In the spirit of further expanding the heretofore unsung contributions of African American economists, we present two unpublished works from the 1930s of Joseph Roosevelt Houchins. They focus on Black business development and strategy. Biographical information and historical context for Houchins's life experiences during the twentieth century are included in an introduction. Houchins was a member of President Franklin Roosevelt's Black Cabinet, a leader of the Division of Negro Affairs in the U.S. Department of Commerce, and a chair and professor of economics at Howard University. These two writings reflect a strategic effort to strengthen the efficiency and impact of Black business as an engine of Black progress. The first document presented here analyzes the high failure rate of Black-owned insurance companies, a mainstay of Black business especially in the 1920s and 30s. Houchins determined that their failure was due to several factors: lack of business knowledge; lack of access to capital; a tendency towards over-expenditure on office furnishings; and an over-identification with the clients, paying unjustified claims and failing to collect premiums on policies. The second document reports the results of a national survey that Houchins conducted to create a complete listing of Black chambers of commerce that could be used for intra-racial communication and mutual support. Both documents resonate today as the struggle for Black progress continues.
This report consists of an analysis of twenty-one questionnaires which were received from Negro chambers of commerce. Although thirty of fifty-one groups did not return our questionnaire, the chief purpose of this studyto indicate the nature and the extent of organization existing among Negro business men in local communities has been realized.
This report is the result of an investigation of the causes which brought about the failure of several insurance companies operated by Negroes. It should prove beneficial in reducing the number of failures in this business as well as in indicating adjustments in cases of failures. It is not intended, however, that practices noted here should be attributed to any companies now operating. This study was prepared under the general supervision of Eugene Kinckle Jones, Adviser on Negro Affairs in the Department of Commerce.
In 2013, I traveled to the Khama III Memorial Museum in Serowe, Botswana, to deliver a paper at a conference honoring the fortieth anniversary of the publication of southern African author Bessie Head's celebrated novel A Question of Power. This was my first visit to the museum that houses the author's archives which contain most of her correspondence with literary agents, publishers, historians, anthropologists, literary critics, and other writers - including Alice Walker, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. They also include some of her original manuscripts, agricultural notes, and publishing contracts.All the scholars who presented papers on this occasion, except for one, were Africanists who focused on the literatures of the Continent. The outlier who specialised in African American drama delivered a comparative study between Head's short fiction and works by Black Atlantic writers.
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