“WORLD LEAGUE OF THE AFRICAN RACES NECESSARY”
“We are very much in favor of the Pan-African movement which Dr. W. E. B. DuBois has in charge and is trying to make a success of. The race needs an international organization which will gather representatives of the African peoples of the world, where their rights and wrongs may be registered and looked after, and where, annually, they may gather in an open congress or a discussion and agreement upon questions affecting them. The question is a broad one, race-embracing, and should be considered from that viewpoint.
“On the other hand, we are very much in favor of the movement fostered by Mr. Marcus Garvey, the provisional president of Africa, to create a sentiment in Africa in favor of a oneness of sentiment among Africans themselves and the building up of African States for Africans. Mr. Garvey has been pointing out, recently, and very wisely, we think, that the time may come when Afro-Americans who are dissatisfied with their conditions in States of the United States may desire to go to Africa, and to a State in Africa governed by Africans. This is reasonable foresight.
“There are millions of Jews working hard for the rehabilitation of Palestine who have no desire to make it their home, as they are satisfied in the States where they are, but there are millions who are not satisfied, as in Turkey and Russia, who would go to Palestine and build its waste places while repatriating it. It is in the same way that we regard the building of a strong African State as a sufficient asylum of those of the race who are persecuted anywhere on the globe that they may be.
“Mr. Garvey is as much of a prophet in his way as Dr. DuBois, and we should be willing to hold up the hands of both of them in any plans they may advance which seems possible of working out for the good of the race. Both of them have ideas and methods we do not approve, but that would be the case with any movement whatsoever, that may be started, on a large or small scale, by any man or group of men of the race, but it should not prevent us from encouraging them in any idea or plan which appears reasonable and possible of resulting in good for the race.
“A World League of African People is necessary. An Independent African State in Africa is necessary. We already have Liberia and Abyssinia, but we need more than these, and stronger than both of them.”
| Education | The Negro Needs All |
| Wild men first learned to scratch the ground: | —Agricultural Education |
| In building caves first trades they found: | —Industrial Education |
| Then exchange of hides made business boom, | —Commercial Education |
| And science was born gazing stars and moon | —University Education |
| —Harrison. |
SINCE the raising of tobacco, cotton, corn, sugar cane and other farm products had been the main reason for starting slavery in America, it is plainly seen that farming was the chief work of the Colored people until they were set free. And it is quite natural that they took a great dislike to a work that they had been compelled to do against their wills for over two hundred years. So at the close of the Civil War when they were free to choose their own work, the majority of ex-slaves were willing to do any kind of labor under the sun (or over the sun for that matter) but work on the farm. Such a state of affairs continued for a number of years and caused much of the rich fertile lands in the South to go unfarmed, neglected and runned-down, but after some years away from the only kind of work they knew the most about, their dislike to farming began to lessen and they gradually drifted back to work patches of land on shares with their former owners who had survived the war. And their return to the bosom of nature rapidly increased as the ex-slaves saw how it would enable them to make a living and save money to buy land for themselves.
As a result of that movement back to the farms which continued to increase, there were, according to the 1910 census, over two hundred thousand farms or twenty-one million acres of land owned in the United States by Colored people. Negroes in the South alone own more than two hundred thousand of those farms that are valued at more than four hundred million dollars. Just in the state of Virginia Colored people own over one million acres of land that are valued at over ten million dollars. The following named are just a handful of the Colored farmers throughout the South and West who own and cultivate farms ranging in size from 500 to 3,000 acres of land; J. N. Brown, Tenn.,; J. Collins, S. C.; Robt. Chatman, Texas; Wash Dillard, Texas; Lewis Dolphin, Okla.; J. G. Groves, Kan.; Wiley Hinds’ family, Cal.; J. A. Hickey, G. N. Humphries, Texas; Howard Jackson, Ala.; Chas. Jackson, La.; Deal Jackson, Ga.; Y. U. Jones, Texas; John Lyttle, N. C.; J. H. McDuffy, Fla.; Wm. Mazy, John F. McGowon, L. A. Nash, Lance Parker, Dennis Pollard, H. Penneth, Jack Taylor, Texas; Jake Simmons, Okla.; R. L. Smith, Newton Smith, La.; A. W. Taylor, Texas; J. Thompson, Ga.; W. B. Turner, Va., and Frank Wallace, Texas.
Through the encouragement and helpfulness of such farming agencies as the Smith-Lever Funds for Agricultural Extension Education, the Smith-Hughes Funds for Vocational Education, The Federal Farm Loans and the Farmers’ Co-operative Demonstration Work, a new interest, rekindled enthusiasm and extra efforts have been aroused among Colored farmers in all parts of the country. They have at last been made to plainly see and fully understand that it is always to their seemingly dull country barnyard gates that the boiled-shirt, stiff-collared and learned business and college men of the cities must sooner of later turn for their ham and eggs, steak and chops, bread and butter and different vegetables. These same farmers manfully realize that they or others can only produce such necessities of life by daily mingling among the neighing horses, the mooing cows, the grunting pigs, the bleating sheep, the cackling hens and the crowing roosters. They are the people who with rolled-up sleeves cheerfully feel they must be stained with the earth’s sweet dirt (for what is so fragrant, so refreshing and so sweet as the smell of newly plowed furrows on an early spring morn, when crows overhead fly with taunting caws and robins scratch the sods for a wormy cause?) or the city folks for want of life-giving foods would soon die of starvation.
In order to help prevent the above dreaded calamity overtaking the country by learning how to better intensify crops and redouble their products, Colored farmers both young and old are taking either short or full courses in scientific agriculture in the following named schools that are a few among the many giving such instructions:
Agricultural & Mechanical College for Negroes, Normal, Ala.; Agricultural & Industrial State School, Nashville, Tenn.; Agricultural & Technical College, Greensboro, N. C.; Agricultural & Normal University., Langston, Okla.; Alcorn Agricultural & Mechanical College, Alcorn, Miss.; Branch Normal College, Pine Bluff, Ark.; Downingtown Industrial & Agricultural College, Downingtown, Pa.; Florida Agricultural & Mechanical College Tallahassee, Fla.; Georgia Normal & Agricultural College, Albany, Ga.; Hampton Normal & Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va.; Armstrong Agricultural & Industrial Institute, West Butler, Ala.; Tuskegee Normal & Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala. (extracts from Negro Year Book, 1918-1918 edition, pgs. 2-308-345)
As soon as Colored men have finished agricultural courses in the above named or other schools, they are fully prepared to locate in any section of the country and put into practice the farming theories they have just learned. It is quite natural that the majority of them want to settle and farm in the South—the birth place of their parents and usually of themselves, and the best farming district in the United States, and many of them do settle there. But quite a few (and the number is rapidly increasing) after deciding to follow farming as a life work have settled in the North, or even better have followed Horace Greeley’s famous advice “Young man, go West”. There they have settled with assurances of better human treatments and fuller civic rights due all human beings and American citizens, than they would have received if they had settled in many parts of the South. On the Pacific Coast they have found farming conditions more in accord with their special agricultural training than any place in America with the exception of the South. And whenever any of those Colored farmers arrived in California, for instance, without money to buy a few acres of land, they at once hired themselves out to farmers (without any fear of Southern peonage systems) and in a little while had saved enough money to strike out for themselves. During the time they served as farm laborers they were able to get practical and valuable experience in three ways; through experimenting they got acquainted with the Western crops that were new to them; they got acquainted with the customs and habits of the people, and they had time to carefully and slowly investigate many sections of the country before selecting the plot of land and district in which they planned to later and permanently settle.
The following two quotations are parts of articles written by Governor Wm. D. Stephens and Secretary of State Frank C. Jordan of California, and which articles appeared in the April 1, 1920 issue of the California Free Lance that has since been absorbed into the California Voice. The reading of these quotations may be of interest to those concerned.
Governor Stephens said—“Workers are what we need and opportunity was never so widely open to the Negro as it is today. A very large number of Colored workers are well fitted for farm labor and it would be better for them, and a measure of aid to our agricultural interests, if they could be diverted from the cities into the country. The farm laborer situation is difficult in this state and steps might well be taken to shift to the country those Colored men who are residing in large cities, under conditions unsuited to them. Our Negro workers could themselves help to solve this problem. Any effort initiated on their part undoubtedly would meet with active encouragement. Some adaptation to new conditions would be necessary, but this could easily be brought about through co-operation between Negro workers and the employing farmers of our state. I regard this matter of shifting workers who are misplaced in cities to the farms of our state as a matter of importance, and I invite the earnest attention of the Negro people to it as one primarily in their interest as well as being for the best interest of our state.”
Secretary of State, Jordan said in part: “California today has need of farmers and farm laborers. There is a general alarm felt by persons acquainted with farming conditions at the shortage of laborers. The farmer or farm laborer has a comfortable living under health-giving conditions and the money he makes he can save. He is an independent producer and plays a most important part in the national welfare. The California lands are marvels of richness. Truck gardening, fruit orchards, wheat and rice fields, cotton lands—in fact, nearly all farm culture—can be found in this State. The important question at present is, Where are we to find laborers to increase and intensify cultivation? Immigration from European countries has practically ceased. Mexican labor is difficult and uncertain. We can only hope for laborers to come from the more thickly settled parts of the country. The youth of today needs to be educated not only in the technique of farming, but also in the advantages of farm life. The prosperity of the nation rests largely on the agricultural workers. The city dwellers cannot reduce the high cost of living without the farmer’s co-operation in increased production. The factory worker depends upon the farmer for food. His high wages mean little to him unless food is plentiful. Let a young man consider carefully the opportunities offered by country as well as civic life—the sturdy independence, the healthful surroundings, the wholesome food, of the former—before he decides what his life work will be.”
Copied below is another article “Land Conditions” that appeared in the same issue of the Free Lance and which article goes more in detail regarding the wonderful opportunities of farm life in California—the land of not-too-cold nor not-too-hot climate, the land of singing birds, blooming flowers and golden fruits.
“Probably the greatest opportunity for the race lies in the agricultural sections of the state. Land at reasonable prices is now being offered by the Southern Pacific Land Company in sixteen counties in various parts of the state. While a great deal of this land is available for grazing purposes, yet there are large tracts awaiting the coming of the man with the plow, chief among which are sections laying in the beautiful Antelope Valley, situated in Los Angeles county, which section’s chief products are alfalfa, grain, fruit and dairying products. The soil of this valley is somewhat varied. The upper mesas and slopes in the main valley are decomposed granite of fine texture, with considerable vegetable humus. In the lower levels there are great deposits of silt and in every case the soils are light and easy to work The water conditions are all that can be desired, there being quite a deal of artesian wells, where the water is found at depths varying from 50 to 600 feet. Prices of land in this valley vary from $2 to $10 per acre for grazing land and from $10 to $71.50 for agricultural lands, with possibilities of irrigation by pumping.
“In Fresno county, the home of the raisin and the Thompson grapes, there will be found plenty of opportunities for dairying, fruit and general farming. This county has now quite a large number of Negro ranchers who are engaged profitably in various agricultural pursuits. The price of land in this vicinity ranges from $20 to $143 per acre, with fine possibilities of irrigation by pumping.
“Nearly all sections in the State of California are filled with opportunities for men with small capital to engage in various kinds of farming. While some are impressed by the large ranches, there is ample opportunities to engage in small farming projects. Land at reasonable prices and for all purposes can be obtained in the following counties; Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Nevada, Yuba, El Dorado, Monterey, Stanislaus, Fresno, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Kern and Tulare, Recent reports from various sections of the State show that there are now over 2100 Negroes engaged in agricultural, forestry and animal husbandry in this State.”
In his annual report of February 1920, Secretary Houston of the Department of Agriculture pointed out that when both the acreage and yield per acre are taken into account, the American farmer leads the world in individual production of crops. He further pointed out that the aggregate value of all crops raised in the United States for that year amounted to over fifteen billion dollars. These facts are truly very encouraging and complimentary to the American farmer and are quite apt to give him somewhat of a “big-head” until he reads “Social Aspects of the Decreasing Food Surplus in The United States.” This is a nation-wide agricultural survey written by one of America’s best authorities on that subject, Prof. Bernhard Ostrolenk, Director of the National Farm school at Farm School, Pa.
One of the most startling facts and timely warnings he brings out in his survey is that three million farms in the United States are idle on account of the American people not developing their unimproved lands. In writing about the already improved lands and abandoned farms, he says in part:
“And now we come to the most serious aspect of the agricultural situation in the United States. For the period of 1900 to 1910 more than two and a half million people left the country to go to the cities. Double that figure could safely be assumed to be the true situation from 1910 to 1920. A tragedy is facing the country. Scarcity of food means dissatisfaction, unrest, riots, mob rule, anarchy.
“Instead of proud boasting when new acquisitions are made in our cities, new apprehensions for the future food supply should be aroused. Can the Nation afford to be indifferent to the farmer much longer? We need an exodus from our congested districts back to the soil and the National Farm School is ready to lead in that movement. We have proved that it can be done by taking raw city youths and training them to be successful farmers. Eighty-seven per cent of our graduates own and operate their own farms.”
In giving out this advice and information of deep thought and timely warning, Prof. Ostrolenk has meant for it to apply to and benefit the great masses of Colored people who are jammed in the cities living in unsanitary courts and alleys, as he has meant for it to influence the masses of his own people who have left the country for the cities. And in putting a last spread on this bread-and-butter subject, the writer can truthfully say that just as the National Farm School, under the direction of Prof. Ostrolenk, is taking the lead among other white agricultural schools in helping to solve this great problem by turning out such efficient white farmers; so are Hampton Institute, under the guidance of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg, and Tuskegee Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Robt. R. Moton, gladly and whole-heartedly joining hands with the National Farm School in helping to bring about this “Back-to-the-Farm” movement by taking the lead among other Negro agricultural schools in turning out practically and scientifically trained Colored farmers.
Young men who wish to take a scientific course in agriculture but hesitate to do so because they fear their race and color will prevent them from getting sales for their products, should remember that:
The greatest and only food supplier in the world (the earth) is Colored, and that no race of people ever attempts to wean itself from sucking its daily life-giving nourishments from Nature’s nippled breasts just because those breasts are made of the brown colored dust and dirt from which all crops must come.
JUST as the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, founder of the wonderful school, Tuskegee, was the greatest agricultural and industrial leader of his race in the United States; so Dr. Robert R. Moton, former educator at Hampton Institute and present principal of Tusgkee Institute, is today the foremost leader of the American Colored people in industrial and agricultural education. And the tireless efforts and uplifting influence of those two great industrial leaders have either originated or greatly encouraged and advanced much of the skilled industrial and intensive agricultural progress made by the Colored people in America during the past thirty or more years.
But the pioneer and greatest industrial educator of them all was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong who founded in 1868 the famous Hampton Institute, which is said to be the leading school of its kind in America, and among the best in the world. For years not even many intelligent white and Colored people looked with kindly favor upon General Armstrong’s then new and strange methods of teaching the head, the hand and the heart to work together for the highest development of an individual or a race. People then generally thought that it was foolish to go to school just to learn the trades or how to work on a farm, as they had always been taught that schools were places where one went to learn to study books alone. And that was what nearly every one wanted to do as it was thought to be a disgrace and dishonor to work with the hands. But many years had not passed before it was seen and proved that General Armstrong’s methods were among the most valuable educational teachings in the world.
And today civilized countries throughout the world are using in their private, public and government schools vocational and industrial plans and methods copied after those originated by the far-sighted General Armstrong and so successfully carried on after his death by Dr. Hollis Burke Frissell. The unusual beneficial careers of those two life long friends of Colored peoples stand with the foremost among the careers of many brave white men and women who have not been ashamed to follow the footsteps of Christ by unselfishly giving their lives and fortunes for the encouragement and uplift of an oppressed people. Since the death of Dr. Frissell a few years ago, Hampton has been under the careful and progressive leadership of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg who has kept up the high grade of industrial education he found there. He has also raised the academic standards to higher planes, in order to better fit his graduates to more successfully face the advanced educational requirements they have to meet when going out into the world to wring success from the opportunities that will constantly come into their callings.
Below are named a few of the other Colored industrial schools that are yearly turning out hundreds of skilled and practical auto repairers, blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, domestic science teachers, dressmakers, engineers, house matrons, machinists, milliners, painters, printers, plumbers, school teachers, shoemakers, steamfitters, tailors, tinsmiths, upholsters, wheelwrights and other artisans.
Albion Academy, Franklintown, S. C.; Americus Institute, Americus, Ga.; Berean Ind. School, Phila., Pa.; Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.; Camden Colored High School, Camden, Ark.,; Coleman College, Gibsland, La.; Betts Academy, Trenton, S. C.; Cheyney Training School, Cheyney, Pa.; Christiansburg Ind. Institute, Cambria Va.; Clayton Ind. School, Manor, Texas; Clinton Nor. & Ind. College, Rockhill, S. C.; Colored Industrial School, Cincinnati, O.; Cookman, Institute, Jacksonville, Fla.; Daytona Training School for Girls, Daytona, Fla.; Delaware Nor. & Ind. School, Dover, Del.; Dunbar Training School, Brownsville, Tenn.; Florida Bapt. Academy, St., Augustine, Fla.; Fort Valley High & Ind. Inst., Fort Valley, Ga.; Fort Worth Ind. & Mech. Col., Fort Worth, Tex.; Georgia State & Ind. College, Savannah, Ga.; Greenville Ind. Inst., Greenville, Miss.; Haines Nor. & Ind. Insti., Augusta, Ga.; Henderson Normal Inst., Henderson, N. V.; Joseph Brick Ind. School, Bricks, N. C.; Lincoln Normal School, Marion, Ala.; Lincoln Inst, of Kentucky, Lincoln Ridge, Ky.; Knox Academy, Selma, Ala.; Manassas Ind. School, Manassas, Va.; Mary Potter Memorial School, Oxford, N. C.; Mayesville Ind. Inst., Mayesville, S. C.; Mound Bayou Ind. Col., Mound Bayou, Miss.; National Training School, (women) Washington, D.C.; New Jersey Nor. Training School, Bordentown, N. J.; Oklahoma Nor. & Ind. Inst., Boley, Okla.; Penn Normal & Ind. School, Frogmore, S. C.; Princess Anne Academy, Princess Anne, Md.; Prairie View State Nor. & Ind. School, Prairie View, Texas; Schofield N. & Ind. Inst., Aiken, S. C.; Sater State Normal & Ind. School, Winston-Salem, N. C.; Snow Hill Inst., Snow Hill, Ala.; St. Augustine School, Raleigh, N. C.; St. Paul Nor. & Ind. Inst. Lawrenceville, Va.; Vicksburg Ind. School, Vicksburg, Miss.; Voorhees Ind. School, Denmark, S. C.; State College for Colored Youth, Dover, Del.; Walker Bapt. Inst., Augusta, Ga.; Waters Normal Inst., Winton, N. C. (extracts from Work’s Negro Year book, 1918-1919 edition, pages 309-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20).
While a great many of these schools are kept going through the donations of money by Northern white individuals and organizations as well as by the aid of several state appropriations, the majority of them are supported and run by Colored people themselves. “The African Methodist Episcopal Church is raising each year about $500,000 for the support of its twenty colleges and normal schools. The Negro Baptists are giving support to about 110 colleges and academies.” All together there are about 175 such schools supported by different Colored church denominations that raise each year for this purpose about two million dollars. The properties of these schools thus supported are worth about two million five hundred thousand dollars. (Ref: Works Negro Year Book 1918-1919 edition page 286.)
Among the foremost Colored leaders in industrial education are J. B. Dudley, Winston-Salem, N. C., W. J. Edwards, Snow Hill, Ala., J. M. Gandy, Petersburg, Va., W. H. Goler, Salisbury, N. C., W. J. Hale, Nashville, Tenn., J. R. E. Lee, Kansas City, Mo., E. A. Long, Cambria, Va., R. R. Moton, Tuskegee, Ala., J. S. Russell, Lawrenceville, Va., Emmett J. Scott, Washington, D.C., R. R. Wright, Sr., Savannah, Ga.
WHEN it is taken into consideration that in 1910, just 47 years after their freedom was received, there were less than three million illiterate Negroes in America out of their population of ten million, it will be seen that the Colored people under most unfavorable circumstances that have always existed have made very good strides along educational lines. Rural education among them began as early as 1861 when the first real day school was started near Fortress Monroe, Va., by the American Missionary Association. That school, which was taught by Miss Mary S. Peake, a Colored teacher, was the forrunner of Negro rural school education in the South as well as the pioneer site of the present Hampton Institute. The movement continued to grow and spread so rapidly that in 1870 through the assistance of the Freedman’s Bureau, there had been established in different parts of the South over four thousand common schools.
While it is true that the majority of the Southern white people apposed the education of the Negro, there were many of the best thinking among them who did everything possible to elevate their Colored population. Together with the hundreds of Northern white people (mostly of the Quaker and Puritan stocks) who willingly gave their times, fortunes and in many cases their lives for this cause, different white church denominations and other organizations spent large sums of money for the establishment of schools and the support of teachers for the work. As the outgrowth of that early start there are today in just the Southern States alone over two million Colored children attending public schools that are being taught by nearly thirty-seven thousand Colored teachers. (Ref: Work Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 269.)
The greatest encouragement and help that the Southern Colored people have received in the development of their rural school systems have come from the Rosenwald Rural School Fund, which was founded by Mr. Julius Rosenwald, President of the Sears-Roebuck Company of Chicago, Ill. The following quotation is an extract from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 291; “June 12, 1914, Mr. Rosenwald announced that through the Tuskegee Institute he would provide money to assist in erecting rural school-houses for Negroes in the South under the following terms: that the people in the community where a school house is to be erected shall secure from the public school funds or raise among themselves an amount equivalent to or larger than that given by Mr. Rosenwald. It is understood that in no case will the sum given by Mr. Rosenwald exceed $400 for a one-teacher school and $500 for a two-teacher school.”
In the April 23, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender there appeared an 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.”
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.
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.