New Book !! The Negro Market

Enjoy this gem re-print from the historical archives that shows the strong economy and and vibrant Black community before the on-set of integration.  See the homes, businesses, farm land, banks and schools that Black people owned in the early 20th Century in America.  This is an inspiring portrait of our resilience and ability to “Do For Self.”

“While enforced segregation has many disadvantages, it has driven the Negro into a high degree of self-sufficiency.  The denial of the right to eat in white restaurants caused him to establish his own restaurants.  Mutual benefit societies, resulting from his separate social life, formed the germ for insurance companies.  Funds from these companies encouraged the establishment of Negro banks.  Negro professional men, trained largely in Negro universities, gaining their income in most instances from a colored clientele, have obtained considerable affluence.  Some of them have contributed to Negro Schools and invested in colored enterprises which in turn have given employment to many Negroes.  In one state alone Negroes contributed $53,000 in cash to a colored university.  A sufficient number of young colored men ans women have been trained in the best universities in this country and abroad to staff the constantly growing faculties of an increasing number of schools.  Negro composers have found in the life of their own people material for the only indigenous music created in this country.  Other colored artists have won wide acclaim for their representation of the life fo their people….it is equally clear that year in and year out, the Negro has utilized his enforced isolation to achieve the same self-sufficiency that nations placed in similar situations have done.”

-Rayford W. Logan, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History