Sometime in 2013, the African American consumer market exceeded the trillion dollar mark for the first time. To put this figure in perspective, that market is larger than the market for the entire nation of Spain. In the article below business historian Robert Weems briefly … Read MoreThe Trillion Dollar African American Consumer Market: Economic Empowerment or Economic Dependency?
Abolitionist and civil rights activist William Lambert was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1817, the son of a manumitted father and a freeborn mother. As a young man Lambert was educated by abolitionist Quakers. Twenty-three year old Lambert arrived in Detroit, Michigan in 1840 … Read MoreWilliam Lambert (1817-1890)
Larry Steele’s touring production review, Smart Affairs, was the largest black entertainment touring group in the United States from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Steele’s review, headquartered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, featured up to 40 entertainment acts. The revue performed in major venues … Read MoreLarry Steele’s Smart Affairs (1946-1971)
A small beach resort community in the City of Manhattan Beach, California, Bruce’s Beach was once owned by and operated for African Americans with no opportunities to vacation at white resorts due to segregation. Bruce’s Beach was one of the few beaches in southern California … Read MoreBruce’s Beach, Manhattan Beach, California (1920- )
Austin Steward, author, businessman, abolitionist, and temperance leader, was born a slave in Prince William County, Virginia to Robert and Susan Steward sometime around 1793. By the age of seven he was working as a house slave on the plantation of Capt. William Helm. The … Read MoreAustin Steward (1793-1869)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Bill Powell was the first African American to design, construct, and own a professional golf course in the United States. In 1946, Bill and his wife Marcella did most of the landscaping by hand when they transformed a 78-acre dairy farm … Read MoreWilliam James “Bill” Powell (1916-2009)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Harold “Hal” Jackson, legendary broadcaster, radio station owner, and philanthropist was born November 3, 1915 in Charleston, South Carolina to Eugene and Laura Jackson. Eugene Jackson owned a successful tailor shop in Charleston allowing the family to live in a comfortable … Read MoreHal Jackson (1915-2012 )
Mahlon Martin, the first African American president of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1945. He received a degree in business administration at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and took graduate courses at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School … Read MoreMahlon Martin (1945-1995)
George Ellis Johnson, Sr. was an African American entrepreneur and founder of Johnson Products Company, a hair care firm, and Independence Bank in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson was born on June 16, 1927 in Richton, Mississippi to Priscilla Johnson. He is perhaps best known for being … Read MoreGeorge Ellis Johnson Sr. (1927- )
The C.R. Patterson & Sons Company was a carriage building firm, and the first African American-owned automobile manufacturer. The company was founded by Charles Richard Patterson, who was born into slavery in April 1833 on a plantation in Virginia. His parents were Nancy and Charles … Read MoreC.R. Patterson & Sons Company (1893-1939)
