Photos, videos and docs of Kicha, with the keywords: "Entrepreneur"

Julia P Hughes

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 05:16:37 +0000

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Beginning with a resource of five dollars, Dr. Julia P.H. Coleman (1873 - 1950), a licensed pharmacist, founded the Hair Care-Vim Chemical Company in Washington DC., in 1911. She produced a composition marketed as "Hair-Vim" and opened the Hair-Vim Vogue and School. Coleman was the earliest African American woman to open a drugstore in the nation.

Hughes was a pharmacist, entrepreneur, social activist, and business executive. She was also the first African-American woman pharmacist to successfully own and operate her own drug store; much later, she was the first African-American woman to run for elective office in the state of New York.

Hughes was born in Melville, North Carolina, the sixth of eight children of John and Mary (Moore) Hughes. She was educated in local schools, and attended Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina (later named Barber-Scotia College) where she graduated in 1893. After teaching school for a couple of years, she enrolled at the "Pharmaceutical College" (now the College of Pharmacy) at Howard University in Washington DC., she graduated with the degree of Pharm.D in 1897.

After graduation, Hughes moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she ran the pharmacy of the Frederick Douglass Hospital (later Mercy-Douglass Hospital) while taking post-graduate work at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now the University of the Sciences). In 1899 she opened her own drug store at 937 Christian Street in South Philadelphia, called the Hughes Pharmacy. She was the first African-American woman to have done so. A contemporary newspaper account states, "With every prospect of success Miss Julia P. Hughes has opened an elegantly appointed establishment...and is already doing a profitable business."

On February 16, 1900, Dr. Hughes married newspaperman James Harold Coleman, a native of Richmond, Virginia; the couple moved to Newport News, Virginia where, for four years, she operated her own pharmacy. In 1912 James Coleman was employed as a "colonization agent" for black settlers for a projected all-black town in Chaves County, New Mexico eighteen miles from Roswell, New Mexico called Blackdom. Coleman went to New Mexico, while his wife moved to Washington, D.C., to live with her stepmother and other relatives; by 1916, the couple had divorced. There were no children.

By the time of her divorce, Dr. Julia P. H. Coleman had given up her drug store and with T. Thomas Fortune in March 1914 founded a weekly newspaper, the Washington Sun.

While working on the newspaper, she had been experimenting with various other ways of making a living, and had developed another career as a hairdresser. Being an experienced chemist, she experimented with various concoctions designed to grow and straighten kinky hair and eradicate dandruff; she also developed shampoos, soaps, powders and lotions.

In 1909, Dr. Coleman and her then husband had formed the Columbia Chemical Company, whose purpose was to produce and market a hair preparation she called "Hair-Vim." The company was dissolved in September 1910. Then after returning to Washington, and with five dollars in her pocket, Dr. Coleman established the "Hair Care-Vim Chemical Company," with herself as "president and manager." The company was devoted to the production and sale of "a composition marketed as 'Hair-Vim'." She first set up shop at 643 Florida Avenue, N.W., and then moved the business to her stepmother's home at 1234 U Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Coleman's business venture was very successful. She was soon able to sell her newspaper venture and devote herself full-time to the production and sale of her hair lotions, soaps, face creams, "corn salves" and shampoos. In July 1916, she expanded the company's activities to nearby Baltimore, Maryland.

Although running well behind such leaders in the field as Madame C. J. Walker and Annie Turnbo Malone, Dr. Coleman was able, by shrewd marketing, to keep Hair-Vim in business for almost thirty years. She provided beauty parlors with free products and encouraged the owners of the shops to use them on their clients. She also emulated Madame Walker and Mrs. Malone in developing "Beauty Culture" schools promoting the "Hair-Vim" way of doing hair.

On May 25, 1918, Dr. Coleman decided to take a trip to Baltimore, Maryland via the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway, but was forced to give up her seat in the first class car because of her race. When she reached Baltimore, she secured the services of local African American attorney W. Ashbie Hawkins and sued the railroad. She won her case and was awarded damages totaling twenty dollars.

In 1919, according to the NAACP magazine The Crisis, Julia Coleman decided to "establish a branch (of the Hair Care-Vim Chemical Company) in New York City. She purchased a five story brownstone in Harlem at 118 West 130th street for $30,000 and moved the operations of the company there. This would be her home for nearly the rest of her life.

After settling in New York City, Dr. Coleman, along with overseeing the activities of her company, became active in many social and progressive movements. She was a member of the National Medical Association, serving for a time as the "pharmaceutical secretary". She also was active in the National Council of Negro Women, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the local chapter of the National Urban League as well as several church groups and local civic groups. For example, in December 1927, she was elected president of the Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of New York City; she was elected in part, as a contemporary newspaper account states, due to her successful tenure as "head of the business department of the State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.'

In 1920, with a number of black leaders, including William Pickens, Chandler Owen, Robert S. Abbott, and John E. Nail, she signed a letter to Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty urging the vigorous prosecution of black nationalist Marcus Garvey on charges of mail fraud. Garvey attacked them, calling them "race traitors" and singling out Dr. Coleman as "a hair straightener and a face bleacher."

Dr. Coleman also became involved in local politics, being affiliated with the Republican Party. In September 1924, she ran for the Republican Party nomination for the New York State Assembly from the Nineteenth District, stating that "she expects to arouse the colored woman as never before to their political duty." She, however, lost the primary election to Abraham Grenthal, an attorney and the Republican party boss of the district.

On August 12, 1930, in Washington, Dr. Coleman married the Reverend John Wallace Robinson, pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem, and after his retirement, pastor of Christ Community Church of Harlem, founded in 1935. They were married for eleven years, until Reverend Robinson's death in November 1941.

After Reverend Robinson's death, Julia Coleman-Robinson gradually withdrew from both the business and social worlds, and passed away in September 1950. She is buried next to her second husband at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park on Staten Island, New York.

Sources: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; Sheldon Green: Up from Washington: William Pickens and the Negro Struggle for Equality, 1900-1954; The Entrepreneurial Spirit of African American Inventors, by Patricia Carter Sluby

Lydia Flood Jackson

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 04:50:50 +0000

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The Flood family was one of the earliest and most prominent African American families to settle in Oakland, California. After purchasing his freedom, Isaac Flood (1816-1892) moved to California in following the Gold Rush, settling in Oakland in 1853. He worked as a laborer and tradesman and married Elizabeth Thorn Scott (1828-1867) in 1855, a school teacher from Sacramento who started the first public school for African American students in the state. In 1857, Elizabeth opened a private school in the Flood home for African American students, which was moved to the African Methodist Church in 1863 and operated for three years before closing in 1866. The couple had two children, George Francis Flood, who was born in 1857 and was thought to be the first African American born in Oakland, California, and Lydia Flood (1862-1963).

Lydia Flood Jackson and her father Isaac Flood were both out-spoken advocates for African American civil rights and education. Isaac Flood served as secretary on the Education Committee of the Colored Citizens of the State of California and in 1871 successfully petitioned the Oakland Public School Board to admit minority children. Lydia Flood Jackson was active in many women’s organizations, including the Native Daughter’s Club, Fanny Jackson Coppin Club, and Federation of Women’s Colored Clubs. She served as the Federation of Women’s Colored Clubs’ first legislative chairwoman and advocated for the organization to promote women’s suffrage.

In 1872, she became the first African American child to attend the newly integrated John Swett School in Oakland. She continued her education attending night school at Oakland High School and married William Jackson. In part because of the efforts of her parents, the black schools were closed in 1875 and integrated schools became the law in California in 1880.

An entrepreneur and inventor, Lydia Flood founded Flood Toilet Creams, a successful West Coast cosmetic business which manufactured toiletries, creams, and perfumes.

She was also a political activist who traveled to Mexico, the West Indies, and South America on speaking engagements. She rallied audiences with her calls for democracy and questioning of white male supremacy in her speeches. Jackson challenged all women to question stereotypical roles that limited their options. She spoke at the 1918 state women's convention in favor of suffrage. She was present at the 80th anniversary of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, a church her parents had helped found in 1858 (then Shiloh AME).

At the time of her death at age 101, newspapers claimed she was the oldest native of Oakland. Along with her parents, she is buried in an unmarked grave in the Elks Plot.

Biographical Information and Portrait: Flood Family Papers, MS 49, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California

Additional Information: San Rafael Daily Independent Journal and Oakland Tribune

Eliza Ann Miller

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 04:38:28 +0000

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Eliza Ann Miller, a forerunner of Oprah Winfrey in entertainment entrepreneurship, was the first woman to build and operate a movie theater in Arkansas. The above photograph is from the book, 'How I Succeeded in My Business' (1911), by her husband, Rev. A. H. Miller.

She was a businesswoman, philanthropist, wife, mother and author. No reference to Eliza A. Miller's remarkable life would be adequate without multiple descriptors. During a time when African-Americans endured overt racism, and in a region whose name became synonymous with significant economic challenge, Mrs. Miller's self-taught business acumen helped bring growth and prosperity to the Arkansas Delta.

Eliza Ann Ross was born in 1869 in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In 1887, she married Abraham H. Miller of Helena and the couple had three children who lived to adulthood. The Millers acquired vast amounts of property in Phillips County and Mrs. Miller managed many of the family's business affairs. Her husband credited the increase in rent collections and the acquisition of additional real estate, as well as the overall prosperity of the business to Mrs. Miller's business savvy.

In addition to working as a collector supervisor secretary and bookkeeper, Mrs. Miller served, along with her husband, as trustee to Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock. She continued to support the school even after her husband's death in 1913, making significant financial contributions that enabled students to attend the college who, otherwise, could not have afforded the tuition.

Mrs. Miller also provided financial support to several civic and religious organizations. After purchasing land from the Sacred Heart Academy Sisters, Mrs. Miller donated it to the Helena school board so that a high school for black students could be built. The school, dedicated in 1926, was named Eliza Miller High.

In 1970, the school was renamed Eliza Miller Junior High and was subsequently replaced by a park in 1978 which was dedicated to Mrs. Miller.

She was the first woman in Arkansas to build and operate a motion picture theatre. The Plaza Movie Theater was the only black-owned theater in Helena. Mrs. Miller managed it until her death in 1938.

Source: Arkansas Black Hall of Fame

Julia Ringwood Coston

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 04:32:50 +0000

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The first fashion magazine for Black women was Ringwood's Afro-American Journal of Fashion in 1891. It is remarkable not only as evidence that the black middle class had advanced sufficiently by the early 1890s to support a fashion magazine, but also for the first appearance in print of the term Afro-American.

The owner of Ringwood's Journal, is not well remembered. There are no books written about who she was and why she did or did not become great. While having begun and edited the first magazine aimed at and written by African American women is an achievement worthy of praise.

Julia Ringwood Coston (1863 - 1931), was born on Ringwood's Farm in Warrenton, Virginia. Her family migrated from their southern plantation home to Washington, D.C., following the Civil War. In Washington, she spent much of her postbellum childhood in school, excelling and enjoying it. Her later childhood was spent as the family breadwinner; she was forced to drop out of school at the age of 13 and work as a governess in the home of a Union general and was eventually able to continue her studies.

In the spring of 1886, she married William Hilary Coston, (1859 - 1942), a noted author and graduate of Wilberforce and Yale Divinity School. He had published, 'A Freeman and Yet a Slave' (1884), a pamphlet of eighty-four pages, and may have broadened her formal education. A longer version of the same book was published in 1888 in Chatham, Ontario, Canada, which may suggest they lived there at one time.

In 1899 her husband published, 'The Spanish-American War Volunteer; Ninth United States Volunteer Infantry Roster, Biographies, Cuban Sketches.' He also wrote a pamphlet, 'The Betrayal of the American Negroes as Citizens, as Soldiers and Sailors by the Republican Party in Deference to the People of the Philippine Islands.'

The Costons settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where her husband became the pastor of Saint Andrew's Church and Julia Coston began publishing Ringwood's Afro-American Journal of Fashion, also known as Ringwood's Home Magazine using her maiden name.

The Lynchburg Counselor says, "It is a beautiful 12-page journal, and the only publication of its kind on the market. Every colored woman in America should read it." The Philadelphia Recorder observed, "It is especially designed to be an Afro-American magazine, and is edited by colored women, but the pleasing fashion articles, instructive talks with girls and mothers, make Ringwood's Magazine a welcome addition to any home, whether its occupants be black or white."

The Richmond Planet emphasized that the 12-page journal, which sold for $1.25 a year, was a "typographical beauty." Edited by women's and civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell.

Julia and her husband had two children, a son and daughter.

Julia Coston died on June 1, 1931, in Washington, D.C., of an apparent heart attack at the age of 68. She is buried in Warrenton, Virginia. Her husband, W.H. Coston died on June 27, 1942 at the age of 82. He is buried in Arlington, Virginia.

Sources: Ladies' Pages: African American Women's Magazines and the Culture that Made Them by Noliwe M. Rooks; and 'fricana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience,, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Bridie Freeman

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 04:47:43 +0000

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An unseen force in shaping Savannah’s history was Madame Freeman, born in 1886 as Bridie Andres in Beaufort, South Carolina. She relocated to Savannah later in life and opened Madame Freeman’s Beauty School in 1919. The school opened with thousands of ladies that gathered from all over the Southeast to be part of the experience. Once they arrived, they rejoiced in having the once in a lifetime opportunity to become a “Freeman’s Girl”. This opportunity helped women find meaningful work and be treated respectfully while doing it. Many of the women being mothers themselves, found they could even better their children’s lives by attending the institution. In a not so traditional salon, students learned about more than just beauty, their manuals focused on biology, anatomy, which in turn prepared them for other life opportunities. Madame Freeman’s inspiration carried others to open their own beauty salons after the education they earned at the beauty school.

Freeman also found different ways to help others. When a local black man had been convicted of a crime, a crime that many tried to appeal to no avail, the case tugged at Freeman’s heart strings. Consequent, a collection of funds was started at Madame Freeman’s Beauty school, to provide assistance. Freeman’s passion for the African American working class lifted many out of poverty during the time the school was open. Her memory remains captive by those so prominently touched by Freeman’s efforts.

She married twice but never had children. Freeman went on to own a floral shop and a tea shop, even after losing her eyesight to diabetes. Her beauty school closed shortly after her death in 1957.

Sources: City of Savannah/Research Library and Municipal Archives; The Great Takeover, Women Who Move Us Series, Morgan Lawrence

Viola Desmond

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 04:18:22 +0000

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Viola Desmond (1914 - 1965), was a successful 32 yr old Halifax entrepreneur when her car broke down in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She decided to go to a movie at the Roseland Theatre while her car was being serviced. It was November 8, 1946, and she was about to make history.

Desmond requested a ticket for the main floor of the theatre, paid for it, went in and sat down. Although it was not posted anywhere to see, the theatre’s policy was that persons of colour had to sit in the balcony.

When ordered to move, Desmond replied that she couldn’t see from the balcony, that she had paid to sit on the main floor, and that she would stay there. The manager ran out of the theatre and got a policeman. Together, the two men carried Viola Desmond into the street, injuring her knee and hip in the process.

She spent that night in the town jail. No one informed her of her rights, she was not allowed parole, and she was incarcerated in the same jail block as male prisoners. Determined to maintain her dignity, she sat bolt upright, wearing her white gloves, for the entire night.

In the morning – without representation, without understanding that she could question the witnesses against her, without even having been told that she could have a lawyer – she was tried and found guilty: tax evasion.

She had not paid the extra one cent tax on a ticket for a seat on the main floor of the theatre. She had paid for a less expensive seat in the balcony. That she had requested the floor seat, that she had no way to know that Blacks were restricted to the balcony, that she believed she had paid for the ticket on the first floor, that she offered to pay the difference, that she had been assaulted, injured, held then tried in irregular and perhaps illegal ways – it made no difference.

The sentence: 30 days in jail or a fine of $20, plus $6 to the manager of the theatre – one of the two men who had carried her out so roughly. She paid.

The doctor who treated her injuries recommended that Desmond get a lawyer. After discussing her arrest and trial with friends, she decided to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. In its decision, although one of the four judges, Justice Hall, referred in passing to the race issue, he agreed with the other three judges that no error in law had occurred in the original trial. The court unanimously upheld the verdict. The conviction stood.

The unspoken, unacknowledged truth: Viola Desmond was found guilty of being a Black person who had stepped out of her assigned place in society.

This resounding defeat in the courts left her discouraged. Her marriage – already strained by her business success – did not survive the trial. Desmond’s husband thought she was making a fuss over a matter that didn’t warrant it.

She did have significant supporters. And her stand had helped to build something much bigger.

The Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP) – aided by Viola’s friends, newspaper publisher Carrie Best and activist Pearleen Oliver campaigned to raise money. After the appeal, her lawyer, Frederick Bissett – a white man from Halifax – donated his fees back to the NSAACP.

With these funds, the fight Viola had started could continue. Vigorous further action by Best, Oliver, community members, and the NSAACP led finally to the repeal of segregation policies in Nova Scotia in 1954 – more than a year before Rosa Parks’s action in Montgomery, Alabama, helped bring the civil rights movement in the U.S. into sharp media focus.

Viola Desmond grew up in a prosperous family in Halifax. She decided early to be a hairdresser, one of the few professions open to an ambitious, independent-minded black woman. Unable to gain admission to a hairdressing school in Nova Scotia, she trained in Montreal, New York and Atlantic City.

Back in Halifax, Viola married and opened her first salon, where she specialized in hair styles and treatments tailored for her community. Beauty shops had become a major social gathering place in the 1930s, soon after salons first appeared. After a few years in business, she founded a school to train other beauticians. Her dream was to open a chain of salons across Canada – salons staffed by people she trained, specializing in Black women’s hair.

After the trial, Viola gave up her salon and her ambition of a chain of salons across the country. She went to Montreal to business school, then moved to New York to set up a new business, this time as an agent for performers. Very shortly after she arrived in New York, Viola Desmond died at the age of fifty.

Source: Viola Desmond Unintentional Revolutionary by Frances Rooney

Blue Mouse Theatre

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 23:34:37 +0000

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The Blue Mouse Theatre, operated by George Martin from 1914 to 1928. Courtesy of Reginald F. Martin, Sr.

He also owned George Martin's Cleaning Company at 1343 Wisconsin Avenue. Across M Street bridge at 1206 26th Street stood the Blue Mouse Theatre, a Black theatre that featured movies and vaudeville and was a popular center for the community entertainment. George Martin, who had run successful businesses in Georgetown since the early 1900s, operated the theatre from 1914 to 1928. Ignatius Marshall remembers that he frequently went to movies at the Blue Mouse Theatre: "I used to go every Saturday afternoon to matinees. I think at that time it cost you a nickel or a dime, and we'd stay five or six hours, to see replays." In recalling the Blue Mouse Theatre of his father's era, Reginald Martin, Sr. commented on the strong commitment that businessmen then had for their communities: "People were closer in those days. It isn't that way anymore. It's all gone." Later named the Mott Theatre, it was operated by the manager of the Republic and Lincoln theatres on U Street, N.W. until its closing around 1949.

The White Family

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:59:21 +0000

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Lovely family portrait of Eartha M. M. White and her mother Clara English White.

Eartha Mary Magdalene White, a prominent African-American resident of Jacksonville, Florida, was widely known for her humanitarian and philanthropic endeavors in northeast Florida. Born on November 8, 1876, and reared by her adoptive, altruistic mother, Clara English White, Eartha White displayed a lifelong commitment to helping others. Her adoptive father, Lafayette, left little influence on her life as he died in 1881, five years after her birth. After the death of her husband, Clara White, the daughter of two former slaves, was left with the necessity of supporting her daughter and herself through work as a maid and later as a hotel and steamboat stewardess. A pious woman and fervent humanitarian, Clara White was a prime role model, and mother and daughter became a deeply committed team in their unflagging dedication to helping others. Indeed, Eartha White later embraced her mother's motto as her own: "Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, for all the people you can, while you can."

In 1893, upon graduation from Stanton School in Jacksonville, Eartha White moved to New York City for a brief period, to avoid a yellow fever quarantine in Jacksonville. She attended the Madam Hall Beauty School and the National Conservatory of Music. The latter affiliation led to a job with the Oriental American Opera Company, called the first African-American opera company in the United States. A lyric soprano, she sang under the direction of J. Rosamond Johnson (brother of James Weldon Johnson), and in the company of musical luminaries of the time such as Madam Plato and Sidney Woodward. After a highly successful opening on Broadway in New York City, the troupe traveled widely for a year throughout the United States and Europe.

Upon returning to Florida in 1896, she decided to continue her education and subsequently graduated from Florida Baptist Academy. With degree in hand, she embarked on a sixteen-year teaching career in Bayard, Florida, and later at Stanton School in Jacksonville.

At the same time, Miss White also displayed considerable business acumen, as evidenced by her various entrepreneurial endeavors, including the ownership of a dry goods store, an employment and housecleaning bureau, a taxi company, and a steam laundry with the catchy motto: "Put your duds in our suds, we wash anything but a dirty conscience." Her versatility and determination also enabled her to become a licensed real estate broker, the first woman employee of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company in Jacksonville, and a charter member of the National Negro Business League and Jacksonville Business League. Due to her numerous businesses and astute real estate transactions, it is estimated that she accumulated over one million dollars in assets throughout her lifetime. According to Dr. Daniel Schafer, biographer of Eartha White, she donated most of these profits from private investments to finance her humanitarian works and, as a consequence, struggled financially throughout her life.

Her work and influence also extended to political activities, through her participation in the Republican Party and her formation of the Colored Citizens Protective League in Jacksonville. In 1941, she joined with A. Philip Randolph to protest job discrimination. But, it was particularly in her later years that she became an influential force whom Jacksonville politicians consulted on diverse issues and who routinely granted her social welfare requests. To wit, former Jacksonville mayor Hans Tanzler was quoted, in a 1982 Florida Times-Union article, "At least once a month she'd come to my office at City Hall. She was irrepressible and undeniable. She could not be denied. She only came up to my waist but she'd point that little finger at me and she'd tell me, `God has chosen you and you must do this, that and the other thing.' "

As admirable as Eartha White's diverse educational and business activities may have been, her enduring legacy continues to be focused on her social welfare work and zeal for helping the underprivileged. Her accomplishments in this arena are astounding: extensive social work with prison inmates, the establishment of an orphanage for African-American children, a home for unwed mothers, a nursery for children of working mothers, a tuberculosis rest home, a nursing home for elderly African-Americans (1902), the Boys' Improvement Club (1904), and the Clara White Mission for the Indigent (1928). A major achievement and fulfillment of a lifelong dream was the dedication of the Eartha M. M. White Nursing Home in 1967 to replace the Mercy Hospital for the Aged. To assure its construction, she doggedly pursued and was approved for a $300,000 loan.

Her development of the Clara White Mission in particular encapsulates her commitment to humanity. The Mission began in the 1880's under the informal tutelage of Clara White and primarily consisted of a soup kitchen to feed the needy. In 1932, during the depression years, Eartha White recognized the need for a larger facility to feed, shelter, and counsel the homeless. With the help of friends, she moved the mission into its present building on Ashley Street in downtown Jacksonville. In 1944, a fire destroyed much of the building but, with her customary resolve, Miss White raised the funding to rebuild and even expand the original structure. In addition to community services the mission served several other functions during the ensuing years before her death: Works Progress Administration office, orphanage, and a home for unwed mothers.

Indeed the heartbeat of the Mission, she lived on its second floor until her later years. Many notable figures, such as James Weldon Johnson, Booker T. Washington, Mary McCleod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt visited her at the Mission. Interestingly enough, the Clara White Mission, in addition to its many other social and civic services, is still noted for being the only non-profit organization serving daily mid-day meals to the needy in Jacksonville.

Aptly nicknamed the "Angel of Mercy", friends recall her countless acts of charity. She was often called to aid traveling families who had broken down on Jacksonville roads. Her work with Duval County Stockade inmates was legendary: for more than forty years, she visited them in jail, arranged for religious and social activities, and provided counseling and other personal services for them. During World War I and II, her many patriotic activities included intensive work with the Red Cross to aid both soldiers and their families. Showing her less serious if not downright athletic side, the ubiquitous Miss White organized a baseball team during World War II to entertain troops at Camp Blanding.

All these activities left little time for a private life. By her own words, "I never married. I was too busy - What man would put up with me running around the way I do?" According to Charles E. Bennett, author of Twelve On The River St. Johns, she was briefly engaged, at age 20, to James Jordan, a railroad employee from South Carolina. Letters from the collection attest to their love for each other but, unfortunately, he tragically died a month before their impending marriage in June 1896.

As to be expected, awards and honors were numerous towards the end of her life. In 1970, at the age of ninety-four, she received national recognition by being named the recipient of the 1970 Lane Bryant Award for Volunteer Service. Not stopping there, in 1971, the indefatigable Miss White was appointed to the President's National Center for Voluntary Action. After a reception at the White House with President Nixon, she quite characteristically responded to the question of how she would spend the cash award, "I've already decided I want it to serve humanity. What would I do with it? Sit around the Plaza Hotel? I'm too busy."

Eartha White died of heart failure at age ninety-seven on January 18, 1974.

Florida Memory Project; UNF Thomas G Carpenter Library/Special Collections Manuscripts and Personal Papers/Eartha M. M. White Collection

William Eli Warfield

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:55:02 +0000

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William Warfield was known in Fort Wayne in the early 1900s as an entrepreneur who was well respected in the community. He died in 1936.

By 1910, William Warfield had built a solid life for his family. Through odd jobs, such as cleaning doctors' offices and drugstores, Warfield purchased a 21-room, three-story home on East Douglas Street. He also had written several songs, which are registered with the Library of Congress.

Warfield was one of 572 African Americans who lived in Fort Wayne at that time, trying to build a better life for themselves. But it wasn't always easy, said Hana Stith, a retired teacher who is compiling the history of African Americans in the city. Stith said Warfield was the exception in an era when blacks were facing difficult times. "Things were tough," Stith said. "There was no decent housing, minimal jobs and small wages."

"I don't think blacks were content back then, by any means," said Miles Edwards, a member of the Fort Wayne African American Historical Society. "But they were able to deal with the hand that life had dealt them. They had to be strong to survive the things they were going through."

Before 1910, the African-American population was small. Fort Wayne residents had voted in favor of excluding African Americans from the state in the 1851 Indiana Constitution. The black population began to grow after the 13th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed, which abolished slavery and declared African Americans citizens of this country.

By 1900, there were 276 African Americans in Fort Wayne. The overall population was 45,115. Part of the reason for the increase was the migration of African Americans moving from the South. Although little is known about African-American life during this period, documents show they mostly worked in hotels and domestic service, and a few had jobs with the old Bass Foundry. he average salary was about 20 cents an hour.

African Americans basically kept to themselves and only mingled with whites in the city when they were working for them. "Blacks were looked down upon as second-class citizens, and most recreation was in the church," Stith said. There were only two churches for African Americans at the time — Turner Chapel A.M.E. and Mount Olive Baptist Church.

African Americans also attended the Garity, a local movie theater that had seats in the back reserved for them. On weekends, Stith said, they often had picnics in old Robison Park. By the end of the decade, Warfield and a few others had created a strong presence in the city, Stith said.

Warfield was a writer and editor of The Vindicator, an African-American publication that began in 1913. He later went on to write "We Love Old Fort Wayne." The song was written in honor of the city's 150th birthday.

By the 1920s, the African-American population had grown to 1,450, and job opportunities began to expand with the help of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center. The facility, also located on Douglas Street, was a place where African Americans could gather for recreation and job training. The center also was a place where children learned about history and was home to a 20-piece orchestra that played at African-American churches in Fort Wayne, Edwards said.

Sources: Early African Americans Find Local Life a Constant Struggle, by Shannon King of The News-Sentinel; photograph courtesy of Hana Stith

Sidney Preston Dones

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 17:37:41 +0000

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Sidney Preston Dones (1888-1947), was born in Marshall, Texas. The son of Dextor and Lucy P. Dones. After graduating from Wiley College in 1905 he moved to Los Angeles. In 1906, Dones moved to El Paso, Texas where he unsuccessfully tried to establish an African American colony in Mexico. Returning to California, he began to prosper by buying and selling real estate. He was also a money lender, an insurance agent, a music dealer, and ultimately, a filmmaker and actor.

When W.E.B. Du Bois visited Los Angeles in 1913 he trumpeted the “snap and ambition” of the city’s “new blood.” Dones had the most snap, and was largely responsible for solidifying Black enterprise on Central Avenue. In 1914, he organized the Sidney P. Dones Company and set up shop at 8th and Central, next door to the Black owned newspaper, The California Eagle. His company dealt mainly in real estate but also offered insurance and legal services, courtesy of the black attorney C.A. Jones. In 1915 The New Age reported that Dones won the title of Los Angeles’ most popular young businessman and “He is enjoying the greatest real estate and insurance business of any race man in the West.”

In 1913, he married violinist Bessie Williams of Los Angeles. The couple had two children, their daughter, Sidnetta and a son Sidney Jr. Their son later died at the age of 12. The couple later divorced.

In early 1916, Dones opened the Booker T. Washington Building at 10th Street and Central Avenue. The Washington Building was a handsome three-story affair, with shops on the sidewalk level and offices and apartments above. The Eagle, called it the “Largest and Best Appointed Edifice on Central Avenue” and added that it was “Procured for Colored Business Men.”

In 1924 Dones along with other prominent African Americans, including Norman O. Houston, Joe and Charlotta Bass, and Hattie S. Baldwin, bought 1,000 acres in Santa Clarita Valley, forty miles north of Los Angeles, to build a vacation resort for African Americans. These investors, who called their proposed community Eureka Villa, envisioned a resort area of cabins located on half-acre lots, free from the prejudices and restrictions of the city. The resort featured a community house, tennis courts, baseball fields, hiking trails and a nine-hole golf course. It was an immediate success with buyers from nearby states, and as far away as Chicago and Cleveland. While Eureka Villa was never exclusively African American, they were the predominant owners of the restaurants, inns and stores in the area.

As an actor and director, Dones is known for the films Loyal Hearts which was originally titled Injustice (1919), Reformation (1920), and The Ten Thousand Dollar Trail (1921).

His second wife was Mary McNally. The couple had one son, Preston Sidney Dones, circa 1918. The couple later divorced.

In 1926 he married his third wife, Willette Downs in Shelby County, Tennessee. They divorced the following year in 1927.

He married his third wife, Lavinia H. Relerford in 1929. The two would later divorce.

His fourth and last wife was Althea M. Carrera who he married in 1937. The two divorced the following year.

He died at the age of 59 on August 2, 1947 in Los Angeles, California.

Photo: Negro Trailblazers of California by Delilah H. Beasley (1919)
Bio: Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America by Douglas Flamming (2005)

Miles Vanderhorst Lynk

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 17:23:06 +0000

Kicha has posted:

Physician, journalist, and educator Myles Lynk was born in Brownsville, Tennessee, on June 3, 1871, the son of former enslaved parents. His father was killed when Lynk was only six years old, and he was running the farm by the time he was eleven. His mother insisted that he attend school five months a year, and Lynk supplemented his education by reading at home in what he later called "Pine Knot College." He began teaching in Fayette County when he was seventeen, saving his money for further education. Lynk graduated from Meharry Medical College in 1891.

Lynk became the first black physician in Jackson, Tennessee and founded the first medical journal published by an African American, The Medical and Surgical Observer, published monthly from 1892 to 1894. He also published a literary magazine from 1898 to 1900. Lynk was a cofounder of the National Medical Association for African American Physicians in 1895.

In 1900 Lynk founded the University of West Tennessee, with departments of medicine, law, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing. In 1907 the school moved to Memphis. Dr. Fanny Kneeland, one of the first women to practice medicine in Memphis, was a member of the faculty. The Jane Terrell Baptist Hospital provided clinical training. When the school closed in 1924, it had issued 216 medical degrees.

Lynk was also a founder of the Bluff City Medical Society and an active member of Collins Chapel CME Church. He wrote several books and numerous articles.

In 1893 Lynk married Beebe Stephen, a Lane College graduate who taught chemistry and medical Latin. They were married for fifty-five years. After her death in 1948, he married Ola Herin Moore. Lynk died on December 29, 1956.

Sources: The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, by Pierre Magnuss; Memphis Museum; The Black Troopers: Or the Daring Heroism of the Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War by Miles V Lynk (published 1889)

Leah Pitts

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:44:27 +0000

Kicha has posted:

Leah Pitts of Jones County, Georgia wears a shirtwaist and long skirt trimmed with ribbon; more than likely she made both items of clothing. Though blind she was known throughout her county as an excellent seamstress. [Georgia Historical Society]

Helen 'Curl' Harris

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 03:25:47 +0000

Kicha has posted:

Helen 'Curl' Harris (1912 - 2005), was an entrepreneur at a time when women (let alone African-American women) were a rarity in business. A self-made graduate of the Skidmore Vocational School and the Philadelphia Charm and Model School, she ran and operated numerous beauty businesses in Philadelphia (Curl's Beautyrama, Curl's Beauty Salon and Charm Service, and Curl's Moderne Beautyrama) as well as created her own line of make-up and hair products. Ella Fitzgerald and Josephine Baker were among her clients.

Source: Emory University Library

William C Goodridge

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:55:52 +0000

Kicha has posted:

William C. Goodridge was born enslaved in Baltimore, Maryland. Eventually he became a prominent businessman in York, Pennsylvania and an activist on the Underground Railroad.

William C. Goodridge was born to an enslaved African American mother in Baltimore, Maryland in 1806. It is not known who his father was, but it is generally assumed he was a white man. In 1811 he was indentured to the Reverend Michael Dunn who operated a tannery in York. Goodridge received his freedom in 1822 when Dunn went bankrupt. Goodridge then moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he opened his own barber shop.

In 1827, he married Evalina Wallace who also became his business partner. The two had seven children, five of which survived to adulthood.

Goodridge then opened an employment agency, began to invest in commercial and residential real estate, and in 1842 opened his own freight service, the “Reliance Line of Burthen Cars” on the railroad line between York and Philadelphia. Cementing his position in York, he in 1847 built Centre Hall, a five-story commercial property in the center of town.

The same year they were married, the Goodridges moved into a well-built brick home along Philadelphia Street and William lived there until the mid-1860s. The couple quickly expanded their barber business to include the sale of various items, to include a baldness cure known as Oil of Celsus. Goodridge then opened a freight service, the Reliance Line, in 1842 which operated primarily between York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In 1847 he built the tallest building in York, Centre Hall, a five-story commercial property located in central York. Goodridge operated an employment agency from Centre Hall and rented out space to various businesses, to include a tavern and York’s first newspaper, The Democrat. One of Goodridge’s sons also operated a photography studio within Centre Hall.

As a mixed race businessman in a town and state where many vehemently opposed the abolition movement, Goodridge kept a low profile, especially after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 made aiding escaped slaves a federal crime, so we will never know the extent of his activities. His name, however, is associated with two major events in the struggle against slavery.

In the aftermath of the Christiana riot in neighboring Lancaster County, some of the black men who had participating in that deadly firefight made the first leg of their trip north to safety in Canada concealed in a special freight car of Goodridge’s Reliance Line. In the aftermath of John Brown’s failed raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry in October 1859, Osborne Perry Anderson, one of Brown’s trusted lieutenants, fled to York, where Goodridge arranged his safe passage by railroad to Philadelphia.

By 1856, Goodridge owned 12 properties in York and was one of the wealthiest African Americans in south central Pennsylvania. However, things began to go awry after his wife died in 1852 and most of his properties were sold at auction after he went bankrupt just prior to the start of the Civil War. Goodridge remained a barber in York until 1864 when he moved to East Saginaw, Michigan to live with family. He then moved on to Minneapolis to live with his daughter, Emily, where he died in 1873 at age 66.

In 1998, the Goodridge home in York became one of the first Underground Railroad sites designated by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark. There the Goodridge Freedom House and Underground Railroad Museum is working towards opening a museum in his honor.

Until recently, the only known image of William C. Goodridge, was a grainy one published in a York newspaper in 1907.

In September of 2015, an original ambrotype believed to be of Goodridge was sold on ebay. The photograph, which is not marked, is small but clear.

The buyer, Robert Davis of Sacramento, contacted Carol Kauffman at the Crispus Attucks Association in York to share his discovery. The association had been working on the restoration of the Goodridge Freedom House & Underground Railroad Museum in York for several years.

"It's an amazing picture for the time," Kauffman said.

Davis loaned that photograph as well as three tintypes of Goodridge's descendants to the Crispus Attucks Association for a reception that took place in 2015 in honor of William C. Goodridge. The event was held at the York railroad station. It was also part of a fundraiser for the renovation of his former home in York.

Sources: Enterprising Images: The Goodridge Brothers, African American Photographers, 1847-1922 by John Vincent Jezierski; Michigan Historical Museum; York Daily Record, Teresa Boeckel (staff writer); theclio

Lucretia ‘Aunt Lou’ Marchbanks

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 02:46:49 +0000

Kicha has posted:

Lucretia Marchbanks was one of the most interesting and most beloved people in Deadwood, South Dakota’s pioneer days.

She was born into slavery on March 25, 1832, in Putman County, Tennessee, the oldest of eleven children. She was the bondswoman of Martin Marchbanks, whose father had settled near Turkey Creek east of Algood, Tennessee. Her father, of mixed racial heritage, was a half-brother of Martin Marchbanks.

Prior to the enactment of the 13th Amendment, before the firing of the guns at Fort Sumter had announced the opening of the U. S. Civil War, her liberty-loving father had purchased his freedom with $700 which he had saved over the years.

Lucretia Marchbanks, who acquired her father’s frugal industrious habits, grew to womanhood on the master’s estate where she was fully trained in housekeeping and the culinary arts.

Her master, Martin Marchbanks, gave Lucretia to his youngest daughter whom she accompanied to the Western frontier, reputed a land of gold, fortune and romance. They traveled and lived for a period time in California, and later, a free woman, she returned to her old home in Tennessee. Once again, Lucretia set out again for the untamed west where she remained for the rest of her life. Like many others, she was lured into the Black Hills by reports of gold. Lucretia joined the “Black Hills Gold Rush,” arriving in historic Deadwood Gulch, a bustling mining camp, on June 1 1876, where she secured a job, working as the kitchen manager in the Grand Central Hotel. Soon, the hotel, which really wasn’t that grand, was better known for the great food served by Lucretia in the frontier hotel’s restaurant.

“Aunt Lou,” as she was known, labored hard to make her way in a sometimes unforgiving boomtown of the West. Except for “Aunt Sally” Campbell, who came with the George Armstrong Custer Black Hills Expedition in 1874, most believe that Lucretia Marchbanks was the first black woman to live in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory.

After she left the kitchen, Lucretia worked for four successive mine superintendents for the small sum of $40 per month. That was a small price, a real bargain for anyone who could afford to employ a woman with her ability and training.

Two years later she was offered a better position as a cook for the Golden Gate Mine in nearby Lead. Her work ethic, loyalty to duty and fine character were evident to all who knew her. She then left Deadwood to become the manager of the Rustic Hotel at the DeSmet Mine. Gossip of her culinary skills spread like a wildfire and she was soon hired away again as a cook and housekeeper for a boarding house owned by Harry Gregg in Sawpit Gulch, also in Lead. They catered to the DeSmet Mine workers.

One historical account tells that when she was late getting back from a meeting, she was still able to fix an evening meal for the miners in 25 minutes, plus lunch buckets for all on the night shift. Contrary to what was seen on the HBO series “Deadwood,” Lucretia Marchbanks was never an employee of George Hearst, the owner of the world famous Homestake Mine. Her final employer was Harry Gregg, with whom she worked until 1883 when she resigned and opened her own establishment, the Rustic Hotel at the mouth of Sawpit Gulch located just down the road from Deadwood.

She was considered to be the finest cook in the Black Hills at that time. She has been regaled for her excellent plum puddings, among other culinary delights. A Mr. William A. Reamer, who boarded with her, asked her for the recipe and she replied, “Oh, just a handful of this and a handful of that.” Lucretia was more commonly known throughout Deadwood and the Black Hills as “Aunt Lou.” She was also lovingly known to some people of the area as “Mahogany Lou” Marchbanks.

For example: The New York Stock Exchange in discussing a Black Hills Mining News article asked “Who is Aunt Lou?” The Black Hills Daily Times answered in an article entitled “We’ll Tell You Who She Is” - Aunt Lou is an old and respected colored lady who has had charge of the superintendent’s establishment of the DeSmet mine as housekeeper, cook and the 'superintendent of all superintendents’ who have ever been employed at the mine. Her accomplishments as culinary artist are beyond all praise. She rules the house where she presides with autocratic power by Divine right brooking no cavil or presumptuous interference. The mine superintendent may be a big man in the mines or the mill but the moment he sets foot within her realm he is but a meek and ordinary mortal.

“She is a skillful nurse as well as a fine cook and housekeeper, her services to the victims of mountain fever never received an even part of the praise to which they are entitled.” There was a festival in the City Hall of Golden Gate in 1880 for the purpose of the raising of funds for the Congregational church, a prize of a diamond ring was raffled off and then given to the most popular woman in the Black Hills. Her competitors for this high honor were a sizable number of popular white women. Many men and women, citizens of all walks of life voted with their money for their favorite woman: “Aunt Lou.” She easily won and was awarded the coveted prize.

She was however, was more than just a kind friendly woman with great cooking skills; she was also a tough and demanding kitchen manager and stood no intimidation from her rowdy patrons. It is said that on one day she proved that when a Mexican man came into the restaurant boasting that he had killed an Indian and acting as though he’d like to do the same again … kill someone else. While nervous customers looked on, “Aunt Lou” confronted him while brandishing a large knife and in no time, the stranger was quick to take his leave.

Lucretia finally decided that she had cooked long enough. She retired from the Rustic Hotel business in 1885 and sold the hotel to a Mrs. A.M. Porter. “Aunt Lou” purchased a ranch at Rocky Ford, Wyoming, (between Sundance and Beulah) from A. C. Settle. She moved to the ranch that same year and was very active in raising cattle and horses. She with the help of a hired hand named George Baggely, who worked for Lucretia for 20 years and managed the ranch. Various historical records show that she conducted her ranch in the very businesslike manner everyone would have expected.

She died in 1911 and is buried in Beulah Cemetery.

Black Hills Pioneer, Destination Deadwood, by David K Whitlock

Mrs. Rosa Lula Barnes

nobody@ipernity.com (Kicha) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 01:46:25 +0000

Kicha has posted:

The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race (Vol. 1), 1919. In recent years the Negro woman has begun to find herself. Time was when both by herself and in the minds of the general public it was decided, yea determined, that her place was in the home, in the school room and in the Sunday School. Gradually she got into founding institutions, schools, social settlements and the like. She went on the lecture platform. She traveled in America and in Europe as a singer. In all these places she found herself a complete success.

Then a few ventured into unheard of fields ... into politics and in business. Again success is crowning their endeavors. Why should they not enter any and all branches of work?

One of the leading Negro women in business, and general social work is Mrs. Lula Barnes of Savannah, Georgia. Though an Alabamian by birth and education Mrs. Barnes is a Georgian by adoption and achievement. She was born in Huntsville, Alabama, August 22, 1868, she had many difficulties in getting an early education. However, Huntsville Normal and Industrial Institute was near at hand; and so after several years she entered here and gained her life training.

Soon after her school days she was married and set about to make a happy home and to aid her husband in every possible way. Providence deemed it otherwise. Spurred by adversity, she now began to cast about a livelihood. Living in Savannah, she thought she saw an opening for a Negro grocery. She thought also that a Negro woman should just as well conduct this business as could a man. Hence she launched forth into the business. She opened a store on Price Street, and by courtesy, fair dealing and shrewd business tact made her store one to be reckoned with in the business world. For ten years she was a grocer, and gave up, or sold out, only to enter other fields. She closed her grocery books in 1893.

During her ten years in business Mrs. Barnes had practiced economy. She now made several paying investments. She bought a handsome residence, which is her home, on East Henry Street. She bought twelve rent houses, which in themselves provide her with a pretty comfortable income. She also owns five vacant lots in Savannah.

Having made these investments, which were safe and which would protect her in case of inability, she felt safe in placing money in several worthy enterprises. She owns stock and is a director in the Wage Earner's Bank of Savannah, in the Standard Life Insurance Company, in the Afro-American Company and in the Union Development Company.

Mrs. Barnes was married to Mr. Richard Barnes of Savannah on August 16, 1884. He died in 1911.