personal endeavor will not in time remove. For example, we take the
liberty to refer to our honored President, Booker T. Washington, who
about forty-two years ago was born a slave in Virginia. At an early
age he began the battle for himself untutored and untrained in all the
ways of life. What he has since accomplished is a sufficient answer to
those who claim that the Negro is void of any capacity for doing
business, and that his offspring has no chance to rise in the world.
For twenty years Booker T. Washington has not only been president of a
great industrial institution, but has had very largely the
acquisition, management, investment and expenditure of its finances.
In recent years there has scarcely been a month in which he has not
been offered positions in important and influential business
enterprises, as well as in the affairs of government. His career is
evidence that there is plenty of room at the top for Negro boys who
have sense enough to rise to the level of their opportunities. The
lack is not so much of opportunities as of men. It is a fact which
cannot be gainsaid that success still is, and most likely always will
be, a question determined very largely by the individual. For the man
or woman who has made thorough preparation and is willing to do hard
work a place will always be waiting, irrespective of race or color.
The tone of this convention clearly indicates that the Negro will
succeed as a business man in proportion as he learns that manhood and
womanhood are qualities of his own making, and that no external force
can either give or take them away. It demonstrates that intelligence,
punctuality, industry and integrity are the conquering forces in the
business and commercial world, as well as in all the affairs of human
life. Permit me, in closing, to quote the language of President
McKinley addressed to the students at the Tuskegee Institute,
"Integrity and industry," he said, "are the best possessions which
any man can have, and every man can have them. No man who has them
ever gets into the police court or before the grand jury or in the
work-house or the chain gang. They are indispensable to success. The
merchant requires the clerk whom he employs to have them; the railroad
corporation inquires whether the man seeking employment possesses
them. Every avenue of human endeavor welcomes them. They are the only
keys to open with certainty the door of opportunity to struggling
manhood. If you do not already have them, get them."
For our encouragement, reference has been made to a portion of the
history of the distinguished President of this convention, and also,
for the same purpose, quotation has been made from a speech of the
honored President of his country. We thus have before us the example
of the former and the precept of the latter--each a leader in his own
sphere, the one black and the other white. By following the example of
the one and the advice of the other, the Negro will not only succeed
as a business man, but the early dawn of the present century will yet
witness the best achievements and the loftiest conceptions of a once
enslaved race.
SECOND PAPER
THE NEGRO AS A BUSINESS MAN.
BY ANDREW F. HILYER.
[Illustration: Andrew F. Hilyer]
ANDREW FRANKLIN HILYER.
The subject of this sketch was born in slavery near Monroe,
Walton county, Georgia, August 14, 1858. In the early
fifties his maternal grandfather, Overton Johnson, was set
free, given some money and sent North. He went to Cincinnati
and began a free man's life as a cook and steward in a
hotel. In a short time, by strict economy, he had saved some
money from his earnings. This, with the money brought from
the South, enabled him to open "The Dumas House," well known
to the older residents of Cincinnati. In 1862 he sold this
business, moved to St. Louis and opened a hotel in that
city, where he was at the close of the war. In 1866 he sent
for the remainder of his family in the South, consisting of
his youngest son and a daughter and her four children, the
eldest of whom was Andrew Franklin Hilyer.
About the time of their arrival in St. Louis business
reverses threw the now enlarged family upon their own
resources, and young Andrew, though but eight years old, was
"hired out." He early developed a burning desire for an
education, and took advantage of every opportunity that he
could find to study and to learn. He soon learned to read.
With this key he opened up to his enquiring mind a wide
vista of knowledge and saw through many things which before
had seemed dark. The family remained in St. Louis two years,
but in very poor circumstances. During this period Andrew
was able to attend school but little, yet he was so anxious
to learn several persons gladly gave him instruction. It was
during these struggles that he formed his purposes in life.
He solemnly resolved to make a man of himself and to
graduate from college.
In 1868 the entire family moved to Omaha, Neb., where their
circumstances gradually improved and Andrew was enabled to
attend school a part of each year. His mother died in 1871,
and the next year he went to Minneapolis, Minn. Here was
located the State University, and his opportunity to go to
college had now come. To make this possible he learned the
trade of a barber and pursued his studies, graduating from
the Minneapolis High School in 1878 and from the University
of Minnesota in 1882.
He soon came to Washington, entered the service of the
Government and took up the study of law and in 1885
graduated from the Howard Law School.
Mr. Hilyer takes an active interest in the progress of his
race along all lines, but he has especially urged upon their
attention skilled labor and business as very important
factors in the progress of the race.
In 1886 he married Miss Mamie E. Nichols, a descendant of
one of the older Washington families, who graces a happy
home. They have been blessed with two boys, whom they are
trying to rear and educate to become good men.
The resistance of the white people to the progress of the colored
people is least along the line of business. The colored people
themselves have only to develop a larger spirit of race help in
business and a magnificent future is just ahead for them.
In addition to little capital and much inexperience the colored
merchant has to contend against a hostile public opinion, which seems
to resent his efforts to improve his own condition and that of his own
race, when he assumes to tear himself away from the mass of his fellow
laborers and attempts to keep store like a white man.
Strange enough this hostile feeling is shared in, more by the colored
than by the white people, especially along certain lines of business
not of a semi-social nature. It is a matter of common complaint by
colored business men in those classes of business in which they must
compete with white merchants that they do not get their share of the
trade of their own race and that their patronage comes very largely
from the white race. At present the pathway of the colored man to
success in business is very much handicapped by this unfriendly public
opinion. His problem is to win the confidence of the public in his
ability and purpose to serve them as well as or better than his
competitors.
Individuals, here and there, have won this public confidence to a
surprising degree and are demonstrating day by day the ability of men
and women to do business according to approved business methods. The
hostility of the whites is but another manifestation of the general
feeling of race prejudice; but the hostility of the masses of their
own race can only be attributed to envy and ignorance. For every
colored man, woman and child should rejoice in the success or upward
step of any colored person, because it is an inspiration and a hope to
thousands of others to follow his example. Only the strongest and most
progressive few of any race can be successful pioneers. The masses of
all races are LED to attempt only what they see persons of their own
kind doing. Every community of colored people needs, as a powerful
uplifting force, a few captains of industry who will lead his people
along the pathway of home-getting and the undertaking of business
enterprises. For business will develop their sense of independence and
personal responsibility and give strength and symmetry to character.
No better service can be performed for the race at this time than to
turn the light upon those successful business men and women of the
colored race in every community, so that our youth may see them, know
them, and take inspiration and courage from their example.
The real leaders of the race are those who lead in doing. It has been
said that ninety per cent of all business enterprises among the highly
favored white race finally fail in the lifetime of their promoters.
The conditions of success in business for the white race are so
exacting, uncertain, changeable and inscrutable that only ten per cent
retire from the contest victorious. When we recall the fact that the
colored people have come so recently from savagery, through the
barbarism and debasing effects of American slavery, into the light of
the present-day civilization, we should expect them to be slow in
getting a footing in the shifting and ever-changing sands of the
business world, while in slavery they were deprived of every
opportunity to learn anything about the art of business or even to
drink in its spirit. It was one of the essential conditions of the
slave system that they should be taught to distrust each other; and
they learned this lesson well. We must expect that it will take some
time to unlearn it. Along with this blighting feeling of distrust the
seeds of envy and jealousy were carefully sown. These seeds must have
fallen in good soil, for they sprang up and increased wonderfully, and
now constitute the thorns and weeds in the pathway of the colored
man's success in business.
In view of their economic, educational and political history, we
should naturally expect the colored race to make in the first
generation of their freedom more progress in education and general
culture, more progress in the building of churches and in the
acquisition of homes and lands than in the exacting arena of business.
At any rate such has been the fact. The entire race is passing through
a hard and severe economic struggle. The whole nation is in the throes
of a great social distress, on account of the presence of this colored
race with physical aspects so different from the main body of the
people. The colored people are being put to a severe test. They are
being tried as it were by fire. They are face to face and in
competition with the most efficient, the most exacting people the
world has ever seen. The dross is being driven off. The race is being
purified and strengthened for the contests which are to follow. The
colored man or woman who would succeed in business must meet not only
the competition of his white neighbor with his superior capital and
training, but also the blight of distrust and the jealousy and envy of
many of his own race. His course is by no means plain sailing. He has
foes within his race as well as foes without; enemies in front and
enemies in the rear. And yet, in spite of all these adverse conditions
a very creditable beginning has already been made in the business
world--a beginning that promises well for the future. The business
movement among the colored people has not as yet attained great
volume, but its foundations have been laid broad and deep. The number
of persons engaged in business is quite large, and the classes already
invaded by individuals of the colored race cover almost every class of
business in which persons of the white race are engaged.
THE CAPITAL OWNED BY NEGROES.
The colored people are rapidly acquiring property. This is a matter of
common, every-day observation. The value of property owned by them is
no less than five hundred millions of dollars. In Georgia alone, where
separate records are kept, their assessed valuation exceeds fifteen
millions, one million of which was added in the past year. The
assessed valuation is only about forty per cent of the actual value.
From all over the country equally encouraging reports are sent out of
the steady progress of this people in the acquisition of landed
property. Although tens of thousands are shiftless, thousands are
saving money. It is being stored up slowly but surely for future use.
Much of it is already invested in business. A larger part of this
property and money will be turned into business channels as fast as
the race, by its patronage and support, evidences its desire to
advance this business movement.
THE EXTENT OF THE BUSINESS MOVEMENT AMONG THE NEGROES.
In order to obtain reliable data for a study of the progress of the
colored people in the skilled trades, in business, in getting homes
and in building churches and other institutions, the United States
Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 sent out the writer in
February of that year as an expert agent to visit the chief industrial
centers of the South and secure the data for the purpose of making the
facts collected, a feature of the Negro exhibit. In every city or town
visited the colored people took great pride in showing their
successful business establishments; and they all had some to show. In
every place a beginning had been made. The writer personally visited,
inspected and collected data from one hundred and forty-three business
establishments of considerable importance owned and conducted by
colored men and women. They range from a grocery store, with stock and
fixtures of the value of five hundred dollars, to a bank, which, on
the day of my visit, had a cash balance in its vault of $82,000. Only
the best business places were visited. There were hundreds of small
shops in the cities and towns visited, all of which evidenced the
breadth of the business movement of the people.
THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE.
The results of this hurried trip corroborates in a remarkable degree
the report of the Atlanta University Conference. "The Report of the
Negro in Business" was made in 1899. In that year the conference made
an investigation of this subject under the direction of Prof. W. E. B.
DuBois, professor of sociology in that university. This report is a
most valuable contribution to the study of the race problem. Prof.
DuBois has shown commendable zeal in studying the race problem, while
so many others are content to discuss it. The data for his study were
collected principally by the alumni of Atlanta University and are thus
entitled to a high degree of credibility.
Reports were received from one thousand nine hundred and six colored
men and women in business, showing the kind of business, time in
business, and the amount of capital invested. Almost every kind of
business carried on by white people was represented, thus evidencing a
desire and a reaching out on the part of the Negro that will produce
great results in years to come. Only establishments of considerable
importance were solicited and reported.
Time in business: Four-fifths had been established five years or more;
one-fifth more than twenty years. Sixty-seven more than thirty years.
This shows a remarkable longevity in business that is highly
gratifying.
Capital invested: Complete returns were not received from all; only
1,736 establishments reported capital. Their aggregate capital was
$5,631,137. Prof. DuBois estimated that the total amount invested by
American Negroes in business managed by themselves in 1899 was
$8,784,000. Compared with the immense sum of money invested in
business in the United States, this seems meager enough; but when we
consider the poverty of the colored people at the beginning of their
freedom, the saving and investment of nearly $9,000,000 in business
enterprises conducted by themselves in one generation is a most
creditable showing.
By far the larger part of the capital of the colored people is as yet
invested in enterprises conducted by white persons. In the city of
Washington, where the idea of the advantage to the race in having a
number of successful business enterprises has been very much agitated,
only about one-fifth of its wealthy colored people have any
investments in enterprises conducted by colored men, as shown in the
report of the Hampton Conference for 1898. A like proportion will
doubtless be found in other cities.
THE CENSUS OF 1890 ON NEGRO BUSINESS.
According to the census of 1890 (the returns from the census of 1900
on this subject not being available at this writing), taken
twenty-five years after the war, the colored people had
representatives engaged in every business listed in the census
schedules. It is true that the number of persons engaged and the
capital engaged in some branches of business were not imposing, yet an
effort had been made--a start, a beginning had been made in every
branch of business carried on in this country. The census of 1890 does
not in all cases make a distinction between "proprietor" and
occupation. Hence, it is not always easy to pick out the
"proprietors." The tables have been gone over very carefully. Only
those occupations have been selected about which there can be no doubt
that the persons listed are "proprietors." The total number of persons
of Negro descent engaged in business in 1890 was 20,020.
It is obvious to any one who has paid even a little attention to it
that there has been a considerable increase since 1890, in the number
of such business ventures and in the capital employed.
THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE.
As an evidence that the race is rapidly advancing along business
lines, a conference or convention of colored business men was called
by Mr. Booker T. Washington to meet in Boston August 23-24, 1900, for
the purpose of making a showing of the progress of the race in
business and to give encouragement and impetus to the business
movement. The success of this convention was a pleasant surprise to
many persons. Over two hundred delegates reported in person, and
nearly two hundred additional reported by letter. The tone of the
reports they brought from their several localities was uniformly
hopeful. Most of the delegates present lived outside of New England,
some coming from as far south as Florida and Texas, and as far west as
Nebraska. A permanent organization was formed, called The National
Negro Business League, the purpose of which is to keep its members in
touch with one another. Their "Proceedings" were published by Mr. J.
R. Hamm of No. 46 Howard street, Boston, in a handsome volume of two
hundred and eighty pages, and constitutes one of the most valuable
contributions to the study of the progress of the colored people.
This business league held its second annual convention in Chicago in
August, 1901. This meeting also was a great success in every way, and
received, if possible, more attention and space from the public press
than the previous meeting in Boston.
A recent study of the colored business enterprises of Washington,
published by the writer, shows that there are in the National capital
1,302 colored "proprietors" in all kinds of business and professions.
Their capital exceeds seven hundred thousand dollars, and they
transact more than two million dollars worth of business annually,
affording employment to 3,030 persons.
Among the more conspicuous examples of successful enterprises
conducted by colored men in the United States may be mentioned the
following: Thirteen building and loan associations, seven banks, about
one hundred life insurance and benefit companies, several mining
companies, one street railway company, one iron foundry, one cotton
mill, one silk mill, three book and tract publication houses, one of
them having a plant valued at $45,000; over two hundred newspapers and
three magazines. One of these newspapers has 5,000 subscribers and a
plant costing $10,000. One firm of truck gardeners, near Charleston,
South Carolina, over 500 acres under cultivation, has been in the
business over 30 years and ships several carloads of garden truck to
Northern markets every week. The railroad company considers its trade
of such importance that it has built a siding to their farm and the
cars are loaded directly from their warehouses. This is probably the
most extensive individual or partnership business carried on by
colored men anywhere in the United States. Noisette Bros. is the name
of the firm. Near Kansas City, Kansas, there is a colored man, Mr. J.
K. Graves, who owns and cultivates over 400 acres of land. He has been
engaged principally in raising potatoes. His crop last year was over
75,000 bushels, which, with the other things raised and sold, was
worth about $25,000. Within a radius of thirty-five miles of his farm,
he says that there are 312 Negro farmers, horticulturists, gardeners,
truckers, potato growers and dealers, most of whom are up to date and
have all modern appliances necessary to carry on their business.
Mr. C. C. Leslie, a dealer in fish in Charleston, South Carolina, has
$30,000 invested in the business, in nets, boats, ice-houses, real
estate, etc., and ships to Northern markets from three to five
carloads of fish per week during the busy season.
In Charleston the most prosperous butchers are colored men. In
Columbus, Mississippi, there is a colored butcher who owns his
abattoir and supplies the best trade of his town with meat. Some of
the most prosperous fish, produce and poultry dealers in the markets
of Washington are colored men. One firm has been in business
continuously over thirty years, the sons succeeding the father in the
business. Several have maintained their stands over twenty years.
A pawnbroker in Augusta, Georgia, has $5,000 capital. The largest and
best equipped drug store in Anniston, Alabama, is owned by a colored
physician. He has a considerable wholesale trade in patent medicines
and druggists' sundries.
One of the best equipped ready-made clothing stores in Columbia, South
Carolina, is owned by a colored man. He carries a stock of ten
thousand dollars.
A stock breeder in Knoxville, Tennessee, is worth $100,000, and has
$50,000 invested in blooded horses.
A photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota, does a business of $20,000 a
year. Another in New Bedford, Massachusetts, began as an errand boy,
learned the photographic art thoroughly, saved his money, bought out
the white proprietor, and now conducts the leading studio in that old
and aristocratic city.
The caterers of Philadelphia and Baltimore have long been noted for
their success in business, although they have lost some ground from
white competition during the last few years. There are yet several
with capital above $5,000.
The caterer at the great naval banquet at Newport in honor of Admiral
Sampson and our navy upon its return from the victories in the war
with Spain, where the very unusual task was accomplished of serving
one thousand men in a very satisfactory manner, was a colored man.
The foregoing are only a few of the many examples of success that
individuals of the colored people have achieved in business. They are
cited by way of "a bill of specifications." They show conclusively
that, in spite of many adverse conditions, it is possible for a
colored person, by perseverance and honesty, to succeed in
business.
THIRD PAPER.
THE NEGRO AS A BUSINESS MAN.
BY REV. J. H. MORGAN.
[Illustration: Rev. J. H. Morgan.]
REV. J. H. MORGAN.