Birmingham Negro Business League

The Birmingham Negro Business League, later the Greater Birmingham Negro Business League was a local chapter of the national Negro Business League, which had been founded by Booker T. Washington in 1900. The local organization was active in the early 1900s, and was renewed during World War II by A. G. Gaston. Its goals included the promotion and support of new African-American entrepreneurs and existing black-owned businesses as means of helping African-Americans achieve economic self-sufficiency and, by that means, political equality.

Among the leaders of the earlier incarnation were William Pettiford and Logwood Goin.

Gaston's revival of the Birmingham Negro Business League had offices at 5th Avenue North and 16th Street, and held regular meetings at the Little Savoy Cafe. The group published a Greater Birmingham and Jefferson County Directory of Negro Business in 1944.

In 1946 the League helped to promote the city-wide Bible Reading Crusade. In 1949 it hosted a dinner at the Savoy Cafe in honor of attorney Arthur Shores and his successful efforts to challenge Birmingham's segregated zoning law.

References

• "Greater Birmingham Negro Business League Cites Attorney Arthur D. Shores" (October 1949) The Sphinx. Vol. 35, No. 3, p. 25