Negro farmers, bankers, merchants, contractors, cotton brokers,
insurance men, real estate dealers, social service workers, town and
community builders, caterers, engineers, undertakers, educators--these
men, representing the entire country and especially the South, told
at the recent session of the National Negro Business League held in
Philadelphia, with eloquence torn of simplicity and hard experience
in the school of life, thrilling stories of success won through
struggle, persistence, and good-will toward their white neighbors. The
Philadelphia meetings furnished abundant proof of the statement that
quality and service count in business and that men buy good products
and efficient service without regard to color or race.
“Forward to the land!” In thundering tones did this command and
entreaty ring out through the Academy of Music to the thousands of
Negroes who had assembled to hear Booker T. Washington deliver his
annual address to the league. There are some 200,000,000 acres of
unused and unoccupied land in this country. Will the American Negro,
especially the city Negro, acquire his share through hard work and
thrift? Will young Negroes quit the poolrooms with their debasing
effects and march into usefulness and comfort on the land? Will the
Negro seek the signs of civilization--the automobile and the dress
suit--and miss civilization as it is represented in the home and the
bank account? Will the Negro forego some pleasures today so as to
enjoy richer treasures tomorrow? Will the Negro allow others to think
and plan for him instead of thinking and planning for himself? These
vital questions of business and of life itself were put squarely to
the thoughtful Negroes who had come great distances at their own
expense and in many cases at considerable sacrifice of time and money.
They also reached some of the city Negroes who had come out of mere
curiosity to hear Mr. Washington urge a return to the Negro’s richest
opportunity--the land.
Mr. Washington is far-sighted enough, however, to see the need of
better Negro business enterprises. There is, indeed, according to his
opinion, room in this country, without conflicting with the interests
of white people, for 900,000 more Negro farms; 1,000 sawmills; 1,000
brickyards; 4,000 grocery stores; 2,000 dry goods stores; 1,500 shoe
stores; 1,500 millinery shops; 1,000 drug stores and 90 banks.
Successful “demonstrations”--human interest stories--were a conspicuous
feature of the sessions.
The organization of a $100,000 old-line legal-reserve insurance
company by Negroes, headed by H. T. Perry, and its heroic struggle
during five years to secure the paid-in capital, was told simply and
dramatically by H. H. Pace. It shows what can be done in the South.
Perry’s experience in Atlanta should put fresh courage into the hearts
of ambitious Negroes who really want to give their people better
stores, better banks, better insurance companies, better hotels, and
better country life. The story of Perry’s defeat in collecting the
paid-in capital, required by the Georgia law for the starting of the
Standard Life Insurance Company of Atlanta, followed by his victory,
through hard work and faith, emphasizes the importance of teaching men
to act co-operatively when they wish to do big things. This story will
long be remembered by the delegates and their friends, for it contains
real “education for life, in life and by life,” as Dr. Wallace Buttrick
has phrased the thought--the underlying aim of Hampton and Tuskegee.
Another interesting event of the past year, in the Negro business
world, has been the opening of the $100,000 cotton-oil mill at Mound
Bayou, Miss., a Negro town which was founded by Isaiah T. Montgomery,
an ex-slave of Joseph Davis, brother of Jefferson Davis. This Negro
enterprise shows what Negroes can do when they pull together and turn
their disadvantages into advantages.
Nineteen years ago, J. H. Blodgett began his up-hill climb with $1.10
in his pocket and a suit of underwear in a paper bag. Further, he was
arrested as a tramp for wearing a straw hat in winter time. Today, he
owns 121 houses in Jacksonville, Fla., having a rental value of $2,500
a month. Blodgett got his start as a railroad window washer at $1.05
a day. He and his wife worked hard, saved their money, and finally
built their own home. He declares that there is no excuse for young,
able-bodied Negroes to waste their time in hotel work at $20 to $30 a
month and tips when they can grow tomatoes in Florida at $1,000 an acre.
What is a correct formula for success on the farm? Henry Kelley, of
Belen, Miss., who has been hard at work since 1873 and is now worth
some $50,000 offers a reasonable one: “Industry, economy, education.”
Kelley started out independently in 1886 with 520 acres of land which
he cleared as quickly as he could. He built a home, and by degrees
established a good business in cotton ginning, grist milling, and log
sawing. Then he began to build tenant houses and to deal with his own
people in the spirit of the Golden Rule. Today, he works 1,750 acres
and has fifty tenants. His payroll ranges from $800 to $1,000 a month
and he has work for his hands “from January through December.” He
produces about 500 bales of cotton each season. He has no trouble, on
account of his color, in doing business. His Mississippi white friends,
he says, have always been good to him. Kelley is a hard worker still.
His day--and that of his hands--is “from sun to sun.”
J. T. Kirklin, of Columbia, Mo., started in 1873 as a handy boy on the
State University farm and received thirty cents a day. Out of his own
wages he had to board himself. He was glad to keep his job because he
was learning how to farm scientifically. In 1903 he began to take first
prizes, in competition with white farmers, for his fine strawberries,
carrots, watermelons, and garden truck. His first market wagon was
an ordinary wheelbarrow. Later he bought two buggy wheels and made a
wagon--a push cart. While some of his own people were laughing at his
crude outfit, Kirklin was saving his money and improving his small
truck garden. Today he is worth $20,000 and is a quiet and respected
citizen.
Has the Negro building contractor who knows his business a fair chance
to succeed in the South? B. L. Windham, of the contracting firm of
Windham Brothers, Birmingham, Ala., declares that efficiency and not
color determines the kind of work that Negroes receive. His firm has
built a $100,000 apartment house for white people in Birmingham, Ala.
It employs, on an average, 100 people--all Negroes--throughout the year
to handle some $300,000 worth of contracts. The business of this firm
of Negro contractors has grown from $50,000 in 1903 to $265,000 for
seven months in 1913 and is carried on from the Mason and Dixon line to
the Gulf of Mexico.
The annual meetings of the Negro Business League give some striking
stories of Negro success and progress to men and women who need courage
and inspiration for their work. Other stories could be cited to show
that the Negro who applies himself to business and refrains from
whining wins the patronage and good will not only of his own people
but also of the white people. Courage, initiative, and persistence are
indeed required for the task of establishing any business.
The resolutions, adopted at the final session of the league, summarized
the progress of the Negro during fifty years of freedom. Ten million
American Negroes now pay taxes on over $700,000,000 worth of property
and own 20,000,000 acres of land (that is, about 31,000 square miles).
They own 63 banks, capitalized at $2,600,000 and doing an annual
business of $20,000,000. Today there are Negro business leagues in
twelve states.
Facts of Negro progress need to be better understood by white and black
people. One of the best sources of information is the Negro Year Book,
edited by Monroe N. Work of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.