National Negro Business League

The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was established in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900 by Booker T. Washington.

The League included Negro small- business owners, doctors, farmers, other professionals, and craftsmen.

Its goal was to allow business to put economic development at the forefront of getting African-American equality in the United States.

Booker T. Washington felt that there was a need for African Americans to build an economic network and allow that to be a catalyst for change and social improvement.

national advertisers to use Negro publications in reaching this importantly valuable group of people with its tremendous purchasing power.

of Indianapolis, Indiana; John E. Bush of Little Rock, Arkansas; and James C. Napier of Nashville, Tennessee.

[8] In May 1913, a respected Black journalist, Ralph Waldo Tyler was elected as the first National Organizer of the NNBL.

Executive Committee of the National Negro Business League, c. 1910. NNBL founder Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) is seated, second from the left
A meeting in Louisville, Kentucky , on August 18, 1909
National Negro Business League portraits (1907)