ATLANTA, GA., AND INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
Atlanta, Ga., is another educational centre. I found over fifty colored
men in this city engaged in business, professional and other pursuits.
I can only mention a few of these. I met in Atlanta a very successful
colored undertaker in the person of David T. Howard, who was prompted
to go into that business because of the way white undertakers treated
the colored people when they had their funerals in charge. Mr. Howard
has succeeded in building up a very large business. Atlanta can boast
of one of the largest contractors among colored people in the country.
I refer to Alexander Hamilton, an ex-slave. Mr. Hamilton showed me a
number of very fine residences owned by the leading white people in the
city, which he had the contract to build. He also drew his own plans
and specifications to work from.
There were two men in Atlanta who should have special mention, namely,
Mr. Joseph Rivers, and Mr. Jacob McKinley. The latter, I am sorry to
say, is numbered among the dead. Both of these men were born slaves and
they were uneducated. Mr. Rivers was, by trade, a blacksmith, and began
life for himself without one penny. He owns quite a deal of property,
among which is what is known as "Rivers Block," and the business
rooms are rented to white business men. Jacob McKinley made quite a
large fortune in the manufacture of brick and dealing in real estate.
I am glad to note that several of those connected with school work in
Atlanta report that Mr. McKinley was always willing to contribute of
his means for the education of his race. He was very much loved by both
white and colored.
Atlanta has several colored doctors. Among them are Drs. Butler and
Slater. They came out of school together, and for some years carried
on their practice in partnership. Dr. Slater now owns an interest in a
drug store, while Dr. H. R. Butler devotes all of his time to a very
extensive practice. He is also Grand Master of Georgia of the Free and
Accepted Masons. Dr. Butler's wife is a graduate of Spelman Seminary,
and I want no better evidence of the very excellent work done at that
school than the doctor's very neatly-kept home.
Dr. O. A. Lockhart is another young man with a good practice and the
owner of a successful drug store. He is a self-made man, who had a hard
struggle to get an education.
Mr. F. H. Crumbly, who has for some years been in the regular army,
has returned and opened a dry goods and notions store. Mr. Crumbly is
a graduate of Atlanta University, and is a man who is much thought of
by both white and colored people, and is meeting with success in his
business because of his popularity and good judgment. He stood high as
a soldier, and was a commissioned officer in the late war with Spain.
He gave up a business to go in the army.
On the same street is to be found Mr. Peter Eskridge, who learned while
a slave the blacksmith's trade, which he followed until 1880, when he
started a grocery business, and in this he has succeeded. He had not
the educational advantages needed for a successful business man, but he
educated his daughters and since they have been of great help to their
father in keeping his accounts.
I have always claimed that in most cases in the South white people
would give some of their patronage to colored merchants, and I am more
and more of that opinion since I met Mr. Willis Murphy & Son, who carry
on a large and very successful grocery business in a part of the city
of Atlanta where they reach a great number of the working people among
the whites, and most of the trade comes from that class.
Mr. G. M. Howell, a young man, does quite a good business as a merchant
tailor in one of the rooms under the Kimble House. I can speak for Mr.
Howell's workmanship as a tailor from the fact that I have had work
done by him. I think a large portion of his patronage comes from white
people.
Mrs. M. A. Pennamone, of Atlanta, does quite a business as a milliner,
and strange to say most of her customers are white people. I have
often wondered why there were not more colored women in the millinery
business.
In addition to those already mentioned from Atlanta, there are many
engaged in various walks of life, such as conducting wood yards, coal
yards, draying and doing just what white people do who want to earn
an honest living. Atlanta has six educational institutions, to say
nothing of the city or public schools, in which there are employed some
seventy-five colored teachers. I have been told by the better class
of white men in the South, that "colored people own far more property
and are getting along much better than the middle and lower classes
of the whites." I have heard it said that the only progress being
made by colored people in this country was in the South. I am indeed
willing to give the South credit for its wonderful development, but as
a friend to the race in all parts of the country, I must say that the
colored people are also making progress in the North. True, many of
our successful men in the North came from the South; but they built up
their business in the North.
I met while in Indianapolis, Ind., some very successful people in the
persons of the following gentlemen:
Capt. J. Porter is employed as a bank clerk in a white bank. He is the
only colored man I have met holding just such a position. The men at
the head of the bank regard him as a very reliable and competent man.
The late Benjamin Thornton, of Indianapolis, established for himself
a great reputation as a first-class detective. He stood alone in this
respect as a colored man. He has often been sent for to work up large
cases in some of our leading cities where large amounts of money and
jewels have been stolen. Mr. Thornton was quite a public-spirited man,
and has done a great deal to help others secure homes, and well thought
of by both white and colored.
The city can boast of two magnificent barber shops owned by colored
men. One at the Hotel Dennison is owned by Messrs. Moore and Lanear,
costing about $6,000. The other one is owned by Geo. L. Knox at the
Bates House. Some twenty men are employed there, and several ladies in
the ladies' hairdressing department. This shop is said to have cost
$10,000. Mr. Knox is also the publisher of the _Freeman_, which is
mentioned in another part of my book.
Mr. Baptist, of Indianapolis, is a very successful contractor, and in
1893 built for John C. New a $10,000 residence. There were quite a
number of white contractors competing for the work.
Mr. Puryear, of Indianapolis, does a large express business, giving
employment to quite a number of men. Mr. Puryear was at one time, and
perhaps is yet, a member of the city council.
H. L. SANDERS.
Mr. H. L. Sanders, of Indianapolis, is the only colored man in the
country doing the kind of work he is engaged in. In 1889 he began in a
small way to make jackets for butchers, waiters' and cooks' outfits,
also barbers' coats for shop wear. At first he did not have work enough
to keep one woman busy, but now he has several at work all the time,
and his sewing machines are operated by steam. And aside from his
manufacturing he carries a splendid line of gents' furnishing goods.