Negro farmers, bankers, merchants, contractors, cotton brokers, insurance men, real estate dealers, social service workers, town and community builders, caterers, engineers, undertakers, educators—these men, representing the entire country and especially the South, told at the recent session of the National Negro Business League held in Philadelphia, with eloquence torn of simplicity and hard experience in the school of life, thrilling stories of success won through struggle, persistence, and good-will toward their white neighbors. The Philadelphia meetings furnished abundant proof of the statement that quality and service count in business and that men buy good products and efficient service without regard to color or race.
“Forward to the land!” In thundering tones did this command and entreaty ring out through the Academy of Music to the thousands of Negroes who had assembled to hear Booker T. Washington deliver his annual address to the league. There are some 200,000,000 acres of unused and unoccupied land in this country. Will the American Negro, especially the city Negro, acquire his share through hard work and thrift? Will young Negroes quit the poolrooms with their debasing effects and march into usefulness and comfort on the land? Will the Negro seek the signs of civilization—the automobile and the dress suit—and miss civilization as it is represented in the home and the bank account? Will the Negro forego some pleasures today so as to enjoy richer treasures tomorrow? Will the Negro allow others to think and plan for him instead of thinking and planning for himself? These vital questions of business and of life itself were put squarely to the thoughtful Negroes who had come great distances at their own expense and in many cases at considerable sacrifice of time and money. They also reached some of the city Negroes who had come out of mere curiosity to hear Mr. Washington urge a return to the Negro’s richest opportunity—the land.
Mr. Washington is far-sighted enough, however, to see the need of better Negro business enterprises. There is, indeed, according to his opinion, room in this country, without conflicting with the interests of white people, for 900,000 more Negro farms; 1,000 sawmills; 1,000 brickyards; 4,000 grocery stores; 2,000 dry goods stores; 1,500 shoe stores; 1,500 millinery shops; 1,000 drug stores and 90 banks.
Successful “demonstrations”—human interest stories—were a conspicuous feature of the sessions.
The organization of a $100,000 old-line legal-reserve insurance company by Negroes, headed by H. T. Perry, and its heroic struggle during five years to secure the paid-in capital, was told simply and dramatically by H. H. Pace. It shows what can be done in the South. Perry’s experience in Atlanta should put fresh courage into the hearts of ambitious Negroes who really want to give their people better stores, better banks, better insurance companies, better hotels, and better country life. The story of Perry’s defeat in collecting the paid-in capital, required by the Georgia law for the starting of the Standard Life Insurance Company of Atlanta, followed by his victory, through hard work and faith, emphasizes the importance of teaching men to act co-operatively when they wish to do big things. This story will long be remembered by the delegates and their friends, for it contains real “education for life, in life and by life,” as Dr. Wallace Buttrick has phrased the thought—the underlying aim of Hampton and Tuskegee.
Another interesting event of the past year, in the Negro business world, has been the opening of the $100,000 cotton-oil mill at Mound Bayou, Miss., a Negro town which was founded by Isaiah T. Montgomery, an ex-slave of Joseph Davis, brother of Jefferson Davis. This Negro enterprise shows what Negroes can do when they pull together and turn their disadvantages into advantages.
Nineteen years ago, J. H. Blodgett began his up-hill climb with $1.10 in his pocket and a suit of underwear in a paper bag. Further, he was arrested as a tramp for wearing a straw hat in winter time. Today, he owns 121 houses in Jacksonville, Fla., having a rental value of $2,500 a month. Blodgett got his start as a railroad window washer at $1.05 a day. He and his wife worked hard, saved their money, and finally built their own home. He declares that there is no excuse for young, able-bodied Negroes to waste their time in hotel work at $20 to $30 a month and tips when they can grow tomatoes in Florida at $1,000 an acre.
What is a correct formula for success on the farm? Henry Kelley, of Belen, Miss., who has been hard at work since 1873 and is now worth some $50,000 offers a reasonable one: “Industry, economy, education.” Kelley started out independently in 1886 with 520 acres of land which he cleared as quickly as he could. He built a home, and by degrees established a good business in cotton ginning, grist milling, and log sawing. Then he began to build tenant houses and to deal with his own people in the spirit of the Golden Rule. Today, he works 1,750 acres and has fifty tenants. His payroll ranges from $800 to $1,000 a month and he has work for his hands “from January through December.” He produces about 500 bales of cotton each season. He has no trouble, on account of his color, in doing business. His Mississippi white friends, he says, have always been good to him. Kelley is a hard worker still. His day—and that of his hands—is “from sun to sun.”
J. T. Kirklin, of Columbia, Mo., started in 1873 as a handy boy on the State University farm and received thirty cents a day. Out of his own wages he had to board himself. He was glad to keep his job because he was learning how to farm scientifically. In 1903 he began to take first prizes, in competition with white farmers, for his fine strawberries, carrots, watermelons, and garden truck. His first market wagon was an ordinary wheelbarrow. Later he bought two buggy wheels and made a wagon—a push cart. While some of his own people were laughing at his crude outfit, Kirklin was saving his money and improving his small truck garden. Today he is worth $20,000 and is a quiet and respected citizen.
Has the Negro building contractor who knows his business a fair chance to succeed in the South? B. L. Windham, of the contracting firm of Windham Brothers, Birmingham, Ala., declares that efficiency and not color determines the kind of work that Negroes receive. His firm has built a $100,000 apartment house for white people in Birmingham, Ala. It employs, on an average, 100 people—all Negroes—throughout the year to handle some $300,000 worth of contracts. The business of this firm of Negro contractors has grown from $50,000 in 1903 to $265,000 for seven months in 1913 and is carried on from the Mason and Dixon line to the Gulf of Mexico.