The Negro Business Directory Cincinnati, Ohio 1940 [Cover title].

Cincinnati: Rev. C. Lindell & Charles N. King, [1940]. 9” x 6”. Stapled wrappers. Pp. [32]. Very good: wrappers a touch sunned and spotted; small ding and moderate vertical center crease throughout.

This is a rare and heavily illustrated guide to African American commerce and community in the town of Cincinnati.

The editors-publishers were two pastors and pillars of the Black community. Charles Newton King graduated from Fisk University, served in World War I and moved to Cincinnati in 1927. He variously served as secretary for the Supreme Life Insurance Company, principal of South Woodlawn School, editor of the African American newspapers the Cincinnati Call & PostCincinnati Voice and church pastor for 13 years. He later moved to Kentucky and became the first African American vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Reverend Lindell also edited The Bulletin, “a newspaper for Cincinnati Negroes” in the 1920s.

The book is rich with photographic images: four full-page, a two-page montage of “Shots at the Ninth St. Y.M.C.A.”and 13 within brief ads or extended listings. The full-page ads show great internal shots of “Irving's G.E. Dealer Outfit,” “Manggrum's Prescription Pharmacy” (“Service with a smile”) and Horace Sudduth's real estate office, as well as an external view of the historic Manse Hotel. Also run by Sudduth (deemed “the No. 1 Negro citizen” by the Cincinnati Enquirer), the hotel hosted the 1946 NAACP National Convention and countless Black community events. Page after page hold illustrated and informative listings for “The Colored Industrial School,” notable residents (“Read and Be Inspired”), shops, businesses and services. Three pages at the rear comprise a “Classifieds Directory” organized by business type, listing Black-owned “Motion Picture Theaters” (there were five), grocers, cleaners, undertakers, restaurants, garages, barber shops and beauty parlors.

A rare and lovely illustrated guide to African American Cincinnati in 1940. OCLC shows two holdings. Very good. Item #9113

Price: $2,500.00