page_title: African-American businesses
section_title: The golden age of black entrepreneurship 1900–1930
hierarchical_section_title: African-American businesses / The golden age of black entrepreneurship 1900–1930
caption_attribution_description: English: Downtown Durham view showing the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Headquarters. In 1965 the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance building became the tallest office building owned by African Americans in the United States. In 2006 the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co. building sold to a developer for only $11.4 million. N.C. Mutual remains in the building as a tenant under a long-term lease agreement.
context_page_description: African-American businesses, also known as Black-owned businesses or Black businesses, originated in the days of slavery before 1865. Emancipation and civil rights permitted businessmen to operate inside the American legal structure starting in the Reconstruction Era and afterwards. By the 1890s, thousands of small business operations had opened in urban areas. The most rapid growth came in the early 20th century, as the increasingly rigid Jim Crow system of segregation moved urban Blacks into a community large enough to support a business establishment. The National Negro Business League—which Booker T. Washington, college president, promoted—opened over 600 chapters. It reached every city with a significant Black population.
  African Americans have operated virtually every kind of company, but some of the most prominent Black-owned businesses have been insurance companies, banks, recording labels, funeral parlors, barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, soul food restaurants, record stores, and bookstores.
  By 1920, there were tens of thousands of Black businesses, the great majority of them quite small. The largest were insurance companies.
context_section_description: The nadir of race relations was reached in the early 20th century, in terms of political and legal rights. Blacks were increasingly segregated. However the more they were cut off from the larger white community, the more black entrepreneurs succeeded in establishing flourishing businesses that catered to a black clientele.
  The most rapid growth came in the early 20th century as the increasingly rigid Jim Crow system of segregation moved urban blacks into a community large enough to support a business establishment. The National Negro Business League, promoted by college president Booker T. Washington, opened over 600 chapters, reaching every city with a significant black population.
  By 1920, there were tens of thousands of black businesses, the great majority of them quite small. The largest were insurance companies. The League had grown so large that it supported numerous offshoots, including the National Negro Bankers Association, the National Negro Press Association, the National Association of Negro Funeral Directors, the National Negro Bar Association, the National Association of Negro Insurance Men, the National Negro Retail Merchants' Association, the National Association of Negro Real Estate Dealers, and the National Negro Finance Corporation.  The Great Depression of 1929-39 was a serious blow, as cash income fell in the black community because of unemployment and many smaller businesses closing down. During World War II many employees can indeed owners switched over to high-paying jobs in munitions factories. Black businessmen generally were more conservative elements of their community, but typically did support the civil rights movement. By the 1970s, federal programs to promote minority business activity provided new funding, although the opening world of mainstream management attracted a great deal of talent.
  In urban areas, North and South, the size and income of the black population was growing, providing openings for a wide range of businesses, from barbershops  to insurance companies.  Undertakers had a special niche, and often played a political role.
  Historian Juliet Walker calls 1900–1930 the "Golden age of black business." According to the National Negro Business League, the number black-owned businesses doubled from 20,000 1900 and 40,000 in 1914. There were 450 undertakers in 1900 and, rising to 1000. Drugstores rose from 250 to 695. Local retail merchants – most of them quite small – jumped from 10,000 to 25,000.
  One of the leading centers of black business was Atlanta. According to August Meier and David Lewis, 1900 was the turning point as white businessmen reduced their contacts with black customers, black entrepreneurs rush to fill the vacuum by starting banks, insurance companies,  and numerous  local retailers and  service providers. Furthermore, the number of black doctors and lawyers increased sharply. All this of course was in addition to the traditional  businesses, such as undertakers and barbershops that had always depended on a black clientele.  Durham, North Carolina, a new industrial city based on tobacco manufacturing and cotton mills, was noted for the growth of its black businesses. Durham lacked traditionalism based on plantation-era slavery, and practiced a laissez-faire that allowed black entrepreneurs to flourish.
  College president Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), who ran the National Negro Business League was the most prominent promoter of black business. He moved from city to city to sign up local entrepreneurs into his national network the National Negro Business League.
  By the 1920s, the federal government had set up a small unit to distribute information to black entrepreneurs, but no financial aid was forthcoming.
  By far the most prominent black entrepreneur of the century of was Charles Clinton Spaulding (1874 – 1952), president of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham North Carolina. It was the nation's largest black-owned business. It operated a system of industrial insurance, whereby its salesmen collected small premiums of about 10 cents every we
caption: The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company headquarters in Durham N.C.
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