The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-18

lllC OulOll
There is something peculiarly interesting in
the lite OF negro man who has done something
worth while among his people. The world ap-
plauds the negro who succeeds 1t realizes that
certain handicaps rest upon the negro race, that
while they may be considered so, instead, for the
right thinking man, are powerful incentives to ac-
complish something, to do something that will
count muchly in the sum total of human achieve
ments
There are many negroes, right here in the
heart of the south whose histories read like ro-
mances whose struggles and experiences, if re-
corded would make a fairy tale thatwould rival the
Arabian Nights; whose life of sacrifice and devo-
ton to a single aim show the world that heroism
is no respecter of persons, and may be clothed in
skin of ebony hue, sprnging to life and receiv-
ing it's first expression midst owly and humble
surroundings
c. First Johnson of Mobile Ala, at once the
foremost business man among the negroes of the
state, is just such a character. He born in
Haynevllle Ala, of slave parents just after the
war; and like most negroes of that time "got about
three months of schooling, such it was. The old
blue back speller was his first book, and he says
that each year when school was "out"-and it was
always "out' when the children were needed on
the farm after what little schooling he could get
from the "old blue back speller," he was put to
work with his parents and other relatives, chop
ping cotton planting potatoes, powing corn and
doing other farm work.
For some time after finishing his education at
the state school for negroes located at Montgom-
cry, DR.. johnson followed the fortunes of the
negro politician from which he received more or
less recognition He soon gave that up however to
enter the business field among his people, in which
hewas in many respects pioneer.
DR.. Johnson organized the Union Mutual Aid
Association, one of the industrial insurance COM
panies popular among the negroes in the south
about l8 years ago. AS the first and only general
manager of this company, he has demonstrated
rare executive and financial ability, and has
brought it from comparatively nothing to the
point where it is the strongest and largest COM
pany Of it's kind operating among negroes in the
SOUTH When he began the work. his capital was
so small that he did not dare offer it for deposit.
, Now the Union Mutual Aid association employs
practically thousand men and women of the
negro race at remunerative salaries and has paid
out in claims to it's beneficares than So 100-
900 and has written more than $10,000000 worth
of business.
The Union Mutual Aid Association has contri-
buted much to the happiness and we'll being of
thousands of negroes, first by furnishing them
cheap insurance protection, and secondly in meet
ing it's claims promptly thus insuring to widows
and orphans the protection they were getting
while paying the company's representatives the
weekly dime How much Of unbelief, how much of
doubt. how much of suspicion this man had to en-
counter and overcome in the early days of his
work is hard to imagine by those who do not know
the negro character
Credulous in the extreme, they have been bit
ten a thousand times by the unscrupulous in the
white and cOlOred races On the other hand thew