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Robert E. Weems

The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago: Anthony Overton and the Building of a Financial Empire Paperback – Illustrated, 9 Mar. 2020

by Robert E. Weems Jr. (Author)

1 rating

FREE delivery: March 5 - 9 Details

Born to enslaved parents, Anthony Overton became one of the leading African American entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Overton's Chicago-based empire ranged from personal care products and media properties to insurance and finance. Yet, despite success and acclaim as the first business figure to win the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, Overton remains an enigma.Robert E. Weems Jr. restores Overton to his rightful place in American business history. Dispelling stubborn myths, he traces Overton's rise from mentorship by Booker T. Washington, through early failures, to a fateful move to Chicago in 1911. There, Overton started a popular magazine aimed at African American women that helped him dramatically grow his cosmetics firm. Overton went on to become the first African American to head a major business conglomerate, only to lose significant parts of his businesses―and his public persona as "the merchant prince of his race”―in the Depression, before rebounding once again in the early 1940s.Revealing and panoramic, The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago weaves the fascinating life story of an African American trailblazer through the eventful history of his times.

Print length

248 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Illinois Press
Publication date

9 Mar. 2020
Dimensions

15.24 x 2.29 x 22.86 cm
ISBN-10

0252084934
ISBN-13

978-0252084935
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Product details

Publisher : University of Illinois Press; Illustrated edition (9 Mar. 2020)
Language : English
Paperback : 248 pages
ISBN-10 : 0252084934
ISBN-13 : 978-0252084935
Dimensions : 15.24 x 2.29 x 22.86 cm

Customer reviews:
1 rating

Product description

Review

"Mixes business history with a fascinating profile to tell the story of Anthony Overton." --Chicago Sun-Times

"Robert E. Weems Jr. recalls the booms and busts of one of the leading African American entrepreneurs of the twentieth century and restores him to his rightful place in American business history." --Publishers Weekly

"Weems has produced a pioneering study of Chicago's preeminent financial titan of the Black Metropolis Era of the 1920s and beyond. This first full-length, thoroughly documented account of Anthony Overton meticulously details how he amassed a business fortune while building an empire that became a major source of empowerment for women ranging from executive and managerial appointments to essential clerical positions."--Christopher R. Reed, The Rise of Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1920-1929

"Drawing on a wealth of previously unexplored primary sources, Weems's seminal study of the Overton conglomerate makes for a tremendous contribution to the expanding field of African American business history."--Juliet E. K. Walker, author of The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship, Volume 1, to 1865, Second Edition

About the Author

Robert E. Weems Jr. is the Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History at Wichita State University. His books include Business in Black and White: American Presidents and Black Entrepreneurs in the Twentieth Century and Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago.

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African American business

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2020

This meticulously researched and authoritative biography of Anthony Overton, who became one of the most successful African American entrepreneurs of the early 20th century is of great interest but occasionally made for some dull reading. It's one thing to learn about Overton’s life, his family, his businesses and their ups and downs and his successes and failures but quite another to delve in detail into the financial aspects of said businesses, and there were moments when my attention wandered. It must have been a tricky biography to write as very little personal documentation survives, no letters or diaries, and so the author has chosen to explore African American business in its more general aspects rather than concentrate wholly on his subject. Understandable and worthwhile but this approach doesn’t always make for riveting reading. Nevertheless, I feel that this is an important book, opening up as it does a perhaps under-explored aspect of American business and African American life of that era in particular, and it’s a book I heartily recommend to anyone interested in the time, place and personalities.

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