Fort Smith, Arkansas NNBL Chapter
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
In Fort Smith, Arkansas a group of African-Americans joined the National Negro Business League (NNBL). they rebelled against the white supremacist expectation that they would remain subservient to a European-American upper caste that controlled capital in their city. They rebelled against mythology that describe African-Americans as lazy and good for nothing. Instead they took the lessons of the NNBL and did the work necessary to advance African American economic independence. The work paid off: Fort Smith’s 8000 black residents owned $200,000 worth of real estate. African Americans owned and operated four grocery stores and an unspecified number of cafés. The key to the advance of Fort Smith’s black community had been progressive entrepreneurs who worked together for collective instead of individual success .
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