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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 14. The Negro in Business, the Professions, Public Service and Other White Collar Occupations - 2. The Negro in Business - 3. Negro Finance
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314 An American Dilemma
all-Negro personnel in Negro neighborhood stores. For this reason he has
to content himself with removing practices of complete exclusion of Negroes
in such establishments. Not even the ultimate gains can be large under these
circumstances.
The very fact, however, that one of the Negro’s most spectacular fights
for economic improvement has been directed on such rather limited objec-
tives is an indication of how desperate his situation really is. One can well
understand his excitement about it. The all-white establishment In the
Negro neighborhood has been an offense that he could not possibly be
expected to stomach. Even allowing for a possible greater success in the
future of the ^^on’t buy where you can’t work” campaign, one finds no
trend toward any real decisive improvement In the Negro’s position In
business. He may get a slightly better representation among the white
collar workers, and there may be more Negroes who would become com-
petent entrepreneurs. But the days have passed when there was much of a
future for the small entrepreneur generally, whether Negro or white.
3. Negro Finance
Since the credit situation certainly has been one of the major obstacles
barring the way for the Negro businessman, it is possible that the chances
for the Negro in trade might have been somewhat better had he been able
to gain a position in the field of finance. But the Negro has been, and still
is, almost completely insignificant as a banker. There were not even 1,000
Negro bankers, brokers, cashiers, and other white collar workers in banks
in 1930 (Table 2), or less than one for every 600 white workers in such
occupations.
The story of the Negro in banking is a story about a handful of fairly
successful small Institutions—^and a somewhat larger number of failures.
The Negro has made more progress in the field of insurance. In 1930
there were 9,000 Negro officials and white collar workers in this business,
but they constituted scarcely 2 per cent of the national total.^^ It is a well-
known fact that one white company has more Negro business than have
all Negro-owned establishments together.
Already before the Civil War there were numerous Negro attempts in
the field of banking, but the Freedmen’s Savings Bank and Trust Company
—^backed by the Freedmen’s Bureau—represented the first noteworthy
attempt in the field. It had branches in 36 cities and had an almost phenom-
enal success j
its total deposits at one time reached $57,ooo,cx)0. Although
most of the deposits were covered by United States securities, there was
some unwise use of reserve funds, and this contributed to the failure of the
bank in the depression of 1874. This event cooled the enthusiasm of the
Negroes for ventures of this kind for a long time. Sir George Campbell,
traveling in the South during the late ’seventies, had this to report:
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