Anthony Overton Jr. (March 21, 1865 – July 2, 1946), was an American banker and manufacturer. He was the first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
to lead a major business conglomerate.
[Harvard Business School. American Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century]
Anthony Overton
/ref>
Overton owned Overton Hygienic Company, a successful home product and cosmetics firm. His publications included '' Half Century Magazine'' and then the ''Chicago Bee
''The Chicago Bee'' or ''Chicago Sunday Bee'' was a Chicago-based weekly newspaper founded by Anthony Overton, an African American, in 1925. Its readership was primarily African American and the paper was committed to covering "wholesome and authe ...
''. He also owned the Great Northern Realty Company, and the Victory Life Insurance Company.[
]
Early years
Anthony Overton, the son of Anthony and Martha Overton, was born in Monroe, Louisiana. At some point after the Civil War ended, his family moved from Louisiana to Topeka, Kansas
Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...
. His father had been born into slavery, and was among the slaves emancipated by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
. His father ultimately became a small business owner, and made sure young Anthony had greater opportunities. Anthony attended Washburn College
Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 ...
in Topeka, and after graduating with a degree in Chemistry, he studied law, earning his legal degree from the University of Kansas in 1888. He briefly worked as a lawyer, and became a judge in Shawnee, Kansas
Shawnee is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is the seventh most populous municipality in the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 67,311.
History
Territory of Kansas
Before ...
.
Business career
In 1898, Overton established the Hygienic Manufacturing Company, which produced goods for drug stores and groceries. The products included the nationally known High Brown Face Powder, which was "the first market success in the sale of cosmetics for black women". In 1911, he moved his business from Kansas to Chicago. Overton also opened a grocery store in Kansas City, Kansas by the late 1890s.
In 1916 he established '' Half-Century Magazine''. In 1923 he established the Douglass National Bank, the second nationally chartered black-owned bank in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. He went on to develop a highly diverse conglomerate, including the Great Northern Realty Company, and the Victory Life Insurance Company. In 1925, he founded the ''Chicago Bee
''The Chicago Bee'' or ''Chicago Sunday Bee'' was a Chicago-based weekly newspaper founded by Anthony Overton, an African American, in 1925. Its readership was primarily African American and the paper was committed to covering "wholesome and authe ...
'', a black newspaper known for its support of liberal causes. The newspaper was unusual because one of its managing editors was a woman, Olive M. Diggs. In 1927 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP) awarded him its Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American. That same year, he was also given the prestigious Harmon award's first award and Gold medal in Business. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[''Journal of Negro History'', p. 394.] In addition, there is an elementary school in Chicago that is named after him.[Lou Palmer. "Do You Know the Schools Named for Relevant Blacks?" ''Chicago Metro News'', January 28, 1978, p. 3.]
After Overton's death in 1946, the ''Bee'' was briefly continued by his sons in a tabloid format. It folded in 1947.
See also
* African-American business history
Notes
References
* "Anthony Overton". ''The Journal of Negro History'' (July 1947), Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 394–396.
"Anthony Overton: Born Entrepreneur"
*
* Lash, Nicholas A. (2005), "Black-owned banks: A survey of the issues", ''Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship'', Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 187–202.
*
"Thirteenth Annual Conference and Awards Banquet"
''The Herstorian Newsletter'', Volume 3, Issue 2.
*
* Walker, Juliet E. K. (2010). "African American Women Business Enterprises: Since the Civil War to Civil Rights, 1865–1964".
{{DEFAULTSORT:Overton, Anthony
1865 births
1946 deaths
Spingarn Medal winners
African-American businesspeople
American bankers
20th-century African-American people