Entrepreneur, manufacturer, beauty-culture pioneer, and institution builder who built a nationally recognized enterprise around products, training, direct selling, and economic opportunity for Black women.
Profiles
Explore the Profiles
Documented lives of Black entrepreneurs, inventors, institution builders, and economic leaders—each profile grounded in primary sources and Institute verification.
Garrett A. Morgan
1877 (reported)–1963
Inventor, entrepreneur, manufacturer, newspaper publisher, civic leader
Inventor, entrepreneur, manufacturer, and civic leader whose businesses and patented safety technologies included the Morgan safety hood and an improved traffic signal.
George W. Bolivar helped supply the sails that powered maritime commerce. Philadelphia directories identify his partnership with Charles Anthony in 1849 and 1850. Census and business records trace his work, property, and place in the waterfront economy.
Philadelphia sailmaker, business owner, and abolitionist. Explore enterprise, skilled employment, civic support, and the records still needed.
Bank president, publisher and fraternal leader in Richmond, Virginia. Explore the institutions Maggie Lena Walker helped build, their linked sources, and the questions still open to research.
Robert Reed Church Sr.
1839–1912
Entrepreneur · Real estate investor · Civic institution builder
Entrepreneur, real estate investor and civic institution builder in Memphis. Explore Church’s businesses, Church Park, Solvent Savings and the original records still needed to resolve key claims.
New York inventor, tailor and clothier. Patent, business and civic evidence classified claim by claim; financial and family research remains open.
Barbering, real estate and insurance institution building. Research in Progress; economic evidence is classified claim by claim.
Entrepreneur, farmer and founder of New Philadelphia, Illinois. Legal, land and family-freedom evidence is classified claim by claim; original title and payment records remain under research.
Merchant, shipowner and sea captain based in Westport, Massachusetts. Vessel, trade and community evidence is classified claim by claim; original financial records remain under research.
Bridget “Biddy” Mason: midwifery, property ownership and community support in Los Angeles. Evidence classified claim by claim; original deeds and complete probate research remain in progress.
Mary Ellen Pleasant
c.1814–1904
Entrepreneur, Property Investor, Abolitionist, Civil Rights Advocate
Entrepreneur, property investor and civil rights advocate whose financial record is traced through deeds, litigation, correspondence and attributed accounts.