[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E185-E187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          1998 CONGRESSIONAL OBSERVANCE OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. WILLIAM J. COYNE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 11, 1998

  Mr. COYNE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in this 
special order celebrating Black History Month. I would like to express 
my appreciation to Representatives Louis Stokes and Maxine Waters for 
organizing this special order, which provides the Members of the House 
with an important opportunity to participate in Black History Month.
  The United States has officially commemorated Black History Month and 
its predecessors can be traced back an additional 50 years to 1926, 
when Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a prominent educator, historian and author, 
created Negro History Week. Since then, each February has been a time 
when Americans are called upon to educate themselves about

[[Page E186]]

the contributions that African Americans have made to all aspects of 
American life and culture--and to consider the complicated role that 
race and racism have played in our nation's history.
  The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, an 
organization that Dr. Woodson established in 1915 to promote a greater 
understanding and appreciation of the contributions that African 
Americans have made to this country, has selected ``African Americans 
in Business: The Path Toward Empowerment'' as the theme for this year's 
observance of Black History Month.
  This is a most important topic because as many Americans of different 
racial and ethnic backgrounds have learned, economic power leads to 
political power. The experiences of many well-known African Americans 
illustrate how business success can lead to political empowerment.
  Paul Cuffe was a seaman and shipowner in Massachusetts during and 
after the Revolutionary War. He built, commanded, and invested in a 
number of vessels during his long career. His activity as a black 
captain of a black crew shattered many widely held perceptions about 
African Americans. He started out in fishing, but his business ventures 
slowly expanded to include the coastal trade along the Atlantic coast, 
international trade, and whaling voyages in distant waters. At the time 
of his death, his shipping empire conducted trade with Europe, Asia, 
and the West Indies. Mr. Cuffe was politically active at an early age. 
He joined other African Americans in protesting their treatment under 
the Massachusetts Constitution of 1778, which held them liable for 
taxes even as it refused them the right to vote. As a result of their 
efforts, a court decided in 1783 that African Americans did have the 
right to vote in Massachusetts. Most of his political activity, 
however, came later in his life, after he had made his fortune. Mr. 
Cuffe used his wealth to support efforts to establish African American 
settlements in Sierra Leone. He established the Friendly Society to 
finance this endeavor, and he traveled to England and Africa to promote 
it. He also met with Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin and President 
James Madison to seek their help. His business success enabled him to 
successfully pursue his political goals.
  Another notable African American whose business success empowered him 
was James Forten. Born free in Philadelphia, the grandson of a slave, 
Mr. Forten attended an abolitionist school until the death of his 
father forced him to drop out to support his family. After serving on a 
privateer during the Revolutionary War, Forten apprenticed himself to a 
white sailmaker, Robert Bridges. He rapidly proved his ability, and 
Bridges made him his foreman. When Mr. Bridges retired in 1798, Mr. 
Forten took over the business, operating a racially integrated 
workplace with nearly 50 employees. Mr. Forten became a wealthy man, 
and he used his wealth to pursue political change. He circulated 
petitions protesting the fugitive slave laws. He published pamphlets 
opposing proposals to prohibit free blacks from settling in 
Pennsylvania. He was an active abolitionist, and he provided more 
financial support to the abolitionist cause than anyone except Arthur 
and Lewis Tappan. Even when he was not allowed to vote because of his 
race, his white employees voted for the candidates he supported on his 
behalf.
  William Leidesdorff was another African American whose business 
success led to empowerment. Born on the West Indian island of St. 
Croix, Mr. Leidesdorff became a naturalized citizen of the United 
States in 1834 and began working as a ship's captain--sailing out of 
first New Orleans and then New York. One of his voyages left him in 
California, which was at that time part of Mexico, in 1841. Mr. 
Leidesdorff settled down in Yerba Buena, a little seaside town that 
would one day be renamed San Francisco, and he started a business 
selling local supplies to ships and importing goods which he sold to 
the other settlers. His business prospered, and he built the first 
hotel in San Francisco. As a result of his prominence in the community, 
Mr. Leidesdorff was appointed the American vice consul for the Port of 
San Francisco in 1845. Over the course of the next year, he was active 
in the efforts to secure California's independence from Mexico. Mr. 
Leidesdorff collaborated with Captain John Fremont, Commander John 
Montgomery, and Commodore John Sloat in driving the Mexican government 
out of California and in making California part of the United States. 
He was elected to the first San Francisco city council in 1847, and he 
served on the committee that set up San Francisco's first public 
schools. In short, his business success led to become an influential 
and respected community leader.
  John Merrick was born into slavery in Clinton, NC, and worked for a 
number of years as a hod carrier and brick mason before becoming a 
barber and opening a barber shop in Durham, North Carolina, in 1880. 
The barber shop prospered, and he opened several other barber shops. 
Mr. Merrick became involved in providing insurance to the African 
American community, and he founded the North Carolina Mutual Life 
Insurance Company in 1898. From a modest initial investment of $350, 
the company grew and grew. At the time of Mr. Merrick's death in 1919, 
the company's policies provided more than $16 million worth of 
coverage. Mr. Merrick also worked successfully to establish a black-
owned and operated bank, drug store, real estate company, and textile 
mill in his home of Durhanm, NC. Mr. Merrick became one of the leading 
black businessmen in the post-Reconstruction South, and he used his 
prominence and connections to help establish Lincoln Hospital, one of 
the best private hospitals for African Americans in the Jim Crow South.
  Charles Clinton Spaulding left his family farm in North Carolina in 
the late 1800's to get an education. He began his career toiling as a 
dishwasher, bellboy, waiter and cook while he studied with children 
half his age to get the equivalent of a high school education. He 
persevered, and he eventually graduated from Whitted Grade School in 
1898 at the age of 24. He took a job as the manager of a black-owned 
grocery company, but the business failed and Mr. Spaulding was plunged 
into debt. Despite this adversity, Mr. Spaulding persevered. He was 
hired by Jon Merrick in 1899 as the first employee of the North 
Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, and largely through his hard 
work and innovative marketing, the company was very successful. Mr. 
Spaulding became president of the company in 1923. At the time of his 
death in 1952, the company employed over 1,000 people and provided more 
than $165 million in insurance policies. Under Mr. Spaulding's 
leadership, the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company became the 
largest black-owned business in the country.
  One of the best-known African American entrepreneurs in this country 
was Madame C.J. Walker, who rose from poverty to become a millionaire. 
Born Sarah Breedlove to a poor farming family in Delta, Louisiana in 
1867, she was orphaned when she was 6 years old and was raised by her 
older sister. She was married when she was 14, had a daughter several 
years later, and became a widow when she was 20. She worked as a 
washerwoman to support herself and her daughter for a number of years. 
In 1905, she developed a hair conditioner and a metal comb for 
straightening hair. She began selling her hair care products and other 
cosmetics door to door in Saint Louis, but as she became successful she 
developed other marketing approaches--mail order sales, franchised 
sales agents, and lecture tours--that allowed her business to expand to 
many parts of the South and the East. In 1910, Madam C.J. Walker moved 
her operations to Indianapolis, where she set up a large manufacturing 
facility. By the time she passed away in 1919, she was one of the most 
successful business women in the country. She used her wealth to 
support the NAACP, homes for the elderly and the needy, and educational 
opportunities for African Americans.
  Another successful business woman born just after the Civil War was 
Maggie Lena Walker. A native of Richmond, VA, Maggie Lena Walker 
graduated from high school despite the early death of her stepfather. 
She went on to teach in a public school, work as an insurance agent, 
and take business courses in accounting and salesmanship. She worked 
her way up the hierarchy of a fraternal insurance cooperative known as 
the Grand United Order of St. Luke. The Order provided health and 
burial benefits for its members. In 1899, Mrs. Walker was named 
executive secretary-treasurer of this organization, and she changed its 
name to the Independent Order of St. Luke. Under her management, the 
organization grew substantially. In 1903, she established the St. Luke 
Penny Savings Bank and became its president. The St. Luke Penny Savings 
Bank grew steadily, and in 1929, it absorbed the other African American 
banks in Richmond under the name of the Consolidated Bank and Trust 
Company. Mrs. Walker served as the chairman of the Consolidated Bank 
and Trust Company's board of directors until her death in 1934. She 
organized and supported several large philanthropic organizations, and 
she was active in the state NAACP.
  Robert L. Vann was born in the late 1800s into a poor farming family 
in rural North Carolina. Mr. Van steadfastly pursued his education--
working his way through school and earning a law degree from the 
University of Pittsburgh in 1909. In 1910, he was the motivating force 
behind the establishment of the Pittsburgh Courier, a newspaper serving 
the African American community. Over the following 2 years, Mr. Vann 
acquired sole control of the paper and became its editor. The paper 
grew substantially, and its success allowed Mr. Vann to become involved 
in politics. He served as Assistant City Solicitor for the City of 
Pittsburgh from 1917 until 1921. He served as national director of 
outreach efforts to the African American community for the Republican 
presidential campaigns of 1920, 1924, and 1928. In the presidential 
campaign of

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1932, he used his influence to encourage black voters to 
support Franklin Roosevelt, and as a result of his efforts he served in 
several capacities in the Roosevelt Administration, where he worked to 
increase African Americans' political power. Mr. Vann used his 
influence, for example, to push for racial equality in the U.S. armed 
forces. After leaving the administration, Mr. Vann returned to the 
Pittsburgh Courier, where he urged African Americans to refrain from 
making an allegiance with either political party. He believed that 
African Americans would enjoy greater political power if their votes 
could not be taken for granted by either political party.

  Archie A. Alexander was born in Iowa in 1888. His father was a 
janitor. Mr. Alexander worked his way through college--studying 
engineering despite efforts to discourage him from pursuing this 
profession. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1912 with a 
B.S. in civil engineering. In 1914, he set up an engineering firm, 
Alexander and Higbee, at the age of 26. The firm did well. Mr. 
Alexander continued the business on his own for several years after the 
death of his partner, but in 1929 he joined one of his university 
classmates to establish the firm of Alexander and Repass. Their 
business flourished, and they won and completed large projects across 
the country. In 1954, President Eisenhower appointed Mr. Alexander 
Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  John H. Johnson, the noted African American publisher, was born in 
Arkansas, but his family moved to Chicago when he was 15 years old. His 
hard work in school led to an opportunity that changed his life. He was 
selected to speak at the 1936 Chicago Urban League banquet honoring 
high school seniors. His speech so impressed the main speaker, the 
president of the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company of Chicago, 
that he was hired to work in the company's offices. For the next four 
years, Mr. Johnson worked in the company's offices and studied at the 
University of Chicago and Northwestern University. When Mr. Johnson 
completed college, he went to work full-time for Supreme Liberty. In 
the course of his work, Mr. Johnson realized that many African 
Americans would be interested in buying a publication containing news 
about African Americans and the African American community. In 1942, he 
began publishing and selling a magazine named Negro Digest. The demand 
for this new publication was impressive. Circulation rose to more than 
100,000 readers in a few short years. Mr. Johnson followed up on this 
success with other publications. In 1945, he brought out Ebony 
magazine, and in 1951, he introduced Jet. Today, he is one of 
American's leading publishers.
  These are just a few of the more prominent African American 
entrepreneurs from the past 200 years. Many African Americans have 
successfully overcome adversity, financial challenges, and 
discrimination to create successful businesses. Many of these 
successful black entrepreneurs identified and addressed needs in the 
African American community that white businesses had ignored or 
disdained--but others like Paul Cuffee, James Forten, William 
Leidesdorff, and Archie Alexander competed head-to-head with white 
businesses quite profitably. In either case, the individuals I have 
mentioned were able to use their business successes to pursue social or 
political ends. The interesting question is how much more these 
entrepreneurs could have achieved had they not faced the widespread 
racism and race-based legal restrictions of their times.
  Today, opportunities exist both within the black community and within 
the larger society for African American businesses to develop and grow. 
As we celebrate Black History Month, I believe that we should 
rededicate ourselves to the expansion of economic opportunities for 
African Americans and other minorities. Such efforts must go beyond the 
speeches we give here today. I believe that affirmative action and 
government programs that help develop minority-owned small businesses 
are still needed to create a ``level playing field''--they are needed 
to offset the impact of residual racism in our society, and to offset 
the effects of decades of discrimination. I urge my colleagues to act 
to protect, expand, and improve federal efforts to guarantee economic 
and educational opportunity to all Americans.

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