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Black Pride and Negro Business in the 1920's: George Washington Lee of Memphis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

David M. Tucker
David M. Tucker
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Memphis State University
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Abstract

Looking back on the 1920's, it has become fashionable to accuse black businessmen of betraying and exploiting the Negro masses for their own gain. The career of George W. Lee, however, suggests that some black capitalists did much more than use racial pride for economic profit. They could be the real cutting edge of Negro protest, providing local leadership and a militant philosophy in a period characterized by capitulation to the white majority.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , Winter 1969 , pp. 435 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1969

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References

1 The position of the economic left is stated by: Harris, Abram L., The Negro as Capitalist: A Study of Banking and Business Among American Negroes (Philadelphia, 1936)Google Scholar, and Bunche, Ralph in Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma (New York, 1944), 804Google Scholar; Frazier's, E. FranklinBlack Bourgeoisie (Glencoe, 1957)Google Scholar continues the caricature of Negro businessmen.

2 Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 3, July 4, August 1, 15, November 24, 1920.

3 Stuart, M. S., An Economic Detour: A History of Insurance in the Lives of American Negroes (New York, 1940), 284Google Scholar; Trent, W. J. Jr., “Development of Negro Life Insurance Enterprises” (unpublished M.B.A. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1932), 39.Google Scholar

4 Stuart, An Economic Detour, 179–182, 170–174, 288; Memphis Chamber of Commerce Journal, III (March, 1920), 51–52.Google Scholar

5 Chamber of Commerce Journal, II (December 1919), 263; Commercial Appeal, October 6, 1919.

6 Commercial Appeal, March 26, 1919.

7 Ibid., March 28, 1919.

8 Ibid., July 7, 1920.

9 Chamber of Commerce Journal, IV (May 1921), 11; Commercial Appeal, April 6, August 30, October 26, 1919, May 1–2, 1921.

10 Interview with George Lee, February 13, 1967.

11 Hoffman, Frederick L., History of the Prudential Insurance Company of America (Prudential Press, 1900), 1–4Google Scholar; Keller, Morton, The Life Insurance Enterprise, 1885–1910 (Cambridge, 1963), 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Lee, George W., “Insurance — Its Necessity and Value: Its Problems and its Future,” The Messenger, IX (March, 1927). 77.Google Scholar

13 Stuart, An Economic Detour, 323.

14 Ibid., 306–311; Trent, “Development of Negro Life Insurance Enterprises,” 41.

15 Lee, George W., Beale Street: Where the Blues Began (New York, 1934), 186–190.Google Scholar

16 Pittsburg Courier, March 8, 1924.

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18 Stuart, An Economic Detour, 118–120.

19 E. M. Martin to George W. Lee, May 8, 1924, George W. Lee Papers.

20 Memphis Triangle, June 1, 1927.

21 Frazier, E. Franklin, “Durham: Capitol of the Black Middle Class,” in Locke, Alain (ed.) The New Negro: An Interpretation (New York, 1925), 333.Google Scholar

22 Wesley, Charles H., History of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World (Washington, 1955), 192–196.Google Scholar

23 George W. Lee, “Group Tactics and Ideals,” The Messenger, Lee Scrapbooks.

24 T. O. Fuller to Commercial Appeal, Oct. 31, 1925, reprinted in Interracial Blue Book 1925–26 (Memphis, 1926).

25 Commercial Appeal, January 29, 1924, February 1, 6, 1925.

26 Griggs, Sutton E., The Story of My Struggles (Memphis, 1914), 1–11Google Scholar; Bone, Robert A., The Negro Novel in America (New Haven, 1965), 32–35.Google Scholar

27 Robert R. Church to Walter White, May 21, 1919, Box G-199, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.

28 Commercial Appeal, May 18, 1927.

29 Ibid., August 17, 1925, March 13, 1921, March 30, 1924.

30 Memphis Triangle, June 1, 1927.

31 Commercial Appeal, May 29, June 5, 1927.

32 Ibid., December 30, 1927, February 7, May 22, June 2, 1928.

33 Ibid., July 2, 1928.

34 George W. Lee, “The Negro's Next Step,” Memphis Triangle, January 28, 1928.

35 Commercial Appeal, January 5, 1928.

36 Baltimore Afro-American, June 8, 1929.

37 Commercial Appeal, March 27, 1928.

38 Memphis Triangle, Jan. 25, 1930; George Lee became a vice president of Atlanta Life in 1939 but remained head of the Memphis agency until his retirement in 1967; in politics he became the last black Republican patronage boss until he went down in defeat at the Goldwater convention in 1964; and in literature he published three books, two of which were written in the protest tradition.