Small Business

After the Civil War, African American entrepreneurs founded businesses to serve their own communities, including barber shops, funeral homes, hotels, retail stores, restaurants and catering businesses, newspapers, and beauty products. Small African American businesses and their owners might not be as well-known as Madame C.J. Walker and her cosmetics empire; however, their contributions to their communities cannot be overstated.

Although researching smaller companies may prove more challenging, the Library's Doing Company Research guide may provide some helpful tips for finding out more information on them. The Doing Historical Company Research guide will assist with researching older or out of business companies. Look through the Library's collections listed below to identify other helpful resources such as The Negro Motorist Green-book, the Simms' Blue Book and National Negro Business and Professional Directory, and the U.S. Telephone Directory Collection. For information on searching for images, consult Images and Maps. If you need assistance with your research, please submit a question our Ask a Librarian service.

Susan Levitas, photographer. George and Martha Jiggetts pose in front of their business. 1995. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress.

Susan Levitas, photographer. Carnie Bragg, owner of Bragg Funeral Home, poses in front of the business. 1994. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress.

Martha Cooper, photographer. Barber Louis McDowell poses for photos in his barber shop. 1994. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress.

Martha Cooper, photographer. Howard Fulcher and his mother, Ida Fulcher, behind the counter of their pharmacy. 1994. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress.

Susan Levitas, photographer. Ed Ramsey, owner of the Sweet Potato Pie Company at his desk. 1994. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress.

Small Business Resources

The following collection titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content, including finding aids for the collections, are included when available.

Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley
Call Number: E457.15 .K26 2016
ISBN: 9780989609272
Published/Created: 2016-04-05
First published in 1868, this memoir is considered one of the most candid and poignant slave narratives. Keckley endured hardships at the hands of her master and half-brother Robert Burwell in Hillsborough, NC. She purchased freedom for herself and her son in the 1850s and is remembered as an entrepreneur, fashion designer, abolitionist, educator, writer, and community activist. Keckley used her dressmaking skills to set up a successful business in the pre-Civil War Washington D.C., where she became the seamstress to Mary and Abraham Lincoln, and other Washington elites.
Black Titan by Carol Jenkins; Elizabeth Gardner Hines
Call Number: HC102.5.G375 J46 2005
ISBN: 0345453484
Published/Created: 2005-01-25
Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstruction still poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determined to make a difference for himself and his people. His first job, after serving in the celebrated all-black regiment during World War I, bound him to the near-slavery of an Alabama coal mine--but even here Gaston saw not only hope but opportunity. He launched a business selling lunches to fellow miners, soon established a rudimentary bank--and from then on there was no stopping him. A kind of black Horatio Alger, Gaston let a single, powerful question be his guide: What do our people need now? His success flowed from an uncanny genius for knowing the answer. Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of American social and economic history, Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Hines unfold Gaston's success story against the backdrop of a century of crushing racial hatred and bigotry. Gaston not only survived the hardships of being black during the Depression, he flourished, and by the 1950s he was ruling a Birmingham-based business empire.
On Her Own Ground by A'Lelia Bundles; A'Lelia Bundles
Call Number: HD9970.5.C672 W3533 2001
ISBN: 0684825821
Published/Created: 2001-02-01
This biography examines the beauty entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C. J. Walker. It includes personal letters, records, and rare photographs from the family collection.
Something to Prove by Julia Smith
Call Number: TT505.L69 S65 2016
ISBN: 9781532909306
Published/Created: 2016-08-17
Ann Lowe designed and produced Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding dress. She was a granddaughter of a former slave, and grew up in the Jim Crow South.
Story of Pride, Power and Uplift by J. L. Wilkerson
Call Number: HD9970.5.C672 M358 2003
ISBN: 0966447085
Published/Created: 2003-01-01
Annie T. Malone was the first black woman to launch a black haircare company. She founded Poro College, the first school for teaching and studying black cosmetology in the United States.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

African American Business, Entrepreneurship and the Commerce Department [microform] : Records of the Office of the Secretary's Advisor on Negro Affairs, 1940-1953. by Gale Cengage Learning
Call Number: Microfilm 2012/48
Published/Created: 2010
"These records include correspondence with insurance companies owned and operated by Blacks, 1942 to 1953; correspondence with banks owned and operated by Blacks, 1942 to 1953; correspondence with Black lending institutions, 1942-1943; and correspondence and reports pertaining to Conferences on the Negro Business, 1940-1953."--Publisher's Web site.
African Americans in Business : the Path Towards Empowerment : Essays on Black Entrepreneurship from the African Background to the Present by Martin, Larry L., 1941-
Call Number: HD2344.5.U6 A37 1998
Published/Created: 1998
"A black history month learning resource package for 1998." Includes information on Black Women in Business, Twentieth Century Urban Business Activity, Beauty products, Insurance, Press, Church, and Corporate America at the time of publication.
Business in Black and White by Robert Weems (As told to); Lewis Randolph (As told to)
Call Number: HD2358.5.U6 W44 2009
ISBN: ISBN:0814795404
Published/Created: 2009-02-01
The book examines how presidents from Coolidge to Reagan viewed African American entrepreneurs and used their power to aid or thwart their commercial ambitions.
Driving While Black by Gretchen Sorin
Call Number: E185.61 .S667 2020
ISBN: 9781631495694
Published/Created: 2020-02-11
The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green's famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression.
Encyclopedia of African American Business History by Juliet E.K. Walker, ed.
Call Number: HD2344.5.U6 E53 1999
Published/Created: 1999
The Encyclopedia provides information on the African American business experience from the 1600s to the 1990s. It includes: biographies of black businesspeople; topics in black business history; and, surveys of black business participation in selected industries.
The Green Book -- Documenting African American Entrepreneurs : Archie Green Fellows Project, 2018-2019. by Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Call Number: AFC 2018/029
Collection documents more than 30 contemporary businesses that were listed in The Green Book, a travel guide published between 1937 and 1967 that listed businesses -- e.g., restaurants, hotels, barbershops, taverns, drug stores, and garages -- that welcomed African American customers. Only 3% of the 9,500 businesses listed in The Green Book are still in operation. Taylor interviews their current owners and staffs to document their histories, explore their work cultures, and examine the business's current relationships to their changing communities.
A Guide to Negro Marketing Information by [Washington] U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Business and Defense Services Administration; [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., Govt. Print. Off.]
Call Number: HC110.C6 L3
Published/Created: 1966
Available online from Hathi Trust External
Includes a selected annotated bibliography, population and wage data, information on Negro Business Associations, and information on predominately Negro colleges and universities.
The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship by Juliet E. K. Walker
Call Number: HD2358.5.U6 W345 2009
ISBN: 9780807832417
Published/Created: 2009-12-15
This text on African American Business history through the end of the Civil War examines self-help economic activities among African Americans during this time.
Market Women by Cheryl A. Smith; Laurent Parks Daloz (Foreword by)
Call Number: HD6054.4.U6 S65 2005
ISBN: 027598379X
Published/Created: 2005-06-30
This book features in-depth interviews with 19 African American female entrepreneurs (in ventures as diverse as catering, bookselling, millinery, and construction). The author reveals an approach to business that is based on personal relationships, pooling of resources, a sense of humor, apprenticeship and mentoring, and strong mother-daughter bonds that defy traditional definitions of business success, wealth creation, and power.
Negro Business and Business Education by Joseph A. Pierce
Call Number: HD2346.U5 P54 1995
ISBN: 0306450739
Published/Created: 1995-06-30
Originally published by Harper & Brothers in 1947, this text provides insights for understanding issues in African-American business and business education as well as in the rebuilding of American communities today.
Negro Business Associations in the United States; a Directory by United States. Office of the Adviser on Negro Affairs.
Call Number: E185.8 .U594
Published/Created: 1951
This is a directory of African American business people.
The Negro in Business by Booker T. Washington
Call Number: HD8081.A65 W37 1907
Published/Created: 1907
Describes successful African American business people, including: caterers, hotel-keepers, manufacturers, publishers, bankers, and realtors. Contains information on the National Negro Business League.
Electronic copy from HathiTrust.
The Negro Motorist Green-book by V.H. Green
Call Number: E185.86 .T73
Published/Created: Began with 1936. Ceased with 1951. Digitized 1942 ed.; title from cover.
An annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers founded and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1967. From a New York-focused first edition published in 1936, Green expanded the work to cover much of North America. The Green Book became "the bible of black travel" during the era of Jim Crow laws. Green wrote this guide to identify services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans so they could find lodgings, businesses, and gas stations that would serve them along the road.
Overground Railroad : the Green Book and Roots of Black Travel in USA by Candacy Taylor
ISBN: 9781419738173
Published/Created: 2020-01-07
The Negro Motorist Green Book (published from 1936 to 1966), was the “black travel guide to America.” The author examines how dangerous and difficult automobile travel was for African Americans during Jim Crow segregation. Includes profiles of several Route 66 businesses that catered to black travelers.
Simms' Blue Book and National Negro Business and Professional Directory by Simms, James N.
Call Number: Microfilm. 1923. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress Preservation Microfilming Program : Available from Library of Congress Photoduplication Service. microfilm reels ; 35 mm. Original (DLC) 23006597
Published/Created: 1923-
This book was an "underground" directory of black families and businessmen used while traveling in the United States. It listed Physicians, dentists, grocery stores, churches, shoemakers, and other businesses and professional services that were run by blacks and were friendly towards them. It provides biographies of prominent area blacks. Electronic copy of the 1923 edition available from the New York Public Library Digital Collections.
U.S. Telephone Directory Collection
The Library of Congress's collection of telephone directories represents the following states and localities: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the city of Chicago. The dates of the directories span most of the 20th century. The Library's United States telephone directory collection consists of 8,327 digitized reels of microfilm; of these, about 3,500 are presented in this collection. The remainder of the collection may be requested from the Microform Reader Services (LJ 139).

Following are links to external websites with digitized resources on African Americans in small business.

Ann Lowe (1898–1981), Smithsonian External
This biography examines Ms. Lowe's life as a couture designer .
Ann Lowe: American Couturier (Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library) External
This is the largest exhibition of Ann Lowe’s work to date, featuring 40 iconic gowns, many that have never been on public display, and it will illuminate her evolution as a designer from the 1920s to the 1960s. The exhibition will also feature the work of contemporary couturiers and fashion designers whose current design practices, perspectives, and career paths reflect the trajectory of American fashion emanating from Lowe’s foundation. These include B Michael, Tracy Reese, Amsale Aberra, and Bishme Cromartie.
Green Book (NYPL Digital Collections) External
The Green Book was an annual guidebook for African-Americans that originated in 1936, in order to safely navigate Jim Crow laws while traveling. It was originally published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1966, as a guide to food, lodging, and other businesses, and it features many historic African America small businesses.
National Negro Business Directory. 1918. External
This 96 page directory pamphlet, includes national organizations, business leagues, insurance companies, agriculture and home economics agents and Y.M.C.A. branches.
Negro in Business, Atlanta University, 1899. External
Digitized text of a study of Negro occupations and businesses. The study examines types of businesses by capital invested, number of years engaged, and characteristics by locality
Negro Market, Marketing Information Guide (Department of Commerce) External
This digitally available annotated bibliography produced by the Commerce Department includes 66 items published in the 1960s. These items are divided into sections on: black capitalism, buying patterns of the Negro market, population data, and trends in employment
The Negro Motorist Green Book (Smithsonian) External
The Green Book guided Black Americans to thousands of businesses for over thirty years. This online exhibit provides information on traveling South, North and West in the United States, and includes information on towns, neighborhoods, and urban communities.
Negro Statistical Bulletin. Washington, D.C. (Bureau of the Census) External
This bulletin includes statistical information on business people, artists, banks, theaters, hotels, and more.
Statistics of the Negroes in the United States, 1904.
This pamphlet examines the Negro demographics of the Negro population based on Census information from the 1800s.
U.S. Black-Owned Businesses: Pre-pandemic Trends & Challenges (Stanford University) External
This research brief leverages multiple datasets from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide a summary of the state of Black-owned businesses in the United States and explores the challenges and opportunities facing Black entrepreneurs.

These resources on African American small businesses and entrepreneurs are provided by the Library of Congress.

African Americans in Business and Entrepreneurship: A Resource Guide