The National Negro Business League
IN 1900 the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, organized in Boston, Mass. The National Negro Business League, which is now under the forceful and energetic leadership of Dr. Robert R. Moton. Such nationally known men as Chas. Banks, J. C. Napier and Emmett J. Scott are among those who are closely allied with the president of this League in so widely spreading its influences of encouragement, inspiration and business knowledge.
As a description of the workings of this organization, the writer gives below some extracts from an article written for the August 13, 1921 issue of The Chicago Defender by E. Davidson Washington, son of the late Dr. Booker T. Washington.
“While the Business League has a distinctive purpose (that of promoting the commercial and financial development of our Race,) it does not attempt to prescribe for every racial endeavor; yet it is a significant fact that through the instrumentality of this the national body and its more than 600 local branches or local leagues scattered throughout the country a very large part of the progress made by the Race in the direction of home and farm ownership, banking, insurance, manufacturing and mercantile enterprises has been achieved since the organization of the Business League.
“Among the many subjects discussed are such as: “Making Farming Pay,” “Building a Negro Town,” “The Relation of Education to Business,” “Conducting a Grocery Store,” “Editing a Newspaper” and many others which space will not permit me to mention here. Questions are asked, and in that way those who did not come up to their expectations the previous year try, when they return to their various communities, as far as possible, to put into practice what they have gained through the league.
“The symposiums conducted in the main convention by the following organizations are highly interesting and instructive: The National Negro Bankers’ Association, the National Negro Funeral Directors’ Association, the National Negro Press, the National Negro Bar Association and the National Negro Insurance Men.
“Finally, as a Race we must not be discouraged. There will come to us, as to all races, seasons of depression and gloom. Once in a while even those in high places may seem to seek to insult, humiliate and harass us, but they cannot last. “The morning cometh.” Those who treat us unjustly are losing more than we are. Above all, we must not lose faith in ourselves nor in our Race. We must be as proud of being Negroes as a Japanese is of being a Japanese. It is through such meetings as the National Negro Business League that the Negro is encouraged and made to look upon the brighter side of life and with more optimism for the future than ever before.”