Afro-American courier. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1926-19??, 1935-03-01
THElVEGRO IN BUSINESS
By
IRA D. HENDERSON.


doing and what he has become and is becoming He has
free in the Southern States than the third
of century. For two hundred and fifty years the Ne
groes worked under the limitation of slavery and became
under humane white tutelage the obeent patient
and useful servant known But for sixty years
he found himself outside the walls of bondage He
has been hemmed in by barriers other than such
are placed about every by the conditions of life.
During nearly half century, more he has been the
master of his fate. By decision, fixed forever
through the clash contendng armies brave
met field of battle his destiny taken from the
hands of his former master and placed in his own.
Through generation of the most eventfu time in the his
tory of the world he has been under the necessity of max
ing his way in the of the strong conquerg
race which it's freedom and achieved its civilization
in the struggle and conquest of thousands of years
We are at a sufficient distance from the to pause
and take stock of the coored mans achievements what
use has he made of the liberty which to him as an
incident of the great struggle? What has he
made in solving the problem of himself and his future?
What data has he furnished to what he has done ana
learned and become, which reliable opinion can be
based concerning his future career? Has he moved 1of
ward or gone backward? Has he furnished grounds tor
hope or reason to despair of him. Where does he stand
in the beginning of the Twentieth Century?
This theme to which I am to write the Introduction
in record to the Negro in business 1t is not work OF
fine spun theories the question, but it is the sum-
mary of the actual accomplishments ana att'lle's Vi
the Colored
The doctrine taught here by the undoubted testimony
Of facts is that the Negro with members OF
every other race must work out his own destiny
There are teachers in the schooroom that are aldng
to solve problems in the schoolroom by communicating
knowledge to children completely that most Negro
bows and girls the entire country can read and write
There have been president of colleges before TINS age IKE
Booker T. Washington and Others who have done SO much
toward the solution of problem that the institutions
over which they presided regarded by all people,
white and black as unmixed blessings to the country
The beginning of the Negro in business was some time
after freedom There hardshps Tor the Negro
when he began try solve his own problems Tor ne
had been held in bondage so long that these prooes
hard for him to face
There were very few Negro businesses at the close OF
the Civil War and of any magnitude. Today thefe
are said to be business enterprises conducted by the
Negroes in more than 200 different lines Among these
are more than forty important insurance companies IN
1880 wenty-one of these comprising the Natohal Negro
Insurance Association reported aggregate assets OF sl
445798 and S26O174,447 of assurances in force Ihese
companies employ than 5000 people, one OF them
the North Carolina Mutual, of Durham has S4oooo'ooo
of insurance in force and income of two millions DOL
lars year 1000
The first private Negro bank organized IN 1888
Int failed after sixteen years In 1880 there 81 such
banks capitalized at 100000, with S3ooooooo III re-
sources and annual business of S75000OOO.
These insurance companies and banks all are organ
;zod financed managed, and supported exclusively oy
Negroes.
Tn the IT, S. there sxty-elght towns ana many VIZ
aoes and settlements populated and governed by the NE
eroes Of these Mound Bayou, Miss, and boey' oha'
aro tbe hest known we'll governed and normally
,o,orons Though a town of 700, Mound Bayou recent
" abandoned its JAIL which long had been unoccupeo
Negro Baptists have a s60ooooo publishing mouse
in Nashville; Negro Odd Fellows OF Texas nave @1ooooe
bn;ldno in Houston Negro Masons OF Alabama nave
eEoo non budnq in Birmingham and those OF the Dstrc
Of Columbia in Washington building valued at S2oo'ooo
Negro publishers publish several hundred newspaper
and magazines Many of them are quite creo''"o'e' ''''
have very wide circulation ,ooa wa.
BEFORE the Civil War the education OF Negroes was
frhdaen in many states and very little attehtlo we"
Maid TO It anywhere Nobody thought Negroes heeoeo a.
p;doe there was a general fear that education
would make them disconnected and lead them TO sav'
'ns;nas consequently, when the Negroes were 1reed
ninety per of them could neither reao "0'
NJ oriv about twenty per cent are ilterate.
fo" ny - 60. Nacroes were begun under government
ioos immediately after the Civil War and wthin NV NV
wears there were 1929 such schools oon eoo Ma