1951 · Washington DC
by [African Americana]
Washington DC: Department of Commerce, 1951. Very good.. Eight-panel brochure, 9.5 x 6.5 inches when folded. Minor toning and general wear. A rare program for the sixth annual Conference on the Negro in Business held by the United States Department of Commerce in the nation's capital over three days in late-March, 1951. The text prints the daily schedule for the three-day conference, which included four sessions, as well as a series of "Special Notices." During the conference, the presentations included "Business Education," "The Role of Local and National Business Organizations," "The Role of Small Business in the Defence Industry," "A Business of My Own," a "National Business Exhibit," and a "Public Mass Meeting" presided over by the Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer and the Under-Secretary of State of Haiti, J.F. Brierre. The most striking aspect of the program can be seen on the interior four panels; when opened up and laid flat, the inner four panels display portraits and caption information for twenty-eight mostly African-American business leaders, educators, and prominent citizens, likely the presenters at the conference. These notables include Dr. C.C. Spaulding, the President Emeritus of the National Negro Business League; Beatrice Johnson, Secretary and Advisor for Negro Affairs at the Department of Commerce; J.E. Robinson, Founder of the Houston Negro Chamber of Commerce; A.W. Brown, Head of the Department of Business at A&M College in Orangeburg, South Carolina; Geneva K. Valentine, President of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs; and numerous others. OCLC records just a single copy of this program for 1951's sixth conference, at the Kansas City Public Library. (Inventory #: 4815)