article on the above subject and the following quotation is an extract
from that article: “Nearly 400 rural schools will have been completed
during the year ending July 1 with aid from the Rosenwald fund. Of
the money required to erect these schools our people in the South
gave $500,000, the white people $500,000, various states $800,000 and
Mr. Rosenwald $500,000. All the Rosenwald schools have been put in
operation. Altogether, more than 1,000 schools have been built in the
South with the aid from the Rosenwald fund.”
IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS
THE PEN AND THE TYPEWRITER
Years back pen and pencil were always cross
For every one used them as though a horse:
They were pushed and pulled without respite,
And made to draw heavy lines just right.
Not a figure was cut without their aid
Nor a letter was built without their shade;
And well did they have good cause to fret
And wish for some other the work to get.
One day a man from Remington came
With a funny thing that bore his name;
Then Smith-Underwood did saunter in
To ease the work of the weeping pen.
Now pen and pencil are mad as a bee
And say they would even a mule rather be
Than lie on a desk as dull as a log
Or stay on the floor like a poodle dog.
--_Harrison._
As Colored people have branched out into more numerous and new business
enterprises, they have found that in order to place their ventures
on foundations that are sure and firm they must learn certain book
knowledge as well as getting actual working experiences in modern
businesses. They have also noticed through observations or experiences
that no matter how well a business may be founded and grounded it will
not continue to succeed unless its detailed operations are carried on
by specially trained and capable workers. Since they, with but few
exceptions, have not been allowed to attend, simply on account of their
Race, white business schools and colleges to receive such preparations,
Colored people have in many of the large cities in America established
their own business schools and colleges. From among the many such
schools the following named are the few that have come under the
writer’s notice during his limited research efforts:
The progressive city of Jacksonville, Fla., has the honor of housing
probably the largest and most modernly equipped private school of this
nature not only in America but in the world among Colored people.
The founder and president of this institution is Prof. R. W. Walker.
Through his patient and untiring efforts, unusual business and
teaching abilities, he has built up an enrollment of over one thousand
local and correspondent students in his college that is established in
its own fifty thousand dollar building which is open day and night the
year round for class room work. Aside from its school rooms Walker’s
National Business College has a dormitory for the boarding and lodging
of its out-of-town students.
The Derrick Business School has within the past five years made such
rapid growth and progress under the sound establishment, expert
teaching and sane management of Miss M. J. Derrick that it is now
centrally located in its own building in one of the most exclusive
business sections of Philadelphia, Pa. Miss Derrick has the distinction
of being the only Colored person who owns and manages a business
college that teaches the famous “Boyd’s 30-Day System.” This school
also has its own dormitories for the accommodation of its students
living out of the city and state.
More than ten years ago The Stenographers’ Institute was founded in
Philadelphia, Pa., by Prof. E. T. Duncan. Since that time he has built
up a commercial school of such efficiency that his reputation has
brought to him not only local students but young men and women living
in several other cities and states. The enrollment of his school has
become so large that in the near future he will be compelled to seek
new and larger quarters.
The New York Academy presided over by Prof. R. W. Justice, and
Braithwaite Shorthand School managed by Prof. I. N. Braithwaite are
two business schools in New York City operated by Colored men who are
doing much for the elevation of their race by turning out competent
commercial graduates.
In Chicago, Ill., Prof. M. J. Treadwell’s Commercial Institute and The
Central School of Commerce, of which Prof. W. D. Alimono an expert
bookkeeper and accountant is president, are two Colored business
schools that rank in the first class.
Prof. Chas. A. Brown’s Bruno School of Business, Brooklyn, N. Y.,
is also an institution of modern methods and is doing its part in
preparing for future careers stenographers, typewriters, bookkeepers
and other students in various commercial subjects.
IN BUSINESS
RACIAL CO-OPERATION
When Race stores are tidy and neatly bent,
And act polite when you spend but a cent;
Then do buy their wares, if fair and good,
And as Jew Folks, help your own Racehood.
--_Harrison._
Colored boys and girls who wish to learn about what some of their race
people have done in big business should read the following and thereby
get encouragement and inspiration.
One of the very first Colored persons (thanks to and honor due Negro
womanhood) to develop an enterprise from a local venture into a
successful national and international commercial standard was the
far-seeing and progressive late Madam C. J. Walker, of Indianapolis
and New York. Starting with a few cents in her pocket but with a full
knowledge of the value of her beauty culture and toilet articles,
with even fuller knowledge of their urgent need among her Colored
sisters, and with the fullest determination and confidence to succeed,
Mrs. Walker within the short period of twelve years made for herself
a wealth of one million dollars. This fortune included a modernly
equipped home in Indianapolis, Ind., a fifty thousand dollar residence
in New York City, and a two hundred fifty thousand dollar mansion
at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York. Aside from the numerous and
unrecorded sums of money she gave to both Colored and white charities
during her twelve years of wonderful financial career, Mrs. Walker
at her death bequeathed one hundred thousand dollars to be used in
many charitable ways for the encouragement and uplift of her race.
The business, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co., was left to her
daughter, Mrs. Lelia Walker Wilson, whose business abilities handed
down to her from her gifted mother, together with her own original
ideas and efforts have already increased the enterprise. Mrs. Walker’s
life of marvelous success will ever stand out as a clear beacon light
to Negro youths, especially Colored girls. And when the circumstances
under which she labored are taken into just consideration her
achievements are recognized as worthy of being recorded on the best
pages of American history.
Right on the heels of the above business wonder is the commercial
success of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Malone, St. Louis, Mo., who are also in
the same line of business. On account of the superior quality of their
goods, the urgent demands for same and the resulting satisfaction
they are giving, their business has increased so rapidly that they
were compelled to recently erect a two hundred fifty thousand dollar
five-story fireproof building. In this structure are housed their
manufacturing plant and office force. The Malones are giving $5,000
toward the Colored Y. M. C. A. Work and various other sums of money for
different lines of betterment for their race, (like the late Madame
Walker and several other wealthy Colored people) show they are with a
Good Samaritan spirit taking altruistic advantages of their unusual
success in business by repeatedly aiding their less fortunate Race
people or humanity in general after they have found the need of such
aid is for a worthy and good cause. So Mr. & Mrs. Malone are today
equally dividing their time between the expansion of their Poro College
business and the encouragement and uplift of their struggling Race.
(Figures extracted from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, p.
3).
Colored girls who want to go into business for themselves or be
successful in anything but hesitate and hold back because they belong
to the Negro race and are Colored, should remember that:--The most
powerful thing in the world (the sun) is Colored, and just because
Nature has willed that it must get up every morning and retire every
evening with a red rosy face does not mean that it is blushing with
shame or holding back its leadership in light and energy just because
it happens to be a golden color.
According to an article that appeared in the April 16, 1921 issue of
the Chicago Defender, the Kashmir Chemical Co., and the Nile Queen Co.
are to be formed into one corporation in its own three story building
and is to have a capital of two hundred thousand dollars. This is
also a beauty culture business and is under the hustling and capable
leaderships of its president David Manson and his associates J. D.
Bell, George Walker and C. A. Barnett.
To be awarded first prize at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and the
Jamestown Exposition in 1907 and to be awarded a contract by the United
States Government to supply its army during the World War, is what
A. C. Howard’s shoe polish has accomplished for him. And today the
products of A. C. Howard Shoe Polish Manufacturing Co., New York have
become known on both sides of the oceans.
Because of their unusual business success the writer quotes below from
Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919, pages 360-361, sketches telling
about the accomplishments of three among America’s foremost Colored
business men.
“Boyd, Dr. R. H. Prominent minister in the Baptist denomination.
He established in 1896, the National Baptist Publishing House at
Nashville, Tenn. The printing plant occupies a half block in the
business portion of the city. It pays its employees over $200,000 a
year for labor. According to inventory made by Bradstreet’s Agency,
the value of stock, equipment and property of the concern is about
$350,000. Here all the books and pamphlets needed in the Sunday School
and church work of the Negro Baptists are published. Dr. Boyd is the
president of the National Negro Doll Company, which manufacturers high
class Negro dolls.”
“Merrick, John. One of the most successful Negro business men in the
United States. He was born in Clinton, North Carolina, September 7,
1859; died August 6, 1919; was a bricklayer by trade, and later, became
a barber. In 1898 he founded the North Carolina Mutual and Provident
Association, which is one of the strongest Negro insurance companies in
the world. He was one of the wealthiest Negroes in North Carolina. He
owned a large amount of real estate. His monthly rent income was over
$500.”
“Smith, Robert L. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, 1861. Founder of
the Farmer’s Improvement Society of Texas. He graduated from Atlanta
University, and for a time was editor of a paper in Charleston. He then
went to Texas and became a teacher. In 1895 he was elected a member
of the Texas Legislature. Wishing to help the people, he organized in
1890, the Farmers’ Improvement Society. The members of the Association
now own over 75,000 acres of land worth considerably over $1,000,000.
In 1906 the Society founded an agricultural college at Ladonia, Texas,
and in 1911, they organized a bank at Waco, Texas. The Society also
operates an overall factory at Waco. Under the Auspices of the Society
Farmers’ Institutes and fairs are held.”
On account of having detailed knowledge of their enterprises unshaken
determination to succeed, unusual energetic efforts, strict attention
to business, courteous manners to customers, integrity of word, prompt
payment of debts, frugal methods of saving and living within their
means, the late Messrs. McKee, Minton, Smith, Stevens and Trower of
Philadelphia, Pa., in accumulating wealth amounting to millions of
dollars, proved themselves among the most prominent and successful
Colored business men the United States have produced.
[Illustration]
IN BANKING
EVERY DOLLAR SAVED SHOWS A LITTLE MORE (SENSE) CENTS
In good strong banks all youths should seek
One dollar at least to save per week;
So when old age on them does creep
They’ll not in poorness have to weep.
--_Harrison._
As off-springs of people who three hundred years ago were savages in
Africa, and as decendents of people who were in the United States as
slaves for two hundred forty-four years; the American Colored people of
today, less than sixty years from slavery, own and operate seventy-two
Banks. These Banks carry a capital of about two million five hundred
thousand dollars and do an annual business of about thirty-five million
dollars. (Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 367).
This marvelous and successful commercial plunge is the most dazzling
banking achievement, as far as history records, ever made in the world
in the same length of time, by a like group of people placed under the
same kind of circumstances. In fact, this most heavily handicapped
business broad-jump has been made with such sudden rapidity, length of
leap and sure-footed landing that financial judges and onlookers of all
races are still dizzy from trying to measure the distance and solve how
it was covered.
Banking critics throughout the country seem to agree in estimating E.
C. Brown, President of Brown and Stevens Bank, Phila., Pa., and Brown
Savings & Banking Co., Norfolk, Va., as the foremost Colored banking
financier of today in America. Aside from having many heavy real estate
holdings in numerous Southern and Northern cities, he is founder and
president of the Quality Amusement Corporation that owns and operates
the Lafayette Theater in New York, the Dunbar Theater, in Phila., Pa.,
and theaters either under construction or contemplation in several
other large cities.
According to an article that appeared on August 13, 1920 in the Dayton
Forum, a Negro paper published by J. H. Rives, Dayton, Ohio, the first
Colored bank in the United States to report resources of over one
million dollars is the Solvent Savings Bank & Trust Co. of Memphis,
Tenn. Its cashier, B. M. Roddy stated that the bank does business with
twenty-five thousand people. These facts together with a fuller and
more detailed notification were sent to the State Commission on June
30th of that year. Other Colored banks that separately had resources
of over nine hundred thousand dollars and were expected to reach the
million dollar mark by the end of that year were the Brown Savings
& Banking Co., Norfolk, Va., and the Wage Earners Savings Bank in
Savannah, Ga. The St. Lukes Bank, Richmond, Va., the only institution
of its kind founded and presided over by a Colored woman, Mrs. Maggie
L. Walker, has resources of over five hundred thousand dollars. Other
banks that have gone over the half million dollar mark in resources
are, The Mechanics Bank, Richmond, Va., The Mutual Savings Bank,
Portsmouth, Va., and the Tide Water Bank, Norfolk, Va. Twenty-five
Colored banks throughout the country each have over two hundred fifty
thousand dollars in resources. Colored people have one national bank,
not so long established in Chicago, Ill., The Doughlass National Bank
of which P. W. Chavers is president. The Brown & Stevens Bank, Phila.,
Pa., and the Binga State Bank, Chicago, Ill., have both reached the
million dollar mark in resources. The last named bank, of which Jesse
Binga is founder and president, has a capital and surplus of one
hundred twenty thousand dollars.
The names in the following list have been handed to the writer as being
just a few from among many such Colored banks in the United States
that are laid on sound foundations, efficiently conducted and fully
recognized for their business integrity, steady financial growth and
broadening moral influences.
Banks Presidents
C. H. Anderson Co., Bankers, Jacksonville, Fla. C. H. Anderson
Atlanta State Savings Bank, Atlanta, Ga., J. A. Ross
Auburn Savings Corporation, Atlanta, Ga., B. J. Davis
Central State Bank, Gary, Ind., W. C. Hueston
Citizens State Banking Co., New Orleans, La., J. H. Lowery
Citizens & Southern Banking Co., Phila., Pa., R. R. Smith, Sr.
Charleston Mutual Savings Bank, (not informed)
Crawford Bank, Boston, Mass., David Crawford
Crown Savings Bank, Newport News, Va., (not informed)
Farmers & Merchants Bank, Boley, Okla., D. J. Turner
Farmers Improvement Bank, Waco, Texas, R. L. Smith
Fraternal Bank & Trust Co., Forth Worth, Texas, Thomas Mason
Mechanics Savings Bank, Richmond, Va., John Mitchell, Jr.
Mechanics & Farmers Bank, Durham, N. C., W. G. Pearson
Mound Bayou State Bank, Mound Bayou, Miss., D. A. Carr.
Peoples Federation Bank, Charleston, S. C., W. H. Johnson
One Cent Savings Bank, Nashville, Tenn., R. H. Boyd
Penny Savings & Loan and Investment Co., Augusta, Ga., R. S. Williams.
Northcross & Curtis Bank, Detroit, Mich., Dr. Northcross.
Savannah Savings & R. E. Corp’n, Savannah, Ga., W. S. Scott.
Industrial Savings Bank, Washington, D.C., J. W. Lewis.
Fraternal Savings Bank, Memphis, Tenn., J. J. Scott.
Tide Water Bank & Trust Co., Norfolk, Va., P. B. Young
Steel City Bank, Pittsburgh, Pa., (not informed)
Tuskegee Institute Savings Bank, Tuskegee, Ala., Warren Logan.
Modern Savings & Trust Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., J. H. Phillips
“The Allied Bankers’ Corporation will serve as a clearing house for
banks, life and fire insurances companies, manufacturing companies and
for business generally. The enterprise is to be owned by and operated
wholly in the interest of and for the economic development of the
Race.” This quotation is extracted from an article that appeared in the
December 11, 1920 issue of the Chicago Defender. In speaking of this
movement, the article further stated that a group of Colored bankers
and business men were combining in forming and having incorporated
a one million dollar concern to be known as the Allied Bankers and
Industrial Corporation.
“Application for charter has already been made by the following bankers
and business men: L. E. Williams, president Wage Earners’ Savings Bank,
Savannah, Ga.; Harry E. Pace, formerly secretary-treasurer Standard
Life Insurance Company, now president of Pace Phonograph company,
New York City; E. C. Brown, president of Brown & Stevens, bankers,
Philadelphia, Pa., and president Quality Amusement Corporation; John
E. Nail, of Nail & Parker, real estate dealers, New York City; J. S.
Jones, secretary-treasurer Tidewater Bank and Trust Company, Norfolk,
Va.; Charles Banks, Mound Bayou, Miss., and Emmett J. Scott, formerly
assistant to Secretary of War Baker and now secretary-treasurer of
Howard University.”
IN REAL ESTATE.
Within the past twenty years Colored real estate owners and brokers
throughout the country have made real estate deals running up into
millions of dollars. Some of the heaviest transactions have been made
by Nail & Parker, New York City, Watt Terry, Brocton, Mass., and
New York City, the late P. A. Payton, New York City, A. F. Herndon,
Atlanta, Ga., R. L. Smith, Waco, Texas, Brown & Stevens, Phila., Pa.,
Jesse Binga, Chicago, Ill., M. L. Harris, Washington, D.C., H. M.
Burkett, Baltimore, Md., W. Lewis, C. Tolson, Baltimore, Md., R. H.
Watterford, Gary, Ind., J. T. Jackson, Germantown, Pa., S. J. Jones,
Phila., Pa., H. Rudduth, Cincinnati, Ohio, Isadore Martin, Phila.,
Pa., J. L. Slaughter & Co., Faulkner & Cook Co., Anderson & Terrell
Co., Harvey Watkins Co., Chicago, Ill., McKinley, Walker and DeVeille,
Washington, D.C., P. H. Sykes, Phila., Pa.
According to an article that appeared on page 53 in the May 1920 issue
of The Crisis, Nail & Parker, New York real estate brokers, handle
over a million dollars yearly in rentals and commissions. During the
year 1919 Colored people purchased over four million dollars worth of
property in the Harlem section of New York City. But what is said to
have been the largest real estate transaction ever made in the United
States at one time by Colored people was when six large modern De Luxe
Elevator Apartments, that had been constructed on West 141st and 142nd
Street, New York City at a cost of one million five hundred thousand
dollars, were purchased by an organized group of Negro business men.
(Ref. Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 3).
Through his personal research work in the following cities, the writer
has been able to uncover from among the many thousands of Colored
business people throughout America, the following unusually successful
business Colored men and women each reputed able to write his or her
personal check for twenty-five thousand dollars; nearly all of them
have saved a fortune of fifty thousand dollars; a large number of them
have reached the one hundred thousand dollar mark; numbers of them
have two hundred fifty thousand dollars to their credits; many of them
count their wealth up to five hundred thousand dollars and quite a few
of them own over a million dollars in cash and property. But in reading
this list let the readers say, as the Queen of Sheba said when she paid
a visit to King Solomon and viewed his wealthy kingdom, “The half has
not been told.” Because the author would remind the reader that all
over the United States there are just as successful and wealthy Colored
business men and women whose names do not appear in this list simply
because he was unable to locate such names during his much handicapped
research work.
Atlanta, Ga.
A. F. Herndon, Barber & Real Estate.
J. O. Ross, Merchant & Banker.
Atlantic City, N. J.
B. G. Fitzgerald, Cafe & Hotel.
J. B. Ford, Real Estate.
Baltimore, Md.
J. C. Burton, Merchant.
E. B. Taylor, Caterer, Banker.
H. O. Wilson, Banker.
Bethlehem, Pa.
J. L. Ray, Restaurant Manager.
Birmingham, Ala.
N. B. Smith, Real Estate.
Boley, Okla.
L. L. Dolphin, Merchant.
T. L. Woods, Merchant.
Boston, Mass.
D. Crawford, Banker.
Buffalo, N. Y.
C. H. Patrick, Druggist.
E. D. MacAden, Hotel Manager.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
L. Williams, Tailor (retired).
Camden, N. J.
C. W. Moore, Contractor.
Charleston, W. Va.
C. H. James, Wholesale Merchant.
Charleston, S. C.
J. W. Frazer, Contractor.
T. T. Edwards, Contractor.
Charlotte, N. C.
T. L. Tate, Barber.
C. B. Bailey, Insurance.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
C. Marshall, Merchant.
Bristol, Tenn.
R. E. Clay, Barber, Real Estate.
Chester, Pa.
Geo. Nugent, Hotel Proprietor.
E. F. Wright, Hotel Proprietor.
Chicago, Ill.
E. H. Morris, Capitalist.
Jesse Binga, Banker.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
J. L. Jones, Regalia Manfgr.
Cleveland, Ohio.
J. E. Reed, Real Estate.
Columbia, S. C.
I. S. Levy, Merchant Tailor.
J. C. Sawyer, Cotton Dealer.
Columbus, Ohio.
C. W. Bryant, House Mover.
Danville, Va.
J. R. Wilson, Real Estate.
Darby, Pa.
J. M. Drew, Expressman.
Dayton, Ohio.
J. H. Finley, Carpet Factory.
Denver, Col.
A. A. Waller, Real Estate.
L. H. Lighterner, Real Estate.
Des Moines, Iowa.
Chas. Cousins, Merchant.
Detroit, Mich.
Dr. Northcross, Banker.
H. S. Ferguson, Caterer.
Durham, N. C.
W. G. Pearson, Capitalist.
Fort Smith, Ark.
G. S. Winston, Real Estate.
Fort Worth, Texas.
W. M. McDonald, Financier.
Gary, Ind.
J. Smith, Real Estate.
Greenville, S. C.
J. P. Chappell, Real Estate.
Hampton, Va.
W. T. Anderson, Merchant.
Harrisburg, Pa.
W. M. Felton, Airplanes & Autos.
Hartford, Conn.
C. Grant, Wood Yard.
Helena, Ark.
Scott Bond, Merchant.
Dr. N. B. Hauser, Druggist.
Houston, Texas.
R. L. Andrews, Real Estate.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Mrs. Lelia Walker Wilson, Manfgr.
Jackson, Miss.
S. D. Redmond, Real Estate.
Jacksonville, Fla.
A. L. Lewis, Insurance.
W. J. Geter, Real Estate.
Jersey City, N. J.
W. C. Lee, Merchant.
Kansas City, Kan.
W. Price, Real Estate.
Kansas City, Mo.
H. L. Kinsler, Real Estate.
W. S. Wood Druggist.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Calvin Johnson, Capitalist, retired.
Leavenworth, Kan.
S. T. Jones, Coal & Feed Dealer.
Little Rock, Ark.
C. E. Bush, Manufacturer.
Los Angeles, Cal.
R. C. Owens, Real Estate.
A. J. Roberts, Undertaker.
Louisville, Ky.
W. S. Lovett, Banker.
R. I. Smith, Moving & Packing.
Lynchburg, Va.
A. Humbles, Merchant, (retired).
Memphis, Tenn.
R. R. Church, Real Estate, Capitalist.
T. H. Hayes, Undertaker.
Milwaukee, Wis.
John Malone, Hotel Manager.
Mobile, Ala.
J. T. Paterson, Real Estate.
Montgomery, Ala.
V. H. Tulane, Real Estate.
Mound Bayou, Miss.
Chas. Banks, Real Estate.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Calvin Johnson, Capitalist (retired).
Morrisville, Pa.
J. W. Lewis, Real Estate.
Muskogee, Okla.
Miss Sarah Rector, Oil Wells.
B. J. Elliott, Real Estate.