CHAPTER XVI.
ATLANTA, GA., AND INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
Atlanta, Ga., is another educational centre. I found over fifty colored men in this city engaged in business, professional and other pursuits.
I can only mention a few of these. I met in Atlanta a very successful colored undertaker in the person of David T. Howard, who was prompted to go into that business because of the way white undertakers treated the colored people when they had their funerals in charge. Mr. Howard has succeeded in building up a very large business. Atlanta can boast of one of the largest contractors among colored people in the country. I refer to Alexander Hamilton, an ex-slave. Mr. Hamilton showed me a number of very fine residences owned by the leading white people in the city, which he had the contract to build. He also drew his own plans and specifications to work from.
There were two men in Atlanta who should have special mention, namely, Mr. Joseph Rivers, and Mr. Jacob McKinley. The latter, I am sorry to say, is numbered among the dead. Both of these men were born slaves and they were uneducated. Mr. Rivers was, by trade, a blacksmith, and began life for himself without one penny. He owns quite a deal of property, among which is what is known as "Rivers Block," and the business rooms are rented to white business men. Jacob McKinley made quite a large fortune in the manufacture of brick and dealing in real estate. I am glad to note that several of those connected with school work in Atlanta report that Mr. McKinley was always willing to contribute of his means for the education of his race. He was very much loved by both white and colored.
Atlanta has several colored doctors. Among them are Drs. Butler and Slater. They came out of school together, and for some years carried on their practice in partnership. Dr. Slater now owns an interest in a drug store, while Dr. H. R. Butler devotes all of his time to a very extensive practice. He is also Grand Master of Georgia of the Free and Accepted Masons. Dr. Butler's wife is a graduate of Spelman Seminary, and I want no better evidence of the very excellent work done at that school than the doctor's very neatly-kept home.
Dr. O. A. Lockhart is another young man with a good practice and the owner of a successful drug store. He is a self-made man, who had a hard struggle to get an education.
Mr. F. H. Crumbly, who has for some years been in the regular army, has returned and opened a dry goods and notions store. Mr. Crumbly is a graduate of Atlanta University, and is a man who is much thought of by both white and colored people, and is meeting with success in his business because of his popularity and good judgment. He stood high as a soldier, and was a commissioned officer in the late war with Spain. He gave up a business to go in the army.
On the same street is to be found Mr. Peter Eskridge, who learned while a slave the blacksmith's trade, which he followed until 1880, when he started a grocery business, and in this he has succeeded. He had not the educational advantages needed for a successful business man, but he educated his daughters and since they have been of great help to their father in keeping his accounts.
I have always claimed that in most cases in the South white people would give some of their patronage to colored merchants, and I am more and more of that opinion since I met Mr. Willis Murphy & Son, who carry on a large and very successful grocery business in a part of the city of Atlanta where they reach a great number of the working people among the whites, and most of the trade comes from that class.
Mr. G. M. Howell, a young man, does quite a good business as a merchant tailor in one of the rooms under the Kimble House. I can speak for Mr. Howell's workmanship as a tailor from the fact that I have had work done by him. I think a large portion of his patronage comes from white people.
Mrs. M. A. Pennamone, of Atlanta, does quite a business as a milliner, and strange to say most of her customers are white people. I have often wondered why there were not more colored women in the millinery business.
In addition to those already mentioned from Atlanta, there are many engaged in various walks of life, such as conducting wood yards, coal yards, draying and doing just what white people do who want to earn an honest living. Atlanta has six educational institutions, to say nothing of the city or public schools, in which there are employed some seventy-five colored teachers. I have been told by the better class of white men in the South, that "colored people own far more property and are getting along much better than the middle and lower classes of the whites." I have heard it said that the only progress being made by colored people in this country was in the South. I am indeed willing to give the South credit for its wonderful development, but as a friend to the race in all parts of the country, I must say that the colored people are also making progress in the North. True, many of our successful men in the North came from the South; but they built up their business in the North.
I met while in Indianapolis, Ind., some very successful people in the persons of the following gentlemen:
Capt. J. Porter is employed as a bank clerk in a white bank. He is the only colored man I have met holding just such a position. The men at the head of the bank regard him as a very reliable and competent man.
The late Benjamin Thornton, of Indianapolis, established for himself a great reputation as a first-class detective. He stood alone in this respect as a colored man. He has often been sent for to work up large cases in some of our leading cities where large amounts of money and jewels have been stolen. Mr. Thornton was quite a public-spirited man, and has done a great deal to help others secure homes, and well thought of by both white and colored.
The city can boast of two magnificent barber shops owned by colored men. One at the Hotel Dennison is owned by Messrs. Moore and Lanear, costing about $6,000. The other one is owned by Geo. L. Knox at the Bates House. Some twenty men are employed there, and several ladies in the ladies' hairdressing department. This shop is said to have cost $10,000. Mr. Knox is also the publisher of the Freeman, which is mentioned in another part of my book.
Mr. Baptist, of Indianapolis, is a very successful contractor, and in 1893 built for John C. New a $10,000 residence. There were quite a number of white contractors competing for the work.
Mr. Puryear, of Indianapolis, does a large express business, giving employment to quite a number of men. Mr. Puryear was at one time, and perhaps is yet, a member of the city council.
H. L. SANDERS.
Mr. H. L. Sanders, of Indianapolis, is the only colored man in the country doing the kind of work he is engaged in. In 1889 he began in a small way to make jackets for butchers, waiters' and cooks' outfits, also barbers' coats for shop wear. At first he did not have work enough to keep one woman busy, but now he has several at work all the time, and his sewing machines are operated by steam. And aside from his manufacturing he carries a splendid line of gents' furnishing goods.