Manuscript/Mixed Material National Negro Business League Correspondence, 1922 (M-O).

Title

• National Negro Business League Correspondence, 1922 (M-O).

Created / Published

• 1922

Headings

• -  Moton, Robert Russa, 1867-1940
• -  National Negro Business League (U.S.)
• -  Afro-American businesspeople
• -  Manuscripts

Genre

• Manuscripts

Notes

• -  Typed originals, carbon copies, and, in a few cases, handwritten correspondence, as well as telegrams, to and from the National Negro Business League pertaining to plans and financial matters related to the league's 1922 and 1923 annual conventions, held in Norfolk, Virginia, and Hot Springs, Arkansas, respectively. As indicated in the title, most last names of correspondents in this folder begin with the letters "M" through "O." Key players in the organization were Robert R. Moton, principal of Tuskegee Institute and league president, and Albon L. Holsey, secretary to Dr. Moton at Tuskegee as well as league secretary. Documents included are letters from black businessmen across the country requesting information about how to start or reinvigorate local leagues. Many of the documents offer insight into the internal operations of the League at both the national and local levels and also into the strategies used to strengthen networks among existing members and attract new members, along geographic and specific professional/trade lines. Among the letters are reports from the league's traveling field representative, Dr. L. B. Moore of Tuskegee, back to Dr. Moton and A. L. Holsey regarding his work drumming up interest in the league. A letter from J. C. Napier of Nashville, Tennessee, on June 8, 1922, congratulates Dr. Moton for his speech at the Lincoln Memorial on May 30, while excoriating President Harding. (Calvin Coolidge was vice president at the time.) A few items show that black fraternal organizations played an active role in promoting black businesses, in many cases leasing them commercial space in the fraternal building. An undated mimeographed form letter offers investment opportunities in an African American undertakers' business, the Waycross Casket Company of Waycross, Georgia. Selections reproduced as facsimile page images: 61 of 150 pages.

Call Number/Physical Location

• Container 1067. Non-Tuskegee Material: National Negro Business League
• Folder: Correspondence 1922 (M-O)

Source Collection

• Booker T. Washington papers.

Repository

• Manuscript Division

Digital Id

• http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/amrlm.mss44669_06

Online Format

• online text
• pdf
• image

IIIF Presentation Manifest

• Manifest (JSON/LD)