending
credit," continues Mr. Pettiford, " our bank has as¬
sisted many persons in the establishment of small
business concerns and such persons, after getting on
their feet, have proved valuable customers. The
management of our bank has all along recognized
the principle that, in order to grow truly strong,
our constituency must be strengthened. For this rea¬
son, as well as to do good generally, it has been its
constant aim to lose no opportunity to assist in the
general uplift of our Negro constituency. In this ef¬
fort not only is the Negro benefitted but the general
welfare of the community is subserved."
There are at present nine banks in Birmingham
operated by white persons. All of these banks, I am
informed, have been uniformly friendly to this Negro
enterprise and at the present time they are more so
than ever before. The reason is that they have learned
by experience that the business of this Negro bank
has worked no detriment to their business. On the
contrary it has aided it. It has aided it for the
reason that, notwithstanding the number of depositors
136
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
in the Negro bank, there has been a noticeable in¬
crease in the number of colored depositors in the
banks conducted by white men. One reason for this
is, as Mr. Pettiford explains, the aggressive advertis¬
ing of the Alabama Penny Savings has helped all the
others.
" The establishment of varied businesses among the
members of the colored community of Birmingham
has had a good effect on all classes of our citizens,"
said Mr. Pettiford at a recent meeting of the Na¬
tional Negro Business League. " New opportunities
are opened to those who are finishing at the schools
and who have qualified themselves for a higher grade
of service. This fact is encouraging to the Negro
because it teaches him that better opportunities await
those who are prepared to perform efficient service.
They can see a line of progress which appeals to them
in the interest of education and morals. The es¬
tablishment of banks and other businesses among us
gives promise of a variety of occupations for our
people, thus stimulating them to proper preparation."
I have repeated here at some detail the story of
the founding and the working of this bank because
it illustrates better, perhaps than any incident I have
been able to lay my hands on how closely the moral
and spiritual interests of our people are interwoven
with their material and economical welfare. The sav¬
ings bank teaches to save, to plan, to look ahead, to
build for the future. Every man it makes economic¬
ally independent at once becomes a customer. The
savings bank which has money seeking investment on
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 137
the other hand is constantly seeking men of enter¬
prise and initiative, desiring to go into business, to
whom it can safely intrust its capital for investment.
There is no wealth in the seas and in the mines equal
to that which is created by the growth and estab¬
lishment in a people of habits of honesty, thrift and
intelligent forethought. The importance of Mr. Pet-
tiford's work in connection with this bank is that he,
and those associated with him, have been far-seeing
enough to attempt to develop this wealth that is latent
in the Negro people.
CHAPTER XIV
THE NEGRO INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER
The number of Negro inventors has not been small.
The records show that even in the slavery days Negro
invention had contributed something valuable to the
sum of mechanical devices that have made modern
civilization possible. At the Paris exposition in 1900
one part of the " Negro Exhibit" consisted of a
carefully prepared list of patents which had been ob¬
tained by Negroes. The number of these patents of
which record was obtained amounted to something like
300.
Very frequently it has happened that the man who
discovered a patent has made it the basis of a busi¬
ness enterprise. An instance of this kind is furnished
by Mr. H. C. Haynes, the inventor of the Haynes
Razor Strop, and dealer in razors, of Chicago, 111.
Mr. Haynes was born of former slave parents in
Selma, Ala., and the poverty of his parents was such
that after attending school for three terms, he was
compelled to leave, in order to support his mother
and small sisters. At the age of ten years, he began
blacking boots and selling papers about the hotels of
Selma. For four years he did this, and at the age
of fourteen became an apprentice to one of the oldest
and best Negro barbers in Alabama. As he was at-
138
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
139
tentive and faithful, he was in fifteen months con¬
sidered a first-class barber. It was during this time
that he conceived the idea of a ready-to-use razor
strop. At that time barbers were accustomed to se¬
cure for their strops old traces and parts of harness,
which were with much trouble transformed into strops.
Young Haynes used his spare time in experimenting
in the direction of making a strop which would be
ready to use immediately after its purchase. He was,
however, compelled to lay aside work, or a thought
of his invention, on account of the poverty of his
family, and to devote all his time to work which would
bring in immediate money. For several years he fol¬
lowed his trade in various parts of the country, as
far north as Chicago and as far west as San Francisco.
It was in San Francisco at last that he found time
again to give some attention to his strop. He built
a laboratory in one corner of the shop in which he
worked, and labored there for nine months, at the
end of which time he had completed a few strops,
which he was at once able to dispose of to a number
of barbers. He returned to Selma with his savings,
and opened a barber shop of his own. He now felt
that he was able to marry,- and succeeded in winning
the hand of one of the school teachers of Selma. He
found, however, that the South was not at this time
the place to introduce innovations, and determined
that he would have to go North, where improvements
were eagerly sought, to seek his fortune. After a
number of adventures, during which Mr. Haynes
140 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
nearly lost his eyes, he and his wife landed in Chicago
in 1896, but without a dollar.
By this time, he found that the barber trade in
the North had largely slipped from the Negro's hands.
One cause of this was that the numerous barber schools
which had sprung up would not accept Negro pupils,
and turned out thousands of excellent white barbers,
who were displacing Negroes in the finest shops in
the country. Mr. Haynes looked over the situation
carefully, and instead of abandoning himself to mere
complaining, succeeded in finding a way in which he
could turn the situation to profit. He saw that the
Negro barber's best chance was to produce something
which the white barber would buy, and, of course,
in this connection, he thought of the barber strop on
which he had experimented so long.
As he did not have the money necessary to launch
a manufacturing business, he at once set about getting
the money. He had two old razors made of the
best steel, and these he traded to a barber with a
profit to himself. He then began the business of trad¬
ings razors for barbers, with a commission for him¬
self, and as he was an excellent judge of steel, he
became known as the " king of razor-sellers." With
his earnings he bought small quantities of .leather,
which at odd hours he manufactured into strops of the
pattern he had invented. These proved popular and
profitable beyond his hopes, and at the end of the
year, he had a respectable bank account and a large
custom.
During this hard year his faithful wife had gone
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
141
into domestic service. At the end of the year she
was able to resign her position, and join her husband
in his business. They rented a place on Dearborn
street, of which the ground floor was used for the
factory and the second floor for residence. Mr.
Haynes began an extensive advertising campaign in
all the barbers' magazines and in all publications
which reach barbers, with the result that a good mail
order business was soon built up. In the winter of
1899 ^ey made over one thousand razor strops, and
in 1900 Mr. Haynes decided to make a tour of the
Eastern States in the interest of his trade. He es¬
timates that during this tour, which extended as far
east as Halifax, N. S., he personally introduced his
strops to about two hundred thousand barbers. While
he was in New York he succeeded in attracting the
attention of some of the leading wholesale dealers in
barber supplies, and received orders from them to
the extent of several hundred dollars.
In addition to his strops, he took orders for razors
and shears made according to his own designs and
bearing his name. When he returned to Chicago, he
promptly filled all the orders he had taken, and then
set out for San Francisco to complete his tour. Dur¬
ing this year, his wife mailed about two hundred thou¬
sand circulars to barbers all over the country, with the
result that the mail order business grew to such proT
portions that stenographers had to be secured to handle
the correspondence. Mr. Haynes also made a trip
to London, where he established an agency. His
strops and razors give such satisfaction that his trade
142
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
grows better every year. It is asserted that there
are more of his strops sold than of any other three
brands on the market. Mr. Haynes says that his
strops are used exclusively in the barber shops of the
Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the Hoffman House, and "the
Imperial Hotel of New York City; the Great Northern
Hotel, and Palmer House, and the Auditorium of
Chicago, and the Plankington Hotel of Milwaukee.
Mr. Haynes' strops have the distinction, I am in¬
formed, of being used by Herr Francois Haby, of
Berlin, private barber to the Emperor of Germany.
In August, 1904, the Haynes Razor Strop Company
was organized in Chicago. Mr. Haynes plans to in¬
troduce modern machinery into his factory, which
he says, will enable him to turn out more strops per
day than are turned out by any other plant of the
kind in the world.
Mr. Haynes has a patent pending on a new inven¬
tion, called " The Twentieth Century Razor Strop-
per," which is a device enabling an inexperienced
person to strop a razor without cutting the strop.
He has advanced orders for this device amounting to
several thousands of dollars, which will be filled as
soon as the patent is granted. He imports his razors
from Gottlieb and Hammesfaher, of Solinger, Ger¬
many, who make them according to Mr. Haynes' de¬
sign and stamp his name on them all. This year he
imported over six thousand razors, and ordered for
the 1905 trade, about eight thousand razors and three
thousand pairs of scissors. Mr. Haynes' exhibit was
one of the most interesting and popular features at
E. S. REID, TRAVELLER FOR | MRS. H. C. HAYNES, SEC. & TREAS.
THE H. C. HAYNES CO., CHICAGO.
MIDDLETON'S UP-TO-DATE MARKET, JACKSONVILLE, FLA.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
143
the Indianapolis session of the National Negro Busi¬
ness League in 1904.
Like other of our business men, Mr. Haynes de¬
clares that he is indebted for his success to the as¬
sistance and advice of his wife.
It seems characteristic of our business men, and
this is what makes their stories worth repeating, that
they have in almost every case, come up from the bot¬
tom round of the ladder. Mr. A. C. Howard, the
manufacturer of shoe polish in Chicago, is no excep¬
tion to the rule. He was born a slave in 1863 in
Mississippi, and was taken by his mother to New
Orleans at the end of the war in search for his grand¬
mother who had been sold away from them. The
grandmother was found, and she at once put the boy
into day school, which he attended for about five
years. The rest of his education he secured by reading
at odd times. When he was ten years old, he had
to go to work to support his mother, and became a
cab driver. He worked at this occupation until he
had saved enough to take his mother North, and they
both went to New Bedford, Mass. The grandmother
had already preceded them. The whole family soon
settled in Boston.
Mr. Howard secured a position as steward on a
yacht, where he was soon detailed, on account of his
politeness and efficiency, to wait on the captain. For
a while, he worked as a porter on the railroad, but
soon returned to the sea, where he was employed
by the Portland Steamship Company. Mr. Howard
always made it a point to do more than was ex-
144
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
pected of him, and it was not long before he was
promoted to a higher position. In two years, he be¬
came assistant steward of a Portland Line steamship.
But Mr. Howard again returned to the employ of the
Pullman Company, in which he made so good a record
that during his second year he was detailed to con¬
duct a special Pullman train through Mexico on a
tour of thirty-five days. This was a distinction which
indicated the company's confidence in him. This con¬
fidence was not a gift, but was founded upon his
record. He attributed his success with the Pullman
Company to the fact that he made it a point not to
complain about conditions which did not please him,
but to plan the best remedy for them. In addition,
he was polite, faithful, and hard-working.
Notwithstanding the success which Mr. Howard
won on the road, he was not satisfied. He saw that
if he remained with the company for the rest of his
life, and did the best work that was in him, he could
hope to rise no higher than porter. He saw that the
best way open to him to rise in the world was to go
into business, and his slioe polish business is the
result.
Nine years before this, Mr. Howard, while working
for the Pullman Company, had seen that there was
much room for improvement in the blacking com¬
monly used by the Pullman porters, and had begun
to experiment in the direction of making a more sat¬
isfactory shoe polish. In this line he believed he
had made a success, and the only thing necessary was
to put his product on the market. In preparation
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 145
for his entrance into business, Mr. Howard persuaded
his wife to go to night school and become an ef¬
ficient bookkeeper. This she did, and has since been
of invaluable assistance to him.
At last Mr. Howard resigned his position as porter,
and started into business with $180. This was all the
money he had been able to save, because he had been
compelled to support his relatives. The business was
started on a small scale. The first scales which he used
were two tin cans tied to a stick and made to balance.
The polish was peddled by Mr. Howard himself, who
carried it in a small grip to the boot-blacks in the
street, and to the trains at the stations to make sales
to the porters. The blacking was a success, and Mr.
Howard invariably sold out all that he had made.
He would not stop for the day, however, when he
had sold all of his stock, but would go home and make
more, and come back to sell it. He found that every
day he would need to make up a little more polish
than he had the day before. His first stock was two
dollars' worth of tin cans and material. Now he
I
spends for tin cans alone, about $500 every two
months.
At the present time, Mr. Howard sells his polish in
all parts of the United States, and received recently
from Mexico an order for nearly 70,000 boxes. He
also received from Bornn & Company of New York
an order for 40,000 boxes. He will soon install in
his shop a filling-machine for liquid polish, which will
increase the capacity of the shop three-fold. He is
also having built in Chicago a filling-machine for paste
146
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
polish. The present capacity is 7,200 boxes per day.
He expects soon to do $20,000 worth of business a
year.
Mr. Howard has his own photograph on every box
of polish that he sells. He was advised that as he
was a colored man, his photograph on the boxes would
ruin his business, but he persisted in keeping it on,
and has found it no obstacle to his success. He finds
business to be a great cure for prejudice. He says
that he gets prejudiced himself against a man who
stands by and lets him think for him; but that when
the man begins to think for himself, he has to respect
him at once.
The story of Z. T. Evans, the mattress-maker of
New Orleans, shows him to be a man of pluck and per¬
severance. He was born of slave parents in 1847 in
North Carolina. After the Emancipation Proclama¬
tion was issued, he went to Durham, N. C., and
worked as a huckster. In 1879 he secured employ¬
ment as a common laborer at the Durham Furniture
Company, where, by careful observation, he learned
the rudiments of the manufacture of common mat¬
tresses. At this trade he worked in various cities for
several years, and finally opened a small upholstery
shop in New Orleans, which he was compelled to close
after a year and a half. After working two years
as an employee, he determined to try an establishment
in his own behalf again. With a capital of only $90
he leased a place on South Rampart street and began
the upholstery business again. For five years he
worked with little success and great discouragement.
THE NEGRO .IN BUSINESS
147
When the lease expired at the end of this time, success
was apparently beyond his reach. He had the courage
to renew the lease, however, and determined not to
give up.
In sawing his lumber he used a circular saw, of
which the motive power was supplied by his own
strong arm, while his boys served the lumber. Many
a time, he says, he stood toiling at the wheel until'
he almost dropped fainting under the strain. One
day, as he was walking down the street, he had the
good fortune to see an old-fashioned sawmill, made
to be run by horse power, standing abandoned, and
decided to purchase it. After some trouble, he found
the owner, who was delighted to sell the machine;
Mr. Evans took it home and put it in his back
yard. The next difficulty was to secure a horse to
make the machine go. An acquaintance owned a
decrepit old horse, which was believed to be in a1
dying condition. The owner, therefore, willingly gave
him to Mr. Evans, who carefully doctored him and
finally got him upon his feet. He then trained the
animal to walk around and around, and finally at¬
tached him to the machine. This was a great aid.
He was now encouraged to buy a machine which
he had long needed, a weaving machine. Although
he had not the slightest idea as to how it should be
operated, he bought a hand weaving machine, and
installed it in his shop. For days he worked at the
machine trying to weave, and at last, after many ef¬
forts, he succeeded in weaving ten beds. His joy
over this achievement was soon dampened, however,
148 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
for when he had stretched the beds, they proved worth¬
less.
He was then forced to hire a woman who knew
how to weave. As she worked at the machine he
stood by and watched her every motion, until he
thought he had mastered the secret. He again tried
his hand at weaving, and succeeded in producing forty
crooked and one-sided beds, which he was able to
sell only by reducing the price below cost. With
practice, however, he continually improved, and after
a time his beds were as good as any on the market.
During these years, we may1 easily believe that he
was-troubled with "friends" who confidently pre¬
dicted his failure, and gave him many reasons why
he would fail. They now began to wonder how he
could have been successful.
During these years, when the lumber dealer, for
instance, sent a bill to Mr. Evans, it was marked
" Money or Lumber," but now the same man will
carry accounts for Mr. Evans for $500 a month with¬
out, question, and gladly accept his notes.
With the success which came to Mr. Evans, he
was able a few years ago to discard his * sawmill
run by horse power for a steam, engine. As this en¬
abled him to increase and improve the quality of his
output, his reputation was gradually established
among merchants, and the demand for his beds in¬
creased. At present he does an annual business of
over $28,000. He has purchased the lot where his
business is conducted, and has added fifty feet to his
factory space. His motto, which he has so faithfully
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
149
adhered to, is he says, " If at first you don't succeed,
try, try again." The saying is familiar not to say
trite, but from the lips of men who have lived up to
them, these sayings get a new meaning.
CHAPTER XV
SAMUEL SCOTTRON, INVENTOR, MANUFACTURER, AND
FRIEND OF HIS RACE
Perhaps no man of the Negro race has shown such
versatility in the field of invention as Mr. Samuel R.
Scottron, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Numerous and active
as he has been in his labors in the field of mechanics
and in business, he has still had time to serve a long
and honorable term as member of the Public School
Board of Brooklyn. He is a writer and speaker of
force and acumen upon subjects connected with the
welfare of his race and has been active in furthering
its interests not only in this country, but elsewhere, in
the West Indies and in Africa.
Mr. Scottron was born in Philadelphia in 1843.
His parents moved to New York in 1849 where young
Scottron entered the public schools and was graduated
at the age of 14 from the grammar schools of Brook¬
lyn. Five years later he was married, at the age of
19, to Miss Anna M. Willett, of Peekskill, N. Y.
It has always been a source of regret to Mr. Scot¬
tron that he was not permitted by his father to con¬
tinue his education and take a collegiate course, as a
number of his associates in school had done. His
father, however, held certain rigorous notions about
the advantage of higher education, and decided that
150
S. R SCOTT RON AND FAMILY.
Interior Views of Store and Office and Residence
Brooklyn, N V.
hunter c. haynes, pres. r. a. j. shaw, vice-pbes.
interior view of h. c. haynes razor-strop co.'s office, chicago.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS ■ 151
his son should get early to school in the world of prac¬
tical experience.
At that time his father was engaged in the three¬
fold capacity of barber, bar-keeper and baggage-mas¬
ter on one of the boats plying between New York and
Albany, and he took his son with him as a helper.
Shortly afterwards the war broke out, and the elder
Scottron bought a partnership with a Mr. Stratia,
who had a commission as a sutler in a colored regi¬
ment that had been raised in Pennsylvania, and sent
young Samuel south as his representative in the part¬
nership. The partners were Statia, McCaffil and
Scottron.
In describing this trip Mr. Scottron writes, "We
loaded a small schooner, named Maria,— 120 tons,—
at New York, with stores such as are furnished sol¬
diers, and sailed for the Department of the South in
September, 1863. We' made a mistake in selecting
our stores, which proved disastrous in the very be¬
ginning. We put in on top of our other stores, as the
last thing, nearly two hundred barrels of apples, all
that we could get in, and then fastened down the
hatches. Now we had hoped to be at Morris Island,
S. C., in one week, but instead, owing to bad weather
and military regulations at Hilton Head, S. C., it
was six full weeks before we were allowed to open
the hatches. By that time the apples had rotted,
gone to cider, and the steam and sweat of the hold
had ruined quite every other thing except canned
goods. What was saved was put out under the reg¬
ulations, to the soldiers, on checks that should have
152
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
been paid by the paymaster on his coming1. When
he came, however, the men refused to receive their
pay because the government only offered them seven
dollars, pay then allowed colored soldiers, while white
soldiers received thirteen. This stroke we never re¬
covered from, but, on the other hand met with other
unforeseen disasters. We lost our deck load while on
the way up the St. Johns river to Jacksonville, Fla.,
while following our regiment, and to cap it all, after
holding checks of soldiers nearly two years before the
government allowed to colored soldiers their rightful
amovmt of thirteen dollars. We were obliged under
the regulations, to send the checks of dead soldiers
to Washington for payment, and there were lost $13,-
000 worth in transit by the wreck of the vessel carry¬
ing them, on the bar at St. Augustine, Fla. That
two years of fearful experience sent one partner
(Statia) to the lunatic asylum at Newark, N. J., or
vicinity, whese he died, and the other (McCaffil, the
white man) took to strong drink, and went shortly to
his death in Brooklyn, N. Y."
While in Florida, Mr. Scottron opened grocery
stores at Jacksonville, Gainesville, Lakeville, Talla¬
hassee, and Palatka, but he had been too heavily hand¬
icapped by previous losses to succeed now, so he gave
up business and returned North. After this he started
a barber shop in Springfield, Mass., and there, as he
says, " had the good luck to invent a mirror," which
he patented and soon was manufacturing. Mr. Scot¬
tron was led to invent this mirror to avoid the trouble
that customers have in using a hand-glass to see how
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
153
their hair is cut, or dressed on all sides. These mir¬
rors are still known as " Scrotton's Adjustable Mir¬
rors." They were so good that he soon found a
white man as partner, and under the firm name of
Pitkin and Scottron, started business at 658 Broad¬
way, New York. Pitkin sold his interest to Thomas
Richmond, and the firm then became Richmond &
Scottron. Richmond almost immediately lost all his
property in the great fire at Chicago, and that neces¬
sitated the dissolution of the firm, leaving the business
in bad condition.
By engaging to keep books for W. A. Willard, a
looking glass manufacturer, at 177 Canal St., New
York, Mr. Scottron was allowed space in his store and
an opportunity to start afresh. After four years, a
white man who had been employed by Willard asso¬
ciated himself with Mr. Scottron in buying out the
business, which they continued under the firm name
of Scottron & Ellis. They were going along swim¬
mingly when the man who had loaned Ellis money,
failed, and Ellis' notes to the amount of ten thousand
dollars, being among Van Winkle's assets, led to his
withdrawal from the firm of Scottron & Ellis.
" After this," says Mr. Scottron, " I had to go it
alone again," which he did at 211 Canal St. WHile
there, he invented several household articles, among
them an " extension cornice " which sold so well that
he gave up the looking glass business to manufacture
cornices under an agreement with one firm, H. L.
Judd & Co., of 87 Chambers St., New York City.
" For a short time," continues Mr. Scottron, " I
154
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
had all the business that forty men could do in man¬
ufacturing cornices and made thousands of dollars.
But very soon, curtain poles came into fashion, and
cornices went out like a flash."
Hereupon, Mr. Scottron put his patents out on roy¬
alties, and in 1882 engaged as traveling salesman and
general manager to John Kroder, a German-Ameri¬
can, at 13 Baxter St., New York City. "Kroder
grew very rich," he says, in speaking of this incident,
" and I was making considerable myself oft" my royal¬
ties on patents."
While he was associated with Kroder, he invented
and patented an extension curtain rod, which Kroder
manufactured and paid a royalty on. Mr. Scottron
was associated with Kroder twelve years, being his
main dependence as buyer and salesman. In this ca¬
pacity he bought and sold goods often in car load
lots, and covered regularly in his travels the whole
of Canada from Halifax, N. S., to Victoria, B. C.,
and the United States from Bangor, Maine, to San
Francisco, Cal. He never went South except to
Washington, D. C., and Baltimore, Md., " because of
the fact that I could not get hotel accommodations."
Early in 1894, Mr. Scottron made another impor¬
tant discovery; he found out how to make glass look
like onyx and other stones. He set his daughters
who by this time were grown and out of school, to
making tubes, that were known to the trade as " por¬
celain onyx." Trade in this new invention increased
rapidly, and Mr. Scottron manufactured many thou¬
sands of these tubes for the lamp and candlestick
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
155
trade. The process was simply kept secret and not
patented. Even the places where the bulk of these
articles were made were known to but few persons.
The articles made by Mr. Scottron have gone, he in¬
forms me, into every civilized country on earth, and
are still going, but not so extensively as when onyx
was fashionable in lamps and furniture. These ar¬
tificial onyx cylinders and globes were mainly mounted
into brass lamps and candlesticks by four large firms
in Connecticut.
Within the last two years, an attempt has been
made to use these " porcelain onyx " cylinders in fur¬
niture such as pedestals. " But onyx," says Mr.
Scottron, " is out of fashion, and has been for several
years now, and the attempt to make the thing go is
up hill work. Sometimes the sale is encouraging,
but it doesn't seem constant.
In 1894 he was appointed by Mayor Chas. A.
Schieren, a member of the Brooklyn Board of Edu¬
cation, was re-appointed by Mayor F. W. Wurster,
and again re-appointed by Mayor Van Wyck, for the
consolidated city of Greater New York. In the whole
eight years he thus served, Mr. Scottron was never
absent at roll call from any meeting, regular or spe¬
cial, nor from any committee meeting. He was
upon several of the most important committees and
had charge of many schools. There were five colored
schools in the city at the beginning of his term, all
but one were closed during that time, and the colored
teachers distributed to mixed classes and schools.
Mrs. Scottron, their son, and three daughters, have
156
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
been his main helpers in business since .they were
grown, and the children able to leave school. Mrs.
Scottron and her two daughters superintend and ac¬
tively do the secret work in the process of manufac¬
ture of artificial onyx. One daughter is a school
teacher.
For fully thirty-five years Mr. Scottron has been an
occasional writer for newspapers or magazines on va¬
rious subjects, especially "race" matters., In 1872
he took much interest in the Cuban war, and was
associated with the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet in
the endeavor to secure the recognition of the patriots
as belligerents by this government. They formed the
Cuban Anti-Slavery Society, extended its scope,
named it the American Foreign Anti-Slavery Society,
holding it in close touch with the British Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society.
" To the moral force of these societies," says Mr.
Scottron, " we ascribe the extinction of slavery in
Cuba and Brazil, and the slave trade in the Soudan,
Africa." During this time he wrote, lectured and
traveled in the interest of these causes. He has also
written upon the Republican Party policy of " pro¬
tection to home industries." Some of these articles
in "The New York Age" were widely quoted.
He took considerable pride in an article written to
the Boston Herald in 1890, replying to its constant
editorials, unfavorably comparing the Negro to the
Chinese as American citizens. This article was very
much quoted, and " is " to use Mr. Scottron's words,
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
157
" the one thing that I should like to see perpetuated
in some form."
In conclusion, a word should be said as to the cour¬
ageous manner in which Mr. Scottron sought and
obtained the higher education which had been denied
him as a consequence of leaving school after complet¬
ing his studies in the grammar grades. This had been
a source of disappointment to him from the outset.
" On my return from the South, quite impoverished,"
says Mr. Scottron in the notes I have before me,
" after surrendering to my father every cent saved
from 'the disastrous undertaking lasting about four
years, and notwithstanding I had only recently mar¬
ried, I was bent on going into business, and getting
more education. This I felt the need of in my at¬
tempts at manufacturing and besides, my disappoint¬
ment that my father had not sent me to college but to
business made me determined to accomplish consider¬
able even outside of college walls. So I entered a
private night school and studied particularly mechan-
cial drawings and mechanics generally. I studied
there two years, helping in a pattern shop in Spring¬
field, Mass. I gained much knowledge in brass, iron
and glass work from the various foundries where my
teacher advised me to go between times. That
study laid the foundation of my future life in aiding
me to accomplish results in a mechanical line that
eventually were patented and paying."
Returning to New York, Mr. Scottron commenced
business and at the same time entered the night school
at Cooper Institute. He graduated from the Scien-
158 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
tific Department in 1878 and took one of the only
four medals given in that year. He was accounted
proficient in civil engineering, nevertheless, he con¬
tinued on a post graduate course, and made a special
study of bridge-building and allied subjects. The
habit of study had grown upon him so that at night
or day school, for still another year, he was a student,
taking English and Spanish under one teacher; draw¬
ing from cast and free life, perspective and colors un¬
der others.
Mr. Scottron is still, in temperament and habit, a
student. Having in his early life turned his educa¬
tion to some practical use, he is now enabled to in¬
dulge his taste for study in directions which are val¬
uable to his "race and to the community in which he
lives, without thought of their immediate practical
application or commercial value.
In all this, he has been at once a true citizen, and a
faithful friend of his race.
CHAPTER XVI
THE NEGRO AS A FINANCIER AND CAPITALIST
In the previous chapters I have spoken for the most
part of the means by which members of our race, com¬
ing out of slavery, have succeeded by industry and
thrift in making their way up from the position of
laborers and mechanics to that of business men. I
wish now to speak of what has been done by colored
men in some of those more , difficult fields of business,
which demand a high degree of organized effort, a
large amount of capital, and a great concentration of
responsibility.
I think it may be taken for granted that a people
who can organize and conduct in a wise, safe and hon¬
est way large business organizations, banks, trust com¬
panies, insurance companies, and alf the other forms
of corporate enterprises in which the interests of thou¬
sands of individuals, scattered over wide areas of ter¬
ritory are concentrated, are fit to survive and pros¬
per in the most trying conditions that modern civili¬
zation presents.
On the other hand, we should not overlook or seek
in any way to minimize the dangers and difficulties
which the conduct of those large business organiza¬
tions present. I am inclined to believe that the se¬
verest test to which the ability of our people for or-
159
l6o THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
ganized self-control and for self-government has ever
been subjected is offered in the experiment of the
financial management and control of some of the
large business organizations which have recently been
formed among the members of our race. Not all of
these ventures have been successful. Some failures
were to be expected. The crucial test of our ability
to win success in these highly organized and concen¬
trated forms of business enterprise is however, our
power as a people, to recover from, and profit by the
failures we make.
We too must learn, as others have learned, by expe¬
rience. But if we, as a people, succeed here, I do
not believe that prejudice.or color will long shut us
out from a share in any of the duties and responsi¬
bilities of the community in which we live, or that
any opportunity or position that a self-respecting peo¬
ple would desire to possess will long be closed to us.
During the past ten years Negroes have tried the
experiment of corporate management of their busi¬
ness in many different lines. They have owned and
worked coal mines. They have built and operated
cotton mills.
Recently, there was organized in Indian Territory
a company for owning and operating oil wells. In
Jacksonville a company of colored men built and con¬
ducted a street railway. In Nashville a company has
been organized to run a line of automobiles in oppo¬
sition to the street railway company of the city.
Since 1906 no less than fifteen banks have been or-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS l6l
ganized in different parts of the country. A large
number of grocery and dry goods stores have been or¬
ganized and conducted as joint stock companies.
Many of these companys, as for instance the South¬
ern Grocery Company of Pine Bluff, Ark., mentioned
elsewhere in this book, have made use of some orig¬
inal devices for extending and maintaining their trade.
A large number of experiments have been tri'ed in
some form of co-operation by which purchasers should
share in the profits of the business to which they
give their trade.
Perhaps the most numerous and popular form of
co-operative business in which our people have en¬
gaged is that of building and loan associations.
" Nearly every colored community of any size has a
building and loan association, and these organizations
have been of the very highest value in teaching the
people habits of saving and enabling small wage-
earners to purchase homes. It is said that one-half
of the homes owned by colored people in Virginia
were built by the aid of building and loan associa¬
tions.
One of the first and more interesting forms of cor¬
porate business enterprises in which colored men have
engaged is that connected with the mutual benefit and
benevolent associations. These organizations, with
their insurance and mutual benefit features, were al¬
most the first to put large sums of money in the con¬
trol of Negroes. In 1904 it was estimated that these
insurance companies did a business of $1,000,000 a
year. Having collected these large sums by a small
162 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
per capita tax, spread over a large and widely scat¬
tered membership, it was necessary to find investment
for them. Sometimes these companies have erected
handsome buildings, such as the $65,000 Masonic
Temple at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Sometimes they
have purchased land for investment, as in the case of
the Grand Lodge of Masons of Mississippi, which
purchased 1,000 acres of timbered land in Mississippi
with the purpose of selling the timber, introducing
•a system of intensive agriculture upon the soil, and
applying the rents to reducing the assessments levied
upon its members. The Knights of Honor of Mis¬
sissippi started a bank at Greenville, Miss. The Su¬
preme Lodge of the Knights of Pythias launched a
scheme for building lodge buildings throughout the
country. Some of these organizations have started
commercial enterprises. Others have loaned their
funds to members to aid them in lifting mortgages
from their farms in order to replace them by others
at a lower rate .of interest. At other times they
have loaned money to their members to enable them
to build houses.
The True Reformers of Richmond, one of the first
large secret orders formed by Negroes, seems to have
engaged in all the forms of business enterprises men¬
tioned. The Grand Fountain of the order established
a Savings Bank in 1889. It was one of the first Negro
savings banks founded in this country. The same
Grand Fountain conducts a hotel in Richmond; pub¬
lishes a paper, and owns an extensive printing plant.
It also owns real estate in Baltimore and in Washing-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
163
ton, D. C. The office building of the order in Rich¬
mond was erected at a cost of $45,000. A Mercan¬
tile Department is also conducted by the order.
Through this mercantile department a number of
stores in different parts of the country are managed.
There is also an Old Folks' Home, which is part of
the insurance department of the business.
Although it has b^en found an advantage to con¬
duct all these different enterprises in close affiliation
with each other, each department, as for instance the
banking and the insurance department, have inde¬
pendent business organization with independent finan¬
cial responsibility. All these different enterprises
have grown up quite naturally out of the necessities,
and in response to the opportunities which the condi¬
tions presented. The bank was established to furnish a
depository for the funds collected by the insurance de¬
partment. In the same way the Nickel Savings Bank
is the depository of the funds of the People's Insurance
Company, of which Rev. Evans Payne was the foun¬
der. The Mechanics Savings Bank, Richmond, Va.,
founded by John Mitchell, Jr., though distinct from
that organization, is known as the Pythians' Savings
Bank. The St. Luke's Savings Bank, also of Rich¬
mond, of which Mrs. Maggie L. Walker was founder,
is the depository of the funds of the various organiza¬
tions connected with St. Luke's. The Galilean Fish¬
erman's Bank at Hampton, Va., is the depository of
the funds of the Fishermen's organization.
The management of these banks is distinct from the
management of the organizations whose funds they
164
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
control. The fact that they have become the depos¬
itories Of their funds however, has led members of
these different orders to make these same banks the
depositories of their savings.
So, also, the commercial companies which these se¬
cret orders have established, and the investments in
land and buildings they have made, all followed quite
naturally upon the accumulation of capital in the hands
of these associations.
W. P. Burrell, general secretary of the True Re¬
formers, in an article in the Colored American Maga¬
zine, for May, 1904, says that the property of the
various departments of that order was valued at that
time at something like $400,000.
Another important business organization to encour¬
age savings and secure investment for capital of col¬
ored people, is the Afro-American Investment and
Building Company, of Brooklyn, N. Y. This company
was brought into existence by eighteen persons who
had conceived the idea of organizing a Negro Protec¬
tive League which should have for its object the eleva¬
tion of the status of the members of the race throughout
the country. An organization for this purpose was
perfected in June, 1892. Fred R. Moore was chosen
president, John A. Strachan secretary, and F. H. Gil¬
bert treasurer. Other members were W. M. Lash,
C. W. Boyd, Frank H. Smith, John P. Arlington, and
Prof. Charles A. Dorsey. When they came to dis¬
cuss measures and means however, it was decided that
the original plan of the league was too large and per¬
haps, a little too vague. It was decided that it would
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
be better to undertake to do something in a smaller
way that would be positively helpful. The plan finally
decided upon was that of the Afro-American Invest¬
ment and Building Company. The eighteen members
present at the meeting of August 18, 1892, pledged
themselves to subscribe to as many shares in the com¬
pany as they were financially able to do. The total
sum subscribed in this way and paid into the treasury
amounted to $62. By the close of the year this sum
had been increased to $496. Having accumulated this
much capital, the company was finally incorporated.
The office was located at No. 15 Douglass street,
Brooklyn.
Starting in this humble way the company has pro¬
ceeded slowly and safely along the lines prescribed
by conservative business policy. Organized under the
laws of the State of New York, it has been subject
to the regular supervision of the banking department
of the state. It has been compelled to furnish every
year a minute account of all its transactions. In
order to meet these requirements, it has not been able
to pay the large dividends that small investors so often
expect from their investments, and has not had the
popularity, perhaps, that it deserved among the mem¬
bers of the colored community of New York and
Brooklyn.
The company has, however, managed to show each
year, a slight increase in business. It has never failed
to credit at least five per cent, per annum to the
shares of its members. It has purchased for its mem¬
bers nine houses at prices ranging from $700 to $3,-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
900, the company furnishing the money and permit¬
ting members to make monthly payments and charg¬
ing never more than six per cent per annum for the
use of the monies invested. It has been the means
of encouraging the formation of a number of other
small business enterprises among colored people, and
has demonstrated that colored men can conduct busi¬
ness enterprises of this kind with the same conser¬
vatism and regard for sound business policy as white
men.
In 1897 an attempt was made by a number of
white men to buy the charter of the company, and
when it was found that the directors were not dis¬
posed to sell they offered to subscribe an equal num¬
ber of shares on condition that representation was
given them upon the board. This proposition was
given careful consideration, but it was finally decided
that it was unwise to permit the control of the or¬
ganization to slip from the hands of the colored men
who first organized it. During the thirteen and one-
half years that it has been in existence, the company
has handled something like $90,000. The officers and
directors of the company are drawn from some of the
most successful business men in New York. Its mem¬
bership is largely within the ranks of the working
people who are seeking in this way to secure money
to purchase homes.
Another company of a different type is the Metro¬
politan Mercantile and Realty of 150 Nassau street.
New York, which was organized in June, 1900, and
is now doing an extensive business in many of the
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
167
Southern states. This company seems to have profited
by the experience of the True Reformers, and to have
started to do from the outset what the True Reform¬
ers have learned to do in the course of something like
twenty years.
The following statement of the origin and nature
of the business of the company has been furnished me
by Mr. John H. Atkins, treasurer of the organiza¬
tion :
" The Metropolitan Mercantile and Realty Com¬
pany," says he, " was incorporated July 3, 1900, by
L. C. Collins and John H. Atkins, graduates of the
Hampton Normal and Industrial School, and the Law
Department of the New York University, and by P.
Sheridan Ball, a graduate of a New Jersey business
college. These gentlemen were made secretary, treas¬
urer and president, respectively of the company, which
places they have ever since held.
" The company began business with an authorized
capital of $100,000, of which $40,000 was subscribed,
and a large portion paid in. The stock' was divided
into 20,000 shares, at five dollars each, and sold for
that until the first authorized issue of $100,000 had
been taken.
" The company rented a small room in the Ameri¬
can Tract Society Building, and there opened its of¬
fice. This one room served as the president's, secre¬
tary's, and treasurer's offices and reception room, but
it was not very long before it was necessary to take
another room, and to-day our offices occupy a suite of
168 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
four large rooms in the same building adjoining the
one we first rented.
" During the first month, thirty stockholders were
secured and the company began to take shape. No
one had any substantial faith in the possibilities of
the company at that time, and many of those who
were prevailed upon to buy stock said that they had
thrown their money away with white people, and had
been letting them rob them for years, and that they
might as well throw a little money away with Ne¬
groes.
"To sell this first $100,000 worth of stock was
a very large task, and required almost three years
to accomplish. But it was noticeable that just before
our first issue had been exhausted, there were greater
demands for the stock than ever before; and hence,
the dirctors thought it wise to increase the capital
stock, and asked the stockholders to authorize an
additional issue of $400,000, which was done in
August, 1903. This made the company's authorized
capital stock a half-million dollars.
" During the first three years the operations of the
company were very successful; this warranted the rais¬
ing of the par value of the stock from five dollars per
share to ten dollars per share. Of the new issue of
stock, more than $200,000 worth has been sold, which
is at the rate of $100,000 a year, as against about $33,-
000 a year, for the first three years. The stock is sold
for cash or on instalments, and has paid a yearly
dividend of 7 per cent, for four consecutive years,
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
169
and purchasers are given one year in which to pay
up.
" The company has also" placed upon the market a
$50,000 bond issue of six per cent, gold coupon ten
year bonds, and a large number of them have already
been sold.
" The funds of the company are invested mainly in
real estate, in the form of homes for stockholders,
the company advancing eighty per cent, of the price
of each home, and allowing the stockholders to pay
back the amount as rent, and charging them six per
cent, for the money invested in the house. Of these
homes the company has built and bought more than
sixty, ranging in price from $500 to $5,000 each.
" The company has built several churches and one
large hall for the Masons and Knights of Pythias, of
Georgia. And every one of these buildings has been
built under the direction of, and by Negro mechanics;
our master-builder in the North, being a Hampton
man, and our master-builder in the South being a
Tuskegee man.
" The company is doing business in nearly all the
middle and southern states, and has stockholders in
nearly all of the states of the Union, as well as the
West Indies and Philippine Islands. It is giving em¬
ployment to more than 300 men and women of our
race, who are serving as cashiers, merchants, salesmen,
agents, commission men, bookkeepers, stenographers,
typewriters, messengers and bankers.
" In July, 1904, the company established a bank in
Savannah, Georgia, which has been very liberally pat-
170
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
ronized by our people in that section of the country;
and it is our purpose to establish banks in other cities.
The store in Plainfield, New Jersey, carries a large
stock of first-class fancy and staple groceries, and is
doing a very large business; has every equipment that
goes with a store of its kind. The company operates
a sick and death benefit association, paying from two
to ten dollars and a half, per week, sick benefits, arid
from fifty to two hundred dollars, death benefits; and
has on its books nearly $100,000 ' financial' members.
" The Metropolitan system is managed by a Board
of Directors, nine in number, who have served con¬
tinuously ever since incorporation. The company is
planning to develop its mercantile department in the
near future, establishing a wholesale and retail house
in the City of New York, with a hundred branch stores
in different cities of the country.''
The rapidity with which this company has grown
up; the extensive business that it is now doing, and
the plans that it has for the future have this lesson;
they give us an indication of the power latent in 10,-
000,000 of people when they learn to combine their
efforts.
Among the various other corporations that have
been formed in recent years for the purpose of en¬
couraging saving among our people, and for turning
these savings to account is the Wage Earner's Loan,
and Investment Company, established in Savannah,
1900. The fifth annual statement of this company
shows that the property owned by them amounted in
1905 to $20,897.28. This company was organized
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 171
with a paid in capital of $103. At the time of this
report it has a paid up capital of $6,732.65. Its de¬
posits amounted to $12,302.43, and its loans to $15,-
757-94.
The company is organized to encourage small wage
earners to save a portion of their earnings and be¬
come depositors. Money is loaned upon real estate.
The annual statement shows pictures of a number
of houses that have been built by the bank, allowing
their owners to pay for them upon the instalment
plan.
Somewhat different from either of the foregoing
companies is that organized by the waiters of the Ryan
Hotel in St. Paul, Minn. This company was organ¬
ized on October 13, 1896, with five members and a
capital of $13. Until December, 1903, it was operated
as a mutual company, largely, as I gather, for making
loans among its members. In 1903 it was incorpo¬
rated with a capital stock of $50,000 of which $10,000
was preferred and $40,000 common stock. The com¬
pany now does a general insurance business, buys,
sells, and rents houses, makes all sorts of loans for
long and short terms, and sells sick benefit and acci¬
dent insurance. Recently there has been organized
in connection with this company, the Cosmopolitan
Mutual Casualty Company, which provides a benefit
in case of accident or sickness.
Quite as interesting and novel in some of its features
as the foregoing companies is the Great Southern
Home Industrial Association of Birmingham, Ala.
This is an insurance company which not only offers
172
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
sick and accident benefits, but extends to its members
the opportunity of an education in the Great South¬
ern Home Normal and Industrial College.
Organized about 1900, with a capital of $50, by
Rev. W. L. Lauderdale, a one-armed colored man,
the Great Southern Home Industrial Association in
the first six years of its existence wrote insurance to
the amount of $150,000. It had a membership in
1906 of nearly 110,000, mostly in Alabama, Georgia,
Florida, and Mississippi. It had forty-four branch
offices in these states, and as many superintendents.
It gave employment to more than two hundred young
men and women.
Mr. Lauderdale, in his canvasses about Birmingham,
observed the inadequacy of the public school system,
and determined to found an industrial and normal
school as his contribution to the advancement of his
race. The school, a three-story building, was opened
on February 22, 1904, to two hundred and fifty stu¬
dents. The orphans of deceased members, the chil¬
dren of living members of the association, and mem¬
bers themselves were admitted to the school free of
charge. From others a small tuition fee is demanded.
At the present time the Negro race is still in the
experimental stage, as concerns business on the large
scale planned by the organizations here mentioned.
Some of the purposes for which these corporations are
organized seem strange and even fantastic to sober
business men. These organizations have grown up
however, to meet a real need. Many of these schemes
that seem most fantastic are those that are best fitted
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
173
to the needs of the people for whom they are designed.
If some of them should ultimately fail of success it
will not be wholly the fault of their managers, who
are for the most part sincere and earnest men.
Our people must learn not merely the lessons of
industry and thrift; they must also learn to employ
corporate action for the achievement of their ends as
individuals and a race, in the same way that the
white man has learned to employ it. This means they
must learn self-control and self-government. These
organizations are to a large degree the schools and
the only schools in which these lessons can be learned.
CHAPTER XVII
THE NEGRO PUBLISHER
A form of business enterprise in which, in recent
years, members of the Negro race have begun to
win a foot-hold, is the printing and publishing busi¬
ness. There have been papers published by Negroes
in the interest of the Negro race ever since John B.
Russwurm began publishing in New York City the
" Freedom's Journal " and the " Right tif All." But
these papers have been established, for the most part,
not as business enterprises to make money. They
have been established to further the cause of the Ne¬
gro race as a whole, to enforce some particular doc¬
trine, or to promote the interests of some particular
school of opinion. These papers have not had any¬
thing for sale. They have had no commodity to dis¬
pose of as the grocer or the baker or the shoemaker.
They have been supported, like the church, for the
good they did. It is, therefore, impossible to treat
of these papers fairly, looking at them merely as busi¬
ness concerns, organized to make money. Their value
can only be measured by the service they have been
to the cause to which they were devoted.
The most notable of the papers of this type was
" The North Star" and its successor, " Frederick
Douglass' " paper, founded by Frederick Douglass in
174
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
175
1847 and continued to the opening of the Civil War.
This first and important paper established by a col¬
ored man was not a business success.
In recent years, however, it is possible to note a
change in the character of many of the publications
conducted by colored men. As Negroes through their
churches and through their secret societies and in
other ways have learned to unite their efforts and to
work together in a large and organized way they
have found the necessity for a type of paper which
was not merely the champion of some school of opin¬
ion but furnished to members of these organizations
or to the persons engaged in some common task, as,
for instance, the work of the schools and of educa¬
tion, regular news reports describing the work ac¬
complished and detailing plans and methods. Such
for instance are papers like the " Southern Work¬
man," published at Hampton and the " Tuskegee
Student," published at Tuskegee. These are. to a
certain degree class papers and supply a definite sort
of news. More recently there has been established
at Vincennes, Indiana, and published by David V.
Bohannon the "Negro Educational Review," a mag¬
azine devoted to the subject of general education with
special reference to the Negro.
In addition to the papers of the class to which I
have referred there is a considerable number of re¬
ligious papers devoted to the interests of their sep¬
arate denominations. Among these are such papers
as " The Southwestern Christian Advocate," of New
Orleans, Louisiana; " The American Baptist," of
176 THE" NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Louisville, Kentucky; " The National Baptist Union,"
of Nashville, Tenn.; "The Afro-American Presbyte¬
rian," of Charlotte, North Carolina, and " The Chris¬
tian Recorder," of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some
of these papers have extensive printing establishments
and have already become publishers of books and
pamphlets in a small way.
In addition to the religious organs there are papers
established by the fraternal and beneficial organiza¬
tions. Among these are " The Odd Fellows Jour¬
nal," published in Philadelphia; "The True Re¬
former," and " The St. Luke's Herald," published at
Richmond, Virginia. The mutual benefit organiza¬
tions could not well perform the work they have set
themselves to do without these organs to keep their
members informed in regard to the doings of the
local organizations in different parts of the country.
Still another class of publications which seem to
offer a field for successful business enterprise is rep¬
resented by the magazines published by Negroes. Ac¬
cording to a recent statement there are now six of
such periodicals in existence. Two of these are quar¬
terlies published in the interest of the two principal
religious denominations. Of these periodicals " The
Colored American Magazine," and " The Voice of the
Negro," the former published in New York and the
latter in Chicago, are perhaps the best established and
the best known. To these should be added the name
of Alexander's Magazine, a more recent but quite as
creditable publication. While these magazines are,
to a certain extent, the spokesmen for certain types
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
177
of opinion and draw their contributions from those
writers who are in accord with those opinions their
principal aim is to provide articles of information
valuable to all schools of opinion. In doing this they
are not merely laying the foundation for a business
that should become more profitable as time passes but
they are making their readers acquainted with what
is being accomplished by other members of their race
in a way that no mere partisan paper could possibly
hope to do. The value of these articles consists in
the interest and authenticity of the facts they repre¬
sent rather than in the support they give to any
school of opinion.
In my opinion, it matters not how important or
entertaining the opinion of any one writer or school
of writers may be nor does it matter much how wise
or just that writer's opinion be. 'Opinions can never
be as valuable to a race that is seeking to get on its
feet as knowledge. We need to know for our own
encouragement what members of the race are actually
doing, each in his own community to solve his own
problem or to better the condition of. others. As
long as the magazines and papers conducted by Ne¬
groes do nothing but give voice to the opinion of its
editors or the leaders that this paper represents just
so long will the readers of that paper be dependent
upon that editor and the party which he represents
for guidance and direction, at least, in regard to" those
subjects of which th'e paper treats, whether they be^
politics, education, religion, or business.
While I am finding no fault with the editors of the
i78
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
papers that devote themselves to teaching a doctrine
I do believe that at the present time it is extremely
important that the class of publications which give
us information and news should be encouraged and,
if possible, increased. It is very important to us as
a people that we get to know each other, not merely
as the partisans of one set of opinions or another but
as individuals. Where parties and opinions serve, to
a large extent, to divide and neutralize each other's
efforts, a knowledge of the facts in regard to those
interests which we have in common will enable us
to work together as one people. So far as I am able
to judge there is, at present, no paper which so far
meets the needs of our people in this direction as the
" New York Age," of which T. Thomas Fortune is
editor. This paper is gradually assuming, under the
direction of Mr. Fortune, the character of a national
newspaper, giving from week to week all the available
information in regard to happenings that particularly
concern "our people. Mr. Fortune has strong opinions
and he expresses them vigorously. But the " New
York Age" contains, in addition to the opinions of
Mr. Fortune, which are always striking and interest¬
ing, an amount of information about every subject
that especially concerns the Negro that makes it well
nigh indispensable to those who desire to follow the
fortunes of their race and keep informed in regard
to its successes and failures.
Mr. Fortune has had a long and varied career as
a journalist. He was born of slave parents in the
town of Marianna, Jackson county, Florida, October
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
179
3, 1856. His parents were Sarah Jane and Emanuel
Fortune. He began his newspaper career when a
mere lad by doing odd jobs about the office of the
" Marianna Courier" and it was in this and other
newspaper offices that he picked up a large part of
his education, which he has steadily increased by study
and travel since. He did his first work as a compos¬
itor in the office of " The Jacksonville Union," after¬
wards " The Jacksonville Courier," whither his par¬
ents had moved after leaving Marianna.
It was while he was engaged as a compositor that
he received in 1874 an appointment as a mail agent
between Jacksonville and Chattahoochie. In 1875 he
was appointed Special Inspector of Customs for the
Eastern District of Delaware. But he soon gave up
this position in order to enter the Normal Department
of Howard University at Washington. He remained
at school there for two years and then went back
to his work of printer in the composing-room of " The
People's Advocate." While there he was married to
Miss Carrie C. Smiley.
In 1879, Mr. Fortune went to New York City. He
did some work in the composing-room of the " New
York Weekly Witness " and shortly afterwards made
his first start in journalism as editor of " The Rumor."
His partners in that venture were George Parker and
William Walter Sampson. The name of this paper
was afterwards changed to that of " The Globe."
This was followed later by " The Freeman," which he
continued to edit with much success until offered a
position on the editorial staff of the " New York Even-
l8o THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
ing Sun." Mr. Fortune is one of the few colored
men of African ancestry who have ever held a position
of importance upon the editorial staff of one of the
great metropolitan dailies.
Mr. Fortune later left " The Sun " to take editorial
charge of " The Freeman," which, having come into
the hands of the firm of Fortune and Petersen, as¬
sumed the title of "The New York Age," the-paper
with which he has ever since been connected.
During the twenty-five years that he has been con¬
nected with journalism Mr. Fortune has traveled
widely and written much on all phases of the Negro
question. On November 29, 1902, he went to the
Philippines as the special commissioner of the United
States Government. He traveled widely over the ter¬
ritory of our new colonial possessions and had there
an opportunity to get a clearer insight than he ever
had into the difficulties presented by the Race Problem.
His wide knowledge of conditions in the South has
made him a valuable counsellor in all movements
begun in the interest of the upbuilding of the Negro
people. His absolute fearlessness and directness has
led him to express his convictions on all subjects with
a frankness and vigor that left no uncertainty in re¬
gard to his position. It was he who proposed, in
1887, the plan for the Afro-American League and it
was he who two years later issued the call for the
National organization of these leagues. Mr. Fortune
was also prominent in the organization of the Afro-
council, which grew out of the Afro-American
League, of which he has been at different times Presi-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS l8l
dent and Chairman of the executive committee. He
took a very important part in the organization of
the National Negro Business League, in which he has
been from the first chairman of the executive commit¬
tee. In every movement that seemed to him to be
for the advancement of the race he has always had
a larger share of the burdens than he has of the
honors.
Mr. Fortune has not merely written for the press.
He is the author of a volume of essays and sketches
entitled " White and Black." In his leisure moments
he has found time to write an occasional poem. These
poems have been recently collected in a single volume,
entitled " D.reams of Life," and published by the firm
of Fortune and Petersen. In all of his work on " The
Age " he has had the active sympathy and help of his
partner, Mr. Jerome B. Petersen.
Another name that should be mentioned in this
connection is that of Fred R. Moore, editor of " The
Colored American Magazine." This publication,
which Mr. Moore purchased in May, 1894, and moved
from Boston to New York City, has devoted itself
particularly to reporting the business progress of the
Negroes of the country. This is its greatest service,
and in my opinion greatest merit.
Mr. Moore was born in Prince William County.
Virginia, in 1857, but was brought in childhood to
Washington, D. C., where he attended the public
schools. Through influential friends, interested in
him because of his unusual brightness, he was ap¬
pointed in 1875 a messenger in the Treasury Depart1
182 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
ment. After serving in this department for several
years, he came to New York with Secretary Manning
of the Cleveland administration. When Mr. Manning
founded the Western National Bank of New York
City, Mr. Moore was given an honorable position in
the institution. He has but recently resigned- a re¬
sponsible and lucrative position with the great Na¬
tional Bank of Commerce of New York City. That
Mr. Moore enjoyed the confidence of his employers
is shown by the fact that he often carried for them
to the Clearing House securities valued at millions of
dollars.
Being an ambitious man, Mr. Moore was not sat¬
isfied until he had founded an independent business of
his own. In 1893 he called about him some of the
best colored men in Brooklyn and organized the
" Afro-American Building and Loan Company,"
which has for eleven years done an extensive busi¬
ness in real estate and mortgages, and which has
enabled many stockholders to lift mortgages, buy
homes and free themselves from various financial bur¬
dens. The fact that Mr. Moore has been elected
President of the company every year since its organ¬
ization testifies to his ability and integrity. He is re¬
quired each year to make a report to the Superintend¬
ent of the Bankers' Department of New York con¬
cerning the business transacted by the company, and
on every occasion his reports have been approved.
Mr. Moore has become widely known throughout
the country through his connection with the National
Negro Business League as its National Organizer.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 183
In 1902 he went to Richmond, Virginia, as a delegate
to the third annual meeting of the Business League,
and at the next session held at Nashville, Tennessee,
was elected to the new office of National Organizer.
Immediately upon his return to New York he began
an extended correspondence with business men all over
the country, and is largely responsible for the spread
of the League's influence over so great a territory.
I think I am safe in saying that without the unselfish
and diligent efforts of Mr. Moore, the Business League
would be to-day greatly contracted in its influence
through the country.
He is especially interested in young men, and has
helped many a one to get on his feet and to start
a successful career. There is hardly a race institu¬
tion in the vicinity of Greater New York that has not
felt his encouraging and wise influence. For instance,
the flourishing St. Augustine's Protestant Episcopal
Church of Brooklyn owes much to Mr. Moore's as¬
sistance and labors in the early years of its existence.
His home is one of the most beautiful in Brooklyn,
and his amiable wife and six children render it ideal.
It is impossible that I should consider here or even
mention by name all or even a representative por¬
tion of the publications issued by Negroes in different
parts of the United States. As I have said a number
of these papers, are published by individuals or com¬
panies who do an extensive printing business. Among
those I should like to mention here is Mr. Charles
Alexander, publisher of " Alexander's Magazine."
Mr. Alexander, in addition to conducting his maga-
184
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
zine, carries on a first-class printing business in Bos¬
ton. He has several times published the proceedings
of the National Negro Business League. M. M.
Lewey, publisher of " The Florida Sentinel," at Pen-
sacola, Florida, does an extensive printing business
in addition to conducting his paper which is among
the best published by members of our race.
A. N. Johnson, of Mobile, Alabama, is widely
known as the editor of " The Mobile Weekly Press,"
a brave and thoughtful Negro journal. Besides his
activity as an editor, however, he conducts one of the
most prosperous and well-equipped undertaking busi¬
nesses in the State of Alabama.
Mr, Johnson has had more educational advantages
than many of our business men, as he spent five years
in the State Normal School at Montgomery, and two
years in Talladega College. He was a railway postal
clerk for three and one-half years, having passed the
highest grade examination of any who had entered
the service before 1894. He established " The
Weekly Press " in 1894, and has in connection with
it a job press which does not only most of the Negro
printing in Mobile,, but also a good share of the
white printing. He also established on the principal
business street in Mobile one of the best Negro drug
stores in the * country.
Soon after this he went into the undertaking busi¬
ness. He bought three fine hearses and an ambulance.
Mr. Johnson's establishment is said to be one of the
most completely equipped in the whole South. His
business exceeds $15,000 every year.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
185
The only large publishing businesses conducted by
Negroes are those of the great church organizations,
the Baptists and the Methodists, the African Metho¬
dist Episcopal, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion,
and the Colored Methodist Episcopal Churches.
These denominations have a combined membership of
perhaps what has been roughly estimated at two mil¬
lions and a half. This constitutes a definite clientelle
for religious books and publications. The African
Methodist Episcopal Church has two centers of publi¬
cation, one at Nashville, Tennessee, and the other at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A few years ago it was
estimated that these organizations were doing a busi¬
ness of over $50,000 annually. The A. M. E. Z.
Church has its publishing- and book concern at Char¬
lotte, North Carolina, and the C. M. E. church its
publishing house at Jackson, Tennessee. It was esti¬
mated several years ago that these concerns did a
business oi twenty thousand dollars annually. The
Baptists have their publication house at Nashville,
Tennessee. The story of this concern is told in the
chapter following. Among the publications issued
by the A. M. E. Church at Philadelphia are " The A.
M. E. Church Review," edited by H. T. Kealing, and
" The Christian Recorder," edited by Dr. H. T. John¬
son. The organ of the A. M. E. Z. Church is " The
Star of Zion," edited by Dr. George C. Clement, at
Charlotte, North Carolina.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING
BOARD
One of the most interesting and extraordinary in¬
stances of Negro business enterprise and* success is
that of the National Baptist Publishing Board,
founded by the efforts of Rev. R. H. Boyd, of San
Antonio, Texas. Mr. Boyd is a man who has had no
particular educational advantages. He started life in
a very humble way. For many years he was known,
as was stated by one speaker at the last meeting of the
National Negro Business League, as a " Cow
Puncher." But he became impressed as far back as
the St. Louis convention of 1896 with the notion that
the 2,000,000 and more members of the Negro Bap¬
tist Church in this country needed a form of religious
literature adapted especially to their needs, and he set
about making that possible by establishing a publish¬
ing house which should print such literature.
The National Baptist Publishing Board was founded
at Nashville, Tenn., on December 15, 1896. It was
the outgrowth of a resolution passed by the National
Baptist Convention of America, in its annual session
at St. Louis, Mo., on September 16, 1896, recommend¬
ing the publication of literature to be prepared by
Negro Baptist authors, for the colored Sunday schools
186
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
187
of the National Baptist Convention. The publication
of this literature was to begin January 1, 1897. Rev.
R. H. Boyd, of San Antonio, Tex., was elected secre¬
tary, treasurer, and general manager. He was given
the following committee of five as his advisors in the
undertaking: Rev. G. W. D. Gaines, of Little Rock,
Ark.; Rev. E. C. Morris, of Helena, Ark.; Rev. E.. R.
Carter, of Atlanta, Ga.; Rev. G. W. Moore, of George¬
town, Ky., and Rev. J. G. Jeter, of Little Rock, Ark.
At the first meeting of the committee it was found
that not one dime had been appropriated for the ex¬
penses of this gigantic undertaking, hence the whole
project seemed a joke, and those acquainted with the
conditions considered it so. Two members of the
committee severed their connection at once, and decided
with the others that it was impossible. Dr. Boyd,
the secretary, however, had great faith in the possi¬
bility of the undertaking, and loudly contended that
the time was ripe when the great body of Negro Bap^
tists of America should begin such a work. He con¬
tended that past experience had shown " that Negro
preachers could preach the gospel best to Negro con¬
gregations, that Negro professors had made the best
progress in the school room with Negro pupils, and,"
he concluded, " Negro writers could give a better Bi¬
ble exegesis for Negro Sunday schools." He was
determined therefore to undertake the project regard¬
less of consequences.
As the American Baptist Publication Society of
Philadelphia had been the chief agency in furnishing
Sunday school literature to the Negro Baptist Sun-
l88 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
day schools of the United States, he at once opened
correspondence with that institution, asking permis¬
sion to use a number of reprints of that great publish¬
ing concern to get out the first issue of the intended
series of Sunday school periodicals. The secretary
offered to become personally responsible for the ex¬
pense. This proposal, Dr. Boyd says, was promptly
refused.
On November 7, 1896, he visited Nashville, Tenn.,
and laid his plans before the Sunday School Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention, offering himself
as before as personal security, for the reprinting of
portions of their series with the imprint of the Na¬
tional Baptist Publishing Board upon the same. He
was at once told by Dr. J. M. Frost, secretary of this
institution, that the Sunday School Board owned no
type or presses, but that their printing was done by
the Brandon Printing Company under contract. Still
permission was granted for the use of the reprint of
four of their periodicals. A contract was made at
once with the Brandon Printing Company,— Dr.
Boyd and wife, owning as they did considerable prop¬
erty in Texas, becoming personal security to the
Brandon Printing Company, to publish this series,
first, from the reprints of the Baptist Sunday School
Board, and afterward from such manuscripts as the
secretary would furnish from the pens of Negro Bap¬
tist authors. When this contract had been success¬
fully entered into, Secretary Boyd rented a small room
at 408 Cedar street. This small room, 8x10 feet,
ope small second-hand table, two small, second-hand
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS ~ 189
split bottom chairs, and one oil lamp, a small bottle
of ink, two plain pen holders, five cents worth of
pen points, and fifty cents worth of plain writing
paper and envelopes, constituted the initial fixtures
and furniture of the National Baptist Publishing'
Board. On the 15th of December, 1896, public an¬
nouncement was made that the National Baptist Pub¬
lishing Board had opened its doors for business, and
was ready to take orders for Sunday school supplies
for the first quarter, 1897. It can easily be imagined
how ridiculous this seemed, with a backwoods, un¬
educated preacher as secretary, with such surround¬
ings and furniture for its headquarters, to call this
undertaking The National Baptist Publishing Board
of the National Baptist Convention of America, an
institution that was to supply the Sunday school lit¬
erature for one million and a half Negro Baptists.
At the same time it had to enter into sharp compe¬
tition with a publishing concern seventy-five years its
senior and with thousands at its back.
The first work to be done was the preparation of
covers for each of the four Sunday school magazines
or periodicals. This required a considerable amount
of thought and preparation. But so well was this
task accomplished, and so attractive were the designs
that even the opponents of the institution, who availed
themselves of every opportunit}' for the most searching
criticism, could not help admiring the neat, appro¬
priate, and attractive designs. Hence the series was
known throughout the entire Negro Baptist press as
" Negro Backs."
i go
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Secretary Boyd, although a novice in the business,
proved himself the right man in the right place. He
has been careful to do two things: first, to acquaint
himself with the ways and methods of distributing
Sunday school and church supplies, and second, to
thoroughly arm himself with every associational and
Sunday school minute, magazine, or publication that
would give him at least the key to the addresses of
Sunday school superintendents, church clerks, and
pastors of Negro Baptist churches.
Then he prepared price lists, order blanks, self-
addressed envelopes, and a circular letter which he
had his printer set up in imitation of typewriting, on
letterheads that he had already prepared. While the
letter was in preparation, he secured the services of
three young women and set them to work directing
envelopes to addresses taken from these associational
and Sunday school minutes. He mailed in one .day
5,000 of these letters, addressed to superintendents,
clerks, and pastors in every state in the Union where
he knew there was a Negro Baptist church.
These envelopes contained this personal letter, an
order blank, a price list, and a self-addressed envelope.
Secretary Boyd also acquainted himself with the
kind of song books, Bibles and other Sunday school
necessities such as were in use in general in Baptist
Sunday schools. He made arrangements with the
printing department of the Publishing House of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to supply him
with these in such quantities daily as he might have
use for.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
191
It is not necessary to follow this institution through
all the details of its growth, but it is sufficient to
say that as the result of active, earnest, and determined
work the record of the Secretary shows that from De¬
cember 15th, 1896, to January 17th, 1897, just thirty
days, 750 Sunday schools had been sent supplies, and
he had received from them in cash nearly $1,200.
The first year's report, which covered in fact only
eight months, was- submitted to the National Baptist
Convention at its annual meeting in Boston, Mass.,
in September, 1897, .and showed an annual circula¬
tion of 700,000 Sunday school magazines- and cash re¬
ceipts of $5,089. It also showed that the secretary
had been able to supply his office with a desk, safe,
and other necessary fixtures, and had been compelled to
employ for the last part of the year two clerks, and
a bookkeeper; that all current expenses had been met,
and about $1,000 had been expended in missionary and
benevolent work. This report was such a surprise
that it was adopted with but little opposition. Secre¬
tary Boyd was re-elected and was advised to incor¬
porate the institution under the laws of the State of
Tennessee, and to report the results at the next annual
meeting.
The second annual report of the secretary showed
that the institution had been incorporated, that the
annual circulation had increased from 700;ooo copies
annually to 1,953,750, and the cash receipts for the
fiscal year had grown to $19,426.97, and that a lo¬
cation for the institution had been purchased at the
corner of Market and Locust streets, Nashville, at a
192
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cost of $1,000; that machinery, type, etc., had been
bought at a cost of $10,986.88; that an editorial staff
had been, appointed to edit the Sunday school period¬
icals, which were then being printed on their own
presses by Negro workmen.
In this report Secretary Boyd gave a complete
itemized inventory of the machinery, printing appa¬
ratus, office fixtures, stock, etc. This report created
so much enthusiasm in the convention, that Secretary
Boyd was again unanimously elected, the report and
charter adopted, and resolutions passed' not only mak¬
ing this an institution for publishing Sunday school
necessities, but unanimously endorsing it as a National
Baptist book concern, an institution to supply the de¬
nomination with Sunday school and church standard
denominational literature. Secretary Boyd was also
elected as missionary secretary and given the over¬
sight not only of the publishing concern, but also the
home mission work of the National Baptist Conven¬
tion throughout the entire United States. This gave
new life to the work. The institution continued to
make rapid progress each year, as the annual reports
showed.
The Publishing Board undertook at once the publi¬
cation of such books and tracts by Negro Baptist
authors as the secretary felt would find a quick and
easy sale, and were of the most urgent necessity as
standard works of the denomination. Soon a musical
editor was employed, for the board began the pub¬
lication of song books suited for Sunday school pur¬
poses. In 1900 a resolution was unanimously adopted,
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
193
authorizing Secretary Boyd to proceed at once to pre¬
pare a church hymnal with music, to be selected chiefly
from old meter songs already in use by the entire
Baptist denomination,— of such songs as would be
selected by the choice of one hundred leading pastors,
who would certify to the songs that were most ap¬
propriate and general favorites in their churches.
To-day the National Baptist Publishing Board is
publishing and distributing fourteen different song
books for church and Sunday school use, including
a book of anthems for church choirs. These books
are most of them composed of songs written by Negro
sacred song writers, and so well adapted are they to
the needs of the Negro Baptist Sunday schools, and
so enthusiastically are they received by the denomina¬
tion,. that over 100,000 copies are distributed annually.
The last annual inventory of August 31, 1904,
shows that the National Baptist Publishing Board
occupies as its domocile six brick buildings,— two
three-story buildings, three two-story buildings, and
one one-story building. Two of these small build¬
ings were erected by the board itself, and the re¬
mainder are held under lease. Secretary Boyd has
the various branches of his work so systematized that
each part has its own manager fitted for the position
held; that is to say, for the missionary branch he
has one general field missionary, who travels over
every state in the Union, and takes the general over¬
sight of all missionary and colporteur's work; in the
various states, one superintendent, who has charge
of all local business, and a general foreman who has
194
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
charge of the manufacturing department. The va¬
rious office departments, are under the supervision of
three clerks, and the various manufacturing depart¬
ments are under the immediate management of three
foremen; for instance: the foreman of the composing-
room has charge of all type compositions, linotype ma¬
chines, stereotyping, engraving, etc.; the foreman of
the press-room has the oversight of the printing
presses, embossing machines, ruling machines, etc.;
and the foreman of the bindery has immediate control
of all book binding, gold leafing and lettering, han¬
dling and finishing all papers, books, etc., that are
turned out by the institution.
The last annual inventory shows the entire number
of employees, including skilled clerical and mechanical
labor, to be one hundred and thirty-two. The annual
expenses for running the institution for the last fiscal
year amounted to $115,000. The publishing house is
fully equipped with the very latest improved machin¬
ery for printing and binding in all its branches. It
used during the last year between twelve and fifteen
carloads of white printing paper.
In order to keep abreast with the most modern
methods of printing and binding work, at stated times
the secretary sends the foremen of the different de¬
partments to the East, and through the kindness of
large Eastern printing houses, these men have been
given lectures and instruction in the use of the most
complicated, modern machinery, run by modern meth¬
ods, known to produce the best results in the field
of printing, binding, stereotyping, electrotyping, and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 195
engraving. Thus the Negroes in this institution are
able to turn out work that is first-class measured by
any standard.
The institution has not only been self-supporting,
paying its current and running expenses, but has
bought many valuable and costly machines, besides
giving a dividend for denominational purposes of
from $10,000 to $15,000 annually.
The value of this plant has been estimated as $250,-
000. But as under the laws of the State of Tennessee
it is exempt from taxes, as all dividends arising from
its conduct go to purely missionary and benevolent
purposes, there is no true means of knowing its exact
value.
One of the unique features of the establishment is
that it has a chapel seated and furnished with an
organ, song books, Bibles, etc., where thirty minutes
are spent each morning from 9:30 to 10 o'clock in
devotional exercises. All persons who are in the em¬
ploy of the institution are required by the regulations
to be present during these chapel exercises, and are
paid for this time the same as for other work hours.
Strict conduct according to the rules and regulations
is required, and a card of these rules is furnished each
employee. They prohibit profane language and un¬
seemly conduct on the premises, smoking, and the use
of intoxicating liquors. No person is employed by
the institution who is known to be addicted to the
use of strong drink.
This institution not only does printing and bind¬
ing of books for circulation among its own Negro Bap--
196
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
tist denomination, but it takes large contracts of
printing- for some of the large insurance companies,
wholesale houses, etc. It also does work for large
retail and wholesale book publishers, putting its im¬
print upon the same. Hence it is able to compete
with Eastern publishers in contract work for the
making of fine, first-class books, salable in the critical
modern market
CHAPTER XIX
PHILIP A. PAYTON, JR., AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN
REALTY COMPANY
One of the most interesting and in some respects
the most remarkable business enterprise undertaken by
Negroes is the Afro-American Realty Company, of
New York City. Owing to the peculiar circumstances
under which it was formed and the conditions which
brought it into existence, this company has perhaps
been more widely advertised than any other business
institution founded by colored men. Some years ago
a movement was started by a wealthy white realty
company to put the Negroes out of the houses occupied
by them on West 135th street, New York City, with
the purpose of filling these buildings with white ten¬
ants. At this time the colored people were, to a
very large degree, living in colonies sin New York
City. In these colonies the respectable and the crim¬
inal, the healthy and the diseased were sometimes hud¬
dled together without distinction. It was believed
that the effect of the movement to drive the colored
people out of 135th street would be to increase this
concentration and force the people living in these
streets into less desirable and less sanitary quarters.
It was at this time that the Afro-American Realty
Company came into existence. It was formed for the
197
198
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
express purpose of meeting this condition. It sought
to secure the lease of a number of flat buildings in
135th street, but without success. Not being able to
lease, the company decided to buy two five-story flat
buildings in this street. This put an end to the at¬
tempt of the white real estate men to drive colored
tenants out of this street and brought the new com¬
pany a very tempting offer of a co-partnership which
was considered but declined.
This unexpected and novel method of resisting race
prejudice attracted the attention of the newspapers
and was widely commented on by the press of the
country. The fact that the movement represented to
a considerable extent a very legitimate demand in the
colored community and that it was in the interest
of good morals and good health caused it to meet
with the sympathy of most of the white papers. At
the same time it offered an opportunity to the mem¬
bers of the colored community to invest their sav¬
ings in their own homes, a thing that would not other¬
wise be possible in a city like New York where real
estate is so expensive as to be almost beyond the
reach of the individual investor.
At the present time the company has obtained con¬
trol of twenty New York apartment houses, valued
at $690,000. Of this number six are owned by the
company and the other fourteen are held under long
leases. These houses rent for $66,000 a year. The
capital stock of the company is at present $500,000,
of which something like $135,000 has been paid in.
The man who originated this company is Philip A.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
199
Pay ton, Jr., who is at present the president and gen¬
eral manager of the company. The other officers of
the company are: Edward Payton, vice-president;
Fred. R. Moore, secretary and treasurer; Emmett J.
Scott, Joseph H. Bruce, William Ten Eyck, James. E.
Garner, Edward S. Payton, Stephen A. Bennet, Sandy
P. Jones, Henry-C. Parker, John E. Nail, Fred. R.
Moore and Philip A. Payton, Jr., directors.
Mr. Payton is still a young man. He is not yet
thirty years of age but the story of his life, could it
be written as I have heard chapters of it related by
himself and his friends, would read like a romance.
In order to add this story to the other narrative of
business success that I have been collecting, I asked
Mr. Payton to jot down some of the facts of his
story. The document which he forwarded to me in
response to that request is so interesting and so char¬
acteristic of the man himself that X desire to reproduce
it here precisely as it came to me.
" I was born," says Mr. Payton, " in Westfield,
Mass., Hampden County, on the 27th day of Febru¬
ary, 1876. I am the second of four children, one
girl and three boys. My father was a barber and my
mother a hairdresser. I received my education in the
public schools of Westfield. My father was deter¬
mined that each of his boys should know a trade, con¬
sequently my Wednesdays after school and my Sat¬
urdays were mostly spent in the barber shop. My
mother would often remonstrate with my father, tell¬
ing him that she didn't want her boys to be barbers,
that it would make lazy men of them. My father
200
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
would invariably reply, ' Never mind, I'm going to
teach them the trade. The knowledge of it won't be
a burden to carry, and when they become men they
won't be compelled to follow it, if they have sense
enough to do anything else.' As a result of this, I
became a full-fledged barber at about the age of
I5-
" In the fall of 1893, during my junior year in the
high school, my father conceived the idea that I was
forming some undesirable associations and decided to
send me away from home. Having an old friend in
Dr. J. C. Price, President of Livingstone College, Sal¬
isbury, N. C., quite naturally that was the school to
which he elected to send me.
" I entered Livingstone, making the Junior Class,
Classical Department. I remained there one year.
On returning home, I again entered High School the
following fall. During that term I met with an ac¬
cident, while playing football which laid me up for
the best of a year, and I was compelled to leave school.
Thus ended my education, much to the disgust of my
father who had aways intended that each of his chil¬
dren should have a college education. As a conse¬
quence, I have less education than any of the other
children. My sister graduated from both the High
School and the State Normal School, and my brother
next to me in age, graduated from Yale in the Class
^of 1900, and my youngest brother is now a Senior,
Class of 1906, at Yale.
" After recovering from the football accident, I
went in the barber shop to work and remained until
■■■■■HI
PHILIP A PAYTON, JR.,
Vice-President and Manager Afro-American
Realty Co., New York.
tut - WTM
THEIR HOME,
NEW YORK CITY.
MRS. PHILIP A. PAYTON, JR.
DIRECTORS OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN INVESTMENT AND BUILDING CO., BROOKLYN, N. Y.
Organized, September, 1892.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
201
April, 1899, when, realizing that I was not making
much of myself, and that I was not growing any-
younger, and that if I intended to do anything in this
life it was time I started, I decided to try a new field.
So on Sunday morning, April 10th, 1899, I left West-
field, pack and baggage for New York City, much
against the wishes of both my parents.
" On reaching New York I spent what little money
I had, sight-seeing while looking for employment.
After drifting around a few weeks, I struck a job in
one of the large department stores as attendant for
4 the penny-in-a-slot' weighing and picture machines at
six dollars per week. I remained in this position,
hoping all the time to strike something better, until the
week of Labor Day, when I went to Westfield for a
visit. I stayed a week and when I came back another
man had my job. Well, I was up against it. What
to do I didn't know. One thing I did know, however,
was that I was not going home for the boys to
laugh at me. My trade came to my rescue. I secured
work in a barber shop where I was able to make $5
or $6 per week. I continued in this place until Feb¬
ruary, 1900, when I secured a place as porter in a
real estate office on a salary of $8.00 per week.
" It was while there that I conceived the idea of
going into the real estate business. I married in June
of that year and on the first day of October, I started
out in the real estate business on my own hook, with
a partner. We opened an office in West 32d street
near 8th avenue. We stayed there the entire winter
and altogether I think we took in less than $125.
202
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Our rent was $20 per month, then there was our tele¬
phone and other expenses. I don't think it would re¬
quire an expert to judge the condition of the firm of
Brown & Payton after it had been running six months.
My partner became tired of it as spring came on, and
dropped out of the business. I concluded that the
location was not good for the business, and moved
down town, renting a small office in Temple Court
Building, corner Nassau and Beekman streets.
" The hardships that my wife and I went through
before things broke for us would fill a book. If I
have gained any success, to my wife belongs the ma¬
jor portion of the credit. No man ever had a more
faithful, patient helpmate than I. Many were the
days that we were compelled to live or rather exist
on ten cents per day. I was greatly handicapped in
my business by not having the necessary car fare to
get around with. My customary amount of cash to
leave the house with was.fifteen cents; five cents to
ride down town, five cents for luncheon and five cents
to ride back up town at night. One time I remem¬
ber I walked from Nassau street to 134th street where
I was living for the want of a five cent piece. I just
simply was not making any money. My wife was
doing sewing, a day's work or anything else she could
get to do to help me along. Had it not been for her
help, I fear I would have given up. All of my friends
discouraged me. All of them told me how I couldn't
make it, but none of them, how I could. They tried
to convince me that there was no show for a colored
man in such a business in New York.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
203
" When we first married we lived in three rear
rooms in a tenement in West 67th street where we
paid $12 per month rent. During the first two weeks
of our married life, we slept on the floor. We had a
bed which my father gave us as a wedding present, but
it was mis-sent in shipping it from Westfield, hence
the predicament.
" When I started in the real estate business I se¬
cured the agency of a flat in West 134th street, so we
moved up there. Things seemed to go from bad to
worse. It just seemed impossible for me to make any
money. I recall one Sunday morning we awoke with¬
out a cent or anything to eat in the house. My wife
hunted around the kitchen and found some Indian
meal. She boiled this, cut it up in slices and fried
it, melted a little sugar fof* syrup and this constituted
our day's meal. Like all very poor people we had
both a dog and a cat. I will never forget how the
poor things sat and watched us eating it. They could
not ' go it/ so had nothing. Shortly after this both
our cat and dog died. I have always claimed they
starved to death, but Mrs. Payton won't have it that
way.
"We remained in this house until April passed. We
were dispossessed for not being able to pay our rent,
and our entire scanty belongings were set out on the
sidewalk. I managed to secure charge of another
house after a while in the same street, and we moved
in there.. Seemingly this was the turning point in my
business career. Things began to pick up. I began to
get charge of more houses. One fine day I made a
204
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
deal that netted me nearly $1,150. I could hardly
believe it true. My wife refused to credit it, until I
showed her the checks. From that time things grew
better. I opened an office in 134th Street, still keeping
my office in Temple Court. I bought the flat house
in which I was living. I bought two more flats and
kept them five months when I sold them at a profit
of $5,000. I bought another, kept it a month, and
made $2,750, another and made $1,500, another and
made $2,600 and so on. In all I have owned from
time to time nine five-story flats and five private
houses, or, in other words, I have had title to $250,000
worth of New York realty.
" It was while in attendance at the meeting of the
National Negro Business League in Richmond, Vir¬
ginia, in 1902, that I received the inspiration for the
organization of the Afro-American Realty Company
that has created such a stir in the New York business
world and the country at large.
" I am not blind to the fact that many of the state¬
ments contained in this short sketch may seem far¬
fetched or exaggerated, but I can truthfully say that
in many respects I have moderated the real truth.
We now occupy a three story and basement private
dwelling containing eleven rooms and two baths, at
No. 13 West 131st Street, New York City."
This does not tell all the hardships and adventures
that Mr. Payton suffered during the time he was
getting on his feet as a real estate man. He had an
opportunity during this time to learn something of
the condition under which colored tenants live, some-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
205
times are compelled to live, in New York. Stranger
than all else, he was, as he confessed to me, several
times put out of houses, bag and baggage, for ina¬
bility to pay his rent. He has thus been able to see
how an ejectment suit looks from both the point of
view of tenant and of landlord.
When I asked him how it was that he had the cour¬
age to hold on so long in the face of so many discour¬
agements, he said:
" Well, it was simply this way. I knew that if I
made one good sale I could make enough to keep me
going for a year. I came so near making a good sale
so many times that I knew I was bound to hit it before
long."
Aside from his connection with the Afro-American
Realty Company, Mr. Payton conducts a large private
business. He has proven that a Negro who knows
his own people, is better able to deal with them as
tenants than one who does not know them. He is
able to discriminate between the good and bad tenants
where a white man would treat them all as belonging
to the same class. In this way he has been able to
charge a larger percentage for his services and at
the same time show at the end of the year larger
profits for the people whose property he controlled.
He says: " I have not found my color an obstacle
to my success. On the contrary white people have
in many cases been disposed to encourage me, and
as soon as they learned that I was able to do the work
they wanted done as well or better than others, there
was no longer any question of color between us, as far
as business was concerned."
CHAPTER XX
NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISE IN THE SOUTHWEST
In November, 1905, I made a tour through the new
Southwestern territory speaking at such cities as Little
Rock and Pine Bluff, ArkansasOklahoma City and
Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory; South McAlester and
Muscogee, Indian Territory, concluding at Fort
Smith, Arkansas. During this trip I had an opportu¬
nity to see members of my race under conditions that
I had never seen them before. I had an opportunity
to observe and to compare a number of promising
Negro communities under new and unusual conditions.
I found members of my race in Oklahoma in compe¬
tition with some of the most aggressive and progres¬
sive members of the white race in America. I learned
that they were rapidly getting a hold upon the soil,
that they were learning the necessity of owning their
own homes and of starting at the foundation to build
up their character and fortunes. J. D. Randolph, a
colored real estate dealer at Oklahoma City, informed
me that from estimates he had been able to make af¬
ter a consultation of the records, it appeared that
nearlj- 70 per cent, of the Negro population of that
city had purchased or were in the process of buying
homes.
I had no opportunity to go into the country and
206
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
207
visit the farms but I was informed that the Negro
farmers had practical possession of the cotton raising*
industry in Oklahoma Territory. The day before my
arrival in the city of Guthrie, I was informed that
one colored farmer by the name of Reed, living four¬
teen miles southeast of that city, had deposited
$1,300 in the bank, as the proceeds of the sale of his
crop for the season.
At Oklahoma City I was informed that Albert
Smith, a colored farmer who owns three farms of
160 acres each was, perhaps, the largest raiser of
cotton in the Territory. He is known as the " Black
Cotton King." It was his cotton that took the prize
in Ihe Oklahoma exhibit at the World's Fair in Paris
in 1900. Albert Smith came to the Territory from
Alabama in 1890, bringing a small amount of capital
with him.
From Oklahoma I went to Indian Territory, where
I had an opportunity to observe members of my race
in competition with another race, with whom they
have often been compared, namely the Indians.
Many of the Negroes now living in the Indian Ter¬
ritory came out there in 1838 as slaves of the Indians.
They and their descendants had been for many years
previously slaves of the Indians in South Carolina,
Georgia and Alabama, and when these tribes were
removed to Indian Territory they came out there with
them. These Negroes have in many parts of the
Territory had, since the close of the war when they
were made free, just about the same advantages as the
Indians. They have had the same protection, the
208
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
same schools and the same consideration from the
government and the white population that the In¬
dians have had. They and their descendants have
been classed as citizens of the Indian Nations to
whom they formerly belonged. In other parts of the
country they have had considerably less disadvan¬
tages. In many parts of the Territory the prejudice
has led the Indian tribes to treat them more or less
as aliens and in many indirect ways to hamper their
progress. I was pleased to see, however, that every¬
where not only those Negroes who are regarded as
" citizens " but the many others who have come into
the Territory during the last few years from the
Southern States have made substantial progress. I
saw them everywhere working in the mines and in the
fields. Many of them have become business men,
contractors, bankers, doctors and store-keepers.
It was, on the other hand, a source of regret to me
to see that the Indians, and particularly those known
as " full bloods " have everywhere receded before the
advance of the white man and his civilization. Al¬
though they have been protected and guarded by the
National Government as perhaps no primitive people
was ever guarded and protected by a civilized people
before, they have everywhere " gone back," as the
expression is.
I say that I regretted to see this because during the
time that I was at Hampton Institute as a teacher I,
at one time, had charge of the Indian students there
and learned to have a high regard for their character
and ability.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
209
I said that the progress of the Negro people had
not, owing to the difference of opportunity, been uni¬
form throughout the Territory. On the other hand
I found a large number of individuals who had made
exceptional progress and the presence of these men
seemed to have appreciably improved the condition
of the communities in which they lived.
Among the most successful and progressive busi¬
ness men I met on my Western trip was E. E. Mc-
Daniels, a railway contractor at South McAlester.
Mr. McDaniels, I learned, is at present worth about
$50,000, the larger part of which has been accumu¬
lated during a comparatively few years that he has
been engaged in railway building. Mr. McDaniels
began business with another colored man by'the name
of T. E. Currie, running a railway boarding house
for the men engaged in the construction of the rail¬
way from Memphis to Amarilla, Texas. After a
short time the firm received a small contract to do a
portion of the work of construction. Having finished
this in a satisfactory way they were given another
and larger contract and so by degrees got into the
business. Two years ago Mr. Currie died and when
the partnership affairs were wound up in the courts,
the value of the firm's property was estimated at $25,-
000. Beside this Mr. Currie had individual holdings,
mostly iii real estate amounting to $10,000. In ad¬
dition he had stock in the National bank at South
McAlester amounting to $2,500. Since the death of
Mr. Currie the business has been carried on by Mr.
McDaniels.
2IO
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
While I was staying at Fort Smith, which, while
it is situated in Arkansas, borders directly on the
Territory, I learned of a Freedman farmer named
Zach Forman, who though he is wholly illiterate, has
got possession of 1,200 acres of land in the rich Ar¬
kansas bottoms and is reputed to own 5,000 head of
cattle.
The place of greatest opportunity for the Negro
in Indian Territory, however, has been in the Creek
Nation. Riding on the train from South McAlester
to Muscogee, my attention was repeatedly called to
the rich farms in that section of the country owned by
Negroes. For forty miles, along the line of this rail¬
way above and below Muscogee, I was informed,
nearly all of the property is owned by Negroes. In
Muscogee itself, Negroes are well represented in busi¬
ness and in the professions. There are two colored
banks, the Creek Citizens' Bank, of which Mr. A. G.
W. Sango is president and the Gold Bond Bank of
which Mr. H. Sims is president. The person of Ne¬
gro ancestry in Muscogee who is reputed to have
more property (real estate) than any one else is
known as Aunt Patsie Mcintosh. Her farm allotted
to her by the government, happened to occupy a large
part of the land on which the city of Muscogee is lo¬
cated. Her real estate holdings alone are. said to
amount to something over $30,000.
One of the most prominent colored men in Musco¬
gee is A. G. W. Sango, who is a lawyer by profession
but is very largely interested in business. Mr. Sango
is a member of the Creek Nation and was born near
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
211
the site of the present city of Muscogee in 1868. He
attended the schools that were provided for the natives,
Indian and Negro, until he was twelve years of age.
Afterwards he entered the Tullehasse National Board¬
ing School, which is maintained by the Creek Na¬
tion, and after two or three years there entered the
Lincoln Institute at Jefferson City, Mo. After re¬
turning to Muscogee he was elected to the position of
district attorney, was successively Inspector of the
Muscogee District, and Superintendent of the Tulle-
hassee National Boarding School. In 1899 he was
elected a member of the lower branch of the Creek
legislature and after serving two years resigned^ to
accept the position of superintendent of the Colored
Orphans' Home.
In 1904 he organized the Creek Citizens Realty
Bank and Trust Co. which is said to have been very
successful. He is also Treasurer of the Freedman's
Land and Trust Co., a company which is seeking to
induce Negro immigration to Indian Territory.
Among the business men of Muscogee is J. W.
Adams, formerly of Montgomery and at one time a
trustee of Tuskegee Institute. Mr. Adams has been
there but two years. He carries a stock of $8,000 and
does a business of something like $25,000 a year.
Another firm, Elliott Brothers, is. said to do about
the same amount of business. There are two grocery
stores conducted by Negroes here. The Creek Gro¬
cery company and the J. W. Walker Grocery. Both
of these firms are .reported to carry stocks of goods
amounting to something like $6,000.
212
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Among the other business concerns conducted by
colored men in Muscogee is a fire insurance company.
This company has a capital stock of $100,000 of which
one-third is paid into the treasury. It has recently
put up a bond of $100,000 to permit it to do business
in the State of Texas. One of the well-to-do colored
men of this city is W. H. Twine, an attorney and
editor of the local colored paper, The Cimiter. Mr.
Twine is just now engaged in erecting a handsome
brick block in the center of the city.
One of the most prosperous Negro communities
which I have met on my journey was at Fort Smith,
Arkansas. One of the first persons I met there was
Percy L. Dorman, a graduate of the Tuskegee Insti¬
tute, who is head of the Manual Training School at
that place. Mr. Dorman graduated in the depart¬
ment of carpentry at Tuskegee and he has been mak¬
ing carpentry the basis of his training at Fort Smith,
where a handsome nfcw brick building has recently
been erected for the purposes of this school. Mr.
Dorman informed me that his students in the manual
training school have already erected 67 houses, largely
for colored people, during the time that they have
been students of the school. Two of these students
are now earning $10 a week at their work as carpen¬
ters. The colored citizens of Fort Smith have been
greatly aided in building houses through George Win¬
ston, a colored real estate agent, who has furnished
the capital to enable them to build and allowed them
to pay for their houses in small amounts running over
a course of years.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
213
Among those who have made business success in
Fort Smith is W. E. Joshenberger who conducts a
large furniture store and undertaking establishment.
Mr. Joshenberger was for a number of years a letter
carrier in Fort Smith. He succeeded in accumulating
a little capital from his earnings and finally gave up
government employment for business. He now pays,
I was informed, taxes on something like $10,000
worth of real and personal property.
In the course of my journey through Arkansas and
the Territories, I made the acquaintance of no com¬
munity where it seemed to me to have more real
and substantial progress than that of Pine Bluff. I
had never been to Pine Bluff up to this time but I
remembered well hearing or reading of a man at
Pine Bluff named Wiley Jones. I did not meet
Wiley Jones while I was at Pine Bluff for the reason
that he was dead. But I saw evidences of him about
me everywhere. In fact the Fair Grounds outside
the town in which I made an address while I was
there, had belonged to Wiley Jones.
Since Wiley Jones was so potent a factor in the life
of the Negro community there, I desire to repeat
some of the facts I learned about him.
He was born a slave. One day in 1861 there was a
very distinguished wedding in Arkansas. Among
the presents that the bride received was a sprightly
Negro boy named Wiley. I can do no better than
repeat here the account of what followed as it was
given at the meeting of the Business League at Chi-
214
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cago in 1901 by George E. Jones, of Little Rock, since
deceased.
This wedding present grew up with the children of
his mistress. Later the parents died, leaving a large
fortune to the children and Wiley became a freeman.
He went to work to make money and the young
white man with whom he had been raised went to
work with equal energy to spend it. Both succeeded
admirably. Wiley worked first in a barber shop,
saved his money and invested it. In a few years he
had sufficient means to leave the barber shop. He
opened a saloon and began dealing in land and in
blooded stock. Soon he was making investments in
other directions. Everything he touched seemed to
make money. Soon he had accumulated a small for¬
tune. His young master, however, went from bad to
worse. One day he staggered, filled with rum, into
an office and sold his claim upon the last property
in which he had an interest and shortly afterwards he
was found dead in a box car. Wriley Jones by this
time had accumulated means enough to become the
owner of two brick blocks on Main street, an interest
in the Southern Grocery company, and sole owner
of the only Fair Grounds in Pine Bluff and a large
amount of city and county property. He was & lover
of fine stock. One horse he owned was valued at
$25,000.
I might add to this tale that when Wiley Jones died
his possessions were not confined to Pine Bluff or
its vicinity. It was found upon his death that he
owned property in Chicago, St. Louis and San Fran-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
215
cisco and other property in Texas, and Oklahoma
Territory. His property was estimated at something
like $200,000.
Wiley Jones was not an educated man. George
E. Jones who told the story I have repeated first
taught him to read and write. I am not sure that
he was in all respects a moral man. But he won the
respect of the community by his business integrity.
His personal morality was equal to that of men with
whom he associated. He showed to the other men of
his race what thrift and steadfast purpose can accom¬
plish in spite of obstacles, and I am inclined to be¬
lieve that it is largely due to his influence that the
colored people of Pine Bluff are able to boast that
more of them own their own homes there than in
any other Negro community in the South. A con¬
siderable number of them also own business property.
The largest and most handsome business block in the
city, the Colored Masonic Temple, was erected by
Negroes. The cost of this building which was erected
largely through the efforts of Grand Master Clark,
was something like $65,000. More than one of the
business blocks of the city are owned by colored men.
One of these was erected at a cost of $10,000 by A.
B. Knight, who has been for years a letter carrier in
Pine Bluff. The Southern Grocery Company, of
which I have already made mention, is conducted by
Ferdinand Havis, who is also interested largely in
city property. In the report made to the Business
League a few years ago Rev. A. M. Middlebrooks
was mentioned as a man who was partner in a pros-
2l6
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
perous grocery business and the owner of twenty
houses which he rents to members of the colored com¬
munity. Another minister mentioned at that time as
largely responsible for securing comfortable houses
for members of his race was Rev. J. C. Battle.
In the past few years a bank for colored citizens
has been organized by J. N. Donohoo. This bank
which was organized primarily to encourage thrift
among the colored people and to enable them to save,
though it has been but a short time in existence, seems
to be prosperous. It is another medium of fostering
among the masses of the colored people those habits
of industry and forethought of which there are al¬
ready so many conspicuous individual examples in this
community.
Another agency which has helped to improve the
life of the Negro community is the Branch Normal
College for Negroes which is located at Pine Bluff.
The school is at present conducted by Isaac Fisher,
one of the most promising graduates of Tuskegee.
While this school is not a business enterprise and
does not prepare directly for business life, it does aim
to directly improve the economic efficiency and moral
tone of the community in which it exists and there
is every evidence that it has performed this task faith¬
fully in Pine Bluff. This, however, is not the only
industrial school for colored students in this city.
The work of the State Normal school is reinforced
by a school which has been established at the other
end of the city, exclusively for colored students of
the Catholic faith. Pine Bluff has a flourishing Ne-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
217
gro business league which has extended its influence
to a number of small towns in the surrounding country
where Negro communities exist.
CHAPTER XXI
HON. JOHN E. BUSH AND THE BUSINESS LEAGUE OF
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS
I have elsewhere in this book spoken of the great
influence for good exerted by the presence in the
community of some one individual or group of indi¬
viduals, more thrifty and more enterprising than
others. No where have I been more deeply impressed
with the results of organized effort for the economic
and social betterment of our people than at Little Rock,
Arkansas. A few men at this place, headed by Judge
M. W. Gibbs and Hon. John E. Bush, Receiver of the
U. S. Land Office, and loyally supported by a number
of other energetic and progressive Negro Business
men, among them C. W. Keatts, W. M. Alexander,
Bryant Luster, Joseph A. Booker, and David G. Hill,
have given an impetus to Negrq business enterprise
and imparted a spirit of progress to the people as
a whole which has within a few years, transformed
the community in which they live.
Of this group, the most distinguished member is
undoubtedly Judge Gibbs, now a man over eighty
years of age but still a leader in the new movement
for the industrial and economic improvement of our
people. Few living Negroes have had so long and
so varied a career and the opportunity to face the
218
the negro in business 219
Negro problem from so many different angles as
Judge Gibbs. Born in Philadelphia in 1823, appren¬
ticed as a carpenter and builder, he had early in life
experience as a contractor and builder on his own
account. He has all his life been a leader and agi¬
tator in behalf of his race. During this time he had
experience in many forms of business enterprise in
different parts of the United States. He was engaged
in the clothing business in California in the early
days and later in 1858 as a real estate dealer in Brit¬
ish Columbia. He was a director of the Queen
Charlotte Island Anthracite Coal company. He en¬
gaged while here to build a railway and wharf and,
having finished the contract within the stipulated
time, was able to send from here to San Francisco the
first cargo of anthracite coal dug on the Pacificr coast.
Having studied law with an English barrister at Vic¬
toria, he returned to the United States and attended
the law school at Oberlin, Ohio, where he graduated
in 1870, when he was forty-seven years of age.
After settling in Little Rock, Arkansas, he was ad¬
mitted to the bar and in 1873 he was elected municipal
judge, being the first Negro in the United States to
hold such an office.
From that time he was prominent in the politics of
that state and was delegate-at-large at every National
Republican Convention but one from the time Gen¬
eral Grant was nominated and from 1888 to 1897 was
secretary of the Republican State Executive Com¬
mittee.
In 1877 he was appointed Register of the United
220
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
-States Land Office at Little Rock and he was reap¬
pointed to this office by Presidents Garfield and Ar¬
thur. President Harrison made him Receiver of the
Land Office. In 1897 he was appointed by President
McKinley, U. S. Consul to Tamatave, Madagascar.
Judge Gibbs has been prominent in nearly every
important movement made by the colored people for
the social and political betterment of their conditions.
He has actively engaged in the anti-slavery move¬
ment and was one of the officials of the " Under¬
ground Railway " for the escape of fugitive slaves.
He took an active part in all the agitation that led
to the emancipation of the slaves and to the passage of
the Reconstruction legislation.
What is the more remarkable, however, is that in
spite of his connection with the movement to gain for
the members of his race freedom and civil rights he
has been among the first of these in recent years to see
that something more is needed to secure to the Negro
race the full benefits of freedom than legislation and
legal enactments.
In 1884 he was commissioner of colored exhibits
from Arkansas to the World's Fair at New Orleans.
It was while he held this office that he projected and
bore the expense of a conference at that city to bring
about the establishment of industrial schools for the
colored people in different parts of the South. He
was also a member of the committee appointed by
Secretary Windom to visit the Negro immigrants
who poured into Kansas during the period of the
Kansas exodus.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
221
He has been one of the first to realize in recent
years that Negroes have opportunity for distinction
and for service to their race in business enterprise as
well as in seeking and holding public office.
At the present time Judge Gibbs is one among the
more wealthy property owners of Little Rock. He
owns more than one brick block in the center of the
city. He is president of the Capital City Savings
bank, which started in business January i, 1903, with
a paid in capital of $15,000 and at the time I visited
Little Rock had deposits to the amount of $27,939.
Judge Gibbs has recently written and published un¬
der the title of " Lights and Shadows " the story of
his many-sided life and work. It is significant that
a man who has seen so much of the world and has
been as much a part of the life of the Negro people
in this country should be able to write at the end of
his life the following sentences:
" With travel extensive and diversified, and with
residence in tropical latitudes of Negro origin, I have
a decided conviction, despite the crucial test to which
he has been subjected in the past and the present dis¬
advantages under which he labors, that nowhere is
the promise along all lines of opportunity brighter for
the -American Negro than here in the land of his na¬
tivity." This statement is supplemented by another
made at a different point in his book: " Labor to
make yourself," he says " as indispensable as possible
in all your relations with the dominant race, and color
will cut less figure in your upward grade." ,
If Judge Gibbs is the most distinguished man in the
222
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
group of men who are directing the business enter¬
prises and seeking to promote the economic welfare
of the race in the Southwest, the most aggressive
figure there is Hon. John E. Bush.
Mr. Bush was born in Moscow, Tennessee, in 1858.
Shortly after the breaking out of the war, when
large numbers of slaves were sent South to escape
the advance of the Union Army, young Bush and his
mother were brought to Arkansas. Of all this he
remembers little. His first ^memories are of a little
one-room cottage and of a lively scramble from dawn
to dark to get enough to eat. There were twelve chil¬
dren in the family. His mother was a nurse and
spent comparatively little time at home. Food was
uncertain and the children largely put to their wits
to get enough. At the same time this mother ,made
a brave struggle to give her children an education.
" Mother wore herself out trying to get us edu¬
cated," said Mr. Bush irj speaking of those early days.
" I often wonder what it was that put it in my head
to make the effort. Somewhere and somehow I got
the ambition to try to make a man of myself. Prob¬
ably it was the earnestness of my mother that instilled
the action into my head."
It was, however, very • little schooling that Mr.
Bush obtained in the ordinary way. As soon as he
was able to do work and until he was fifteen, he was
apprenticed to a brick-maker. He learned this trade
and then went to teaching school in the country dis¬
tricts. It was while he was a teacher there and else-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
223
where that he obtained most of his knowledge of
books.
It was while he was still a teacher in the country
schools that he made his first great business venture.
He bought a lot for $150. Promising to pay for it
in monthly installments of $10 per month. Mr. Bush
had begun at this time to think somewhat vaguely
of marriage. He says he had no one in particular in
mind at this time. " But/' as he himself expressed
it, " there's no use to have a bird unless you have a
cage to put it in."
Soon after he began paying for this lot he became
badly frightened for fear something would happen to
prevent him from paying for it and so he would lose
all the money he had put into the property. Turning
the matter over in his mind he determined to make
some heroic sacrifices. By pinching, he was able to
pay for the property in six months. This was when
he was but 19 years old.
After paying foi* the lot it seemed an easy step
to build a house on it. This he did at a cost of $350.
Shortly after he was married. By this time he had
become a teacher in the Capitol Hill School at a sal¬
ary of $80 per month. Immediately after he was
married he found that he had lost his position. The
trustees of the school failed to reappoint him for the
succeeding year. He was compelled to seek a posi¬
tion at Hot Springs.
While he 'was in Hot Springs he found the income
of $10 per month from his little property in Little
Rock was a very welcome addition. He conceived
224
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
the idea that it would be well for him to set aside a
certain proportion of his income for investment.
This he has consistently done ever since. As his sal¬
ary increased he was able to set aside a proportion¬
ately larger sum for investment.
Returning from Hot Springs in 1884 he ran for
the position of county clerk. He invested what money
he had been able to save at Hot Springs in this cam¬
paign. and gained the election but was, he claims,
counted out. His opponents stole the ballot boxes.
He was compelled to go back as a school teacher
into the country again. Having lost his position in
the city' schools he was unable to' finish a second
house that he had already begun building. He made
an arrangement with the carpenter by which the house
should be finished and he should have time to pay for
it, after he got again on his feet. After this he was
appointed railway postal clerk. He was in the mail
service about ten years. During that time he sold
half of his lot he had first purchased and with the
money and $300 more he bought three more lots.
At this time he began actively trading in real es¬
tate. He bought a lot for $600 and sold it in a short
time for $1,400. He bought another for $800 and
sold it for $1,600.
Mr. Bush lost his position in the mail service when
Mr. Cleveland was elected and went back to teaching
school again. At the time of his discharge he was
superintendent of mails at Little Rock. After this he
returned to the profession of teaching and taught for
several years until under President Harrison he re-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
225
ceived the appointment to the position that he now
holds of Receiver of the U. S. Land Office.
Some years ago Mr. Bush in association with C.
W. Keatts, organized a mutual benefit and benevo¬
lent organization, known as the Mosiac Templars of
America. Of this order Mr. Keatts has been grand
master and Mr. Bush grand secretary since the order
was founded. This organization has grown until at
the present time it has branches in every southern
state. It has paid out over $200,000 in benefits and
has something like 20,000 members.
Although Mr. Bush started as I have said with
very little education he has by constant application
while he was a school teacher and at odd moments,
managed to widen his knowledge of books as well
as of men and things. He read Blackstone through
several times and in that way acquired the knowledge
of the fundamental principles of common law. He'
. made such progress with his studies outside of school
that he was able to pass the high school examinations
and receive a diploma of graduation from that institu¬
tion. Mr. Bush is the owner of a beautiful dwelling
on West Ninth street across from which he has erected
a brick block which cost $15,000. This building has
been fitted with a handsome club room where enter¬
tainments are held and guests of the members enter¬
tained. The rent from this building alone amounts
to $125 per month. In addition to this Mr. Bush
owns, I am informed, fifteen houses in the city of
Little Rock. He has forty acres of land in the sub¬
urbs of the city for which he was offered $12,000.
226
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Closely associated with Mr. Bush in all his enter¬
prises is Mr. C. W. Keatts. These two men grew
up from boyhood together. They faced the same
hardships and have had much the same successes.
Mr. Keatts remembers a time, he says, when his
mother and her four children used to live for days
upon fifteen cents worth of herring. As he grew up
he was put to work on a farm outside of the city of
Little Rock. For his work he received no wages.
" The first real wages I ever earned," said Mr.
Keatts, in speaking of this matter, " was for sweeping
out the office and keeping books for Constable Mc-
Kamey. I did not know anything about keeping
books, but he gave me $2.50 a week for my work."
Mr. Keatts was seventeen years in the government
mail service, " but I never saved a cent," he says,
" until I got out of politics."
He made his first money in real estate investments.
He became so well known in this business that he was
appointed receiver of the Little Rock Electric Rail¬
way. A large part of the property of this company
consisted of real estate that had been purchased for
a park on the outskirts of the city. This property
was cheap and it was believed that Mr. Keatts could
dispose of it to colored men who wanted to build. In
this the persons who were influential, in having, him
appointed were not deceived.
It is said that Mr. Bush at the present time owns
$50,000 worth of property in Little Rock and its sub¬
urbs. It is probable that Mr. Keatts is nearly if not
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
227
quite as well to do as Mr. Bush. He pays $320 in
real estate taxes alone.
Another man who has had unusual success in Little
Rock is J. E. Henderson, jeweler. Mr. Henderson
was born in Little Rock. It was the friendship of a
Southern white man that permitted him to make his
way into the jeweler's business. As a boy Henderson
entered the shop of Capt. J. V. Zimmerman, the old¬
est watchmaker in Arkansas. He did odd jobs about
the place and gradually as he showed an interest in
the work, beginning first as a helper and mastering lit¬
tle by little all the details of the business he was at
length able in 1896 to go into business for himself.
Since that time he has been three times robbed and
once suffered loss by fire, but has managed in spite
of these difficulties, to continue in business. He
started with a stock of $125 and with this small cap¬
ital and the industry of his hands he has been able to
accumulate a stock of considerably over $1,000 and
has purchased a home which he values at over $2,000.
During the time he has been in buisness he has taught
two other young men the trade of watch-maker and
watch repairer. One of these is in business in St.
Louis and the other is or was for a time in charge of
Mr. Henderson's shop at Little Rock. In establish¬
ing himself in this business Mr. Henderson has opened
this trade to other members of his race who, other¬
wise, would hardly have the opportunity to obtain the
necessary training.
Another enterprise recently established by the busi¬
ness men of Little Rock is the People's Mutual Aid
228 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Association, of which C. B. King, Cashier of the
Capital City Savings Bank, is general manager and
J. H. McConico is treasurer. This is what is known
as an industrial insurance company. It pays sick,
accident and death benefits.
In my opinion, the importance of the work that Mr.
Bush and his associates have accomplished in Little
Rock and the Southwest is less in the tangible re¬
sults I have here been able to mention than in the
spirit of enterprise and progress with which the Ne¬
gro communities of the Southwest, largely as a con¬
sequence of their preaching and example, seem to have
been inspired. It seems to me important to point out
also, that this has been no merely sentimental under¬
taking. Mr. Bush and those who are associated with
him clearly see that their own fortunes are intimately
bound up with those of the other members of their
race in that region. He and they see that if those
communities can be made prosperous and respected it
will increase the opportunities of Negro business and
professional men and lift from the whole race in the
same degree, the burden of prejudice that now rests
upon it.
Mr. Bush declares that the Negro has ceased to be
a force in politics in Arkansas since 1874. It has
taken the Negro people some time to adjust their
ideals to the new situation and to make up their minds
to obtain through industrial and business upbuilding
of the Negro people the welfare and opportunity for
growth that they first sought through the use of the
ballot.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 229
Though the industrial and business movement has
taken hold on all parts of the South where the Negro
people have established communities there is perhaps
no part of the country where Negroes have made
more progress in this direction than in this South¬
western country of which Little Rock seems to be at
present the center.
CHAPTER XXII
PENSACOLA, A TYPICAL NEGRO BUSINESS COMMUNITY
In some of the preceding chapters I have attempted
to give some brief description of certain of the larger
business enterprises which have sprung up in Negro
communities where Negro business men have accu¬
mulated sufficient capital and business experience to
justify them.
It has seemed to me that it would be interesting to
follow this with a more intimate study of the business
enterprise of a single business community. I have se¬
lected as representative of that healthy progressive
communal spirit, so necessary to our people, the city
of Pensacola. I have chosen this city, not because I
regard it superior to other Negro communities, but
rather because it is typical and because, through the
kindness of Mr. William Wilson and the Colored
American Magazine, of New York, I have been able
to secure more complete information in regard to this
community than I have been able to obtain in regard
to others.
Pensacola, the " Deep Water City," is situated in
the Western part of the State of Florida. Escambia
County, of which Pensacola is the county seat, joins
a county in Alabama. Pensacola is called the " deep
water city," because of the depth of its harbor, which
230
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
231
is the deepest on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, hav¬
ing a depth of thirty-three feet at its bar channel,
which enables the largest vessels in the world to easily
enter the harbor. This circumstance has made Pen-
sacola famous. The population of Pensacola is nearly
twenty-eight thousand; and about one-half of this
number are Negroes. They pay taxes on $450,000
worth of property. About one-half of the colored
people own their homes. These homes are not of the
one and two-room cottage variety, but are nicely
built after the latest modern plans. Among these
are fifty two-story houses of from eight to ten rooms.
Of course, as in all other towns, Pensacola has a
number of colored churches. There are five churches
of the Zion connection; four of the Bethel and ten
Baptist churches. Talbert Chapel, a large brick
structure, with a seating capacity of twelve hundred,
and a membership of five hundred, is the largest of
the Zion churches. Rev. William Mosely is the pas¬
tor. Of the African Methodist Episcopal or Bethel
churches, Allen Chapel is the largest. It has a mem¬
bership of 400. The new edifice is just being, com¬
pleted, having been erected at a costof $18,000. With
a seating capacity of 1,400, it. is the finest colored
church in the city. It is pastored by the Rev. G. B.
Williams.
Mount Zion is the leading Baptist church in the
city. The edifice now occupied is a large frame build¬
ing, but a contract has recently been let for the
erection of a brick structure with a seating ca¬
pacity of one thousand. The membership of this
232 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
church is 600 and, under the leadership of their pas¬
tor, Rev. Thomas Bellinger, has become, I am in¬
formed, a force for moral and social betterment in
the community.
The labor condition of the colored population of
Pensacola has always been satisfactory. In no other
city in the Union, it is claimed, is the Negro laborer so
thoroughly in control of the labor situation in the field
of both common labor and the trades. Labor unions
are numerous, but they admit colored men to their or¬
ganizations without difficulty and on the bay, where
union labor alone is employed, the colored laborer is
a valuable and respected factor. In the organiza¬
tions themselves' both races stand on an equal footing.
In the Baymen, Lumbermen and Cotton Screwmen's
Associations, both white and colored men work side
by side in entire harmony under the same system, and
the same scale of wages. This is also true of some
of the other organizations. Secret organizations
here, as elsewhere, play a considerable role in the
social life of the colored population. The Masonic
order has five lodges with a large aggregate member¬
ship. Two Royal Chapters and one Knight Templar
represent higher masonry. The Odd Fellows have
four lodges and a membership of 920. One of these
lodges owns a large brick building which is used for
a place of meetings and for offices. There are two
lodges of Knights of Pythias, with a membership of
200 members. These lodges have now in course of
erection a large' hall. The Knights of Labor have
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
233
120 members in the city. There are other secret so¬
cieties of less note.
In the matier of education for the colored popu¬
lation there is still much to be desired. Complaint is
made that the school term is not long enough and
neither sufficient school room nor teachers to do the
work required have yet been provided by the city.
The Escambia High School and the Baptist Acad¬
emy are private institutions. There are eight public
schools for colored children. Twenty-six teachers
are regularly employed.
The professions are represented among the col¬
ored population by three lawyers and four physicians.
The Negro lawyers seem to have the entire respect
of the, members of the bar and are accorded the same
courtesies in the courts that are shown to white law¬
yers. The colored physicians are also succeeding
finely.
Isaac L. Purcell, C. H. Alston and George W. Par¬
ker are the barristers. All of them are admitted to
practice in all state courts. Mr. Purcell is a member
of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, hav¬
ing lately had several cases there.
Doctors H. G. Williams, Charles V. Smith, C. S.
Sunday, and M. S. G. Abbott compose the medical
fraternity. Dr. Abbott is an alumnus of Shaw Uni¬
versity and the remainder are all graduates of Me-
harry Medical College, Nashville. Dr. Smith is a
native Pensacolian. He is- a graduate of the Tuske-
gee Institute (where he was known as a brilliant stu¬
dent) and of Meharry, '94. He practiced in Georgia
234 the negro in business
and southern parts of Florida before finally settling in
Pensacola, where he came six years ago, and where
he now enjoys the largest colored practice. He is a
specialist, and is highly regarded in his community.
Dr. Williams is a West Indian, and has practiced in
Pensacola ten years. He is the proprietor and man¬
ager of the Pensacola Drug Store, and has a very
large, practice. Dr. Sunday is a son of John Sunday,
and is a native of this city. He graduated from Me-
harry in 1898, and served during the Spanish-Ameri¬
can War on a hospital boat.
There are two weekly newspapers published by col¬
ored men in Pensacola. One of these is the Florida
Sentinel, owned and edited by M. M. Lewey, a mem¬
ber of the Executive Committee of the. National Ne¬
gro Business League. Connected with the office of
the Sentinel is a job printing office in which an exten¬
sive printing business is carried on. The Sentinel is
printed on a large cylinder press which turns out 1,600
impressions an hour. It is the boast of the business
manager of The Sentinel that it has the largest ad¬
vertising patronage of any Negro paper in the South,
except one.
The colored population has its share of the clerk¬
ships in the postoffice. Six of the first-class clerks
and four of the regular carriers are colored men.
There are in Pensacola owned and conducted by col¬
ored men, one dry goods store, one job printing office,
one tin shop, one undertaking establishment, one real
estate agency, one Mutual Aid Society, five saloons,
one locksmith, nine grocery stores, one wood and coal
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
235
yard, six meat markets, thirty restaurants, fifteen
barber shops (four exclusively for whites) two
blacksmith shops, two wheelright shops, and one fur¬
niture store. There are of course various other
smaller businesses that might be included.
The grocery stores that are best known and do the
most business are the Escambia Grocery Company, the
Excelsior and the Economy Grocery Company.
Alexander Oliver, who for a number of years was the
head clerk in a large white wholesale grocery in this
city, manages the " Escambia." D. J. Cunningham
is proprietor of "The Excelsior " and C. J. Hardy is
the manager of the " Economy."
The one dry goods store, owned and conducted by
colored men, is that of W. A. Woods & Co. Samuel
Charles is one of the more substantial colored busi¬
ness men in the city. He runs a colored shoe store
and sells leather and findings. He is also the owner
of considerable Pensacola real estate.
One of the more prominent colored business men
is George B. Green, proprietor of a furniture and
general store. The building occupied by this store,
is owned by Mr. Green who is also the owner of other
valuable property. W. H. Harvey is proprietor of
the only undertaking establishment in Pensacola con¬
ducted by a colored man.
Because of the large number of sailors and visitors
in Pensacola and because of its great import and ex¬
port business, the saloon and restaurant businesses
pay exceedingly well. There are two colored men
236 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
here who conduct the best of such places — Joseph
H. James and Richard Morris, Jr.
The wealthiest colored man in that section of the
state is John Sunday, who is -said to pay taxes on
$90,000 worth of property. He owns valuable hold¬
ings in the principal business streets of the city, and
employs steadily a force of men to repair old and
build new houses. He is worth, at a conservative
estimate, it is said, $125,000.
In addition to other enterprises Pensacola has a
conservatory of music. This is conducted by Wil¬
liam Charles Morris, who has studied in the music
department at Tuskegee and in the Conservatory of
Music, New York.
There are numerous other small business enterprises
among the colored population of Pensacola. Those
that I have mentioned are sufficient to show to what
extent, in the more progressive colored communities
in the South, members of the Negro race are learning
to do their own business and direct their own affairs,
while at the same time entering into relations of help¬
ful co-operation with the members of the white popu¬
lation in the industrial and economic development of
their city and state.
O) M. M Lewet, Editor Florida Sentinel, Pensacola, Fla
(2) Mrs, Kessie K. Lewet. (3) Irene V Lewet. (4) John F. Lewet.
R. B. HUDSON AMD FAMILY, SELMA, ALA,
CHAPTER XXIII
SOME CONSPICUOUS BUSINESS SUCCESSES
Among the men whose careers bear witness to the
enterprise and pioneer spirit of successful Negro busi¬
ness men are R. B. Hudson, wood and coal dealer, of
Selma, Alabama; H. L. Sanders, the white jacket
manufacturer of Indianapolis, Indiana; James N.
Vandervall, the mattress manufacturer, of Orange,
New Jersey, and John S. Hicks, of Erie, Pennsyl¬
vania.
Mr. R. B. Hudson was born in Perry County, Ala¬
bama, in 1866. He came of strenuous and pious
stock, and attributes his success in life to the sim¬
ple lessons in morality which he learned at his
mother's knee. His early life seems to have been un¬
eventful. That he received considerable schooling is
shown by the fact that he has for fifteen years been
principal of the colored public schools of Selma. It
appears that he had some little money saved by 1896.
In the fall of that year, he called a meeting of five
men to organize a coal company, for which he be¬
lieved he saw an opening. The five men together
made up a sum of $250, which was the capital on
which the new company began business. With this
money they rented a yard, repaired the fences, pur¬
chased scales and shovels and bought one car-load of
237
238 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
coal. The doors were opened for business, and a
few orders were taken, which were delivered on a
wheelbarrow. After a while a horse and cart was
rented for the deliveries. The first season they ex¬
perienced some hardships, but were able, during the
winter, to buy a horse and a second-hand wagon and
some harness. Several car-loads of coal were disposed
cf. There was no return of money, however, to the
stockholders, as all profits were promptly added to
the capital.
Three of the original members drew out at the end
of the first season as they had become discouraged by
the absence of dividends. The remaining two men
bought out the stock of their former associates, and
resolved to persevere.
The season of 1897 was a little more encouraging,
but profits were severely cut into by competitors who
were willing to cut prices. Those " friends," already
referred to, who seem always to be at hand to tell
a man why he cannot help failing, were not lacking
in Mr. Hudson's case. They succeeded in frighten¬
ing his partner, who drew out of the company at the
end of this season. Mr. Hudson, the founder of the
company, was left alone. The " friends" begged
him to stop before he ruined himself, but Mr. Hud¬
son had resolved that he must succeed and he stuck to
his task.
In preparation for the season of 1898 he made a
personal tour among the mines and investigated for
himself what kinds of coal were the best. He bought
a quantity of the best coal, and placed it in his yard
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 239
to wait for winter. He was thus prepared for the
rush of business which came with the beginning of
winter. Orders for his high grade coal were so rap¬
idly received that another team had to be added. Car
after car of coal was disposed of.
Since that season the Hudson Coal Yard has been
one of the stable enterprises of Selma. His notes and
papers are accepted with eagerness by the banks, and
the mines seek his patronage. The patrons range
from the poor laborer's wife who comes in to buy a
nickel's worth of coal, to the rich man who orders
seventy tons for his winter's supply, and the retail
dealer in Uniontown, nearby, who orders two car¬
loads of coal for his trade. The white and colored
schools of Selma buy Mr. Hudson's coal, and among
his patrons are numbered many of the bankers, law¬
yers, judges, merchants, and personages of the city.
Of the six coal yards in Selma, Mr. Hudson's ranks
second in volume of business, and is making a strong
pull for first place. He keeps his patrons by the kind¬
ness and tact with which he treats them, by his hon¬
esty in giving good weight, and by his promptness in
making deliveries. He now has eight carts with good
mules and harness. On his private side-track stands
two or three cars of coal at a time. In the busy sea¬
son fifteen black men work as laborers to handle the
coal. Instead of spending his time in complaining
that every door was shut to them, Mr. Hudson has
made positions for the members of his family. His
brother is manager of the yard, his father, in an
24<D THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
emergency, is glad to lend a hand, and his wife keeps
the books. . ,
Like many of our business men, he has taken upon
himself many duties outside of his business, Besides
his position as principal of the colored schools of
Selma, he is clerk of his church, trustee of the Selma
(Ala.) Baptist University, President of Uniontown
Baptist Sunday School Convention, secretary of the
Alabama Baptist State Convention, and statistical sec¬
retary of the Alabama Baptist Sunday School Con¬
vention. Of him the Southern Watchman says:
" Prof. Hudson is a born leader. Men follow him
willingly and he lifts them into efficiency. Young
men and women love him and honor him."
More humbly than Mr. Hudson did Mr. H. L. San¬
ders, the white-jacket manufacturer of Indianapolis,
Indiana, start life. He was born near Lexington,
Kentucky, in 1852, and spent the early years of his
life as a laborer on a farm. He was allowed to go
to school about two months in the year for a few
years. In 1874 he came to Indianapolis and found
employment as a pan-washer in one of the leading
hotels. His faithfulness in this lowly position soon
procured his promotion, and in a short time he was
second cook at a salary of $35 per month. Out of
tin's small sum he contrived to save something every-
month, and at the time of his marriage a few years
later he had saved enough to furnish a house com¬
pletely. He then took a position as waiter at the
Grand Hotel, Indianapolis, where he remained five
years. During these years, with the aid of his wife,
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
241
a very sensible woman, he saved enough to buy and
furnish a neat and' cosy home.
While Mr. Sanders was working at the Grand Ho¬
tel, his wife, to assist him to economize, was in the
habit of making his white jackets herself. Mrs. San¬
ders' jackets were so superior that Mr. Sanders' fel¬
low waiters began to ask that he have her make their
jackets too. Mrs. Sanders began to try and did so,
and the demand increased so rapidly that she was
forced to rent a sewing machine to supply it. Mr.
Sanders, in off hours, began to peddle his wife's work
in the other hotels, and found a ready sale.
In 1889 he found that the trade justified his open¬
ing a small store, in which he displayed his white
jackets, and started a gentlemen's furnishing depart¬
ment, of which the first stock was three dozen white
collars and one dozen white shirts. In 1890 he
bought his first sewing machine; in 1892 he bought
another, and in 1893 he had to buy two more. These
machines were used until 1898, when the pressure of
business compelled him to install six new machines
operated by electricity and a stock of gentlemen's
furnishings costing $1,500.
"At this time, his eldest son, Edward, was about
thirteen years old. Although the boy was still in
short trousers, his father started him on the road
through Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois to so¬
licit orders for the business. I think I am safe in
saying that young Sanders was probably the youngest
salesman and drummer who ever traveled in this
country. He was successful too, for to-day, as a re-
242
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
suit of his travels, a large list of orders continually
come in from these states. Mr. Sanders now gives
employment to thirteen persons, including one travel¬
ing representative, two cutters, one bookkeeper, two
sales-ladies, and seven operatives. He has recently
enlarged the business so as to employ twenty persons.
His gross receipts for the year 1903 were $15,000,
and his stock invoiced in January, 1904, $4,225. Mr.
Sanders keeps abreast of the times, and among other
useful equipments used by him is a button-hole ma¬
chine, which cuts and works 2,000 button holes a day.
He has a new home, which ranks among the best
owned by colored people in Indianapolis. It is fur¬
nished with electric lights, bath, furnace, and all mod¬
ern improvements.
His son, Edward, is now assistant business man¬
ager of the business. He has prepared himself to
take up his father's work, and is a graduate of the
Manual Training High School of Indianapolis.
Mr. Sanders has been successful because he was
frugal and industrious from the beginning, and be¬
cause he had the enterprise to make the best of the
good business opportunity which was opened to him
through his wife's home-made jackets.
James N. Vandervall, the mattress manufacturer
of Orange, N. J., was born in Richmond, Virginia,
in 1862. He received his education at the old Rich¬
mond Normal School and, barring one month's study
of law at the Howard University Law School, Wash¬
ington, D. C., this was all the training he received.
After finishing his course in school he became an
u. N. Vandervall's Office, East Orange, N. J.
(The Old Wat.) J. N. VANDERVALL. (The New Way.)
A corner in Vandervall's Carpet-Cleaning Factory
J. M. HAZEL WOOD'S SHAVING, HAIRDRESSING AND MANICURING PARLORS, CHARLESTON, W. VA.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
243
apprentice to a blacksmith and remained at the trade
until lie mastered it.
In 1882 young Vandervall went to New York,
seeking work at his trade. He found on his arrival
there that there was no opportunity for a colored
man in the trades in New York. Though he had
been trained as a blacksmith, he soon found work as
a waiter.
After his work at the forge this task seemed, as
he says, like drudgery. He quit this place after a
short time and found work in a carpet factory. He
remained there until the strike of 1884. In the year
before the strike came on, he had mastered the de¬
tails of the carpet business.
Immediately after the strike was declared, Mr.
Vandervall went to Orange in quest of work. He
engaged himself to private families, and for a year
"found the trail," as he himself expresses it. Early
in 1885 he began work on a commission basis for
The Lindsay Carpet Cleaning Company. Finding
that Mr. Vandervall, on the basis of his contract, was
making as much as the firm, the company made him
a proposition: to accept a salary of $12 per week, or
give up his work. He gave up his work. He did
this because he felt that his work alone was responsi¬
ble for the large increase in the business of the com¬
pany.
In 1897, in direct opposition to his former em¬
ployer, he opened a carpet cleaning establishment.
He had no machinery. All of his cleaning and reno¬
vating was done by hand. He did satisfactory work,
244
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
but found that he could not do it rapidly enough to
keep up with the work of the other houses, all of
which were well equipped with machinery. He con¬
tinued to conduct this business until 1890, when he
was appointed a clerk in the Census Bureau at Wash¬
ington. After a year's residence in Washington, Mr.
Vandervall became dissatisfied with the lot of a de¬
partment clerk, and resigned. He returned to Or¬
ange, in 1892, and began in earnest to build a reno¬
vating factory. He began in a very small house.
Lacking the machinery usually employed in reno¬
vating carpets and mattresses he was compelled to
rely upon those older and more primitive methods in
which a stick in the hand is the only tool used.
Often in these early days, Mr. Vandervall tells me,
he and his family did not have bread to eat. When
he could not get carpets to overhaul he employed his
time repairing bicycles or any other work that came
to hand. His wife, who had been his constant helper
in all things, rendered him in these early struggles
unselfish and self-sacrificing assistance.
In a short time Mr. Vandervall was so far success¬
ful that he was able to purchase his shop and the ad¬
joining property. Upon this property he built a
three-story brick factory and supplied it with machin¬
ery for cleaning and repairing carpets and the manu¬
facture of mattresses. Included in this machinery was
a large twenty-four horse power engine. Since then
the success of the factory has been assured.
Early in its history Mr. Vandervall gave his es¬
tablishment the name, " The Carpet Hospital." This
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
245
gave a certain dignity to the business and advertised
it. After five years the business had so far outgrown
its quarters that Mr. Vandervall was compelled to
erect an addition. He erected in front of the- old
building a new four-story brick building and put in
it the best improved machinery.
There are, besides the Vandervall factory three
other factories in Orange engaged in the same busi¬
ness. The Vandervall factory does as much busi¬
ness, it is said, as the other three factories combined.
In conversation with Mr. Vandervall he related the
following incident which illustrates the confidence
which the work and methods of this " The Carpet
Hospital" have gained among its customers: One
of the largest and wealthiest hospitals in the city ad¬
vertised for bids for making a number of mattresses
so he sent in his bid. The chairman of the board
notified Mr. Vandervall by telephone of the bids and
asked him to make his bid at least as low as the sec¬
ond lowest. He told the chairman that he could not
do this. He had given the figures, he said, at which
he could make the mattresses and make them , hon¬
estly. After the adjournment of the board Mr. Van¬
dervall was notified that though his bid was among
the highest it had been accepted because the board
believed he would do the best work. Most of the
public institutions in Orange county give all their
trade in those lines in which Mr. Vandervall is en¬
gaged to him. He also gets much work from the
leading furniture dealers of New York City.
A few years ago Mr. Vandervall added to the
246 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
equipment of his factory a machine for the cleaning
and opening of feathers.
Besides making pillows and feathered goods for
private families, he has now yearly contracts with the
largest department store in Orange and several in
New York for the manufacture of high grade pillows
and the lightening of all kinds of feathers. Connected
with the factory, there is a large storage room for the
care and overhauling of property of persons who live
in New York and the Oranges. There are only a
few factories of this kind in the vicinity of New York
and few are better equipped than Mr. Vandervall's.
Mr. Vandervall has been able to build up a large
and profitable business because he early learned that
it pays to do superior work, and that if there is preju¬
dice against color, there is none against high-class
workmanship.
The factory employs at the present time from ten
to sixteen persons regularly and does a business of
$20,000 a year. One of the advantages of beginning
at the bottom, is that by getting an intimate acquaint¬
ance with difficulties one learns how to overcome
them. Mr. Vandervall has turned his experience to
good account by the invention of a machine which
does the work he was formerly compelled to do by
hand. It is called the Crescent Carpet Cleaning Ma¬
chine. It is patented and has met with favor among
men in the carpet cleaning business in different parts
of the country.
Mr. Vandervall owns a beautiful home on Main
Street. In 1888 he was married to Miss Isabella
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Brown of Trenton, N. J. They have three daugh¬
ters.
In the business, moral and educational life of his
city, he takes much interest. Being a large tax-payer,
he enjoys the respect and confidence of the financial
institutions. In the municipal government he is a
prominent factor. He is the leading colored citizen
of his community.
John S. Hicks, of Erie, Pennsylvania, has gained
a reputation as a business man, by the able way in
which he has conducted a bakery, ice-cream and candy
factory.
Mr. Hicks was born in Virginia. At an early age
he went with his parents, who were free colored peo¬
ple, to Massachusetts, where he secured a place at
very small wages, in a bakery and ice-cream factory.
After saving sufficient money to furnish him the neces¬
sary capital Mr. Hicks went into business for him¬
self. He conducted this business until 1873, when,
upon the strength of a circular that fell into his hands,
he was induced to go to Erie, where he has since lived.
Upon his arrival in Erie he sought work and found
it in the largest ice-cream factory and bakery in the
city. His knowledge of the details of the business
soon made him indispensable. He was promoted and
made foreman. During the time that he was foreman
the quality of the goods sent out by the firm improved
steadily and attracted the attention of the general
trade throughout the state.
About this time the business changed hands and,
though by this change Mr. Hicks received a larger
248 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
salary and a more important position, the business
did not prosper under the new management and when
it finally failed it was owing Mr. Hicks $400 for
wages.
After this the business'was sold to the owner of
the building in which it was located. From this man
Mr. Hicks purchased the bakery and the ice-cream
machinery, giving him his notes in payment. Later
Mr. Hicks transferred the business to a third party,
taking a note for $500 from the purchaser. He has
the note still. Three weeks later after he had sold
the first business he opened a new place of his own.
These somewhat intricate business maneuvers, in
which there was no doubt a good deal of fumbling
and uncertainty, are important only as showing the
sort of school in which Negro business men are com¬
pelled to learn. Mr. Hicks, in starting out in life,
had first to make himself master of the trade and
vocation that he had chosen or that circumstances had
chosen for him. Having accomplished this he had
acquired a sort of capital of which no business failure
or bad management could rob him. The problem of
getting his knowledge and experience into the market
in the best and most satisfactory way was a new and
different problem. Here Mr. Hicks had to serve a
new apprenticeship. By sticking to his task, learning
by his mistakes, he succeeded at last in getting on his
feet.
His trade had soon increased sufficiently to justify
him in purchasing his first piece of property, for which
he went in debt to the extent of several thousand
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
249
dollars. Finding the building he was occupying too
small for his increasing trade, he erected on this prop¬
erty a brick building costing $2,000. His trade con¬
tinued to increase. Nine years after he had first
opened his business he purchased the property adjoin¬
ing that on which he was doing business and erected
a three-story brick building, which cost $9,000, and
paid cash for both building and land. Two years
later he replaced the building he had first erected by
a new brick building, which cost him $7,000.
At this time his trade had extended to pretty nearly
every part of the State of Pennsylvania. Not long
after this he was compelled, in order to meet the de¬
mands of his trade, to build, as an addition to the two
buildings he had already erected, a building 75x52,
brick, with a metal roof, which cost him $4,000. This
building was fitted with new and improved machinery.
Some notion of the extent of Mr. Hick's business may
be gathered from the fact that his sugar and salt bill
for one year alone was $2,500. His ice bill amounts
to something like $1,500 annually.
Mrs. Hicks has been of inestimable help in her
husband's business. In the business and political life
of Erie, Mr. Hicks is a wholesome factor. Few men
take more interest in the building up of the city than
he. He owns stock in the various financial institu¬
tions of Erie and the county, and in all matters of a
public nature he exercises -the influence of a responsi¬
ble citizen.
The men treated in this chapter have won success
in various lines. But they have all had in common
250
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
the qualities of thrift, honesty, and energy. If a
larger number of our young men believed they could
do what these men have done, the Race Problem
would be considerably forwarded toward solution.
CHAPTER XXIV
THREE PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF BUSINESS SUCCESS
It has been my notion that the reports of the annual
meetings of the Business League should furnish, as
far as possible, a record not merely of the business
progress of the race but also of the personal achieve¬
ment of individual Negro business men. I have al¬
ways encouraged as far as I was permitted to do so,
members of the League to be autobiographical, to tell
us those things of which they knew the most, and
which, after all, are most interesting and most help¬
ful, namely the record of their own personal strug¬
gles and achievements. Speakers at our meetings
have not always been as specific and personal as I
should like to have them. In two or three cases,
however, members of the League have told us their
stories in so interesting and helpful a way that I feel
that I could not do better than reproduce their stories
here, in their own words.
The first address which I desire to reproduce is
that of Mr. J. M. Hazel wood, of Charleston, West
Virginia. Mr. Hazelwood is, perhaps, the wealthiest
colored man in his state. His address is important
because it answers a question that is of increasing in¬
terest to our business men and our race, namely:
How we are to maintain ourselves in the gainful oc-
251
252 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cupations of which we already have possession. Mr.
Hazelwood has answered this question practically in
his own business and his narrative will indicate how
others may be able to do the same. The title of his
paper is: " How to Establish and Maintain the Bar¬
ber Business."
" I entered the barber business/' said Mr. Hazel-
wood, " as an apprentice in the city of Parkersburg,
W. Va., in the year 1880. After serving in that ca¬
pacity for one year I secured a position as journey¬
man barber in a shop at Corning, O., where by close
application to business and the practice of economy, I
had within eight months saved enough to purchase
the business and become proprietor. This business
was successfully conducted for about one year when I
took advantage of an opportunity to dispose-of it prof¬
itably, as the town was too small to give promsie of
future development.
West Virginia, then as now, offered a great many
inducements not offered by other states, and my at¬
tention was attracted to it, as I was in search of a per¬
manent location. I went to Point Pleasant in 1882
and worked there for nine months. From there I
went to Charleston, the capital of the state. Upon
arriving in Charleston I secured a position as journey¬
man barber in a shop owned by a white man. After
working a short time in this position and having been
convinced of the importance of Charleston as a busi¬
ness center, I decided to " let down my bucket where
I was." A partnership was formed with Mr. J. W.
Vinney and we opened a three-chair shop on the main
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
253
street of the city. This partnership continued for one
year, at the expiration of which time I purchased Mr.
Vinney's interest. From the beginning this business
was a success and constantly increased in volume until
I now employ seven barbers, two porters and a cashier
and have one of the best established shops in the
state. It has occupied one stand continuously for
the past twenty years.
" In 1898 I opened in the Citizens' Bank Building
a four-chair shop, which has been successful and is
at present employing four barbers and one porter.
In 1903 I opened in the Kanawha Banking & Trust
Company Building a six-chair barber shop equipped
with the latest and most improved appliances, includ¬
ing a ladies' and gentlemen's manicuring and hair-
dressing parlor. This shop was fitted up at a cost
of over $6,000 and is conceded, I am told, to be the
finest in the state of West Virginia. It employs six
barbers, two ladies in the hair-dressing department,
a cashier and two porters. The investment has
proved a satisfactory one.
" In the barber, as in other businesses, it is neces¬
sary to observe certain rules in order to succeed, and
I attribute my success to the fact that I have observed
them. I have always tried to make my shops the best
in my city and my motto has been to lead and not
to follow. A man desiring the services of a barber
will invariably go to the place where he knows he will
find a clean and well-kept shop; neat, polite and tidy
workmen; tools sterilized and in good order; pure
and wholesome drugs, toilet articles, clean linens, and
254 the negro in business
pleasant, inviting surroundings. These I have always
endeavored to keep.
" My consumption of barbers' supplies has become
so great that I am reckoned as a jobber, and I have
built up a good business by carrying a stock and sell¬
ing throughout the state.
" The barber business, as you know, belonged al¬
most exclusively to our race a few years ago, but like
all other money-making occupations, has attracted the
white man and is rapidly passing from our grasp.
This is due to the fact that our people have not kept
pace with the times, but are content with methods
and customs of twenty-five years ago. The white
man is using modern and scientific methods and has
established schools all over the country where young
men are taught the trade.
" There is no trade at which one can earn better
wages and at which one can find more ready employ¬
ment. In my opinion our trade schools would do
well to turn their attention to this branch of industry
to the end that we may produce sober, intelligent bar¬
bers to hold the ground we are losing and reclaim
what we have lost.
" The ladies' and gentlemen's manicuring and hair-
dressing department in connection with my last place
was opened largely as an experiment. It has proved
a success. Like the barber business, the great diffi¬
culty is to keep competent persons to do the work.
I am of the opinion that this line of business offers
flattering inducements to those of our young women
who will enter and pursue it in a systematic way.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
255
"To my mind there is no prejudice in the barber
business. With the proper qualifications and meth¬
ods our people will be able to hold it, but they must
ever bear in mind that it is a question of the survival
of the fittest."
What Mr. Hazelwood has done in the barber busi¬
ness, Mr. Victor H. Tulane, of Montgomery, Ala¬
bama, has done in another and entirely different form
of business. Mr. Tulane is a dealer in groceries,
wood and coal. " My story," he said, " is indeed
very simple. Owing to the fact that in boyhood I
was forced to help earn a support for my mother, who
was then in poor health, I was deprived of the ad¬
vantages of attending school, except for a very lim¬
ited time; but regardless of educational deficiencies,
I determined to make a man of myself, and some day
have and control a business of my own.
"Thirteen years ago (in 1893), with no previous
experience, I entered the grocery business with a cap¬
ital of ninety dollars, saved from the small salary of
three dollars per week. For quite a while I had great
difficulty in securing a store-house in which to begin
operations, but finally succeeded in finding in the sub¬
urbs of Montgomery an unsuccessful and disheart¬
ened grocer who* was very anxious to close out his
business; with but little ceremony he sold me his entire
stock, consisting of a pair of rusty scales, a small
battered oil tank, two primitive show-cases, a few
candy jars, a peck measure, one lamp and a broken
meat knife, together with a few odds and ends of
groceries. But insignificant as were these purchases,
256
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
I found after settling for them and paying in advance
one month's rent for the store that my funds were
almost exhausted. With the small balance in hand
and a memorandum furnished by certain neighbors
who were generous enough to name to me a number
of the articles usually kept in a grocery store, I pro¬
ceeded to the city to purchase additional supplies, after
which I was ready for business.
" On having been open a day or two I found myself
still short of several articles and was again compelled
to go to market — a five-poured bucket of lard and
ten cents worth of salt being among the things then
purchased; immediately after returning to my store,
strange to say, I had a call for five cents worth of
salt, and not yet having learned how to weigh, and
knowing full well that a merchant could not succeed
without making a profit, I straightway proceeded in
order to be on the safe side, to divide the ten cent
package of salt into three equal parts; these packages
I sold for five cents apiece. ,
" The building in which I was located was about
15 ft. by 20 ft., and finding that this area was much
too large to be filled by my small stock of merchan¬
dise and desiring to have a full store, I appropriated
one side to the use of charcoal — an article which I
found to be in great demand.
" My inability to carry on the business properly,
arising principally from ignorance of its particulars,
caused me no little inconvenience, and I at once set
about to overcome this difficulty. I began by hiring
a small boy who had previously received a little knowl-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
257
edge of store-keeping, and through him I succeeded
in learning how to weigh. My next step was to
solicit patronage; and of this I received much, too
much, since most of the goods then sold were on
credit and are yet unpaid for. For two years, how¬
ever, I worked diligently; but notwithstanding my
earnest endeavor and the kind assistance of my
mother, who was then out in service and readily and
regularly contributed her little earnings toward the
support of the business, I could barely manage to keep
afloat. I then decided that something was wrong and
set about to ascertain just what and where it was.
After careful investigation, I found that I was credit¬
ing more rapidly than collecting. My business was
really in such a bad condition that had I been com¬
pelled to pay a bill no greater than the sum of ten
dollars bankruptcy would have been inevitable.
Nevertheless, I then became more determined to suc¬
ceed than ever before and, profiting by past experi¬
ences and encouraged by the kindness of a few faith¬
ful friends, I soon found myself on the road to suc¬
cess. But this road, however, is by no means a
smooth one, (as is well known to you all) therefore,
do not be misled to believe that my obstacles, hard¬
ships and adversities vanished at this point, for they
certainly did not. Here I would relate an incident
which is sufficient to show what difficulty I had in
securing credit from the wholesale merchants. To
this time I had not applied for credit; first, because
I was practically a stranger in the city, and second,
because my trade was not sufficient to warrant me in
258
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
the opening of accounts, but now lacking a few dol¬
lars of the amount necessary to purchase a small bar¬
rel of syrup, I sought credit for this little amount
from the house to which I had been giving most of
my business, but was flatly refused, the proprietor
stating that he could not afford to open an account
with me. Naturally this refusal discouraged me to
a very great extent. At once I became aware of the
necessity of establishing and sustaining for myself a
credit; and then and there it was that I determined
so to do.
" During this state of my business career, well do
I remember many occasions when I was forced to
close up my store in order to deliver on my shoulder
a basket of groceries, and oftentimes a half barrel of
flour to some customer. Thus day by day, in the
midst of countless obstacles, I struggled earnestly,
always striving to please and keeping ever in view
the shining goal which I was determined to reach.
" Gradually, my business grew to such an extent
that it demanded other than a human delivery cart,
and at this juncture, I purchased a " never-to-be-for¬
gotten " Texas pony and an old second-hand wagon.
About this time the building that I rented had become
so dilapidated that whenever it rained I was kept busy
moving the goods from place to place, in order to keep
them from being damaged. Over and over again I
implored my landlord to make the necessary repairs,
but thinking that I would continue to hold the place
regardless of conditions, he refused to do this, stating
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
259
that he did not desire to expend any money on the
premises. Feeling much displeased at the manner in
which I had been treated, I at once resolved to have,
a store of my own.
" I had now been in business for three years, and
aside from having considerably increased my stock,
had managed to save up about $300 in cash. Being
well satisfied with the locality, I immeditaely set out
to purchase therein, but found it quite difficult to find
a suitable place. However, through the very close
friendship existing between a neighbor and myself, I
finally succeeded in purchasing half of his lot, which
was just across the street from the store in which I-
was then situated. Upon this lot I proceeded at once
to erect a store-house and dwelling combined, and at
the expiration of one year succeeded in paying off all
indebtedness.
" About this time, feeling much in need of assist¬
ance and encouragement, I took into my business a
partner, whose cheering words, wholesome advice and
invaluable aid have tended largely to make me what¬
ever I am. This partner, as you perhaps have
guessed, is no other than my wife.
" Business continued to flourish, and it was not
many months ere I had the opportunity to purchase
the other half of my neighbor's lot. This I did, and
soon afterwards began dealing in coal and wood on a
small scale; but so rapidly did this business grow that
it soon became necessary for me to secure larger quar¬
ters. With this aim in view, I bought another piece
260
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
of property adjoining my store, and thereby secured
ample yard. In the meantime, the increasing volume
of business in the grocery department forced me to
enlarge my store.
" Both time and propriety forbid me attempting
to mention the remaining stages of development
through which my business has passed; and for these
reasons I shall only say in conclusion that at the pres¬
ent time I am planning to erect a modern two-story
brick store-house upon a very desirable corner lot re¬
cently purchased for the purpose.
" By always giving close attention to the minor de¬
tails, ever striving to giv*1 satisfaction (believing that
a satisfied customer is the very best advertisement to
be had) and above all things, by dealing in a straight¬
forward, honest and upright manner, I have succeeded
in gaining the respect and good will of the public at
large, together with the support of the majority of
the colored people and many of the white of my city.
" Now, gentlemen, I sincerely trust that you will
overlook the personal nature of these remarks, for,
under the existing circumstances, there seems to be no
alternative — so please bear with me a little further,
while I make the following comparisons:
" Thirteen years ago I was a renter; to-day I am
landlord of not a few tenants.
" Thirteen years ago my stock represented less than
a hundred dollars; at the present time it values several
thousand.
" Thirteen years ago I had but one helper — a small
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
boy; to-day I employ on an average of seven as¬
sistants the year round, not including my wife.
" Eleven years ago I was unable to secure credit
to the amount of three dollars; but since that period,
the very house that then refused me has credited me
at one time several hundred times this amount; and
to-day it is not ' How much do you owe ? ' but ' How
much do you want ? '
" Ten years ago my business barely required the
service of one horse and wagon; at present it demands
the use of several.
" Ten years ago I did an annual business of some¬
thing less than aithousand dollars; during the year of
1903 the volume of my business exceeded the amount
of $25,000."
One of the interesting stories I have heard recently
is that of William Alexander, of Little Rock, Ark.
Mr. Alexander is a painter and contractor. In 1904
his aggregate business amounted to $12,123.50 for
the year. In 1892 he was little more than a common
laborer. He had had some experience in a store but
he had no trade and he was without work. The
story of how, in the face of prejudice and in spite of
discouragements, he succeeded first in learning his
trade and through the% medium of that trade succeeded
in establishing a large and profitable business is worth
telling in some detail.
From 1888 to 1890 Mr. Alexander held a position
as storekeeper for Mr. W. W. Dickinson, of Little
Rock.. Of his condition and state of mind while he
was in this position he says: " Like most young
262
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Negroes whose opportunities are in advance of their
common sense, I spent my money as fast as I made
it, never dreaming that conditions would change."
In 1892 he left his position because of a quarrel with
a white man in another department of the business
and suddenly found himself outside of his job with¬
out a dollar and with no place -to turn for work.
More than this, the fact that he had held the position
of " storekeeper" worked against him in his effort
to get work. He was regarded as a " spoiled nigger "
and of " no account."
From this point on I will tell Mr. Alexander's
story, practically in his own words, as he retold it at
the meeting of the National Negro Business League
held in New York in August, 1905.
" Finally," he says, " I came across a man that
wanted his barn painted. I had had no training or
experience as a painter, but I determined to try. A
rickety ladder which I constructed, one paint-brush
and a bucket was the sum total of my working ma¬
terials. I went to work on this barn as though soul
and body depended upon it. I worked early and late.
It would be impossible for me to tell how many times
I stood off and looked at it and then touched it up
here and there before I got up courage to tell the
man that I had finished the job. He came out and
inspected the work, and, after a careful examination,
was so pleased that he asked me to figure on painting
his two-story residence. He could not have frightened
me more if he had rejected the work on the barn.
I had no earthly resources but my labor. I did not
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
263
have credit for a quart of paint and had no knowledge
whatever of mixing colors. After much deliberation
I got up sufficient nerve to take the job and trusted
to work and to Providence for the balance.
" I asked several old painters to show me how to
mix my paint. They demanded one-half of the con¬
tract price, which I refused. I finally came across an
old white painter who was engaged in other business.
He told me what I most wanted to know, mixed a
bucket of paint for me and told me where to write
for books, etc., that would help me. I made me a lad¬
der and got some people passing by to help me raise
it. I stuck to this job as I did the first, and when I
had finished the man pronounced it the best job that
he had ever had, notwithstanding the fact that a white
painter had painted the same house twelve months pre¬
viously. His next-door neighbor liked the job so
well that he let me the contract, over the bid of a
white contractor, to paint his house. When I had
finished this job I found that I had gotten ahead far
enough to invest a little money in working materials,
so I bought an extension and two step-ladders.
" The last man I worked for recommended me to
a friend who was having two houses built. He sent
for me and told me to go round to the architect's office
and figure on the plans. I went but the architect told
me flatly that no Negro figured 011 any plans of his.
I went back and informed my employer, whereupon he
took me in his buggy and went down and made it
plain to the architect that it was his money that was
paying for the plans and his money would erect the
264 the negro in business
house. He insisted on his right to make terms with
whom he chose for performing this work, regardless
of the color of the hand that wrought it.
" They turned over to me what I have since learned
was the blue print and not the plans. To me it mat¬
tered little for none of it added to my intelligence as
I did not know what a plan or specification meant.
I looked over the paper with a wise air and told the'
man that I would do the work for $120. The papers
were drawn up and the contract closed. I had not
advanced far on the job before I discovered that I
had bid $120 on a $200 job. I made up my mind to
take my medicine and finish my contract even though
I should lose money. The architects were naturally
sore, and after I had finished the job they brought
out three experienced white painters to pass upon the
work.
" I felt that my hour had come. The three painters
examined the work carefully and when I looked up
to hear my doom they remarked, 4 it was as good a
job as anybody could do.'
" That opened the door for the Negro painter in
Little Rock. Up to this time no Negro had been
able to figure on plans held by white architects, but
that let down the bars and to-day they have the same
chance as any other contractors. I had learned the
following lesson: Do all of your work well, meet
your obligations promptly and carry out your con¬
tract if yoti lose money. Adhering to these principles
had Nsent my stock up considerably. I was regarded
as a reliable and efficient workman.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
265
" Work was picking up so that I had to supple¬
ment my equipment by the addition of a horse and
wagon. I bought a horse for $10 and a wagon for
$5, and made a set of harness out of some old rope
that I had at home. The season was growing late
and winter approaching, but I secured a contract to
paint six houses. This tided me over the winter and
placed me in a condition to buy a set of harness and
employ two painters to assist me. My $15 horse and
wagon soon proved too light for the amount of work
that I was handling. I swapped my horse and got a
good one by paying $35 difference. Also bought a
strong, substantial wagon. In this I was criticised
by many of the older Negro painters of the city, but
I had discovered something that they probably had
not thought of, that is, a painter handling a half
dozen jobs at the time, paying to have his ladders,
paints, etc., hauled, would pay out more in a month's
time than the cost of keeping a horse.
" I never let up in preparing and keeping myself
posted on the progress of the trade. I procured all
of the literature that was available on the subject and
anybody that knew more about the business than vmy-
self would find me a frequent caller. I was ambitious
to take my place as one of the painters of the state
that could handle any contract awarded him. Most
of the Negro contractors were satisfied with painting
cottages, fences, etc., but I wanted to be able to paint
anything from the state house to a hitching-post, hence
I never stopped reaching out, while I held fast at the
same time to all that I had gained.
2.66
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
" The opportunity came for me to prove that I could
handle large contracts. The Capital Theatre and T.
H. Bunch Grain Works had to be painted. The con¬
tracts were awarded me over five white contractors.
I made the required bond, and turned the job over to
them on schedule time, having met every requirement
of the contract. The completion of these jobs re¬
moved every barrier out of my way. I was and am
regarded now as a contractor and not a " Nigger Con¬
tractor." My working material has grown from the
one rickety ladder, paint brush and bucket to include
all of the working paraphernalia demanded by the
time. I buy my paint in wholesale quantities from
Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. I now work
twelve men every working day in the year, wages
ranging from $1.50 to $2.75 per day. My aggregate
business for the year closing December 31st, 1904,
was $12,123.50. When I started as a painter in Lit¬
tle Rock I was a tenant, to-day I own my home and
seven city lots besides. My painting business is now
in a condition to run itself and a large part of my
time is spent in aiding and fostering other race en¬
terprises. Aside from my contracting business, I am
president of the Relief Joint Stock Grocery Co., a
director and member of the Discount Board of the
Capital City Savings Bank, president of the State B.
Y. P. U. In my own way I am trying to help the
race by doing,— bringing something tangible to pass
— something that will stand after I am gone and open
opportunities for' generations to come."
Mr. Alexander concluded his narrative with some
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
267
general remarks that I think are well worth repeating.
He said:
"The struggleof the black man in this country is
everywhere much the same. He must go out, as it
were, and dig out of nothing — something. He must
close his eyes to opposition and let work and perse¬
verance be the key-note of his ambition. The success
that is built from the ground with one's own hand is
lasting and sacred, but things thrown upon us gen¬
erally go as they come. All of us must work without
ceasing along our chosen lines, for that is the only
key that will unlock the door of opportunity."
CHAPTER XXV
THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE
As I have said elsewhere in this book, the number
of successful business men and women of the Negro
race that I was continually coming in contact with
during my travels throughout the country was a source
of surprise and pleasure to me. My observation in
this regard led me, a few years ago, to believe that
the time had come for bringing together the leading
and most successful colored men and women in the
country who were engaged in business. The benefits
of such a meeting were 6bvious. In the first place,
the bringing together of these persons would result
in their getting acquainted with each other, and re¬
ceiving information and inspiration from one another.
In the second place, plans could be formed for ex¬
tending the influence of the meeting to the remotest
corners of the land through the organization of local
leagues of business men and women, and thus en¬
courage, more and more of our people to enter busi¬
ness.
After consultation -with prominent men in all parts
of the country, it was decided to call a meeting of
our business men and women in Boston, Massachu¬
setts, on August 23d and 24th, 1900, for the purpose
of organizing the National Negro Business League.
268
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
269"
Early in 1900 letters were sent to a great number of
our people who were engaged in business, acquainting
them with the proposed meeting, its objects, and its
time and place. The proposition recommended itself
at once to our people. This is shown'by the fact that
in answer to the invitation over four hundred delegates
presented themselves at Boston on the appointed date.
They came from thirty-four states, from Mississippi
and Maine, from Virginia, and California, thus jus¬
tifying the word, " National," in the new organiza¬
tion's title. The following officers were elected:
Booker T. Washington, President; Giles B. Jackson,
Vice-President; T. Thomas Fortune, Chairman Ex¬
ecutive Committee; E. A. Johnson, Compiler; Gilbert
C. Harris, Treasurer, and E. E. Cooper, Secretary.
The meeting was enthusiastic but at the same time
practical. Those who were in attendance believed in
the timeliness of the organization. They had noticed
that almost without exception, whether in the North
or in the South, wherever there was a black man who
was succeeding in business, who was a taxpayer, and
who possessed intelligence and high character, that
individual was treated with respect by the members of
the white race. This fact suggested that, in propor¬
tion as we could multiply these examples North and
South, our problem would be solved. This was the
assumption on which members of the League took up
the task it offered them. They recognized that a use¬
less, shiftless, idle class is" a.menace and a danger to
any community, and that when an individual produces
what the world wants, whether it is a product of hand,
•270
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
heart or head, the world does not long stop to inquire
what is the color of the skin of the producer. It
was easily seen that if every member of the race
should strive to make himself the most indispensable
man in his community, and to be successful in busi¬
ness, however humble that business might be, he would
contribute much towards smoothing the pathway of
his own and future generations.
It was evident, also, that the success of Negro busi¬
ness men was largely dependent upon, and would tend
to instill into the mass of the Negro people habits of
system and fidelity in the small details of life, and
that these habits would bring with them feelings of
self-reliance and self-respect, which are the basis of
all real progress, moral or material.
I have said that the meeting was practical. This
spirit was expressed by a certain well-intentioned dele¬
gate who said to the assembly: " You do not look
like a set of men who are interested in resolutions.
Thank God! you look to me like men interested in
executions! "
An idea of the temper of the meeting, and of the
effect which it produced upon those who were present
can be had from the following extracts from a writer
in the Boston Transcript: —
" The silly, uneducated, shiftless Negro puts his pay
on his back: the business Negro puts his pay in the
bank. Here were men who had penetrated the real
secret of success; men who understood that the only
sure basis of progress is economic, men who would
sacrifice to-day's indulgence for to-morrow's independ-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
271
ence. The spirit of the whole occasion was distinctly
hopeful. No one ' cried baby.' Regarding material
advancement as the basis of every other sort of prog¬
ress, the convention listened eagerly to every account
of Negroes, once poor, who had now built houses,
bought land, opened places of independent business,
and established solid bank accounts. Repeatedly it
was pointed out that men born slaves had actually be¬
come rich; also that the total material progress of the
Negro race had been accomplished in only thirty-five
years — a happy augury for the future!
" And think what this orderly, decorous, well-
dressed, educated assemblage represents! Think of
the change brought about by thirty-five years of Ne¬
gro progress — slaves, freedmen, laborers, capitalists,
reformers, leaders of a struggling race, and all in
scarce more than a generation of time! Think of the
millions who are still coming up; the millions who
have in them the possibilities of success; the millions
whom we must judge by the standards of the business
convention and not by the standards of the criminal
court. The convention, now that it has come and
gone, leaves a memory of heroic hopefulness and pa¬
tience."
From the success of the meeting at Boston, it was
evident that the organization of the National Negro
Business League was a step in the right direction. It
set going a most earnest and active inquiry among our
people as to each other's success, and brought to view,
from far and wide, many business enterprises which
27 2
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
were not known beyond the immediate vicinity in
which they were located.
The second annual convention of the Business
League met in Chicago, 111., on August 21, 1901, for
a three days' session. Nearly three hundred dele-
g'ates, representing twenty-five states, were in attend¬
ance. A considerable proportion of them were from
the West, whereas in the first convention a majority
were from the East. This showed that the organiza¬
tion, by meeting at Chicago, had widened its influ¬
ence. The League was welcomed to the city by repre¬
sentatives of the Governor of Illinois, and the Mayor
of Chicago. President McKinley sent a kindly let¬
ter regretting his inability to be present. As at the
first meeting, the sessions were largely taken up by
addresses on the part of chosen delegates on the va¬
rious lines of business in which they were engaged.
The excellence of these addresses may be known from
the list of those who spoke, which included men like
Theodore W. Jones, W. L. Taylor, Charles Banks,
S. R. Scottron, L. G. Wheeler, J. C. Napier, R. H.
Boyd, C. H. Smiley, and John S. Trower.
Between the Boston meeting and that at Chicago,
many new business enterprises sprang up among mem¬
bers of the race, thus showing the value of the in¬
spiration and' the quickening of interest which only
the bringing together of those who were already en¬
gaged in business could impart.
The third session of the Business League was held
in Richmond, Va., on August 25, 26, and 27, 1902.
About two hundred delegates were present, represent-
LEXINGTON RESIDENCE BUILT BY TANDY & BYRD, CONTRACTORS, LEXINGTON, KY.
OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE, AT INDIANAPOLIS IN 1904.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
273
ing twenty-six states. The practical aims of the meet¬
ing were indicated by the president in his annual ad¬
dress.
" I am glad to say," he said, " that this Business
League is composed of workers and not mere talkers.
Those who are taking part in the program during the
three days' session have been asked to do so because
of the fact that they have actually succeeded in demon¬
strating their ability to succeed in some line of in¬
dustry. We have no one on the program who is to
advise others to do that which he himself has not done.
For the most part, those on the program will tell in a
plain simple way how they themselves have built up
from a small beginning large and successful business
enterprises which have helped to secure for them the
respect and confidence of both races in their communi¬
ties. It would be comparatively easy to have men of
eloquence and enthusiasm speak to you for hours, tell¬
ing you how to do something which they themselves
have not done, but we have determined to have only
those represented on the program who have actually
succeeded."
The addresses, which followed the lines of those of
the two previous meetings, were delivered by such men
as W. P. Burrell, H. A. Tandy, A. C. Howard, Dr.
J. W. E. Bowen, Rev. Preston Taylor, Judge Robert
H. Terrell, J. E. Bush, and Giles B. Jackson.
The fourth annual session of the Business League
was held in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 19th,
20th, and 21 st, 1903. Over two hundred delegates
were present. It must be remembered that many of
274
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
these delegates came as representatives of local busi¬
ness leagues, whose membership is often quite large.
I think I am safe in saying that the two hundred dele¬
gates at Nashville represented three thousand men and
women of our race who are engaged in business.
Never were kindlier addresses made to colored au¬
diences by white men than those made by Mayor-elect
Williams of Nashville; Mr. H. C. Collier, president of
the Chamber of Commerce of Nashville, and Mr. J. L.
DeMoville, president of the Retail Merchants' Asso¬
ciation of Nashville. The meetings were held in the
Hall of the House of Representatives of Tennessee.
Among those who delivered addresses were Philip A.
Payton, Jr., Edward C. Berry, Dr. John H. Smythe,
Fred. R. Moore, and M. S. Alexander. Mrs. Fannie
Barrier Williams, writing to the Chicago Unity con¬
cerning this meeting said: " It was an excellent tonic
for drooping and discouraged spirits to be in this brac¬
ing atmosphere of optimism as expressed by this ad¬
vance guard of practical prosperity and wealth-accu¬
mulating strength. Whatever may be said by the
preachers of despair and the false prophets of evil
concerning the future of the Negro race in this coun¬
try, these steady and silent workers for success in every
nook and corner of the South are developing the only
real and tangible defense against all possible adversity
and opposition. The business interests represented at
the Nashville convention, interests created by the mem¬
bers of the League, and belonging solely to its mem¬
bers and associates, will measure up to over $2,000,-
000. From the Wall street standpoint this is not
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
275
much, but from the standpoint of men who are merely
learning to live and learning to be something in a
nation of great things, it is all-important and inspir¬
ing."
The next session of the Business League was held
in Indianapolis, Ind., on August 31 and September 1
and 2, 1904. Over two hundred and fifty delegates
were present, from almost every state in the Union.
The organization was welcomed by Hon. Chas. W.
Miller, attorney-general of Indiana; Hon. John W.
Kern, Democratic nominee for the governorship of
Indiana, and Mayor Holzman of Indianapolis.
During the past five years the work of the Business
League has greatly extended through the influence
of Local Business Leagues in various parts of the
country. There are at present 320 of such leagues.
During the coming year or two, an effort will be made
to systemize their work and give it a more definite
character than it has had in the past.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAQUE IN NEW YORK
One of the most successful sessions of the Business
League was held in the Palm Garden, 58th street and
Lexington avenue, New York, August 16, 17 and 18,
1905. It was accounted the biggest, most representa¬
tive and useful meeting the league has ever held, and
that is why I refer to it at length. There were nearly
400 delegates present, representing thirty-one states
and the Republic of Santo Domingo. Pennsylvania,
sent thirty-five delegates, New York and Virginia
thirty each. Probably every considerable Negro com¬
munity in the United States except Louisiana — and
possibly every business interest of any particular im¬
portance was represented.
At the opening meeting letters were read from the
President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt,
and from the Governor of New York, Hon. Frank
W. Higgins, which indicated interest in the work of
the League and appreciation of the importance of the
movement it represented.
The letter of the President in particular was so
wholly in sympathy with the purposes of the league
that it is worth quoting here, merely for its intrinsic
value and as an indication of what one of the wisest
276
OFFICERS OF NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE.
(1) S Laing Williams, Compiler, Chicago. (2) Gilbert C. Harris,
Treasurer, Boston, Mass. (3) Cyrus Field Adams, Transportation
Agent. (4) F H. Gilbert, Registrar, Brooklyn. (5) William H. Davis,
Official Stenographer, Washington. (6) R. C. Houston, Assistant
Registrar, Fort Worth, Tex. (7) Emmett J, Scott, Corresponding
Secretary
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE.
(1) J B. Bell, Houston, Tex. (2) S. E. Courtney, M. D., Boston, Mass.
(3) W. L. Taylor, Richmond, Ya. (4) T. Thomas Fortune, New York City,
Chairman. (5) N. T. Velar, Brinton, Pa. (6) J. C. JacksoK, Lexing¬
ton, Ky, (7) M. M. Lewey, Pensacola, Fla. (8) E. P. Booze, Colorado
Springs, Col. (9) S. A. Furniss, M. D., Indianapolis, Ind. (10) John E.
Bush, Little Rock, Ark. (11) James C. Napier, Nashville, Tenn.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 277
and most sincere friends of our race hopes and desires
for us. The letter was as follows:
Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 12, 1905.
My dear Mr. Scott: —
I wish all success to the National Negro Business
League. Your organization is absolutely out of poli¬
tics ; and in stimulating activity among your people and
working to increase their efficiency in the industrial
world it is also doing far-reaching work in the way of
giving them a realizing sense of their responsibilities as
citizens and power to meet these responsibilities. I
need hardly say that I put moral betterment above
physical betterment. But it is absolutely impossible to
do good work in promoting the spiritual improvement
of any race unless there is a foundation of material
well-being, because this foundation necessarily implies
that the race, has developed the root qualities of thrift,
energy, and business sense. It is as true of a race
as of an individual that while outsiders can help to
a certain degree, yet the real help must come in the
shape of self-help.
The success of your organization and the develop¬
ment among our colored fellow-citizens of the very
qualities for which you stand will mean more for
the solution of the race problem than any philanthropic
efforts merely from outside could possibly do.
Wishing you all success, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt.
Mr. Emmett J. Scott, Corresponding Secretary,
National Negro Business League, New York, N. Y.
278
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Later in the course of its proceedings members had
an opportunity to hear a number of prominent New
York business men, whose achievements in the busi¬
ness world made their encouragement and advice es¬
pecially interesting and valuable. Addresses were
made by such eminent citizens as Mr. Oswald Garri¬
son Villard, of the New York Post, who was particu¬
larly welcome to the members of the league because
he happens to be a grandson of William Lloyd Garri¬
son; by Hon. John Wanamaker, Mr. Robert C. Ogden
and Mr. George Foster Peabody. Some of the things
these men said were so important that they deserve
to be quoted here. They will contribute something to
define the purposes and indicate still further the pos¬
sibilities of the Business League. Mr. Ogden said,
among other things:
" I am a working man, and — putting it man and
boy together—I have not been out of daily employ¬
ment for a period (let me see, I have education enough
to work, out the problem)—I should say for fifty-two
years. (Great applause.) Yes, for nearly fifty-three
years I have been engaged in daily work, and I have
come from my daily work to this meeting of the Busi¬
ness League, simply as a business man — not to make
a speech but to have just a little friendly talk for the
benefit of us all. (Applause.)
" I feel that it would be almost an impertinence to
come here with a formulated speech. It has been my
privilege during the last few days to look over the
newspaper reports of the meetings of this league, and
I have been very deeply impressed by the wisdom and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 279
the common sense that has been expressed from this
platform; and, therefore, I feel that it would be an
impertinence on my part to attempt to add anything to
the very excellent statements,, based upon actual ex¬
perience, and the very logical deductions from those
experiences that have been made here during the last
two days. I do say, however, with a great deal of
interest, that I am gratified and very much impressed
by two or three facts concerning the convocation of
this league in New York. First, that it is in New
York. We know that there is a great deal of pro¬
vincialism in New York. I sometimes like to discuss
with my friends the provincialism of the metropolis;
that, however, has nothing to do with the present oc¬
casion— but the fact that NEW YORK is NEW
YORK, and is the metropolis makes powerful and,
influential anything that New York takes hold of.
Therefore, I am immensely gratified that the public
press and the thinking people of New York have taken
hold in their sympathies and in their thoughtful in¬
terests, of this■ convention, of this_ league, because the
fact that it is here,— the fact that the best part of
our press is fully reporting your proceedings, and the
ablest of our editors are discussing your proceedings
each day and deducing therefrom lessons of value that
will add to the force and value of this league, in rela¬
tion to the people of the United States. (Applause.)
Again, I am gratified as one that is deeply interested
in all the things that are before you here, for the
splendid way you are addressing the country. Then,
too, it is interesting to note the progress that is being
28o
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
made in so many lines of industry. I know perfectly
well the handicaps and the limitations that so many
of the race represented here have l!o work under
before they can reach success. But I have been deeply
impressed for a number of years with the fact that
no man in America has equal opportunities for useful¬
ness with the intelligent, conscientious, devoted and
patriotic colored man. (Long applause.) The op¬
portunity that is open before him may lead through
paths of self-sacrifice, may lead through difficulties and
trials, and may never have a brilliant outcome at the
end; but his opportunity for downright and real use¬
fulness is the greatest opportunity, I think, that Amer¬
ican civilization offers to-day, because of the power
and the influence of a man of the Afro-American race
upon others who need his influence; and in needing his
influence so many of them create the power for good
that lies in his hands. This has been a conviction of
mine for a very long while, and while I honor every
channel of education, while I would not put the slight¬
est limitation upon the opportunities of any man, while
all should have equal opportunity for the very best that
America has to offer, I yet feel that the whole develop¬
ment of education, that the whole power of higher edu¬
cation rests fundamentally upon material interests.
Not that money is of itself the great thing, but money
is the power and is the illustration of what character
and perseverance can do, so that material prosperity
underlies all sorts of progress. We know perfectly
well that commerce is the hand-maid, the twin sister
of education; we know that- throughout the world
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
281
where the nations are uncivilized and barbaric there is
no commerce in its real sense. Where commerce goes
there civilization follows. And it is the same principle
throughout our body politic, that where there is com¬
mercial success there is made the opportunity of in¬
tellectual development, of mental progress, of develop¬
ing civilization. So if I have been able to state this
principle in any way that makes it clear, I think it will
be recognized as a resulting conclusion that wherever
the facts of material progress are brought together
in such a way as to be evidence of a real, substantial,
material progress that exists in fact, there we have the
basis of all the development of intelligence and of
civilization. So I welcome with a degree of enthu¬
siasm that I can hardly express, this meeting of this
Business League in New York. . . . The great
mass of the men who have to-day great material pros¬
perity have been the men that have lifted themselves
and in lifting themselves, have lifted the communities
around them. They have cheapened transportation,
they have made some facility that has made life richer.
Who has been made poorer by the invention of the
Bell telephone? Who has been made poorer by any
of the inventions of Edison? No one. Thousands,
I may say possibly tens of thousands have been made
richer by the intellectual development of these men,
by the genius they have put into things. And there¬
fore, I think that out of it all may come the thought
that we are living in- a time when it is a splendid
time to live, and living in a business world because of
the opportunities it offers not only for personal ad-
282
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
vantage, but also for the uplift of the community and
of the health of our environment. .
" But I should like to go back just in this closing
word to the beginning of what I tried to say, that
although the limitations are great and the handicap is
heavy, and although you have a great many friends
who are sympathizing with you — there is no use of
fighting prejudice with opposition; opposition is the
food upon which prejudice feeds. Kindness and pa¬
tience and sound common sense will win in the long
run — and although the way may be painful and
slow, and although there are many sympathizing
friends that, in ways you do not know, are striving to
make the limitations lighter and the path smoother, yet
out of it all the intelligent colored man of America
measured by the divine standard, has the greatest op¬
portunity for usefulness that lies before any Ameri¬
can." (Great and prolonged applause.)
No speech during the session of the league seemed
to make a deeper impression than the plain talk of
Mr. John Wanamaker. " You are beginning," said
Mr. Wanamaker, " at the best time that America has
ever had. You are beginning with great friendships
and great hopes for your success. You are at a mo¬
ment of great responsibility because the world is
watching closely every step you take to measure your
capacity for citizenship and for a right to the place
that you claim to walk along in the conduct of business
with other men.
" The very existence of this Business League leaves
upon its face an indictment against expectation of
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
283
progress by chance, by favoritism, by sympathy. You
cannot afford to stop for a single minute in longing
to become the ward of the nation, to be paid for serv¬
ices that you did in the war, to be considered because
of any handicap that you may feel to be upon you. I
believe that it has been proven that every dependence
upon the politics that invites you to make successful
homes and successful businesses has been a disappoint¬
ment to you. (Applause.) The great dream that
you are to be lifted and carried has been exploded.
(Applause.) You are like a man that was kicked by
a mule. You were not quite so handsome afterward,
but you have learned a great deal. . . ,
" I remember very well when Philadelphia had
among its business people splendid colored men. Their
very names were a passport in any place of business
where they presented the card of William Still (ap¬
plause), and many others whose names are familiar
to you and to me. Age and time have changed the
scene in every city, and those old business men, col-
ord men, many of them, lost their businesses before
they passed away. How did they lose them? I be¬
lieve that they held such a reputation in the city that,
as I said before, the city was proud of them. They
were splendid men but they lost their businesses, and
as an old business man, I am speaking the fact: They
lost their businesses because the Swiss, the Germans
and others who were Americans and were white men,
did that same business better than they did it. Their,
color had not the least thing to do with it. (Ap¬
plause.) If you want names and l<Dcations I can give
284
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
them to you readily. But I am afraid that I should
speak too long should I continue.
" I have learned a great deal from colored people.
They were my early friends. . . . There was a
very fine old colored woman in Philadelphia that I
thought a great deal of; she was old enough to be my
grandmother and she did claim relationship with me.
Her hair was kinky, her bonnet was old-fashioned —
an old-fashioned quaker bonnet and I remember very
well that at that time these little short plush capes
were very fashionable in Philadelphia; they had just
learned to make a cheap kind of seal skin and old
Aunt Hannah would go about with her basket doing
her work. She was very much in earnest about not
having a cape. And so she got into several houses
where they were cutting out and making these capes
for the children and everybody liked her so much that
she had no trouble in getting them to give her a num¬
ber of scrap pieces of the goods, and with the pieces
thus obtained from several houses, she made a very
interesting little cape. It was not the most beautiful
cape in the world, it did not quite go all around but
it was warm and it covered a good heart. (Ap¬
plause. ) She was passing along Eighth street one day;
she was always welcome at my mother's house, and
she told us of a certain experience she had one day
when she heard some people on the street who were
behind her and they seemed to be finding a great deal
of amusement out of her newly made cape; she said
she looked around to see who it was and she saw a
young man and a girl, and she supposed them to be
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
285
man and wife (they were so happy together) and she
heard them talking, and she said she walked a little
slow and as they kept on talking about her new cape
— having great fun — they came right up to where
the old lady was and just as they passed, the man
turned and said, ' Auntie, what is your cloak trimmed
with?' (hardly suppressing his laughter) to which
the old lady, making the lowest bow that was possible
for her to make, said in reply: 4 With good manners,
sir.' Old Aunt Hannah teaches me to-day that it
would not be good manners for me to interrupt your
business beyond the expression of my warmest in¬
terest in the start you have made.
. . . " I do not believe for myself that I would
ever mark a man down (no, I won't say that, for you
might not understand what I meant when I say mark
a man down) I mean to say rather that I would not
write him down as a NEGRO lawyer, or a NEGRO
preacher, or a NEGRO banker. The question is, does
he understand law, can he properly conduct the case,
is he honest? If he is a baker, the question should be,
' Does he make good bread ? ' Does he get there on
time; can you depend on his word? These are the
tests. I think it is rather a disadvantage for a man
to be simply known as a very smart man or a very
smart Negro; he wants to be a very true man, a very
thorough man if he means to succeed, to do it along
the lines of the thousands of splendid men that have
made New York city, the nation's metropolis, what it
is — the greatest city in the world for commerce
to-day — the greatest for finance — the greatest for
286
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
enterprise, and yet if you go back to the beginnings
of these magnificent businesses in old Wall street and
throughout this whole city, you will find that they
were built upon very small foundations but very solid
ones. You will find that almost every great fortune
from Vanderbilt's down had its beginning with very
small details that were faithfully done. The greatest
bankers in every city in the world have, a history
which reveals the fact that the foundations of their
businesses were laid by men with very small means.
Some of the bankers commenced as peddlers but they
did not spend their time as some of the colored people
(and also some of the white people in Philadelphia)
do — on the street corners smoking cigarettes; they
did not come an hour and a half behind time with
some excuse for the non-performance of some duty;
they were men who made their names to count for
something and you must do exactly the same thing.
There is no set of principles for the white man dif¬
ferent from that of the black man. It is precisely the
same thing.
. . . " If you realize that there is a MAN in¬
side of you and that the world does not want so
much to add to its population as it does to have more
MAN inside of every man, making the man more of
a man and making him more useful as the days go
on — if you will do that we will strike hands together
because our hearts are one to make this th^ greatest
country in the world. And every man that believes
that and stands by it, whatever the difficulty is, is a
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 287
sharer in the destiny of our country and in its com¬
ing glory." ,(!Loud and long applause.)
I have quoted at considerable length the speech of
Mr. Wanamaker because it puts in plain, simple and
eloquent terms what seems to me the essential mean¬
ing of the Business League and because coming from
a man of the wide experience and business sagacity of
Mr. Wanamaker is testimony that in this organization
we are on the right track.
At the opening meetings of the sixth annual session
of the league addresses of welcome were made by
Hon. Charles W. Anderson, Collector of Internal
Revenue for the Fifth District, New York City; and
by Acting Mayor of New York, Hon. Charles V.
Fornes, Mr. Anderson speaking in behalf of the New
York Business League and Mr. Fornes on behalf of
the city of New York. The invocation was pro¬
nounced by Rev. W. H. Brooks, pastor of St. Marks
M. E. Church. An interesting part of the opening
exercises was the singing of a Negro anthem, com¬
posed by J. Rosamond Johnson, of the theatrical firm
of Cole & Johnson. The anthem was sung by mem¬
bers of the Williams and Walker Glee Club, which
acted as a sort of choir to the league, furnishing music
at appropriate periods during the sessions.
The papers read at the last session of the league
were undoubtedly more interesting and important than
those read at any previous meeting.
An interesting fact brought out in the paper of
Rev. W. R. Pettiford, president of the Alabama Penny
Savings and Loan Company, of Birmingham, was that
288
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
since the first meeting of the Business League in 1900,
no less than fourteen new banking institutions have
been established in different parts of the South by
Negroes. These banks, as appeared from Mr. Petti-
ford's report, have been established largely as a re¬
sult of the indirect influence of the National Negro
Business League. Other papers indicated that the
discussions at the League meetings have encouraged
some of its more thoughtful members to make special
studies of conditions in their localities, with the pur¬
pose of seeking out and directing attention to the in¬
fluences in their communities that are acting for and
against the welfare of the race. Such for instance
were the papers of S. Laing Williams, of Chicago on
" The Chicago Strike and Negro Labor," and that of
D. Macon Webster, of Brooklyn, on the " Business
Interests of Greater New York."
One of the most interesting papers of the session
was that of William Alexander, of Little Rock, Ark.,
a portion of this is reproduced in another chapter.
Wholly different in character was the address of
H. T. Kealing, of Philadelphia, entitled, " The Place
of Failure in Success." In this paper, which was
full of wit and shrewd observation, Mr. Kealing illus¬
trated by specific example the value of experience,
particularly hard experience, in the future success of
individuals and of our race as a whole.
The proceedings were naturally not without a touch
of humor. In this instance this element was fur¬
nished by the " opera house man " of Sullivan, Ind.,
in his quaint account of the curious assortment of busi-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
289
nesses in which he and his associates were engaged.
Besides " the only opera house in Sullivan," Mr. Bass
owns and conducts two barber shops, handles barber
supplies and operates a livery, feed and sale stable.
He and his associates own a brick hotel of twenty-five
rooms and in addition own twelve dwellings. Finally
he is proprietor and manufacturer of the Bassonian
British Lustre for the hair. All this indicates at least
a commendable disposition to try experiments and
gain experience in various directions, which at this
stage in the progress of our race is a valuable element
in our future success.
Other interesting papers were read. Those already
mentioned, however, will indicate the variety and gen¬
eral character of the matters that are considered at
the meetings of the league.
The following are the officers of the league elected
at the last session held at Atlanta, Georgia, in August,
1906:
President, Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Insti¬
tute, Ala.; First Vice-President, Ira O. Guy, Topeka,
Kansas; Second Vice-President, Dr. S. G. Elbert,
Wilmington, Del.; Third Vice-President, Charles
Banks, Mound Bayou, Miss.; Fourth -Vice-President,
F. D. Patterson, Greenfield, Ohio; Corresponding Sec¬
retary, Emmett J. Scott, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.;
Treasurer, Gilbert C. Harris, Boston, Mass.; Compiler,
S. Laing Williams, Chicago, 111.; Registrar, F. H. Gil¬
bert, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Official Stenographer, William
H. Davis, Washington, D. C.; Transportation Agent,
Cyrus Field Adams, Washington, D. C.
2go THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Executive Committee: — T. Thomas Fortune, Red
Bank, N. J., Chairman; Dr. S. E. Courtney, Boston,
Mass.; J. C. Jackson, Lexington, Ky.; J. C. Napier,
Nashville, Tenn.; W. L. Taylor, Richmond, Va.; W.
O. Emory, Macon, Ga.; J. E. Bush, Little Rock, Ark.;
P. A. Payton, Jr., New York, N. Y.; Theodore W.
Jones, Chicago, 111.; S. A. Furniss, Indianapolis, Ind.:
M. M. Lewey, Pensacola, Fla.; N. T. Velar, Brinton,
Pa.
PRIVATE OFFICE OF DR. SUMNER A. FURN1SS, INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
THE CAROLINA LIGHT INFANTRY AND THEIR ARMORY.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
PART II
CHAPTER XXVII
PROGRESS OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO
During the past twenty-five years the Southern Ne¬
gro has made substantial progress in many directions,
has responded unmistakably to the demands of Ameri¬
can civilization. Some measure of this progress is
to be found in the answers to these questions:
1. H&s the Negro, succumbing to a competition too
severe, exhibited tendencies to die out, as has, for ex¬
ample, the Maori population of New Zealand?
2. Has the Negro, with reasonable rapidity, be¬
come more intelligent ?
3. To what extent has the Negro bought homes?
4. In his occupations is the Negro advancing to
higher levels ?
The facts show pretty plainly that, severe to him
as is competition with many races which centuries
have made more efficient, the Negro holds his own
with dogged persistence. In 1880 there were 6,580,-
789 Negroes in this country; twenty years later we
find this number increased to 8,840,789 an increase of
2,259,996 souls, or 34.3 per cent. Certainly a new
born race that can merely maintain its numbers in
the face of the severest competition the world can
boast, deserves praise; but what shall be said of my
race? It has not merely maintained its numbers, but
293
294 the negro in business
has actually grown 34.3 per cent, in twenty years. Of
course the Africanization of this republic is not im¬
minent. It is true that in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mis¬
sissippi, Alabama, Florida, West Virginia, the Negro
element has actually increased faster than the native
whites of native parents; but despite this fact, in the
South Atlantic states as a whole — Delaware, Mary¬
land, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Flor¬
ida — the native whites of n,ative parentage increased
29.2 as against 19.9 per cent, for the Negro element.
As an element in the total population of the country,
the Negro race has steadily decreased since the first
census—1790. (The only real exception to this
statement is the year 1810, in which the population of
Negroes was larger than in 1800 owing to the large
importations of slaves, before the restriction of the
slave trade in 1808.) Thus in 1880 the Negro ele¬
ment was 13.1 per cent, of the total population, but in
1900 only 11.6 per cent. In the matter of numbers
this is clearly " a white man's country," and yet the
Negro race is steadily advancing, and in two decades
has increased in number 34.3 per cent. The Red In¬
dian of America and the Maori of New Zealand are
not precedents for the Negro of the United States.
Neither dea-th nor deportation will benevolently as¬
similate the Negro into non-existence; the Negro is
here in America, and here to stay. His well being
and continued progress are essential to the welfare of
the republic.
This solidarity of interest has been splendidly rec-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
295
ognized by the white people of the South. I be¬
lieve that the Southern white people realize more and
more clearly the fundamental idea of the American
common school — that all of the property of the
state should educate impartially all the children of
all the people. It is not merely the man who enters
the tax office who really pays the taxes; the laborers,
each of whom pays one quarter cent more to the
pound for a commodity because of a license tax, really
pay the license tax, however indirect the payment.
The moral idea that underlies the American common
school and the actual incident of taxation — these
two things are winning- increasing recognition in every
one of the Southern States. Moreover the value of
land is largely determined by the relative intelligence
and consequent efficiency of the laboring population;
and the Negro constitutes a very large percentage of
the South's labor. Since 1880 $105,807,930 have
been spent for the Negro schools in the former slave
states. In the school year, 1879-80, $2,120,485 were
spent for colored schools, and in 1900-01, $6,035,550
— an increase of $3,915,065, or almost 285 per cent.
In 1879-80 the expenditure per capita of the school
population for the colored was $1.01, but 1900-01,
$2.21. It is true that in the latter year the white
child received $4.92 or considerably more than twice
the amount received by the colored child. I believe,
nevertheless, that the whole South is interested in the
spread of Negro education. ,
Negro illiteracy is a stain that the schools are rap¬
idly washing away. Though constituting only 13.1
296
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
per cent, of the total population in 1880, the colored
population bore the burden of 51.6 per cent, of the
illiteracy. Though 70 per cent, of the colored pop¬
ulation were illiterate in 1880, only 45.5 per cent,
were illiterate in 1900 — a magnificent progress for
the South and the Negro. It is true for the whole
country that only 4.6 per cent, of the native white
population were illiterate in 1900, as against 44.5 per
cent, of the colored, but the South is determined to
lessen this immense handicap upon the Negro just as
rapidly as possible. During my efforts toward the
uplift of some part of my race, I have had reason
again and again to recognize that the mere ability to
read and write is not all an American citizen must
have; he must be and he must have sound moral
character. Too often members of my race have been
content with merely being " smart." I am glad to
say that in many schools in the South carpentry and
gardening have been emboldened to stand erect in
company with reading, writing and arithmetic. But
aside from these matters, the Negro has progressed
since 1880 in literacy in the most gratifying way; to
appreciable extent progress in literacy indicates prog¬
ress in intelligence, in character, in general efficiency.
The schools have greatly aided the Negro in the
buying and proper maintenance of homes. The white
or black man, by the sweat of whose brow a home
has been bought, is, by virtue of that fact, an in¬
finitely better citizen. Under authority of a special
act of Congress, investigation concerning the pro¬
prietorship of homes was first made in 1890.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
297
In i860 the Negro was without a home of his own,
without capital, without thrift, with nothing like proper
appreciation of the value of a home. And yet in
1890, of the homes occupied by Negro heads of
families, 18.7 per cent, were owned — an immense ad¬
vance in civilization, and all in thirty years. More¬
over, of the homes thus owned 88.8 were owned ab¬
solutely free of all encumbrance. The significance of
this fact is rendered more clearly when you consider
that only 71.2 per cent, of the homes occupied by
white heads of families in that year were owned. In
the decade 1890 to 1900, the Negro heads of families
increased their ownership of homes to 21.8 per cent,
and of this increased number, 74.2 per cent, were
owned as against 68 per cent, for white heads of
families. I am unaware that history records such an
example of substantial progress in civilization in a
time so short. Here is the unique fact that from a
penniless population, just out of slavery, that placed
a premium upon thriftlessness, 372,414 owners of
homes have emerged, and of these, 255,156 are known
to own their homes absolutely free of encumbrance.
In these heads of Negro families lie the pledge of my
race to American civilization.
In the occupations in which the Negroes are en¬
gaged, are they advancing to higher levels? Of the
wage-earners in the whole country in 1900, 14.3 per
cent, were colored. As compared with the other ele¬
ments the colored element has the largest proportion
engaged in agricultural pursuits and in domestic and
personal service; and the smallest proportion in pro-
298
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
fessional service, trade and transportation, and manu¬
facturing and mechanical pursuits. The census of
1900 shows that about 34 per cent, of the Negro wage
earners of the United States are agricultural laborers;
this is a fact fundamental in any solution of the race
problem. About 19 per cent, of the Negro wage-
earners are farmers, planters and overseers; and about
14 per cent, are laborers (not specified) : about 12 per
cent, were servants and waiters; about 6 per cent,
laundresses and launderers; and every other class of
Negro wage-earners constitutes less than 2^2 per
cent, of the total. From this rather detailed state¬
ment it is clear that the Negro is chiefly represented
in agricultural labor — 3^ per cent, of the .Negro
wage-earners were, in 1900, agricultural laborers and
19 per cent, were farmers, planters, and overseers;
these two groups thus accounting for 53 per cent, of
the total wage-earners. An examination of the Ne¬
gro in agriculture will therefore be an examination
of the great masses of the race.
In the United States as a whole in 1900, 746,717
farms were operated by Negroes; 27.2 per cent, of
the farms in the South Central division and 30 per
cent, of the farms in the South Atlantic division were
operated by Negroes; 33 per cent, of the farms in
Florida; 39.9 per cent, of the farms in Georgia; 42.1
per cent, of the farms in Alabama; 50.2 per cent, of
the farms in Louisiana; 27.2 per cent of the farms
in Mississippi were, in 1900, operated by Negroes.
The Negro, therefore, is of fundamental importance
in American agriculture. Of the Negro farmers in
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
299
the United States 70.5 per cent, derived their prin¬
cipal income from cotton, 12.4 per cent, from miscel¬
laneous products, 6.9 per cent, from hay and grain,
4.1 per cent, from live stock, and 2.6 per cent, from
tobacco. In the South the Negro farmers were al¬
most wholly occupied with growing cotton and corn.
An investigation of the black farmers and laborers in
the cotton belt of the South is an investigation of
the great mass of the Negro people in America.
For many reasons it is most convenient to compare
conditions in i860 rather than in 1880 with condi¬
tions in 1900.
The census for 1900 contains a considerable body
of evidence that I might use for testing the progress
of the Southern Negro in agriculture. Thus, in 1900
about 34 per cent, of the Negro wage-earners in the
United States were merely agricultural laborers, and
about 19 per cent, of the Negro wage-earners were
farmers, planters and overseers. These farmers,
planters and overseers have simply lifted themselves
by their boot straps! They have risen from a low
to a higher level in their occupations and in American
civilization.
I might show how the Negro agricultural laborer
of exceptional ability has become share tenant, then
cash tenant, then part owner, and finally owner —
all with almost lightning rapidity and against fearful
odds. Moreover I might cite in proof of the progress
of the Negro in agriculture the value of his farm
products not fed to live stock. Thus in the South At¬
lantic States 35.5 of the number of farms operated
300 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
by Negro farmers in 1900 had products in 1899, n°t
fed to live stock, worth $100 and under $235; and 30.4
per cent, had products worth $250 and under $500.
And in the South Central States 31.6 per cent, of the
number of farms operated by Negro farmers had prod¬
ucts in 1899 not fed to live stock worth $100 and
under $250; and 36.7 per cent, had products worth
$250 and under $500. This is an enormous advance
for the Negro since i860.
But I propose to test the progress of the Negro in
agriculture by the severest test — not a comparison
with European peasantry, but with native whites with
native parents in the Southern States. Certainly no
fair-minded man could wish a test more severe; cer¬
tainly we should be surprised if these native whites of
purest stock did not immensely outstrip the Negro.
Let us, however, inquire how these two classes com¬
pare (1) with respect to the amount of cotton pro¬
duced to the acre; and (2) with respect to the relative
number of owners added since i860.
The advance of the Negro as an independent factor
in the production of cotton is well illustrated by the
comparison of results obtained, especially under the
two forms of land tenure in which each race exercises,
to the same degree, individual judgment in the cul¬
tivation of its crops, as cash tenants and as owners.
In 1899 the average yield of cotton was 0.397 bale for
the white owner and 0.368 bale for the Negro owner;
0.403 bale for the white cash tenant, and 0.381 bale for
the Negro cash tenant. In each form of tenure the
Negro produced only from two or three one-hun-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
30!
dredths of a bale less than the white man, and re¬
ceived only 60 cents to $1 less income. In Arkansas
colored farmers for all three tenures had a greater
production per acre than the white. Mississippi
showed a greater production for colored cash tenants.
Three other cotton states agree with these in crediting
a higher production to colored share tenants. " Con¬
sidering the fact that he emerged from slavery only
one-third of a century ago," says the wholly dispas¬
sionate census report, " and considering also his com¬
parative lack of means for procuring the best lands
or getting the best results from what he has, this near
approach to the standard attained by the white man's
experience for more than a century denotes remark¬
able progress."
Practically all of the Negro owners of farms have
become owners since i860; in that year the Negro
was landless. In the South Central States since i860
Negro farmers have come to operate as owners and
managers 95,624 farms and as tenants 348.805. The
farms operated by owners or managers are thus 21.5
per cent, of the total. The per cent, of gain in owner¬
ship is about half that made by the white farmers
since i860. These facts spell progress unmistakably.
In the South Atlantic States in i860 there were 301,-
940 farms, practically all operated by white farm-
owners and managers. In 1900 there were 673,354
farms operated by white farmers; and of these 450,-
541 were conducted either by farmers who owned the
whole or a part of their land, or by hired white man¬
agers, and 222,813 by cash or share tenants. In
302
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
forty years the number of farms operated by white
farmers increased 371,414 and of that number 148,-
601 or 40 per cent, were those of owners or managers
and 222,813 or 60 per cent, those of tenants. At the
same time 287,933 Negroes had acquired control of
farm land in these states of whom 202,578, or 70.4
per cent, were tenants and 85,355 or 29.6 per cent,
were owners or managers. In these eventful forty
years the relative number of owners among the Negro
farmers of the South Atlantic States has grown from
absolutely nothing, three-fourths as rapidly as the rela¬
tive number^ of owners among the whites, who in i860
owned every acre of the land. In both the South Cen¬
tral States and South Atlantic States the Negroes have
thus compassed a magnificent achievement.
In the short space at my disposal I have simply at¬
tempted to indicate some of the ways in which the
Negro of the South has made substantial progress,
and responded to the demands of American civiliza¬
tion.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE NEGRO AND THE LABOR PROBLEM OF THE SOUTH
Recent industrial changes bring into prominence two
facts, first, that the South is likely for all times to be
the cotton center of the world, and second, that the
continued increase in the use of cotton goods among
all nations will give to every acre of land in the- South
a value that it has not heretofore possessed. With
these facts in mind a natural inquiry is, what can
the Negro do to help forward the interest of the South,
and what can the white man do to help the Negro
and himself?
I shall hope to suggest an answer to both these
questions. A few days ago I spent a day in the rural
district of one of the counties of Georgia, and heard
a great deal of discussion about the scarcity of ef¬
ficient farm labor. After spending the day in the
country, I returned to Atlanta for the night. Between
10 and ii o'clock I made a tour through Decatur
street and several streets in that vicinity. I think I
do not exaggerate when I say that I found in and
near Decatur street enough people who were not regu¬
larly employed to operate successfully fifty of the
largest plantations in the State of Georgia. This single
example would mean little except that it represents
303
304 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
a condition more or less prevalent in - practically all
of our larger cities and all of our Southern States.
As an economic problem, we have on the one hand
a surplus of idle labor in the cities and on the other
much vacant land, unpicked cotton and a scarcity of
farm labor; it is a tremendously difficult situation.
The problem of changing these conditions confronts
not only the South, but the North as well, and it is
not by any means confined to my race. For the pres¬
ent, I desire to deal with it mainly as it affects my
race and the land-owners of the South, be that land¬
owner white or black.,
In order that what I may say on this subject shall
be of any value to the white man or to my own race,
I shall have to ask the privilege of perfect frankness.
The many subjects affecting the interest of both races
require perfect frankness on both sides. My readers
will agree with me, I think, when L say that it is
•possible for a Negro to know more of the feelings and
motives of colored people than a wThite man can pos¬
sibly know.
In my recent visit to Atlanta, I did that which I
have often done in large cities of the South where-
ever I have found a floating class of colored people.
I made individual inquiry as to why they preferred an
uncertain existence in the city to a life of comparative
prosperity upon a farm, either as owners, renters, or
laborers. While I shall not attempt to use their exact
words, I sum up the reasons they gave me in a few
sentences.
Just now,— at the time I write — the South is in
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
305
the midst of the season when land-holders are mak¬
ing plans for another year's crop. Some of the mat¬
ters that were brought out I shall try to discuss a
little fully and maybe with profit to land-owners. In
the South as elsewhere, there are two classes, those
whom labor seeks and those who have to seek labor.
The first group is comparatively small, but such a class
exists; but it can and ought to be increased. There
are, in my opinion, two classes of faults as between
white farmers and black labor. One, on the part of
the white people, the other on the part of the black
people. To find and state faults, however, is easy.
To suggest a remedy, one that shall promote the pros¬
perity and happiness of both races is the aim of this
chapter.
To return to the main complaints of the colored
people as they have stated them to me time and
time again: These people who have talked may
be right, they may be wrong, they may state facts,
or they may state untruths, but this I know, they
represent the attitude of a large class of the colored
people, who give the following as chief reasons for
leaving the farms:
Poor dwelling-houses, loss of earnings each year be¬
cause of unscrupulous . employers, high-priced provi¬
sions, poor school-houses, short school terms, poor
school teachers, bad treatment generally, lynchings and
whitecapping, fear of the practice of peonage, and
general lack of police protection and want of encour¬
agement.,
Let us assume that these conditions do exist in
3°6
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
some sections, and with certain individual planters.
As a mere matter of dollars and cents, if for no higher
reason, I believe that it will pay every owner of a
plantation throughout the South to see to it that the
houses of the tenants are not only made comfortable
but attractive in a degree. The land owner who thinks
that he can secure the best class of colored people
when he provides only a broken-down, one-room cabin
for them to live in will find himself mistaken. The
chances are that the planter who provides comfortable
houses for his tenants will keep them much longer
and will have a more reliable service. The matter of
being cheated out of his earnings at the end of the
year is, of course, a complaint that is very hard to
discuss, and I know is likely to involve much exag¬
geration, and the more ignorant the aggrieved person
is, the more given is he to such complaints and ex¬
aggeration, but I must not conceal the fact that such
feeling is deep and wide-spread, and I ought to make
the same statement regarding the high prices charged
during the year for provisions, etc., supplied.
Some of the colored people who have migrated into
the cities give as their reason for leaving the country
the poor school facilities in the rural communities.
In practically every large city in the South, the col¬
ored man is enabled by public missionary and private
schools, to keep his child in school eight or nine months
of the year. Not only is this true, but the school-
houses are comfortable and the teachers are efficient.
In many of the rural communities, the location of the
school-house is far from the home of the child, the
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 307
building is uncomfortable, the term lasts but four or
five months, the teacher's salary is so small that it
generally invites a most inefficient class of teachers.
I know one community that has' had great trouble this
year in getting cotton pickers and other laborers, and
inquiry reveals the fact that the Negro children were
in school last year only four months, and the teacher
received from the public fund but $11 per month for
his services. Under such conditions, who can blame a
large number of colored people for leaving the planta¬
tions of the country districts?
Purely as an economic proposition, I believe that
it will n'ot only pay the land owners of the South,
either as individuals or by united effort to see that
good school-houses are provided on or near these
plantations, that the schools are kept open six or eight
months in a year, and there is a good teacher regu¬
larly employed; where the school fund is not large
enough to supply a good school-house, they should ex¬
tend the school term and provide a first-class, moral
teacher. Further, it will pay to lead the way in seeing
that reasonable facilities are also provided.
This, I repeat, will lead to demand for land, and
increase of efficiency of the labor force. Financially,
there will soon be a great difference in the price of
land when there are tenants bidding for opportunities
instead of going to cities as now. Wherever it is
practicable, I would urge that a primary course in
agriculture be given in every county school. This
would lead to a love of farm work and country life.
Again, many are not on the farm as they say,
308 the negro in business
because they have not been treated fairly. To illus¬
trate: I recall that some years ago a certain white
farmer asked me to secure for him a young colored
man to work about the house and to work in the field.
The young man was secured, a bargain was entered
into to the effect that he was to be paid a certain
sum of money and his board and lodging furnished as
well. At the end of the colored boy's first day on the
farm he returned. I asked the reason and he said that
after working all of the afternoon he was handed a
buttered biscuit for his supper, and no place was pro¬
vided for him to sleep.
At night he was told he could find a place to sleep
in the fodder loft. This white farmer, whom I know
well, is not a cruel man and seeks generally to do
the right thing, but in this case he simply overlooked
the fact that it would have paid him better in dollars
and cents to give some thought and attention to the
comfort of his helper. This case is more or less typi¬
cal. Had this boy been well cared for, he would have
so advertised the place that others would have sought
work there.
It is too well known that in a few counties of sev¬
eral of our Southern States there has been such a
reign of lawlessness led by the whitecappers and
lynchers that many of our best colored people have
been driven from their homes and have sought in
large cities safety and police protection. In too many
cases thp colored people who have been molested have
.been those who by their thrift and diligence have
secured homes and other property. These colored
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
309
people have been oppressed in most instances, not by
property-holding intelligent white people, but by the
worst and most shiftless element of whites. Have the
higher class of whites escaped the responsibility for
letting their affairs be controlled by the worst ele¬
ment? The practice of peonage in a few counties of
the South has also caused a fear among an element
of the colored people that prevents their going into,
or remaining in the country districts that they may be
forced to labor involuntarily and without proper re¬
muneration. I have said that such lawless conditions
exists in only a " few " counties in the South, and
I use the word advisedly. In the majority of the coun¬
ties of the South, life and property are just as safe
as anywhere in the United States, but the harm comes
because of the widespread notoriety that a few lawless
communities and counties have given the South, and
this serves to spread the idea pretty generally among
the colored people that if they want police protec¬
tion when they are charged with crime 01* under sus¬
picion, they must hastily seek the confines of a city.
I repeat that -fear has stripped some counties of this
most valuable colored labor, and left the dregs of that
population. In the matter of law and order, my con¬
stant appeal is that there be hearty co-operation be¬
tween the best whites and best blacks.
Nothing is clearer than that crime is rarely com¬
mitted by the colored man who has education and owns
property. I have not failed either to say to the colored
people on not more than one occasion, "We shall see
to it that crime in all its phases is condemned by the
3io
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
race, and a public sentiment kept alive that will make
it impossible for a criminal to be shielded or protected
by any member of the race, at any time or in any
place."
Few white people realize how far a little encourage¬
ment goes in helping to make better and more useful
citizens of the colored people. Some months ago,
I recall that I listened for an hour to a white man in
the South who was making a political speech. He
was in a state where a revised constitution had dis¬
franchised nineteen-twentieths of the colored voters
and there was not the slightest chance of any political
" uprising," or even opposition on the part of the
colored people. Yet two-thirds of this man's address
was devoted to ridicule and abuse of the colored peo¬
ple. The sad feature of such an address lies in the
fact that in many parts of the country such a speech
is taken seriously. To most of those who heard it and
those who knew the man in that community, it did no
especial harm for the people knew that his talk did
not tally with his actions, but he had become so ac¬
customed to making that kind of speech that he re¬
peated it by force of habit. This man had drawn his
first life's sustenance from the breast of a colored
woman, had been reared by one, and at that moment
had dozens of the best colored people of that section
on his plantation, any one of whom would have laid
down his life for him, and the man himself would
have fought to the death in the defense of these col¬
ored servants of his.
Every year these land holders were making hifn
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
richer by their patient, faithful labor, and he would
trust them with all that he possessed. In this com¬
munity the Negroes had never made an unavailing
appeal to th'is man for aid in building churches or
school-houses, or in supporting a school. Few white
men anywhere in the world in their actual daily
practice had done more to help the black man. Yet,
such a speech read in the newspapers at a distance
would give the impression to a thousand colored la¬
borers that the county in which the speaker lived
was for them absolutely unsafe. Such a speech was
not calculated to gain a single vote, but it was calcu¬
lated in my opinion, to lose to the community a good
many bales of cotton. I repeat that few understand
how much good can be accomplished in the way of
helping the colored people to lead law-abiding and
useful lives if more white people would take occasion,
both in private and public, to praise their good quali¬
ties instead of reviling and ridiculing them.
In regard to the duties and obligations of my own
people, I would say that unless they realize fully the
opportunities that are before them in- the South and
seize every chance to improve their method of labor,
the time will come when Italians and other foreigners
will attempt to displace them in the labor work of the
South, just as the Chinese are displacing the Negroes
in South Africa.
One charge frequently brought against us is that we
cannot be depended upon for constant and uninter¬
rupted labor; that an excursion or other excitement
will take laborers from every place where their services
312
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
are most needed. The complaint is frequently made
that if paid on Saturday night, the laborers will prob¬
ably not return to work until all the cash received has
been expended and that on the plantations, the colored
tenant takes but little interest in caring for the property
of the landlord. These things our people should
change.
The South, I believe, is on the eve of a season of
prosperity, such as it has never before experienced,
and by mutual understanding and sympathetic co¬
operation each of these two races of the South can help
forward the interests of the other, and thus cement a-
friendship between them that shall be atn object lesson
for all the world. To help toward this end is my
apology for speaking so plainly and in such detail.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE NEGRO AND HIS RELATION TO THE SOUTH
In all discussion and legislation bearing upon the
presence of the Negro in America, it should be borne
in mind that we are dealing with a people who were
forced to come here without their consent and in the
face of the most earnest protest. This gives the Ne¬
gro a claim upon the sympathy and generosity of the
white race that no other race can possess. Besides,
though forced from his native land into residence of
a country that was not of his choosing, he has earned
his right to the title of American citizen by obedience
to the law, by patriotism and fidelity, and by the mil¬
lions which his brawny arms and willing "hands have
added to the wealth of this country.
It is a sign of a new era that we can so far forget
the past, that the most progressive and intelligent
white citizens of the Southern • States are wise and
brave enough to devote serious attention to the Negro
and his relation to the economic progress of the South.
It is well, it is praiseworthy, it is wisdom that they do
this. No people ever had so much to gain by lifting
up a race. No people had so much to lose by the
degradation of a race.
Although, myself, a Negro and an ex-slave, there
is no white man whose heart is more wrapped up in
313
314 the negro in business
the interest of the South or loves it more dearly than
I do. She can have no sorrow that I, do not share;
she can have no prosperity that I do not rejoice in.
She can commit no error that I do not deplore. She
can take no step forward that I do not approve.
Different in race, in color, in history, we can teach
the world that although thus differing, it is possible
for us to dwell side by side in love, in peace, in ma¬
terial prosperity. We can be one, as I believe, we
will be in a larger degree in the future, in sympathy,
purpose, forbearance and mutual helpfulness. Let him
who would embitter, who would bring strife between
your race and mine, " be accursed in his basket and
his store, accursed in the fruit of his body and in
the fruit of his land." No man can plan the degrada¬
tion of another man without being himself degraded.
The highest test of the civilization of a race, is its
willingness to extend a 'helping hand to the less for¬
tunate.
The South extends a protecting arm and welcoming
voice to the foreigner, all nationalities, languages and
conditions, but in this, I pray that it will not forget the
black man at its door whose habits it knows, whose
fidelity it has tested. The South may make of others
larger gatherers of wealth, but it cannot make of them
more law-abiding, useful and God-fearing people than
the Negro who has been by its side for three cen¬
turies, and whose toil in forest, field and mine has
helped to make it a land of promise and glorious pos¬
sibility.
Before we can make mijch progress, we must de-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 3IS
cide whether or not the Negro is to be a permanent
part of the South. With the light that is before us,
I have no hesitation in declaring that the bulk of the
Negro population will reside in the South. Any
hesitation or doubting as to the permanent residence
of the race will work infinite harm to the industrial
and economic interests of both race. Here, in His
Wisdom, Providence has placed the black man. Here
he will remain. Here he came without a language,
here he found the Anglo-Saxon tongue. Here he
came in paganism, here he found the religion of
Christ. Here he came in barbarism, here he found
civilization. Here he came with untrained hands,
here he found industry. " If the Negro in contact
with American civilization has done these things dur¬
ing the years he has been in America, is it not wise
to trust still to the Creator, aided by the Negro him¬
self, to work out his problems and his destiny? "
It is not wise that the South should be willing to
cease its efforts now and turn the work over to others
for completion. ' Its duty to the; Negro will not be
fulfilled until it has made of him the highest type of
American citizen, in intelligence, usefulness and mo¬
rality.
The South has within itself the forces that are to
solve the tremendous problem. It has the climate,
the soil and the material wealth. It has the labor to
be performed that will occupy many times our present
Negro population. While the calls come daily from
South Africa, from the Hawaiian Islands, from the
North and the West, for the strong and willing arm
316
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
of the Negro in the field of industry, the South, at
its very door, has that which others are energetically
seeking. Not only is the South in possession of that
which others are seeking, but more important than
all, custom and contact have so knit the two races
together that the black man finds in these Southern
States an open sesame in labor, industry and business,
that is not surpassed anywhere. It is in the South
alone, by reason of the presence of the Negro, that
capital is freed from the tyranny and despotism that
prevent men from employing whom they please and
for that wage that is mutually agreeable and profit¬
able. It is in the South that that form of slavery
which prevents a man from selling his labor to whom
he pleases on account of his color, is almost un¬
known. We have had slavery, now dead, that forced
an individual to labor without a saLr - but none that
compelled a man to remain in idleress vvhile his family
starved.
The Negro in all parts of the country is beginning
to appreciate the advantages which the South affords
for earning a living, for commercial development and
in proportion as this is true, it will constitute the basis
for the settlement of other difficulties. The colored
man is beginning to learn that the bed-rock upon which
every individual rests his chances for success in life,
is securing in every manly way — never at the sacri¬
fice of principle — the friendship, the confidence, the
respect of his next-door neighbor in the little com¬
munity in which he lives. Almost the whole problem
of the Negro in the South rests itself upon the ques-
JAMES & ALLEN'S DRUG CO'S. EAST SIDE PHARMACY, CHATTANOOGA, TENN.
General Office Virginia Beneficial and Insurance (Jo.,
Norfolk, Va.
Secretary and General Manager's Private Office
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 31?
tion as to whether he makes himself of such indis¬
pensable service to his neighbor, and the community,
that no one can fill his place better in the body politic.
There is no other safe course for the Negro to pur¬
sue. If the black man in the South has a friend in
his white neighbor, and a still larger number of friends
in his own community, he has a protection and a
guarantee of his rights that will be more potent and
more lasting than any our Federal Congress or
any outside power can confer.
While the Negro is grateful for the opportunities
which he enjoys in the business of the South, it should
be remembered that it is indebted to the black man
for furnishing labor that is almost a stranger to strife,
lock-outs and labor wars; labor that is law-abiding,
peaceful, teachable; labor that is one with the whites
in language, sympathy, religion and patriotism; labor
that has never been tempted to follow the red rag of
anarchy, but always the safe flag of his country and
the spotless banner of the cross.
But if the South is to go forward and not stand
still, if she is to reach the highest reward from her
wonderful resources and keep abreast of the progress
of the world, she must reach that point, without need¬
less delay, where she will not be continually advertis¬
ing to the world that she has a race question to settle.
We must reach that point where, at every election,
from the choice of a magistrate to that of a Governor,
the decision will not hinge upon a discussion or a re¬
vival of the race question. We must arrive at a period
where a great fundamental question of good road edu-
Si8
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cation of farmers, agricultural and mineral develop¬
ment, manufacturing and industrial and public school
education, will be, in a large degree, the absorbing
topics of our political campaigns. But that we may
get this question from among us the white man has
a duty to perform; the black man has a duty to per¬
form. No question is ever permanently settled until
it is settled in the principles of highest justice. Capi¬
tal and lawlessness will not dwell together. The white
man who learns to disregard the law when a Negro is
concerned, will soon disregard it when a white man
is concerned.
In the evolution of the South, it seems to me that
we have reached that period where private philan¬
thropy and the Christian church of the white South
should, in a large degree, share directly in the eleva¬
tion of the Negro. In saying this, I am not unmind¬
ful of, nor ungrateful for, what has already been
done by individuals and through public schools. When
we consider the past, the wonder is that so much
has been done by our brothers in white. All great
reforms and improvements rest in a large degree,
upon the church for success. The Southern people
acknowledge that Christianity and education make a
man valuable as a citizen, make him more industrious,
make him earn more, make him more upright. In
this respect, let us see how the three largest white
denominations in the South regard the Negro.
To elevate the ignorant and degraded in Africa,
China, India, etc., these three denominations in the
South give annually about $544,000, but to elevate
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 319
the ignorant, the degraded at their doors, to protect
their families, to lessen their taxes, to increase their
learning power; in a word, to Christianize and elevate
the people at their very side, upon whom in a large
measure their safety and prosperity depend, these same
denominations give $21,000 — $21,000 for the be¬
nighted at their doors, $544,000 for the benighted
abroad. That thirty-five years after slavery and a
fratricidal war, the master- should give even $21,000
through the medium of the church for the elevation of
his former slave, means much. Nor would I have one
dollar less go to the foreign fields, but I would plead
with all the earnestness of my soul that the Christian
South give a larger attention to the 8,000,000 Ne¬
groes by whom it is surrounded. Every dollar that
goes into the education of the Negro is an interest
bearing dollar.
For years all acknowledge that the South has suf¬
fered from the low price of cotton because of over¬
production. The economic history of the world
teaches that an ignorant farming class means a single
crop, and that a single crop means, too often, low
prices from over-production, or faming from under¬
production. The Negro constitutes the principal
farming class of the South. So long as the Negro is
ignorant in head, unskilled in hand, unacquainted with
labor-saving machinery, so long will he confine himself
to a single crop, and over-production of cotton will
result. So long as this is true, the South will be
bound in economic fetters; it will be hugging the bear,
while crying for some one to help it let go. Every
32°
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
man, black and white in the South, with his crop
mortgaged, in debt at the end of the year, buying his
meat from Illinois, his corn from Iowa, his shoes from
New York, his clothing from Pennsylvania, his
wagons from Indiana, his plow from Massachusetts,
his mule fro.m Missouri, his coffin from Ohio,— every
one who is thus situated, is a citizen who is not pro¬
ducing the highest results for the state. It is argued
that the South is too poor to educate such an individ¬
ual so as to make him an intelligent producer. I re¬
ply that the South is too poor not to educate such an
individual.
Ignorance is many fold more costly to tax-payers
than intelligence. Every black youth that is given
this training of hand andv strength and mind so that
he is able to grasp the full meaning and responsibility
of the meaning of life, so that he can go into some
forest and turn the raw material into wagons and
buggies, becomes a citizen who is able to add to the
wealth of the state and to bear his share. of the ex¬
penses of educational government. Do you suggest
that this cannot be done? I answer that it is being
done every day at Tuskegee and should be duplicated
in a hundred places in every Southern state. This, I
take, to be the White Man's Burden just now — no,
no, not his burden, but his privilege, his opportunity,
to give the black man- sight, to give him strength,
skill of hand, light of mind, and honesty of heart.
If this is done I will paint a picture that will repre¬
sent the future and the land where the white race and
mine must dwell.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
321
Fourteen slaves brought into the South a few cen¬
turies ago, in ignorance, superstition and weakness,
are now a free people, multiplied into 8,000,000; they
are surrounded, protected, encouraged, educated in
hand, heart and head, given the full protection of the
law, the highest justice meted out to them through
courts and legislative enactments; they are stimulated
and not oppressed, made citizens and not aliens, made
to understand that by word and act that in proportion
as they show themselves worthy to bear responsibili¬
ties, the greater opportunities will be given then. I
see them loving their land, trusting it, adding to its
wealth, to its intelligence, to the renown of each South¬
ern commonwealth. In turn, I see it confiding in
them, ennobling them, beckoning them on to the high¬
est success, and all of us have been made to appreciate
in full that,
" The slave's chain and the master's alike are broken,
The one curse of the race held both in tether;
They are rising, all are rising,
The black and white together."
CHAPTER XXX
THE FRUITS OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
The political, educational, social and economic evo¬
lution through which the South passed during, say,
the first fifteen or twenty years after the close of the
Civil War, furnished one of the most interesting pe¬
riods that any country has passed through.
A large share of the thought and activity of the
white South, of the black South and that section of
the North especially interested in my race was di¬
rected during the years of the reconstruction period
towards politics, or towards matters bearing upon what
were termed civil or social rights. The work of edu¬
cation was rather slow and covered a large section of
the South; still I think I am justified in saying that in
the public mind the Negro's relation to politics over¬
shadowed nearly every other interest. The education
of the race was conducted quietly, and attracted com¬
paratively little attention just as is true at the present
time. The appointment of one Negro postmaster at
a third or fourth rate post-office will be given wider
publicity through the daily press than the founding of
a school, or some important discovery in science.
With reference to the black man's political relation
to the state and Federal Governments, I think I am
safe in saying that for many years after the Civil
322
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
323
War, there were sharp and antagonistic views between
the North and the South, as well as between the Whitey
South and the Black South. At practically every
point where there was a political question to be de¬
cided in the South the blacks would array themselves
on one side, and the whites on the other. I remem¬
ber that very soon after I began teaching school in
Alabama, an old colored man came to me just prior '
to an election. He said: "You can read de news¬
paper and most of us can't, but dar is one thing dat
we knows dat you don't, and dat is how to vote down
here; and we wants you to vote as we does." He
added, " I tell you how we does, we watches de white
man; we keeps watching de white man; de nearer it
gets to 'lection time de more we watches de white man.
We watches him till we finds out which way he gwine
to vote. After we find out which way he gwine'r vote,
den we votes 'zactly de other way; den we knows we's
right."
Stories on the other side might be given showing
that a certain class of white people, both at the polls
and in the Legislatures voted just as unreasonably in
opposing politically what they thought the Negro or
the North wanted, no matter how much benefit might
ensue from a contrary action. Unfortunately such an¬
tagonism did not end with matters political, but in
many cases, affected the relation of the races in nearly
every walk of life. Aside from political strife, there
was naturally deep feeling between the Nor-th and the
South on account of the war. On nearly every ques¬
tion growing out of the war, which was debated in
324 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
Congress, or in political campaigns, there was the
keenest difference and often the deepest feeling.
There was almost no question of even a semi-political
nature, or having a remote connection with the Ne¬
gro upon which there was not sharp and often bitter
division between the North and the South. It is need¬
less to say that in many cases the Negro was the suf¬
ferer. He was being ground between the upper and
nether millstones. Even to this day, it is well nigh
impossible, largely by reason of the force of habit in
certain states to prevent state and even local cam¬
paigns from being centered in some form upon the
black man. In states like Mississippi, for example,
where the Negro ceased nearly a score of years ago,
by operation of law, to be a determining factor in pol¬
itics, he forms in some way the principal fuel for cam¬
paign discussion at nearly every election. The sad
feature of this is, as I have' indicated in a previous
chapter, to prevent the presentation before the masses
of the people of matters pertaining to local and state
improvement, and to great national issues like finance,
tariff, or foreign policies. It prevents the masses from
receiving the broad and helpful education which every
political campaign should furnish, and, what is equally
unfortunate, it prevents the youth from seeing and
hearing on the platform the great political leaders of
the two national parties. During a national cam¬
paign, few of the great Democratic leaders debate
national questions in the South, because it is felt that
the old antagonism to the Negro politically will keep
the South voting one way. Few of the great Re-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 325
publican leaders appear on Southern platforms, be¬
cause they feel that nothing will be gained.
But this is somewhat aside from my purpose, which
is, I repeat, to make plain that in all political matters,
there was for years after the war no meeting grounds
of agreement for the two races, or for the North and
South. Upon the question of the Negro's civil rights
as embodied in what was called the Civil Rights Bill
there was almost the same sharp line of division be¬
tween the races, and, in theory, at least, between the
Northern and Southern whites, largely because the
former were supposed to be giving the blacks social
recognition and encouraging intermingling between
the races. The white teachers who came from the
North to work in missionary schools, received for
years little recognition or encouragment from the
rank and file of their own race. The lines were so
sharply drawn that in cities where native Southern
white women taught Negro children in the public
schools, they would have no dealings with the North¬
ern white woman, who, perhaps, taught Negro chil¬
dren from the same family in a missionary school.
I want to call attention here to a phase of Recon¬
struction policy which is often overlooked. All now
agree that 'there was much in Reconstruction that was
unwise and unfortunate. However, we may regard
that policy, and much as we may regret mistakes, the
fact is too often overlooked that it was during the
Reconstruction Period that a public school system
for the education of all the people of the South was
first established in most of the states. Much that
326
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
was done by those in charge of Reconstruction legisla¬
tion has been overturned, but the public school system
still remains. True, it has been modified and im¬
proved, but the system remains, and is every day grow¬
ing in popularity and strength.
As to the difference of opinion between the North
and the South regarding Negro education^ I find that
many people, especially in the North, have the wrong
conception of the attitude of the Southern white peo¬
ple. It is and has been very generally thought that
what is termed " Higher Education " of the Negro,
has been from the first opposed by the white South.
This opinion is far from being correct. I remember
that in 1881, when I began the work of establishing
the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, practically all
the white people who talked to me on the subject took
it for granted that instruction in the Greek, Latin,
and modern languages would be one of the main fea¬
tures of our curriculum. I heard no one oppose what
he thought our course of study was to embrace. In
fact, there are many white people in the South at the
present; time who do not know that instruction in the
dead languages is not given at the Tuskegee Institute.
In further proof of what I have said, if one would
go through the catalogs maintained by the states for
Negro people, and managed by Southern white peo¬
ple, he will find in almost every case that instruction
in the higher branches is given with the consent and
approval of white officials. This was true as far back
as 1880. It is not unusual to meet at this time South¬
ern white people who are as emphatic in their belief
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 327
in the value of classical education as a certain element
of colored people themselves. In matters relating to
political and civil rights, the breach was broad, and
without apparent hope of being bridged; even in the
matter of religion, practically all the denominations
had split on the subject of the Negro, though I should
add that there is now, and always has been, a closer
touch, and more co-operation in matters of religion
between the white and colored people in the South
than is generally known. But the breach between
the white churches in the South and North remains.
In matters of education the difference was much
less sharp. The truth is that a large element in the
South had little faith in the efficacy of the higher or
any other kind of education of the Negro. They were
indifferent, but did not openly oppose: on the other
hand, there has always been a potent element of white
people in all the Southern States who have stood out
openly and bravely for the education of all the people,
regardless of race. This element has thus far been
successful in shaping and leading public opinion, and
I think that it will continue to do so more and more.
This statement must not be taken to mean that there
is yet an equitable division of the school funds raised
by common taxation, between the two races in many
sections of the South, though the Southern States de¬
serve much credit for what has been done.
I wish, however, to emphasize the fact that while
there was either open antagonism or indifference in
the directions I have named, it was the introduction
of industrial training into the Negro's education that
328
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
seemed to furnish the first basis for anything like
united and sympathetic interest and action between the
two races in the South, and between the whites in the
North and those in the South. Aside from its direct
benefit to the black race, industrial education has fur¬
nished a basis for mutual faith and co-operation, which
has meant more to the South, and to the work of edu¬
cation than has been realized.
This was, at the least, something in the way of con¬
struction. Many people, I think, fail to appreciate
the difference between the problems now before us and
those that existed previous to the civil war. Slavery
presented a problem of destruction; freedom presents
a problem of construction.
From its first inception the white people of the
South had faith in the theory of industrial education,
because they had noted, what was not unnatural, that
a large element of the colored people at first inter¬
preted freedom to mean freedom from work with
the hands. They naturally had not learned to appre¬
ciate the fact that they had been worked, and that
one of the great lessons for freemen to learn is to
work. They had not learned the vast difference be¬
tween working and being worked. The white people
saw in the movement to teach the Negro youth the
dignity, beauty and civilizing power of all honorable
labor with the hands, something that would lead the
Negro into his new life of freedom gradually and
sensibly, and prevent his going from one extreme of
life to the other too suddenly. Furthermore, indus¬
trial education appealed directly to the individual and
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 329
community interest of the white people. They saw at
once that intelligence coupled with skill would add
wealth to the community and to the state, in which
both races would have an added share. Crude labor
in the days of slavery, they believed could be handled
and made in a degree profitable, but ignorant and
unskilled in a state of freedom could not be made so.
Practically every white man in the South was inter¬
ested in agricultural or in mechanical or in some form
of manual labor; every white man was interested in
all that related to the home life,— the cooking and
serving of food, laundering, dairying, poultry-raising
and house keeping in general. There was no family
whose interest in intelligent and skillful nursing was
not now and then quickened by the presence of a
trained nurse. As already stated, there was general
appreciation of the fact that industrial education of
the black people had direct, vital and practical bearing
upon the life of each white family in the South; while
there was no such appreciation of the results of mere
literary training. If a black man became a lawyer,
a doctor, a minister, or an ordinary teacher, his pro¬
fessional duties would not ordinarily bring him in
touch with the life of the white portion of the com¬
munity, but rather confine him almost exclusively to
his own race. While purely literary or professional
education was not opposed by the whit£ population, it
was something in which they found little or no inter¬
est, beyond a confused hope that it would result in
producing a higher and better type of Negro man¬
hood. The minute it was seen that through industrial
33° the negro in business
education the Negro youth was not only studying
chemistry, but also how to apply the knowledge of
chemistry to the enrichment of the soil, or to cooking,
or to dairying, and that the student was being taught
not only geometry and physics, but their application
to blacksmithing, brickmaking, farming, and what
not, then there began to appear for the first time a
common bond between the two races and co-operation
between the North and South.
One of the most interesting and valuable instances
of the kind that I know of is presented in the case of
Mr. George W. Carver, one of our instructors in
agriculture at Tuskegee Institute. For some time it
has been his custom to prepare articles containing in¬
formation concerning the conditions of local crops,
and warning the farmers against the ravages of certain
insects and diseases. The local white papers are al¬
ways glad to publish these articles, and they are read
by white and colored farmers.
Some months ago a white land-holder in Montgom¬
ery County asked Mr. Carver to go through his farm
with him for the purpose of inspecting it. While do¬
ing so Mr. Carver discovered traces of what he
thought was a valuable mineral deposit, used in mak¬
ing a certain kind of paint. The interest of the land¬
owner and the agricultural instructor at once became
mutual. Specimens of the deposits were taken to the
laboratories of the Tuskegee Institute and analyzed by
Mr. Carver. In due time the land-owner received a
report of the analysis, together with a statement show¬
ing the commercial value and application of the min-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
331
eral. I shall not go through the whole interesting"
story, except to say that a stock company, composed
of some of the best white people in Alabama, has been
organized and is now preparing to build a factory for
the purpose of putting their product on the market.
I hardly need add that Mr. Carver has been freely
consulted at every step, and his services generously
recognized in the organization of the concern. When
the company was being formed, the following testi¬
monial among others was embodied in the printed
copy of the circular: —
" George W. Carver, Director of the Department
of Agriculture, Tuskegee, Alabama, says: —
"' The pigment is an ochreous clay. Its value as
a paint is due to the presence of ferric oxide, of which
it contains more than any of the French, Australian,
American, Irish, or Welsh ochres. Ferric oxides have
long been recognized as the essential constituents
of such paints as Venetian red, Turkish red, oxide red,
Indian red, and scarlet. They are most durable, be¬
ing quite permanent when exposed to light and air.-
As a stain they are most valuable.' "
In further proof of what I wish to emphasize, I
think I am safe in saying that the work of the Hamp¬
ton Normal and Agricultural Institute, under the late
General S. C. Armstrong, was the first to receive any
kind of recognition and hearty sympathy from the
Southern white people, and General Armstrong was,
perhaps, the first Northern educator of Negroes who
won the confidence and co-operation of the white
South. The effects of General Armstrong's introduc-
332
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
tion of industrial education at Hampton, and its exten¬
sion to the Tuskegee Institute in the far South, are
now actively and helpfully apparent in the splendid
work being accomplished for the whole South by the
Southern Education Board, with Mr. Robert C. Og-
den at its head, and by the General Education Board
which was organized with Mr. William H. Baldwin,
Jr., as its president. Mr. Baldwin has since died and
Mr. Ogden has been elected president. Without the
introduction of manual training it is doubtful whether
such work as is now being wrought through these
two boards for both races in the South, could have
been possible within a quarter of a century to come.
Later on in the history of our country it will be recog¬
nized and appreciated that the far-reaching and states¬
manlike efforts of these two boards for general edu¬
cation in the South, and with the co-operation and as¬
sistance of such men as Mr. George Foster Peabody,
Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Mr. John D. Rockefeller of the
North, and Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, Chancellor
Hill, Dr. Alderman, Dr. Mclver, Dr. Dabney, and
others of the South, will have furnished the material
for one of the brightest and most encouraging chap¬
ters in the history of our country. The fact that we
have reached the point where men and women who
were so far apart twenty years ago can meet in the
South and discuss freely from the same platform ques¬
tions relating to the industrial, educational, political,
moral, and religious development of the two races,
marks a great step in advance. It is true however,
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
333
that as yet the Negro has not been invited to share in
these discussions.
Aside from the reasons I have given showing why
the South favored industrial education, coupled with
intellectual and moral training, many of the whites
saw, for example, that the Negroes who were master
carpenters and contractors, under the guidance of
their owners, could become still greater factors in the
development of the South if their children were not
suddenly removed from the atmosphere and occupa¬
tions of their fathers, and if they could be taught to use
the thing in hand as a foundation for higher growth.
Many of the white people were wise enough to see
that such education would enable some of the Negro
youths to become more skillful carpenters and contrac¬
tors, and that if they laid an economic foundation in
this way in their generation, they would be laying a
foundation for a more abstract education Gf their chil¬
dren in the future.
Again, a large element of people at the South fav¬
ored manual training for the Negro because they were
wise enough to see that the South was largely free
from the restrictive influences of the Northern trades
unions, and that such organizations would secure little
hold in the South so long as the Negro kept abreast in
intelligence and skill with the same class of people
elsewhere. Many realized that the South would be
tying itself to a body of death if it did not help the
Negro up. In this connection I want to call attention
to the fact that the official records show that within one
year about one million foreigners came into the United
334
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
States. Notwithstanding this number, practically
none went into the Southern States; to be more exact,
the records show that in 1892 only 2,278 all told went
into the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Ken¬
tucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia. One ship sometimes brings
as many to New York. Various reasons are given
to explain why these foreigners systematically avoid
the South. One is that the climate is so hot; and
another is that they do not like the restrictions thrown
about the ballot; and still another is the presence of
the Negro in so large numbers. Whatever the true
reason is, the fact remains that foreigners avoid the
South, and the South is more and more realizing that
it cannot keep pace with the progress being made in
other parts of the country if a third of its population
is ignorant and without skill.
The South must frankly face this truth, that for a
long period it must depend upon the black man to do
for it what the foreigner is now doing for the great
West. If, by reason of his skill and knowledge, one
man in Iowa learns to produce as much corn in a sea¬
son as four men can produce in Alabama, it requires
little reasoning to see that Alabama will buy most of
her corn from Iowa.
Another interesting result of the introduction of in¬
dustrial education for the Negro has been its influence
upon the white people of the South; and, I believe,
upon the whites of the North, as well. This phase
of it has proved of interest in making hand training
a concilatory element between the races.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
335
In 1883 I was delivering an address on industrial ed¬
ucation before the Colored State Teachers' Association
of one of our Southern States. When I had finished,
some of the teachers began to ask the State Superin¬
tendent of Education, who was on the program, some
questions about the subject. He politely but firmly
stopped the questions by stating that he knew abso¬
lutely nothing about industrial training, and had never
heard it discussed before. At that time there was
no such education being given at any white institution
in that state. With one or two exceptions, this case
will illustrate what was true of all the Southern States.
A careful investigation of the subject will show that
it was not until after industrial education was started
among the colored people, and its value proved, that it
was taken up by the Southern white people.
Manual training or industrial and technical schools
for the whites have, for the most part, been established
under state auspices, and are at this time chiefly main¬
tained by the states. An investigation would also
show that in securing money from the state legisla¬
tures for the purpose of introducing hand work, one
of the main arguments used was the existence and
success of industrial training among the Negroes. It
was often argued that the white boys and girls would
be left behind unless they had the opportunities for
securing the same kind of training that was being given
the colored people.
Although it is, I think, not generally known, it is a
fact that since the .idea of industrial or technical educa¬
tion for white people took root within the last few
336
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
years, much more money is spent annually for such
education for the whites than for the colored people.
Any one who has not looked into the subject will be
surprised to find how thorough and high grade the
work is. Take, for example, the State of Georgia,
and it will be found that several times as much is be¬
ing spent at the Industrial College for white girls at
Milledgeville, and at the technical schools for whites
at Atlanta, as is being spent in the whole state tor the
industrial education of the Negro youths. I have met
no Southern white educators who have not been gen¬
erous in their praise of the Negro schools for taking
the initiative in hand training. This fact has again
served to create in matters relating to education a
bond of sympathy between the two races in the South.
Referring again to the influence of industrial training
for the Negro in education, in the Northern States, I
find, while writing this article, the following announce¬
ment in the advertisement of what is perhaps the most
high-priced and exclusive girls' seminary in Massachu¬
setts : —
" In planning a system of education for young ladies
with the view of fitting them for the greatest useful¬
ness in life, the idea was conceived of supplementing
the purely intellectual work by practical training in
the art of home management and its related subjects.
" It was the first school of high literary grade to
introduces courses in Domestic Science into the regu¬
lar curriculum.
" The results were so gratifying as to lead to the
equipment of Experiment Hall, a special building, fitted
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
33 7
for the purpose of studying the principles of Applied
Housekeeping. Here the girls do the actual work of
cooking, marketing, arranging menus, and attend to all
the affairs of a well-arranged household.
" Courses are arranged also in sewing, dressmaking,
and millinery; they are conducted on a similar practi¬
cal basis, and equip- the student with a thorough
knowledge of the subject."
A dozen years ago I do not believe that any such
announcement would have been made.
Beginning with the year 1877, the Negro in the
South lost practically all political control; that is to
say, as early as 1885 the Negro scarcely had any mem¬
bers of his race in the National Congress or state leg¬
islatures, and long before this date had ceased to hold
state offices. This was true, notwithstanding the pro¬
tests and fervent oratory of such strong race leaders
as Frederick Douglass, B. K. Bruce, John R. Lynch,
P. B. S. Pinchback, and John M. Langston, with a
host of others. When Frederick Douglass, the great¬
est man that the race has produced, died in 1895, it is
safe to say that the Negro in the Southern States,
with here and there a few exceptions, had practically
no political control, or political influence, except in
sending delegates to national conventions, or in hold¬
ing by appointment a few federal positions. It be¬
came evident to many of the wise Negroes that the
race would have to depend for its success in the future
less upon political agitation and the opportunity for
holding office, and more upon something more tangi¬
ble and substantial. It was at this period in the Ne-
338 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
gro's development, when the distance between the races
was greatest, and the spirit and ambition of the colored
people most depressed, that the idea of industrial or
business development was introduced and began to be
made prominent. It did not take the more level¬
headed members of the race long to see that while the
Negro in the South was surrounded by many difficul¬
ties, there was practically no line drawn and little
race discrimination in the world of commerce, bank¬
ing, storekeeping, manufacturing, and the skilled
trades, and in agriculture; and in this lay his great
opportunity. They understood that while the whites
might object to a Negro's being postmaster, they
would not object to his being the president of a bank,
and in the latter occupation they would give him as¬
sistance and encouragement. The colored people were
quick to see that while the Negro would not be in¬
vited as.a rule to attend the white man's prayer-meet¬
ing, he would be invited every time to attend the
stockholder's meeting of a business concern in which
he had an interest, and that he could buy property in
practically any portion of the South where the white
man could buy it. The white citizens were all the
more willing to encourage the Negro in this economic
or industrial development, because they saw that
the prosperity of the Negro meant also the prosperity
of the white man. They say, too, that when a Ne¬
gro became the owner of a home and was a taxpayer,
having a regular trade or other occupation, he at once
became a conservative and safe citizen and voter; one
who would consider the interests of his whole com-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
339
munity before casting his ballot; and, further, one
whose ballot could not be purchased.
One case in point is that of the twenty-eight teachers
at our school at Tuskegee who applied for life-voting
certificates under the new constitution of Alabama, not
one was refused registration, and if I may be forgiven
a personal reference, in my own case, the Board of
Registers were kind enough to send me a special re¬
quest to the effect that they wished me not to fail to
register as a life voter. I do not wish to convey the
impression that all worthy colored people have been
registered in Alabama, because there have been many
inexcusable and unlawful omissions; but, with few ex¬
ceptions, the 2,700 who have been registered represent
the best Negroes in the state.
Though in some parts of the country he is now mis¬
understood, I believe that the time is going to come
when matters can be weighed soberly and when the
whole people are going to see that President Roose¬
velt is, and has been from the first, in line with this
policy, that of encouraging the colored people who by
industry and economy have won their way into the
confidence and respect of their neighbors. Both be¬
fore and sihce he became President I have had many
conversations with him, and at all times I have found
him most enthusiastic in his desire to help all the peo¬
ple of the South.
The growth of the race in industrial and business
directions within the last few years cannot perhaps be
better illustrated than by what is now the largest secu¬
lar national organization among the colored people,
34°
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
the National Negro Business League. This organiza¬
tion brings together annually, as I have elsewhere de¬
scribed, hundreds of men and women who have worked
their way up from the bottom to the point where they
are now in some cases bankers, merchants, manufac¬
turers, planters, etc. The sight of this body of men
and women would surprise a large part of American
citizens, who do not know the better side of Negro life.
It ought to be stated frankly here that at first, and
for several years after the introduction of industrial
training at such educational centers as Hampton and
Tuskegee, there was opposition from colored people
and from portions of those Northern white people en¬
gaged in educational and missionary work among the
colored people in the South. Most of those Who man¬
ifested such opposition were, I believe, actuated by the
highest and most honest motives. From the first the
rank and file of the blacks were quick to see the ad¬
vantages of industrial training, as is shown by the
fact that industrial schools have always been over¬
crowded. Opposition to industrial training was based
largely on the old and narrow ground that it was
something that the Southern white people favored,
and therefore must be against the interests of the
Negro. Again, others opposed it because they feared
that it meant the abandonment of all political privi¬
leges, and the higher or classical education of the race.
They feared that the final outcome would be the " ma¬
terialization " of the Negro and the smothering of
his spiritual and aesthetic nature. Others felt that in¬
dustrial education had for its object the limitation of
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
341
the Negro's development, and the branding him for all
time as a special hand-working class.
Now that enough time has elapsed for those who
opposed it to see that it meant none of these things,
opposition, except from a very few of the colored
people living in one or two Northern cities away from
the problem has ceased, and this system has the en¬
thusiastic support of the Negroes and of most of the
whites who formerly opposed it. All are beginning
to see that it was never meant that all Negro youths
should secure industrial education, any more than
it is meant that all white youths should pass through
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or the
Amherst Agricultural College, to the exclusion of such
training as is given at Harvard, Yale or Dartmouth;
but that in a peculiar sense a large proportion of the
Negro youths needed to have that education which
would enable them to secure an economic foundation,
without which no people can succeed in any of the
higher walks of life.
It is because of the fact that the Tuskegee Institute
began at the bottom, with work in the soil, in wood,
in iron, in leather, that it has now developed to the
point where it is able to furnish employment as teach¬
ers to twenty-eight Negro college graduates of the
best colleges in the country. This is about three times
as many Negro college graduates as any other insti¬
tution in the United. States for the education of col¬
ored people employs, the total number of officers and
instructors at Tuskegee being about one hundred and
342
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
ten, and excluding1 clerks, stenographers and helpers
of various kinds.
Those who once opposed this, see now that while
the Negro youth who becomes skilled in agriculture
and a successful farmer may not be able himself to
pass through a purely literary college, he is laying the
foundation for his children and grandchildren to do it
if desirable. Industrial education in this generation
is contributing in the highest degree to make what is
called higher education a success. It is now realized
that in so far as the race has intelligent and skillful
producers, the greater will be the success of the min¬
ister, lawyer, doctor, and teacher. Opposition has
melted away, too, because all men now see that it will
take a long time to " materialize " a race, millions of
which hold neither houses nor railroads, nor bank
stock, nor factories, nor coal and gold mines.
Another reason for the growth of a better under¬
standing of the objects and influence of industrial
training, is the fact, as before stated, that it has been
taken up with much interest and activity by the South¬
ern whites, and that it has been established at such
universities as Cornell in the East, and in practically
all of the state colleges of the Great West.
It is now seen that the result of such education will
be to help the black man to make for himself an inde¬
pendent place in our great American life. It was
largely the poverty of the Negro that made him the
prey of the designing politicians immediately after the
war; and wherever poverty and lack of industry exist
to-day, one does not find in him that deep spiritual
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
343
life which the race must in the future possess in a
higher degree.
To those who still express the fear that perhaps
too much stress is put upon industrial education for the
Negro, I would add that I should emphasize the same
kind of training for any people, whether black or white,
in the same stage of development as the masses of the
colored people.
For a number of years this country has looked to
Germany for much in the way of education, and a
large number of America's brightest men and women
are sent there each year. The official reports show
that in Saxony, Germany, alone, there are 287 indus¬
trial schools, or one such school to every 14,641 peo¬
ple. This is true of a people who have back of them
centuries of wealth and culture. In the South I am
safe in saying that there is not more than one effec¬
tive industrial school for every 400,000 colored people.
A' recent dispatch from Germany says that the
German Emperor has had a kitchen fitted up in the
palace for the single purpose of having his daughter
taught cooking. If all classes and nationalities, who
are in most cases thousands of years ahead of the
Negro in the arts of civilization, continue their interest
in industrial training, I cannot understand how any
reasonable person can object to such education for a
large part of a people who are in the poverty-stricken
condition that is true of a large element of my race,
especially when such hand training is combined, as it
should be, with the best education of head and heart.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE AMERICAN NEGRO AND HIS ECONOMIC VALUE
Within the last two years and more I have had let¬
ters from the Sandwich Islands, Cuba, and South
America, all asking* that American Negroes be in¬
duced to go to these places as laborers. In each case
there would seem to be abundant labor already in the
places named. It is there, but it seems to be not of
the quality and value of that of the Negro in the
United States.
These letters have led me to think a good deal about
the Negro as an industrial factor in our country.
To begin with we must bear in mind that when the
first twenty slaves were landed at Jamestown, Vir¬
ginia, in 1619, it was this economic value which caused
them to be brought to, this country. At the same time
that these slaves were being brought to the shores of
Virginia from their native land, Africa, the woods of
Virginia were swarming with thousands of another
dark-skinned race. The question naturally arises:
Why did the importers of Negro slaves go to the
trouble and expense of going thousands of miles for
a dark-skinned people to hew wood and draw water
for the whites, when they had right about them a peo¬
ple of another race who could have answered this
purpose? The answer is, that the Indian was tried
344
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
345
and found wanting in the commercial qualities which
the Negro seemed to possess. The Indian would not
submit to slavery as a race, and in those instances
where he was tried as a slave his labor was not profita¬
ble and he was found to be unable to stand the physical
strain of slavery. As a slave the Indian died in large
numbers. This was true in San Domingo and in other
parts of the American continent.
The two races, the Indian and the Negro, have of¬
ten been compared to the disadvantage of the Negro.
It has been more than once stated that the Indian
proved himself the superior race by not submitting to
slavery. We shall see about this. In this respect it
may be that the Indian secured a temporary advantage
in so far as race feeling or prejudice is concerned;
I mean by this that he escaped the badge of servitude
which has fastened itself upon the Negro, and not only
upon the Negro in America, for the known commer¬
cial value of the Negro has made him a subject of
traffic in other portions of the globe during many cen¬
turies. Even to this day, portions of Africa continue
to be the stamping ground of the slave-trader.
The Indian refused to submit to bondage and learn
the white man's ways. The result is that the greater
portion of the American Indians have disappeared, the
greater portion of those who remain are not civilized.
The Negro, wiser and more enduring than the In¬
dian, patiently endured slavery; and contact with the
white man has given the Negro in America a civiliza¬
tion vastly superior to that of the Indian.
The Indian and the Negro met on the American
346
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
continent for the first time at Jamestown, in 1619.
Both were in the darkest barbarism. There were
twenty Negroes and thousands of Indians. At the
present time there are between nine and ten millions
of Negroes and less than sixty-five thousand Indians.
Not only has the Indian decreased in numbefs, but he
is an annual tax upon the government for food and
clothing to the extent of $12,784,676 (1899), to say
nothing of the large amount that is annually spent in
policing him. The one in this case not only decreased
in numbers and failed to add anything to the economic
value of his country, but has actually proven a charge
upon it.
Let me see how it is with the other. For a long
time our National laws bearing upon immigration
have been framed so as to prevent the influx into this
country of any classes or races that might prove a bur¬
den upon the tax-payers, because of their poverty and
inability to sustain themselves, as well as their low
standards of life which would enable them to underbid
the American laborer. The effect has been, then, to
keep out certain races and classes. For two centuries
or more it was the policy of the United States to bring
in the Negro at almost any cost. This country has
two hundred and fifty years in which to judge the
economic value of the black man, and the verdict at
the end was that he was constantly increasing in value,
especially in the Southern part of the United States.
Would any individual, or any country, have gone to
the expense during so many years to import a people
that had no economic value?
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
347
The Negro seems to be about the only race that has
been able to look the white man in the face during the
long period of years and live, not only live but multi¬
ply. The Negro has not only done this, but he has
had the good sense to get something from the white
man at every point he has touched him — something
that has made for a stronger and better race.
As compared with the Malay race, the Negro has
proven his superiority as an economic factor in civil¬
ization. Take for example the Malays in the Sand¬
wich Islands. Before the Sandwich Islanders came in
contact with the white race, they had a civilization
that was about equal to that of the twenty Negroes
who came to Jamestown in 1619. Since their con¬
tact with the white man they have constantly decreased
in numbers, and have so utterly failed to prove of eco¬
nomic value that practically all the industries of the
Islands are kept in motion by other races, and a strong
effort has recently been made, as I have noted, to in¬
duce a large number of black Americans to go to these
Islands as laborers.
The industries that gave the South its power, prom¬
inence, and wealth prior to the Civil War, were mainly
cotton, sugar-cane, rice and tobacco. Before the way
could be prepared for the proper growing and market¬
ing of these crops, forests had to be cleared, houses to
be built, public roads and railroads to be constructed.
In all of this no one will deny that the Negro was the
chief dependence.
The Negro was not only valuable as a common
workman, but reached a degree of skill and intelligence
34§
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
in mechanics that added a large per cent, to his money
value. Indeed, many of the most complicated struc¬
tures at the South to-day stand as monuments to the
skill and ability of the Negro mechanic of ante-bellum
days.
In the planting, cultivating, and marketing of the
cotton, rice, sugar-cane and tobacco crops, the black
man was about the sole dependence, especially in the
lower tier of the Southern States. In the manufacture
of tobacco, he became a skilled and proficient workman,
and at the present time, in the South, holds the lead
in this respect in the large tobacco manufactories.
Not only did the black man prove his worth in the
way of skilled and common labor, but there were thou¬
sands of Negros who demonstrated that they pos¬
sessed executive ability of a high order. Many of the
large plantations had Negro overseers, to whom the
whole financial interests of the masters were largely
intrusted. To be able to plan months ahead for plant¬
ing and harvesting of the crop, to reckon upon the
influence of weather conditions, and to map out profit¬
able work for scores of men, women, and children, re¬
quired an executive ability of no mean order. In very
few instances did the black manager prove false to his
trust.
Without the part the Negro played in the physical
development of the South, it is safe to say that it
would be as undeveloped as much of the territory in
the far West.
The most valuable testimony that I have seen upon
the subject that this article covers is from the pen of
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
349
Prof. N. S. Shaler, Dean of the Scientific School of
Harvard University,, which appeared recently in Ap-
pleton's Popular Science Monthly. My readers, I am
sure, will forgive me for using a rather long quotation
from Prof. Shaler's article. I do it for the reason that
Prof. Shaler is not only a recognized scientist, but for
the further reason that he is a Southern man, and has
had abundant opportunity to secure valuable testi¬
mony. Prof. Shaler says:
" The Negroes who came to North America had to
undergo as complete a transition as ever fell to the lot
of man, without the least chance to undergo an accli¬
matizing procss. They were brought from the hottest
part of the earth to the region where the winter's
cold is of almost arctic severity; from an exceedingly
humid to a very dry air. They came to service under
alien taskmasters, strange to them in speech and pur¬
pose. They had to betake themselves to unaccustomed
food and to clothing such as they had never worn be¬
fore. Rarely could one of the creatures find about
him a familiar face, or friend, parent, or child, or any
object that recalled his past life to him. It was an ap¬
palling change. Only those who know how the Ne¬
gro cleaves to all the dear, familiar things of life, how
fond he is of warmth and friendliness, can conceive
the physical and mental shock that this introduction to
new things meant to him. To people of our own race
it would have meant death. But these wonderful
folk appear to have withstood the trials of their de¬
portation in a marvelous way They showed no pe¬
culiar liability for disease. Their longevity or pe-
350 the negro in business
riod of usefulness was not diminished, or their fecund¬
ity obviously impaired. So far as I have been able
to learn, nostalgia was not a source of mortality, as
it would have been with any Aryan population. The
price they brought in the market and the satisfaction
of their purchasers with their qualities show that they
were from the first almost ideal laborers.
"If we compare the Algonquin Indian, in appear¬
ance a sturdy fellow, with these Negroes, we see of
what stuff the blacks are made. A touch of housework
and of honest toil took the breath of the aborigines
away, but these tropical exotics fell to their tasks and
trials far better than the men of our own kind could
have done. . . . Moreover, the production of good
tobacco requires much care, which extends over about
a year from the time the seed is planted. Some parts
of the work demand a measure of judgment such as in¬
telligent Negroes readily acquire. They are, indeed,
better fitted for the task than white men, for they are
commonly more interested in their tasks than whites of
the laboring class. The result was that before the
period of the Revolutionary War slavery was firmly
established in the tobacco planting colonies of Mary¬
land, Virginia, and North Carolina; it was already the
foundation of their only considerable industry. . . .
This industry (cotton), even more than that of rais¬
ing tobacco called for abundant labor, which could be
absolutely commanded and severely tasked in the sea¬
son of extreme heat. For this work the Negro proved
to be the only fit man, for while the whites can do this
work, they prefer other employment. Thus it came
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 351
about that the power of slavery in this country be¬
came rooted in its soil. The facts show that, based
on an ample foundation of experience, the judgment
of the Southern people was to the effect that this
creature of the tropics was a better laborer in their
fields than the men of their own race.
" Much has been said about the dislike of the white
man for work in association with Negroes. The fail¬
ure of the whites to have a larger share in the agri¬
culture of the South has been attributed to this cause.
This seems to be clearly an error. The dislike to the
association of races, in labor is, in the slaveholding
States, less than in the North. There can be no ques¬
tion that if the Southern folk eould have made white
laborers profitable they would have preferred to em¬
ploy them, for the reason that they would have re¬
quired less fixed capital for their operation. The
fact was and is, that the Negro is there a better la¬
boring man in the field than the white. Under the con¬
ditions, he is more enduring, more contented, and
more trustworthy than the men of our own race."
So much for the Negro as a financial factor in
American life before the Civil War. What of his
value as a free man?
There were not a few who predicted that as soon as
the Negro became a free man he would not only cease
to support himself and others but would become a tax
upon the community.
Few people in any part of our country have ever
seen a black hand reach out from a street corner ask¬
ing for charity. In our Northern communities a large
352
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
amount of money is spent by individuals and munic¬
ipalities in caring for the sick, the poor, and other
classes of unfortunates. In the South, with very few
exceptions, the Negro takes care of himself and of the
unfortunate members of his race. This is usually
done by a combination of individual members of the
race, or through the churches or fraternal organiza¬
tions.
The fact is often referred to that the Negro pays a
very small proportion of the taxes that support his own
schools. As to whether or not this is true depends a
good deal on the theory of political economy that we
follow, as I have sought to point out in a previous
chapter. Some of the highest authorities on political
economy contend that it is the man who rents the house
that pays the taxes on it, rathei* than the man who
simply holds the title to it. Certain it is that without
the Negro to produce the raw material in the South,
from which a large proportion of taxes are paid, there
would not be a very large tax paid by any one.
Reliable statistics concerning the economic progress
of the Negro are difficult to be obtained, owing to the
fact that few of these states keep a record separating
the property owned by Negroes from that owned by
white people. The State of Virginia and one or two
Southern States do keep such a record. Taking the
matter of taxes as a basis for indicating the Negro's
value, Prof. J. W. Cromwell, of Washington, D. C.,
gave the following statistics bearing upon the colored
people of the State of Virginia, at a recent conference
held at the Hampton Institute:—
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
353
" The colored people contributed in 1898 directly
to the expenses of the state government the sum of
$9,576.76, and for schools $3,239.41 from their per¬
sonal property, a total of $12,816.17; while from their
real estate for the purposes of their commonwealth
there were paid by them $34,303.53, and for schools,
$11,357.22, or a total of $45,760.75; a grand total of
$58>576-92.
" The report for the same year shows them to own
978,118 acres of land, valued at $3,800,459, improved
by buildings valued at $2,056,490, a total of $5,856,-
949. In the towns and cities they own lots assessed
at $2,154,331, improved by buildings valued at $3,-
400,636, a total of $5,554,967 for town property
and a grand total of $11,411,916 of their property
of all kinds in the commonwealth. A comparative
statement for different years would doubtless show a
general upward tendency.
" The counties of Accomac, Essex, King and
Queen, Middlesex, Mathews, Northampton, Northum¬
berland, Richmond, Westmoreland, Gloucester, Prin¬
cess Anne and Lancaster, all agricultural, show an ag¬
gregate of 114,197 acres held by Negroes in 1897,
. against 108,824 held in the previous year, an increase
of 5,379, or nearly five per cent. The total valua¬
tion of lands, owned by Negroes in the same coun¬
ties for 1897, is $547,800 against $196,385 for the
year next preceding, a gain of $51,150, or more than
ten per cent. Their personal property, as assessed in
1897, was $517,560, in 1896, $527,688, a loss of $10,-
128. Combining the real and personal property of
354
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
1897, we have $1,409,059 against_$i,320,504 for 1896,
a net gain of $88,555, an increase of six and one-half
per cent."
The greatest excitement and anxiety was recently
created among the white people in two counties of
Georgia because of the fact that a large proportion of
the colored people decided to leave. No stone has
been left upturned to induce the colored people to re¬
main in the county and prevent financial ruin to many
white farmers.
Any one who has followed the testimony given be¬
fore the United States Industrial Commission will see
that several white men from the South have stated, in
the most emphatic language, that the Negro is the
best laborer that 'the South has ever had, and is the
best that the South is likely to get in the future. Not
the least part of the Negro's worth at the present time
(and this is going to be more apparent in the future
than now) is that he presents a conservative, reliable
factor in relation to " strikes " and " lockouts." The
Negro is not given to " strikes." His policy is to
leave each individual free to work when, where, and
for whom he pleases.
What I have thus far stated relates mainly to the
common Negro laborer before and since the war.
But what about the educated Negro?
Reference is often made to the large proportion of
criminal and idle colored men in the large cities. I
admit that this class is much larger than it should be,
and in some cities it is beginning to present a rather
serious problem. Two things however should be
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 355
kept in mind when considering the younger generation
of colored people: First, that the transition from slav¬
ery to freedom was a tremendous one; that the Ne¬
gro's idea of freedom for generations had been that
it meant freedom from restraint and work; that the
Negro mother and father had little opportunity during
slavery to learn how to train children; and that the
family life was practically unknown to the Negro un¬
til about thirty years ago. Secondly, the figures re¬
lating to criminality among all races in all countries
show that it is the younger people — those between
the ages of sixteen and thirty-five — that are given to
crime and idleness.
Notwithstanding these facts, I want to present some
testimony showing that the young, educated Negro is
not failing to prove his worth.
Sometime ago I sent letters to a few hundred white
men, scattered throughout the Southern States, in
which these three questions were asked:
1. Has education made the Negro a more useful
citizen ?
2. Has it made him more economical and more in¬
clined to acquire wealth ?
3. Has it made him a more valuable workman, es¬
pecially where thought and skill are required?
Answers came from three hundred of my corre¬
spondents, and nine-tenths of them answered the ques¬
tions emphatically in the affirmative. A few ex¬
pressed doubts, and only one answered the question
with an unmodified " No."
In each case I was careful to ask my correspondents
356
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
to base their answers upon the conditions existing in
their own neighborhood.
The greatest thing that can be done for the Negro
at the present time is to make him the most useful
and indispensable man in his community. This can
be done by thorough education of hand, head, and,
especially, by constantly distilling into every fibre of
his being the thought that labor is ennobling and that
idleness, all forms of it, is a disgrace.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
PART III
APPENDIX
My publishers have thought that an interesting
feature would be added to this book if I should col¬
lect from several of my other works a number of
quotations bearing in a general manner upon the sub¬
ject matter of " The Negro in Business." This I
have done, and the quotations which were selected
follow
B. T. W.
EMANCIPATION OPENED DOOR OF BUSINESS TO NEGRO.
During the two hundred and fifty years that the
Negro spent in slavery he had little cause or incentive
to accumulate money or property. Thirty-five years
ago this was something which he had to begin to
learn. "While the great bulk of the race is still with¬
out money and property, yet the signs of thrift are
evident on every hand. Especially is this noticeable
in the large number of neat little homes which are
owned by these people on the outer edges of the towns
and cities, in the South.— Future of the American
Negro, p. 173.
OUR BUSINESS MEN SHOULD WIN RACE'S PATRONAGE
BY MERIT.
If we wish to bring the race to a point where it
should be, where it will be strong, and grow and pros-
359
360
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
per, we have got to, in every way possible, encour¬
age it. We can do this in no better way than by
cultivating that amount of faith in the race which
will make us patronize its own enterprises wherever
those enterprises are worth patronizing. I do not
believe much in the advice that is often given that we
should patronize the enterprises of our race without
regard to the worth of those enterprises. I believe
that the best way to bring the race to the point where
it will compare with other races is to let it understand
that, whenever it enters into any line of business, it
will be patronized just in proportion as it makes that
business as successful, as useful, as is true of any
business enterprise conducted by any other race.—
Future of the American Negro, p. 179.
I. T: MONTGOMERY, BY NATURAL SELECTION, MAYOR
OF A TOWN.
The Negro who can make himself so conspicuous
as a successful farmer, a large taxpayer, a wise helper
of his fellow-men, as to be placed in a position of
trust and honor, whether the position be political or
otherwise, by natural selection, is a hundred-fold more
secure in that position than one placed there by mere
outside force or pressure. I know a Negro, Hon.
Isaiah T. Montgomery, in Mississippi, who is mayor
of a town. It is true that this town, at present, is
composed almost wholly of Negroes. Mr. Montgom¬
ery is mayor of this town because his genius, thrift,
and foresight have created the town; and he is held
and supported in his office by a charter, granted by
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
361
the State of Mississippi, and by the vote and public
sentiment of the community in which he lives.— Fu¬
ture of the American Negro, p. 223.
BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY THE FOUNDATION OF CUL¬
TURE.
But it is asked, Would you confine the Negro to
agriculture, mechanics, and domestic arts, etc.? Not
at all; but along the lines that I have mentioned is
where the stress should be laid just now and for many
years to come. We will need and must have many
teachers and ministers, some doctors and lawyers and
statesmen; but these professional men will have a con-
constituency or a foundation from which to draw
support just in proportion as the race prospers along
the economic lines that I have mentioned. During
the first fifty or one hundred years of the life of any
people are not the economic occupations always given
the greater attention? This is not only the historic,
but, I think, the common-sense view. If this gener¬
ation will lay the material foundation, it will be the
quickest and surest way for the succeeding generation
to succeed in the cultivation of the fine arts, and to
surround itself even with some of the luxuries of
life, if desired. What the race now most needs, in
my opinion, is a whole army of men and women well
trained to lead and at the same time infuse themselves
into agriculture, mechanics, domestic employment,
and business. As to the mental training that "these
leaders should be equipped with, I should say, give
them all the mental training and culture that the cir-
362
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cumstances of individuals will allow,— the more, the
better. No race can permanently succeed until its
mind is awakened and strengthened by the ripest
thought. But I would constantly have it kept in the
thoughts of those who are educated in books that a
large proportion of those who are educated should be
so trained in hand that they can bring this mental
strength and knowledge to bear upon the physical con¬
ditions in the South which I have tried to emphasize.
Frederick Douglass, of sainted memory, once, in ad¬
dressing his race, used these words: "We are to
prove that we can better our own condition. One way
to do this is to accumulate property. This may
sound to you like a new gospel. You have been ac¬
customed to hear that love of money is the root of
all evil, etc. On the other hand, property — money,
if you please — will purchase for us the only condi¬
tion by which any people can rise to the dignity of
genuine manhood; for without property there can be
no leisure, without leisure there can be no thought,
without thought there can be no invention, with¬
out invention there can be no progress."
The Negro should be taught that material develop¬
ment "is not an end, but simply a means to an end.
The Negro has a highly religious temperament; but
what he needs more and more is to be convinced of
the importance of weaving his religion and morality
into the practical affairs of daily life. Equally as
much does he need to be taught to put so much in¬
telligence into his labor that he will see dignity and
beauty in the occupation, and love it for its own
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 363
sake. The Negro needs to be taught that more of
the religion that manifests itself in his happiness in
the prayer-meeting should be made practical in the
performance of his daily task. The man who owns
a home and is in the possession of the elements by
which he is sure of making a daily living has a great
aid to a moral and religious life. What bearing will
all this have upon the Negro's place in the South as a
citizen and in the enjoyment of the privileges which
our government confers?—Future of the American
Negro, p. 227.
RESULTS, NOT WORDS, OUR NEED.
While we are multiplying these examples, the Ne¬
gro must keep a strong and courageous heart. He
cannot improve his condition by any short-cut .course
or by artificial methods. Above all, he must not be
deluded into the temptation of believing that his con-_
dition can be permanently improved by a mere battle¬
dore and shuttlecock of words or by any process of
mental gymnastics or oratory alone. What is de¬
sired, along with a logical defense of his cause, are
deeds, results,— multiplied results,— in the direction
of building himself up, so as to leave no doubt in the
minds of "any one of his ability to succeed.— Future
of the American Negro, p. 235.
BUSINESS THE STRATEGIC POINT IN RACE'S CAMPAIGN.
So long as the Negro is permitted to get education,
acquire property, and secure employment, and is
treated with respect in the business or commercial
364 . THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
world,— as is now true in the greater part of the
South,— I shall have the greatest faith in his work¬
ing out his own destiny in our Southern States.—
Future of the American Negro, p. 243.
FIDELITY AN INHERENT QUALITY OF THE RACE.
I have said that there are few instances of a mem¬
ber of my race betraying a specific trust. One of the
best illustrations of this which I know of is in the case
of an ex-slave from Virginia whom I met not long
ago in a little town in the State of Ohio. I found
that this man had made a contract with his master,
two or three years previous to the Emancipation Proc¬
lamation, to the effect that the slave was to be per¬
mitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for
his body; and while he was paying for himself, he
was to be permitted to labor where and for whom
he pleased. Finding that he could secure * better
wages in Ohio, he went there. When freedom came,
he was still in debt to his master some three hundred
dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation
Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his
master, this black man walked the greater portion
of the distance back to where his old master lived in
Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in
his hands. In talking to me about this, the man told
me that he knew that he did not have to pay the debt,
but that he had given his word to his master, and his
word he had never broken. He felt that he could
not enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his prom¬
ise.— Up from Slavery, p. 14.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
365
VALUE OF PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATIONS OF MERIT.
Wherever one of our brickmakers has gone in the
South, we find that he has something to contribute
to the well-being of the community into which he has
gone; something that has made the community feel
that, in a degree, it is indebted to him, and perhaps,
to a certain extent, dependent upon him. In this
way pleasant relations between the races have been
stimulated.
My experience is that there is something in human
nature which always makes an individual recognize
and reward merit, no matter under what color of skin
merit is found. I have found too, that it is the vis¬
ible, the tangible, that goes a long ways in softening
prejudices. The actual sight of a first class house
that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than
pages of discussion about a house that he ought to
build, or perhaps could build.— Up From Slavery,
P- 154.
POWER OF HIM WHO CAN SUPPLY A DEMAND.
The individual who can do something that the
world wants done will, in the end, make his way re¬
gardless of his race. One man may go into a com¬
munity prepared to supply the people there with an
analysis of Greek sentences. The community may
not at the time be prepared for, or feel the need of,
Greek analysis, but it may feel its need of bricks and
houses and wagons. If the man can supply the need
for those, then, it will lead eventually to a demand
366
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
for the first product, and with the demand will come
the ability to appreciate it and to profit by it.— Up
from Slavery, p. 155.
DO COMMON THINGS IN AN UNCOMMON MANNER.
While in Paris we saw a good deal of the now
rather famous American Negro painter, Mr. Henry
O. Tanner, whom we had formerly known in Amer¬
ica. It was very satisfactory to find how well known
Mr. Tanner was in the field of art, and to note the
high standing which all classes accorded to him. When
we told some Americans that we were going to the
Luxembourg Palace to see a painting by an American
Negro, it was hard to convince them that a Negro
had been thus honored. I do not believe that they
were really convinced of the fact until they saw the
picture for themselves. My acquaintance with Mr.
Tanner re-enforced in my mind the truth which I am
constantly trying to impress upon our students at
Tuskegee — and on our people throughout the coun¬
try, as far as I can reach them with my voice — that
any man, regardless of color, will be recognized and
rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do some¬
thing well — learns to do it better than some one else
— however humble the thing may be. As I have
said, I believe that my race will succeed in propor¬
tion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncom¬
mon manner; learns to do a thing so thoroughly that
no one can improve upon what it has done; learns to
make its services of indispensable value. This was
the spirit that inspired me in my first effort at Hamp-
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
367
ton, when I was given the opportunity to sweep and
dust that schoolroom. In a degree I felt that my
whole future life depended upon the thoroughness
with which I cleaned that room, and I was deter¬
mined to do it so well that no one could find any fault
with the job. Few people ever stopped, I found,
when looking at his pictures, to inquire whether Mr.
Tanner was a Negro painter, a French painter, or a
German painter. They simply knew that he was able
to produce something which the world wanted — a
great painting — and the matter of his color did not
enter into their minds. When a Negro girl learns to
cook, to wash dishes, to sew, to write a book, or a
Negro boy learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet
potatoes, or to produce butter, or to build a house,
or to be able to practice medicine as well or better
than someone else, they will be rewarded regardless
of race or color. In the long run, the world is going
to have the best, and any difference in race, religion,
or previous history will not long keep the world from
what it wants.
I think that the whole future of my race hinges on
the question as to whether or not it can make itself
of such indispensable value that the people in the
town and the state where we reside will feel that our
presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being
of the community. No man who continues to add
something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-
being of the place in which he lives is long left with¬
out proper reward. This is a great human law which
368
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
cannot be permanently nullified.— Up from Slavery,
p. 280.
RACE BUILDING FROM THE BOTTOM, NOT FROM THE
TOP.
There is still doubt in many quarters as to the
ability of the Negro, unguided and unsupported, to
hew out his own path, and put into visible, tangible,
indisputable forms the products and signs of civiliza¬
tion. This doubt cannot be extinguished by mere ab¬
stract arguments, no matter how ingeniously and con¬
vincingly advanced.
Quietly, patiently, doggedly, through Summer and
Winter, sunshine and shadow, by self-sacrifice, by
foresight, by honesty and industry, we must re-en¬
force arguments with results. One farm bought, one
house built, one home neatly kept, one man the larg¬
est tax-payer and depositor in the local bank, one
school or church maintained, one factory running suc¬
cessfully, one truck-garden profitably cultivated, one
patient cured by a Negro doctor, one sermon well
preached, one office well filled, one life cleanly lived
— these will tell more in our favor than all the ab¬
stract eloquence that can be summoned to plead our
cause. Our pathway must be up through the soil,
up through swamps, up through forests, up through
streams and rocks; up through commerce, education,
and religion! In my opinion, we cannot begin at the
top to build a race any more than we can begin at the
top to build a house. If we try to do this, we shalL
reap in the end the fruits of our folly.— Working
with the Hands, p. 2g.
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
369
HOW A MAN WITH A TRADE MADE $50,000.
If any one goes into a community North or South
and asks to have pointed out to him the man of the
NegrQ race of the old generation who stands for the
best things in the life of the colored community, in
six cases out of ten, I venture to say, he will be shown
a man who learned a trade during the days of slavery.
A few years ago James Hale, a Negro, died in Mont¬
gomery, Alabama. He spent the greater part of his
life as a slave. He left property valued at fifty thou¬
sand dollars, and bequeathed a generous sum to be
used in providing for an infirmary for the benefit of
his race. James Hale could not read or write a line,
yet I do not believe that there is a white or black man
in Montgomery who knew Mr. Hale who will not
agree with me in saying that he was the first colored
citizen of Montgomery. I have seldom met a man of
any race who surpassed him in sterling qualities.
When Mr. Hale was a slave, his master took great
pains to have him well trained as a carpenter, con¬
tractor and builder. His master saw that the better
the slave was trained in handicraft, the more dollars
he was worth. In my opinion, it was this hand-
training, despite the evil of slavery, that largely re¬
sulted in Mr. Hale's fine development. If Mr. Hale
was all this with mere hand training, what might he
have been if his mind had also been carefully educated ?
Mr. Hale was simply a type of many men to be found
in nearly every part of the country.— Working with
the Hands, p. 59.
370 THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
$121 PROFIT AN ACRE OF SWEET POTATOES.
I have just finished reading a little pamphlet writ¬
ten by Mr. George W. Carver, Director of the Ag¬
ricultural Department at Tuskegee, giving the results
of some of his experiments in raising sweet potatoes
for one year. This colored man has shown in plain
simple language, based on scientific principles, how he
has raised two hundred and sixty-six bushels of sweet
potatoes on a single acre of common land, and made
a net profit of one hundred and twenty-one dollars.
The average yield of "sweet potatoes to the acre, in
the part of the South where this experiment was tried,
is thirty-seven bushels per acre. This colored man is
now preparing to make this same land produce five
hundred bushels of potatoes. I have watched this ex¬
periment with a great deal of pleasure. The deep
interest shown by the neighboring white farmers has
been most gratifying. I do not believe that a single
white farmer who visited the field to see the unusual
yield, ever thought of having any prejudice or feel¬
ing against this colored man because his education
had enabled him to make a marked success of raising
sweet potatoes. There were, on the other hand, many
evidences of respect for this colored man and of grat¬
itude for the information which he had furnished.
If we had a hundred such colored men in each county
in the South, who could make their education felt in
meeting the world's needs, there would be no race
problem. But in order to get such men, those inter¬
ested in the education of the Negro must begin to
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 371
look facts and conditions in the face. Too great a
gap has been left between the Negro's real condition
and the position for which we have tried to fit him
through the medium of our text-books. We have
overlooked in many cases the fact that long years of
experience and discipline are necessary for any race
before it can get the greatest amount of good out of
the text-books. Much that the Negro has studied
presupposes conditions that do not, for him, exist.—
Working with the Hands, p. 135.
STORIES TOLD.
At the meeting in 1904 of the Tuskegee Negro Con¬
ference an Alabama farmer said:
" I own sixty-seven acres of land. I got it by work¬
ing hard and living close. I did not eat at any big
tables. I often lived on bread and milk. I have five
rooms in my house. I started with one, and that was
made of logs. I "add a room every year. I was lucky
in marrying a woman whose father gave her a cow.
I ain't got no fine clocks or organs. I did once own a
buggy, but it was a shabby one and now we ride in a
wagon, or I go horseback on a horse I raised that is
worth two hundred and fifty dollars. I have seven
children in school."
" I started plowing with my pants rolled up and
barefoot," said a Georgia man. " I saved five hun¬
dred dollars and bought a home in Albany, Georgia.
I bought two hundred acres for seven dollars an acre,
and paid for it in three years. I made that pay for
two hundred acres more. After awhile I bought thir-
372
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
teen hundred acres. I live on it, and it is all paid for.
I have twenty-five buildings and they all came out of
my pocketbook. That land is now worth twenty-five
dollars an acre. For a distance of four or five miles
from my settlement, there has not been a man in the
chain-gang for years. I work forty-seven head of
mules. The only way we will ever be a race is by
getting homes and living a virtuous life. I don't
give mortgages. I take mortgages on black and white.
I have put the first bale of cotton on the market in
Georgia every year for eight years."
A widow from Alabama told her story, which shows
among other things how a dog may be useful:
" There are three in my family, and I am the boss. I
save about a hundred dollars a year. I give no mort¬
gages. I plant everything that a farmer can plant.
I raise my own syrup, meat, peas, corn and everything
we need to eat. I have three cows. You have got
to go low down to get up high. I traded a little
puppy with my brother for a pig. From this one pig,
I raised eight pigs, and for seven years, I have not
bought a pound of meat. I am living on the strength
of that little puppy yet. I own forty acres and some¬
times rent more land."
A colored minister from Alabama said that he
farmed as well as preached. He was a renter for
seven years. In nine years he paid for four hundred
acres, and now owns ten hundred and fifteen acres.
He raises horses, cows, mules and hogs and has fifty
persons dependent upon him. He owns the land where
he used to live as a renter, and lives in the house of
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
373
the man from whom he rented. There are few white
people in his neighborhood. Most of the colored peo¬
ple own their own homes, and they have lengthened
the annual school term two months at their own ex¬
pense. This man said that, when he first bought land,
he split rails to fence it during the day and carried
them around at night, and his wife built the fence.
A South Carolinian, who was never before so far
from home, said that he was a slave for twenty years.
" I used to work six days for my master and Sunday
for myself," he said. " God introduced ten command¬
ments, but our people have added another, ' Thou shalt
not work Saturdays or Sundays either.' I stick to the
Ten Commandments and put in six days a week, and
in that way have bought three hundred acres and paid
for it. I have a large house for my own family of ten,
and fourteen other buildings on the place, six of them
rented. No man is a farmer excepting the man who
lives on the produce of his farm."
A visitor from Louisiana told how he had bor¬
rowed two hundred and fifty dollars from his father
and bought twenty-five acres of land in 1877. He
used to begin work at four o'clock in the morning.
For a year his wife ground all their meal, three ears
at a time in a small hand-mill. Now he owns three
hundred acres of sugar land, worth a hundred dollars
an acre, and has twenty-seven white and forty-eight
colored people working for him.
" I would like to set a big table for you," said one
of these farmers whom I visited at his home, " but,
374
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
professor, you-all is teaching us to 'conermise an' save,
an' dats what I'se trying to do."
When you remember how anxious the good farmers
and their wives are always to set a good table for the
visiting " professors " and " revrums," this man has a
good deal of courage in departing from old customs.
I say to the farmers: " If feeding the ' bruther-
ins' is a strain on you, feed no more of them. Cut
down on all expenses that can be trimmed without
injury to yourself."
One woman from Bullock County, Alabama, car¬
ried away the true spirit of the conference. Not long
ago, one of our agents saw a deed to a valuable piece
of farm land, bought with money she had saved by
selling cows. She said that she had never thought of
any such plan until she had visited the Farmers' Con¬
ference and heard others tell how they had bought
land. An unusual feature of this case was that the
woman did not live in the town in which she had in¬
vested her money. She had made herself interested
enough to seek a chance to invest her earnings in the
purchase of property several miles from her home set¬
tlement. She said that it required a mighty sight of
will-power to keep from buying fine clothes with the
money, but she was determined to get hold of some
land, and she did it without any assistance from her
husband.
" Yes, of course I'll be at the next Negro Confer¬
ence," wrote another farmer. " I want you to give
me a chance to talk, too. I want to show Mr. Wash¬
ington a turnip I raised in my own garden, and have
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
375
been saving for the Conference, and I want to tell him
how much I have raised and eaten out of my own gar¬
den, and how much I have saved as the result of these
teachings at the annual meetings."
Another wrote recently:
" I have to buy very little to eat, for I raise with
one horse all I want to eat and a little more besides.
Last year, I raised nine bales of cotton, plenty of corn,
sugarcane, pease and potatoes, and many other things.
Besides this, my wife raised twenty hogs, and a yard
full of chickens, geese and turkeys. The only way
for the farmer to get out of debt and keep out of
debt is to buy a home, raise what he eats, and pay at
once for what he gets out of the store."
A pilgrim from Georgia thus expressed himself:
" I came here to get my keg full of good news and
glad tidings to carry back to Georgia, and I have got
it. I began working for eight dollars and fifty cents
a month and my board, and cleared eighty-three dol¬
lars the first year. Then, I worked on shares for a
while, then I bought a mule on credit, using my money
to support myself ""while raising a crop. Now I own
fifteen hundred acres of land, all paid for. I have
six rooms in my house. I don't give any mortgages.
I have twenty-three plows, and a bank account. I
haul on my drays about ten thousand bales of cotton
every year for the planters in my county. I have
another patch of fifty acres near Fort Gaines on which
there is a six-room house.— Woking with the Hands,
p. 141.
376
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
HOW A HOG SERVED AS AN OBJECT LESSON.
I heard not long ago, a story of one of our grad¬
uates which delighted me as an illustration of the real
Tuskegee spirit. A man had occasion to go to the vil¬
lage of Benton, Alabama, in which Mr. A. J. Wood,
one of our graduates, had settled ten years before, and
gone into business as a general merchant. In this
time, he has built up a good trade and has obtained
for himself a reputation as one of the best and most
reliable business men in the place. While the visitor
was there, he happened to step to the open back door
of the store, and stood looking out into a little yard
behind the building. The merchant joining him there,
began to call, " Ho, Boy, Ho, Boy," and finally, in
response to this calling, there came crawling out from
beneath the store, with much grunting, because he
was altogether too big to get comfortably from under
the building, an enormous black hog.
" You see thai: hog," the man said. " That's my
hog. I raise one like that every year as an object
lesson to the colored farmers around here who come to
the store to trade. About all I feed him is the waste
from the store. When the. farmers come in here, I
show them my hog, and I tell them that if they would
shut their pigs up in a pen of rails, and have the chil¬
dren pick up acorns in the woods to feed them on,
they might have just such hogs as I do, instead of
their razor-backs running around wild in the woods.
" Perhaps I can't teach a school here," the man added,
" but if I can't do that, I can at least teach the men
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 377
here how to raise hogs as I learned to raise them at
Tuskegee."— Working with the Hands, p. 155.
NO JOB-HUNTING FOR THOSE WHO ARE ABLE TO DO
SOMETHING USEFUL.
There are many opportunities all about us where
we can use our education. You very rarely see a man
idle who knows all about house-building, who knows
how to draw plans, to test the strength of materials
that enter into the making of a first-class house. Did
you ever see such a man out of a job? Did you ever
see such a man as that writing letters to this place and
that place, applying for work? People are wanted all
over the world who can do work well; men and women
are wanted who understand the preparation and sup¬
plying of food — I don't mean in the small menial
sense — but people who know all about it. Even in
this there is a great opportunity. A few days ago I
met a woman who had spent years in this country and
in Europe studying the subject of food economics in
all its details. I learn that this person is in constant
demand by institutions of learning and other establish¬
ments where the preparation and the serving of food
are important features. She spends a few months at
each institution. She is wanted everywhere, because
she has applied her education to one of the most im¬
portant necessities of life. And so you will find it all
through life — those persons who are going to be con¬
stantly sought after, constantly in demand, are those
who make the best use of their opportunities, who
work unceasingly to become" proficient in whatever
378
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS
they attempt to do. Always be sure that you have
something out of which you can make a living, and
then you will not only be independent but you will be
in a much better position to help your fellow-men.—
Character Building, p. 129.
MERITORIOUS INDIVIDUALS BENEFIT THE WHOLE RACE.
Last winter I was in the town of Clinton, Iowa. I
think I had never heard of the place before, and when
I got there I was surprised to find it a place of more
than 16,000 inhabitants. The gentleman who was
to entertain me wanted to take me to a colored restau¬
rant. I expected to go into a restaurant of the kind
operated by our people generally, and I was very much
surprised when he took me into a large, two-story
building. I found the floors carpeted, and everything
about the place as pleasant and attractive as it was pos¬
sible to make it In fact the restaurant compared very
favorably with many in the largest cities in the coun¬
try. I found the waiters clean, the service good, and
everything conducted in the most systematic manner.
And there was not the least thing, except the color of
the proprietor's skin, to show that the place was oper¬
ated by colored people.
Afterwards my friend took me into another estab¬
lishment of the same size, operated in the same cred¬
itable manner by another colored man. In both I
found that these gentlemen not only carried on a reg¬
ular restaurant business, but manufactured their own
candies and ice cream, and did a sort of wholesale ca¬
tering business. I asked the white people there what
THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS 379
they thought of the colored people, and I did not find a
single white person who did not have the most implicit
confidence in the colored people. The trouble was that
there were not many colored people there. That ac¬
counts possibly for the good opinion which the white
people have of them. But you see what just two black
men can do. These people had never seen many black
people, but fortunately for us they had with them two
of the best specimens of our race that I have ever seen
anywhere in this country. As a result, you do not
find anyone cursing the black man in that town.
Everybody had the utmost confidence in black people,
and respected them.
Just in proportion as we can establish object lessons
of this kind all over the country, you will find that the
problem that now is so perplexing will disappear. Un¬
til we do this, we shall not be able to talk away, or to
argue away, this prejudice. We cannot talk our way
into our rights; we must work our way, think our
way, into them. And you will find that just in pro¬
portion as we do this, we are going to get all we de¬
serve.— Character Building, p. 170.
Any or all of Mr. Washington's books may be or¬
dered from the publishers of this volume.
THE END