Coleman Manufacturing Company

The Coleman Manufacturing Company (1897–1904) had the first cotton mill in the United States owned and operated by African Americans.

Photographs of the mill and a description were featured in the Negro Exhibit of the United States installation at the Paris Exposition of 1900 in France, showing African-American progress in the US.

The company was established in 1897 (128 years ago) (1897) in Concord, south-central Piedmont, primarily by black capitalists in North Carolina, most based in its largest city of Wilmington.

To promote the economic security of people of color, they intended to establish a cotton mill to be entirely managed and operated by blacks.

According to their state charter, it was "allowed to spin, weave, manufacture, finish, and sell warps, yarns, cloth, prints, or other fabrics made of cotton, wool, or other material".

But the mill soon began to have financial problems, mostly due to the high price of cotton, which reduced profits for all manufacturers.

[3][4]: 259–60 The original mill structure was integrated into Fieldcrest Cannon Plant #9, northeast of the intersection of Main Street and Highway 601 South in Concord.