Afro-American courier. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1926-19??, 1939-09-01

las the most common necessities Business has been de-
ned as peculiarly organized scheme for gratifying hui
man wants. The direct aim of the business to make
+ profit out of which to support himself and his depend
ents At the time he must realize that the better he
the public the better his chances of
and profit This perfectly legitimate desire to make money
the urge that mpels the business drive his bust
hess to make it it's purpose in the most effective
manner.
Turning now to the development of Negro business,
records show that before the emancipation Negroes in
business mainly individuals and not class. In al
number of instances Negro slaves purchased their free
dom by conducting businesses of kind another Ac
cordng to C. c. Spauldng, President of the National
Negro Business League and of the North Carolina Mutual
Life Company, Negro business in America has
gone through two stages of development and present
has entered into that is destined to demonstrate
latent possibilities.
During the period Of slavery, development along
business lines showed little progress. Conditions
such that the Negro had little incentive, ambi
ton and could visualize future achievement 1t IS but
natural that nothing distinctive, creative independent
developed during this period
The period following the Civil War marked the be-
ginning of the second stage. This period witnessed the
Negroes first efforts along lines that for him
and untried That these initial adventures failed to sur
is not surprising However, what these pioneers lack
ed in experience, they supplied in honesty and integrity
The foundation for the conducting of Negro business
through organization particularly insurance. laid
during the days of slavery through the organization and
managing of and beneficial societies. These
cetes important in the social and economic
life of the free Negroes and to extent of the slaves
The precarous economic condition of the free Negroes
led to the organization of mutual aid societies in
These societies simple in form small initiation fee
Philadelphia and other cities both North and South
These societies simple in form small initiation fee
and small annual payment charged 1t also appears
that benevolent and burial societies among
the slaves The general plan to have been select
someone who could read and write and make him
ary. In many of the societies members known by
humber and IN paying simply announced their numbers
The president of such society usually privileged
slave who had the confidence of his master and could
come and at will In event of the death of member
provision made for decent burial. After emancpa
ton these secret and benevolent societies multiplied and
played important part in the adjustment of the
Negroes to the conditions of citizenship Development
this kind of business enterprise along two lines The
first the establishment of national organizations re-
tanning all the features of the old benevolent So
ceties but giving much larger insurance benefits The
ond line of development into industrial insurance
coS2panes. The formation of industrial insurance com
paa due to the growth in intelligence the people
and because they able from standpoint
to take form of insurance that pay them arg
er sick and death benefits than the older societies had
been able to pay.
Today the business of life insurance is of the larg
est businesses owned operaeed and controlled by Neg
roes 1t reported at the 1887 meeting National
Negro insurance Association that thirty insurance
panies had total life insurance in force of 1920
90 on December 81 1886. In the year there
wenythree Negro banks capitalized at $4,000 100000 with
resources of $15O00o000O The volume their business
came to S75,00O,000O0.
According to eafet released by the Bureau of the
Census on September 25 1887 there 10 servre
establishments owned and operated by Negroes 1885
these concerns did business of $2728 100000 The most
important of these service establishments were as fol-
lows barber shops shoe repair shops shoe shining par
ors, cleaning dyeing pressing alteration and repair
shops beauty parors and funeral directors The sale of
Negro retail business reported for 1885 amounted to S4S
987000OO
The development of business among Negroes has not
been without its problems obstacles Professor Paul
q. Edwards in his book entitled "The Southern Urban
Negro as Consumer says that the alert Negro
merchant In the urban South is faced with series of prob
lens which make his road particularly difficult For one
thing segregation ocatese Negro businesses for the most
Fart within Negro and limits the market largely to
members of the Negro Some stimulation to sales is
possible on the plea of pride but unfortunately for
these merchants the purely racial plea support sell