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Heman E. Perry and Black Enterprise in Atlanta, 1908–1925

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Alexa Benson Henderson
Alexa Benson Henderson
Affiliation:
Alexa Benson Henderson is professor of history and chair of the Division of General Education at Clark College.
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Abstract

A growing number of black men and women attempted to establish businesses in the Jim Crow South of the early twentieth century. These enterprises, which ranged from small shops and retail establishments to more substantial banks and insurance companies, were organized primarily to increase the economic self-sufficiency of black Americans. In this article, Professor Henderson chronicles the efforts of Heman Perry to develop a complex business organization in Atlanta. Although Perry failed to achieve all of his entrepreneurial goals or to sustain the businesses that he founded, his endeavors nevertheless had a significant impact on the city's later development as an important center of black business activity.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , Summer 1987 , pp. 216 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1987

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References

1 Hughes, Emmet John, “The Negro's New Economic Life,” Fortune 54 (Sept. 1956): 248.Google Scholar

2 For a discussion of the concepts of self-help and racial solidarity, see Meier, August, Negro Thought in America, 1880–1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1969), 42–58.Google Scholar

3 Henton, Comradge Leroy, “Heman E. Perry: Documentary Materials for the Life History of a Business Man” (M. A. thesis, Atlanta University, 1948), 86Google Scholar [hereafter cited as “Documentary Materials”]. This thesis, which consists of a compilation of reports, articles, excerpts, interview, and other documents, formed an invaluable body of source materials for this study. See also Simmons, Judy S., “Heman Perry: The Commercial Booker T. Washington,” Black Enterprise, April 1978, 42Google Scholar.

4 “Documentary Materials,” 284; Libbie Perry Boutte and Olive Perry, sisters of Heman Perry, interviews, Houston, Texas, 1952, transcripts in private papers of Thomas D. Jarrett, Atlanta, Ga.

5 Perry's motivation in selecting Atlanta is not known. An associate suggests that contacts in New York may have advised Perry to investigate Atlanta as a strategic place to initiate an insurance company because of “the resources of the city and its surrounding territory.” J. B. Blayton, interview, 18 April 1952, Atlanta, Ga., transcript in Jarrett Papers. See also, Simmons, “Heman Perry, 42, 45; Walrond, Eric D., “The Largest Negro Commercial Enterprise in the World,” Forbes Magazine 13 (Feb. 1924): 503–5Google Scholar; Chicago Defender, 5 Jan. 1929. One source, the Pittsburgh Courier, 15 July 1961, identified the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company as a firm in which Perry worked as an insurance salesman.

6 For a discussion of early black businesses in Atlanta, see Henderson, Alexa and Walker, Eugene, Sweet Auburn: The Thriving Hub of Black Atlanta (Denver, Colo., 1982), 25–32Google Scholar; Alexander, Robert J., “Negro Business in Atlanta, 1894–1950,” Southern Economic Journal 17 (April 1951): 452, 458.Google Scholar

7 For a discussion of early insurance among blacks, see Stuart, Merah Steven, An Economic Detour: A History of Insurance in the Lives of American Negroes (New York, 1940)Google Scholar; Trent, William J. Jr., “Development of Negro Life Insurance Enterprise” (M. A. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1932)Google Scholar; Woodson, Carter Godwin, “Insurance Business among Negroes,” Journal of Negro History 14 (April 1929): 202–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 John Pinkett, former Perry employee, interview [1952], Washington, D.C., transcript in Jarrett Papers; see also Keller, Morton, The Life Insurance Enterprise, 1885–1910: A Study of the Limits of Corporate Power (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Walter Hodges Aikens, interview, Atlanta, Ga., 1952, transcript in Jarrett Papers. According to Aikens, who was Rucker's son-in-law, Rucker withdrew before the company developed. A. M. Carter, former Perry employee, interview [1952], transcript in Jarrett Papers. The name “Standard Life” derived from an article Perry read about a company in Kansas City that had as a motto, “It shall be the standard among the leading companies.” Hemen E. Perry to Emmett J. Scott, 23 Jan. 1909, box 74, Booker T. Washington Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

10 Emmett J. Scott to Heman E. Perry, 9 Feb. 1909, Washington Papers; Pace, Harry Herbert, “A New Business Venture,” Crisis 8 (Jan. 1914): 143.Google Scholar

11 A part of the idea of a “separate economy” to “give economic dignity to a downtrodden race” involved the establishment of black-owned businesses that would provide employment for black men and women, especially the young and college-trained, who were excluded from employment in other organizations. Few advertisements, speeches, or other appeals for support of black business failed to mention employment opportunities. See Du Bois, W. E. B., ed., The Negro in Business (Atlanta, Ga., 1899), 56–57.Google Scholar

12 Pace, “A New Business Venture,” 143–44. In Atlanta, advertisements of the black-owned Atlanta State Savings Bank indicated that it paid 4 percent interest on accounts. Perry is listed as one of the early depositors.

13 Ibid.; “Historical Treatment of Standard Life Insurance Company and the Life of H. E. Perry,” in The National Encyclopedia of the Negro Race (1919); see “Documentary Materials,” 49–50.

14 Pace, “A New Business Venture,” 144; Atlanta Daily World, 18 Aug. 1937.

15 “Historical Treatment of Standard Life,” 51; Pace, “A New Business Venture,” 144.

16 Jesse Bee Blayton, “Phylon Profile: Heman E. Perry,” 2, n.d., draft copy in Jarrett Papers.

17 “History of the Standard Life Insurance Company,” in The Standard Life Year Book-1923, “Memorandum” from J. B. Blayton to Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, 16 Due. 1935, in “Documentary Materials,” 95–98, 231–37.

18 Lamar, Bobbie J., “Citizens Trust Company and Its Role in the Development of the Atlanta Black Community with Emphasis on the Loan Function” (M.A. thesis, Atlanta University, 1969), 3–5, 8Google Scholar; Porter, Michael L., “Black Atlanta: An Interdisciplinary Study of Blacks on the East Side of Atlanta, 1890–1930” (Ph.D. diss., Emory University, 1974), 65.Google Scholar

19 “Heman Perry Started Atlanta on its Home Building Program,” Pittsburgh Courier, clipping, n.d. The Atlanta School Board paid $42,500 for the school site property. See Housch Collins, Linda Gail, “The Origins of Public Secondary Education for Blacks in Atlanta, Ga., 1917–1927” (M. A. thesis, Atlanta University, 1979), 49.Google Scholar

20 “History of Standard Life,” 94–99; Blayton to DuBois, 234–37.

21 Simmons, “Heman Perry,” 41.

22 “History of Standard Life,” 71, 86, 88, 93, 97.

23 Blayton, Phylon Profile,” 9–10.

24 A. M. Carter, interview.

25 Lorimer D. Milton, interview with author, 7 Nov. 1974, Atlanta, Ga.

26 Blayton to DuBois, 234.

27 Ibid., 232; James Mitchell, “The Collapse of the National Benefit Life Insurance Company—A Study in High Finance Among Negroes,” in “Documentary Materials,” 26–35.

28 J. B. Blayton, interview.

29 George A. Howell, interview, 16 May 1948, in “Documentary Materials,” 279–80.

30 Mitchell, “Collapse of National Benefit,” 29–32; Blayton to DuBois, 234–35; see also Charles H. Brown, et al. vs. Southeastern Trust Company, et al., Fulton Superior Court, file no. 68732, 29 June 1926.

31 Blayton, “Phylon Profile,” 6–7; Baltimore Afro-American, 24 Jan. 1925.

32 “Memorandum of Agreed Basis of Financial Statement and Readjustment between the Service Realty Company, the Standard Life Insurance Company, the Citizens Trust Company, and the Southeastern Trust Company, July 24th, 1924,” Exhibit A in Brown vs. Southeastern, see “Documentary Materials,” 134–35. The specific amount of Perry's indebtedness to the white lenders is not known absolutely. Rumors were prevalent at the time and greatly influenced reports of the loan amount. Minutes of the Conference of Black Business and Professional Men, 18 July 1924, Atlanta, Ga., in Jarrett Papers; Mitchell, “Collapse of National Benefit,” 31–32; Atlanta Independent, 22 Jan. 1925.

33 Julius Rosenwald to Dr. R. R. Moton (telegram), 4 Nov. 1924; see also R. R. Moton to George Peabody, 27 Aug. 1924; “Report to Julius Rosenwald on … The Standard Life Insurance Company,” 25 Oct. 1924, in Robert Russa Moton papers, Hollis Burke Frissell Library, Tuskegee University, Ala. The position taken by the philanthropists derived presumably from their concern for an immediate end to the mingling of Standard Life with the Service Enterprises. A. M. Carter, interview.

34 Henry C. Dugas to Comradge L. Henton, 25 May 1948, in “Documentary Materials,” 290.

35 Exhibit B of Brown vs. Southeastern, in “Documentary Materials,” 137–41.

36 Blayton, “Phylon Profile,” 8.

37 Ira De A. Reid, “A Research Memorandum of the Negro in the American Economic System—With Special Reference to His Employment in the Field of Business, Professional, and Non-Professional White Collar Occupations,” 1940, in “Documentary Materials,” 256–57; Atlanta Independent, 22 Jan. 1928; Stuart, An Economic Detour, 309.

38 Baltimore Afro-American, 24 Jan. 1925; Savannah Tribune, 22 Jan. 1925.

39 Stuart, An Economic Detour, 309.

40 Walrond, “The Largest Negro Commercial Enterprise,” 503–5, 523, 525.

41 J. B. Blayton, interview, 4; see claims of plaintiffs in Brown vs. Southeastern Trust, in “Documentary Materials,” 108–32.

42 Lee, George Washington, Beale Street: Where The Blues Began (New York, 1934), 187Google Scholar; see also Tucker, David M., Lieutenant Lee of Beale Street (Nashville, Tenn., 1971), 51.Google Scholar Eugene M. Martin to William J. Trent, Jr., 16 May 1933, Atlanta Life Insurance Company files (private), Atlanta, Ga.

43 See Brown vs. Southeastern Trust, “Documentary Materials,” 113, 117–33.

44 Kansas City Call, 19 July 1929.

45 Jarrett, Thomas D., “A Study Toward A Biography of Heman E. Perry, Pioneer in Negro Business,” in Summaries of Research Projects, 1947–1952, ed. Tillman, Nathaniel (Atlanta, Ga., 1953), 41Google Scholar; Atlanta Daily World, 18 Aug. 1937.

46 Lamar, “Citizens Trust Company,” 10–12; Alexander. “Negro Business in Atlanta,” 457; Atlanta Independent, 25 Oct. 1928: Blayton, “Phylon Profile,” 4.

47 Atlanta Daily World, 13 Aug. 1978, 4A; 18 Aug. 1937; Alexander, “Negro Business in Atlanta,” 456.

48 J. B. Blayton, interview.

49 See comparison with Baltimore in Hughes, “The Negro's New Economic Life,” 251.