Commerce
N E W INDUS T R IES PR OV I D E D J O B S O U TS I D E A G R I C U LTU R E , INC L UDING O P P O RTU N I TI E S F O R W O M E N Progress made in Elizabeth City County and Town of Hampton demonstrated what could be accomplished by African Americans on educational, religious, economic, and social fronts. Hence, African Americans entered the political arena. From 1869 through 1890 Elizabeth City County had at least one black representative in the state legislature at every session. African Americans held such county and city positions as sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, constable, and commonwealth attorney. During the 1880s, of the nine Hampton elective offices, African Americans held five. In addition to its political power, the late nineteenth century African American community had a major economic presence. New industries provided jobs outside agriculture, including opportunities for women. Shoemaking, seamstressing, baking, brick masonry, waiting tables, midwifery, carpentry and blacksmithing were among the trades. The seafood industry jobs like oystering, crab and oyster packing, and transportation jobs like teamster or driver offered self sufficiency, free of white supervision. African Americans such as Henry Armistead and John Mallory Phillips prospered as watermen, owning their own boats and oyster bed leasing rights. As seafood processing became a vital industry to Elizabeth City County and Hampton, it employed hundreds of African Americans. Tradesmen such as blacksmiths often owned their own businesses and a large African American mercantile group served both races. African American professionals, including ministers, teachers, social workers, lawyers, doctors, and undertakers, many of whom had graduated from Hampton Institute and had continued their education, had a mostly black clientele. They were generally considered the community’s leaders.
T HE B LA CK B USINESS DIST RICT The district was located from the beginning of Queen Street to west of Liberty (Armistead Avenue) and from King Street northward. It was largely located on the present site of today’s Downtown Hampton. Hundreds of black-owned businesses provided desired products and services. The Peoples Building & Loan was founded March 4, 1889 on King Street near First Baptist Church and lasted 102 years. A second bank, the Galilean Fishermen’s Consolidated Bank was on Queen Street. W.T. Smith & Sons Funeral Home (later renamed Smith Brothers) and the County Journal were located at the intersection of Lincoln and King streets. Other businesses providing goods and services included groceries, dry goods, beauticians, pharmacies, restaurants, dry cleaning, taxi cabs, butchers, and furniture sales, plus many others. The Lyric Theater, later replaced by the Basie Theater, featured popular African American films and performers.
GA RDEN CIT Y Garden City, founded in 1913, was an African American community of watermen, shipyard workers, farmers, and tradesmen. Garden City became so progressive during the era of Jim Crow and segregation that later university professionals opted to build their homes there. From 1940-1960, the community blossomed with black-owned businesses giving rise to some of Hampton’s early multimillionaires. Residents were particularly proud of their gardens and showcased them through the Federated Negro Garden Clubs of Virginia as early as 1932. The community members also organized to establish the Greenbriar School. The Garden City movement is an approach to urban planning introduced in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden Cit-
11
