African American Businesses

Anonymous
[Press Room of the Planet Newspaper],
Richmond, Virginia, ca.. 1900
Gelatin silver print
Prints & Photographs Division
Bequest of Daniel A.P. Murray, ca. 1926 (48D.1)
Digital ID# cph 3b45130

Included in an award-winning exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition, this photograph--one of 50--was part of the "evidence" collected under the direction of W. E. B. Du Bois to illustrate the condition, education, and literature of African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century, only thirty-five years after the abolition of slavery. In his own description of the exhibit, Du Bois noted that by 1900 African Americans owned one million acres of land and paid taxes on twelve million dollars worth of property. In addition to photographs about black-owned businesses in Georgia, the exhibit included a number of images related to successful black businesses in Virginia, like the one shown.