G. T. Robinson, Attorney and Counselor at Law, Nashville, Tenn.
Bishop H. M. Turner, D. D., LL. D., A. M. E. Church, Atlanta, Ga.
Rev. O. M. Waller, Rector Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C.
Prof. H. L. Walker, Principal High School, Augusta, Ga.
Prof. Booker T. Washington, President Tuskegee Institute.
Prof. N. B. Young, President Florida State Normal and Industrial
College.
The foregoing are a few leaders in the professions. There are numerous
others whose names and deeds have already made history and fame.
The present field of leaders in the professions is large, but there are
other fields of leadership in the business world. These men are
successful and point the way to others to follow, and they must lay down
their leadership with the others:
Charles Banks, Cashier Bank of Mound Bayou, Mound Bayou, Miss.
E. C. Berry, hotel man, Athens, Ohio. Said to keep one of the best
hotels in the United States.
Rev. R. H. Boyd, President National Doll Company; also of the National
Baptist Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn.
William Washington Brown, Founder of the True Reformers’ Bank, Richmond,
Va.
Junius G. Groves, “The Potato King.” Edwardsville, Ky.
Deal Jackson, Albany, Georgia, the great cotton king.
John Merrick, founder of the North Carolina Mutual and Provident
Association, the strongest Negro insurance company in the world; North
Carolina.
W. E. Pettiford, founder of the Alabama Penny Savings Bank, Birmingham,
Alabama.
The following condition of the Colored American opportunities will be of
assistance in suggesting fields of leadership:
The number of colored men now engaged in business and professions are as
follows:
Agricultural pursuits 2,143,176
Professional occupations 47,324
Domestic and personal service 1,324,160
Trade and transportation 209,154
Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 275,149
This is close to 25 percent of the entire colored population of the
United States.
But this enormous field of opportunity, is not the limit. You have
aspirations toward music and the fine arts—singers, painters, sculptors,
actors and poets. Here are a few leaders to be followed by you or your
children, relatives or friends: