Black Entrepreneurship

The Great Migration created a more diverse and interracial urban population amongst the black community. Still considered outcasts, African Americans who migrated shaped their own new sense of identity. With that, the emergence of black industrial workers and black entrepreneurship prevailed throughout the cities. This would produce new churches and religions, an increase in political involvement, and an artistic presence that would include new forms of music, poetry, and drama.

Anthony Overton is only one of many who invested in the African American community by providing employment and products geared toward them. Overton was the first African American to own a major corporation. His Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company, Victory Life Insurance Company, and Douglass National Bank all thrived during these years.

- Black Migrations is a mini exhibition curated by Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist and Reference Librarian. 

Progress and achievements of the colored people... . Washington, D.C. : Austin Jenkins Co., c1917.

Black Migrations

This year’s Black History Month theme is Black Migrations: highlighting the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and subsequently to new social realities in the twentieth century. This exhibition curated by our African American History Subject Specialist, Jasmine Smith, showcases the impact of World War I and the Great Migration and how it transformed black identity and black entrepreneurship.

Involvement in World War I

African Americans would experience the Great Migration as a result of World War I.  On May 18, 1917, Provost Marshal General, Enoch H. Crowder, would administer the Selective Service Law. This law required all men in the United States to register for military services.  African American men and women used this opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty and worthiness for equal treatment and would have a significant impact on the war’s outcome.  Crowder stated, “I believe that the Negro’s participation in the war, his eagerness to serve, and his great courage and demonstrated valor across the seas, have given him a new idea of Americanism and likewise have given to the white people of our country a new idea of his citizenship, his real character and capabilities, and his 100 per cent Americanism.”  

Soldiers like Henry Johnson who single-handedly killed four Germans and wounded more than twenty others in a surprise night attack, Lieutenant James Reese Europe who provided courage in France with his musical jazz talents, and women such as Mrs. Juanita Hawkins and Lieutenant Hattie Oldham who volunteered in organizations like the Y.M.C.A and the Red Cross, demonstrated strong determination among African Americans.

- Jasmine Smith, African American History Subject Specialist and Reference Librarian. 

Miller, Kelly. Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights. Washington, D.C., 1919.

 Another addition to my MUST SEE LIST!

As many of you know, I stand positionally against racism in any way, shape or form. I honestly believe that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, and I stand for the oppressed, and against the oppressor, whenever called upon to do so.

Over the years, I have begun to learn the stories of the host peoples of America, the treachery, the atrocities, the broken treaties, and I…