National Negro Business League

Executive Committee of the National Negro Business League, c. 1910. NNBL founder Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) is seated, second from the left

National Negro Business League
Company typeBusiness group
Founded1900 (1900)
FounderBooker T. Washington
SuccessorNational Business League
Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
,
United States
ServicesPromote the interests of Black-owned businesses

The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was an American organization founded in Boston in 1900 by Booker T. Washington to promote the interests of African-American businesses.[1][2][3] The mission and main goal of the National Negro Business League was "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro." It was recognized as "composed of negro men and women who have achieved success along business lines".[4] It grew rapidly with 320 chapters in 1905 and more than 600 chapters in 34 states in 1915.

In 1966, the League was renamed and reincorporated in Washington D.C. as the National Business League, which remains in operation.

  1. ^ Bean, Dalea (2009). "National Negro Business League". In Finkelman, Paul (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: from the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. Oxford University Press. p. 451. ISBN 978-0-19-516779-5. OCLC 312624445.
  2. ^ Bean, Dalea (February 9, 2009). "National Negro Business League". African American Studies Center (Report). Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.45975. ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1.
  3. ^ Regev, Ronny (2023). "The National Negro Business League and the Economic Life of Black Entrepreneurs". Past & Present (262): 207–241. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtad005. ISSN 0031-2746.
  4. ^ "Calendar". The Independent. July 13, 1914. Retrieved August 5, 2012.