I could find little on the author of this business directory, which was published privately in 1905, but the directory itself is a goldmine of social history. To give a little context, Chicago was one of the destinations for African-Americans during the Great Migration; morever, the city was founded by a Haitian fur trader in the 18th century, and post-Civil War Illinois was progressive in its anti-discrimination and segregation laws. Nevetheless, in a big city such as Chicago, segregation was rife, and African-Americans settled in the “Black Belt,” or the neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side. There, well-to-do, middle-class, lower-class, and poor African-Americans lived cheek-by-jowl, surviving and thriving in less than ideal circumstances. However, a quick glance through this directory reveals pages of industries in which Chicago’s African-Americans were involved: from restaurants to dentistry, newspapers to millinery, and law to laundries. A lone entry that stokes my imagination is that of Madam Pearl Black, a Clairvoyant–one can only ponder what sort of fortunes she gave her clientele!

You can read the directory here:

Or download it for future perusal here.

The amazing and outrageous dichotomies of life under Jim Crow were embodied in Alonzo Herndon. Each day, he traveled from his home to ride at the back of a street car to his barber shop in Atlanta, where he then entered the building from the rear entrance. When Herndon’s barber shop opened for the day, he shaved, clipped, trimmed, and otherwise pampered many of Atlanta’s most prominent white men in his flagship barbershop on 66 Peachtree Street. It may have shocked his customers to their toes to learn that their elegant and efficient barber had been born into slavery in 1858 and rose to become Atlanta’s first black millionaire and president and founder of the Atlanta Life Financial Group (then known as The Atlanta Benevolent and Protective Association). It would have also shocked white Atlanta even more to visit Herndon’s home, a Beaux-Arts classical mansion designed by his first wife, Adrienne McNeil Herndon, an actress and elocution teacher at Atlanta University.

However, Alonzo Herndon’s most indelible mark was the opulent barbership located, as mentioned above, on 66 Peachtree Street. After the death of his first wife, Herndon soon remarried again (Jessie Gillespie), and they honeymooned in Europe. Herndon was inspired by the sights and elegance of the “Old World,” and returned to Atlanta full of plans to transform the three-story building, which spread an entire block from Peachtree to Broad, into a palace. By the spring of 1913, Herndon Barbershop had become the Crystal Palace.

“One entered through mahogany and plate-glass doors to a long, elegant parlor lined with French beveled mirrors and lit by crystal chandeliers and wall lamps. Ceiled in white pressed-tin and floored in white ceramic tile, the room accommodated twenty-five custom barber chairs that were outfitted with porcelain, brass, and nickel, and upholstered in dark green Spanish leather. ‘Everything in my shop is the best procurable,’ Herndon boasted. It was a brilliant display. Even the boot-black stands were of nickel and marble.”

The Crystal Palace became known from Richmond, Virginia to Mobile, Alabama as the best barbershop in the South, and became an unofficial city attraction visited by local Atlantans as well as tourists who reveled in its opulence. Herndon also counteracted Jim Crow laws by designing his back entrance that looked the same as the front! By the time of Herndon’s death in 1927, Atlanta Life, which he funded with the profits of his barbershops, expanded into one of black Atlanta’s premiere institutions with assets totaling over one million dollars. His son Norris further expanded the insurance business into a multi-million dollar company, which–along with the Herndon mansion–still exists to this day.

Further Reading:

Herndon Home
History of the Herndon Home
The Crystal Palace in Atlanta Magazine
The Alonzo Herndon Family
The Herndons: an Atlanta Family by Carole Merritt

The Kentucky Derby was held over the weekend, and celebrities, horses, mint juleps, and hats abounded–and staggering sums of money exchanged hands through betting, and raced down the tracks in the form of expensive, highly-trained horseflesh. Inaugurated in 1875, the Kentucky Derby became the first leg of the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, and a large part of America’s Southern and racing history. While the legacy of the many African-American jockeys who rode celebrated horses to victory is somewhat remembered (sadly, black jockeys were phased out by the 1920s), the presence of African-Americans on the other side of the race–the horse owners, breeders, and trainers–is an even smaller footnote in racing history. Racing has and always will be an expensive sport (hence why it’s considered the sport of kings), but a few African-Americans broke through the barriers of income and race to carve a place in the pantheon of horse racing’s greats, and Byron McClelland reigns preeminent.

Byron McClelland stands to the left, in the white apron, with his stable hands

McClelland was born in 1855, and curiously, no source has mentioned if he was born enslaved. His father and elder brother trained horses, but Byron’s mother wanted something more for her son, and urged him to accept a position at The Lexington Press. However, the owner of The Lexington Press, H.C. Duncan, owed a a stable of horses and Byron jumped at Duncan’s offer to take charge of them. He trained Duncan’s stable for five years before his knowledge and skill with horses led to his being hired by H. Price McGrath, owner of the prominent McGrathiana Stud. McGrath bequeathed his stud to McClelland at his death, and by the late 1880s, he had apparently acquired enough capital to accompany his reputation as an astute judge of horseflesh, and with his partner Dick Roche, McClelland turned an August Belmont castoff named Badge into a winner.

The 1890s witnessed much success and fame for Byron McClelland. Sallie McClelland, a horse named after his wife, “captured the 1890 Spinaway Stakes and set an earnings record for two-year-old fillies of $53,969.” His horse Bermuda went on to win several important races in 1891, including the United States Hotel Stakes and the Manhattan Handicap. McClelland’s greatest success was with the horse, Henry of Navarre, whom he purchased at age three in 1894. Henry of Navarre promptly won nine races in a row, including the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes. He sold the horse for $25,000 to August Belmont, Jr., and promptly set about winning more races with Halma, who won the Kentucky Derby, the Phoenix Hotel Stakes, and the Clark Handicap.

Now wealthy and influential, McClelland took a small detour and fulfilled his mother’s dreams by founding The Evening Argonaut in 1895. In 1896, however, he captured the Preakness Stakes with Margrave, which made him one of the few to win races that would later form the U.S. Triple Crown series. Byron McClelland’s spectacular career came to an abrupt and premature end when he died of pneumonia June 11, 1897, aged 41. At his death, McClelland was one of the very few who made a fortune from horse racing, and his estate was totaled at nearly half a million dollars. His wife and brother continued to race horses for a few years after his death, but Byron McClelland’s reputation was such that no one could replace him, and–per the glowing obituary in The New York Times, and the lack of mention of his race–transcended the usual prejudices and bigotry of the time.

Further Reading:
Wikipedia entry
America’s First Great Sports Stars – profile of famous black jockeys
The Kentucky Derby’s Forgotten Jockeys
Byron McClellan’s $10,000 sarcophagus – Find A Grace