James Baldwin's South, Part 9 Black Entrepreneurs
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, voter registration efforts in the South, according to Baldwin, took place in African American churches, mason lodges, private homes, and country stores like that the “Reverend D” operated. Baldwin met him during his 1957 trip south in which he learned the key role people of his occupation played during the civil rights movement. He calls them “one of the guiding spirits” of the voting registration drive in the Deep South.[1] A black grocer in the Deep South had to purchase merchandise to stock their shelves, which resulted in them frequently traveling across counties and in and out of African American communities to obtain goods. Their frequent travels in search of store merchandise helped facilitate the spread of voter registration materials to black communities across the South. Baldwin describes them as well-traveled entrepreneurs who struggled to remain in business as store owners and clandestine voter registration agents.
Store owners like Reverend D kept their shelves and barrows well-stocked with regional stables. Most of these corner stores ran on credit with the storekeeper maintaining a credit ledger. When customers had money, they would pay their bill. The fact that they historically served as the center of rural community life helped facilitate the voter registrations drive. They functioned as spaces and places where families could purchase items that they did not—or could not—raise on their farms such molasses, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and snacks such as pickled pigs feet, chewing gum, soft drinks, ice cream, and cheese and crackers, among others. It was not uncommon for a country store owner to save up enough money to convert the store into part grocery store and part eatery that included a short inexpensive menu steeped in local staples, produce, seafood, and game that few could prepare as well as the cook at the country store. These stores/eateries also served as spaces where one shared and gathered information on the civil rights movement. As a result, they naturally evolved into important spaces for voter registration drives.
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