The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-10-13
FORTUNE WEAVER VISITS OKLA
HOMA.
Prominent Kansas City Negro Pro-
moter Visits Oklahoma City.

Fortune j. Weaver, Kansas City's
live wire and hustling business man,
visited Oklahoma last week for the
purpose of advertising the Afro-Amer-
lean Automobile Training School of
Kansas City of which he is president
and founder.
Mr.. Weaver was a guest of the Ne
gro State Fair Association at Musko-
gee. From there he went to Tulsa and
Talequah; then to Smithyille, just five
miles out from Oklahoma City, to visit
his foster parents. Mr.. and Mrs. AL
fred Smith better known as Deep Fork
Smith, the cotton king, the founder of
Smithville.
Mr.. Weaver spent his boyhood days
On the farm with his foster parents
and says the credit is due them for his
inspiration and whatever success he
has made in life. MI. Weaver is pres
ident and founder of the Afro-Ameri-
can Investment and Employment Com
pany, Inc. Though this company he
has been the connecting link between
the white property owners and bust
ness firms and the Negro citizens of
Greater Kansas City he has made it
possible for them to buy nice, modern
homes in desirable sections of the city
on the easy payment plan and to fur
nish them employment while paying
for them.
He is the founder of the Kansas City
branch of National Negro Business
League and has been its president for
the past nine years. Through this in
stitution hundreds of Negro men and
women have been encouraged to open
up business enterprises of various
kinds in and about Kansas City.
Through his earnest work in the
League and his cooperation with the
late Booker T, Washington, the Ma
tional Negro Business League was en-
tertained last year in Kansas City. At
this meeting Mr.. Weaver was elected
as one of the members of the eXecu-
tive committee of the National Negro
Business League.
Mr.. Weaver and his devoted wife,
Mrs. Bessie NJ. Weaver, also WI and
operate the Weaver Florist and Fruit
Shop at 1910 East Eighteenth Street,
Kansas City, Mo. This is one of the
most popular and best patronized Ne
gro business places in Kansas City.
Their floral department furnishes hun
dreds of dollars worth of flowers each
month for parties, weddings n fu-
nerals both in and out of the city. The
various lodges and societies order
their floral designs for funerals by
telegraph or telephone and they are
made up and sent in perfect condition
hundreds of miles away.
Mr.. Weaver says there is no line of
work at the present time that offers
the Negro man or boy such a fine op-
portunity as the automobile mechanic
and chauffeur. Hundreds of good po-
sitions and openings for repair shops
await the Negro who has the ability
to repair, rebuild and keep automo-
biles running and for this reason he is
giving his valuable time and atten-
ton to the establishment of the Afro
American Automobile Training School
for Negroes. There are hundreds OF
our men and boys who have not had
the opportunity to educate themselves
along professional lines. Neither have
they had a chance to learn a trade.
This school offers them a rare oppor-
tunity to learn the most interesting
trade of them all, and n that will
enable them to go anywhere in the
country and earn big wages.
1t only takes eight weeks to master
the trade and the cost is only SIS for
the complete course in the school.
Mr.. Weaver says the Negroes of
Oklahoma own more automobiles than
the Negroes of any other state in the
Union, and the majority of them own
high grade cars. Quite a number of
our men and boys took out scholar
ships in the school and will report in
Kansas City within the next thirty
days.-The Black Dispatch, Oklahoma
City, Okla.