A leading white department-store tycoon hosted black Baptist women in 1914

Evidence

For the black women who gathered together at the annual meetings of the Woman’s Convention, exciting and unusual events were not left solely to the realm of vicarious enjoyment. During the NBC’s annual conference in Philadelphia in 1914, John Wanamaker, the department store tycoon, hosted a reception in honor of the black Baptists. On the Saturday of the conference, black Baptist men and women from northern cities and southern hamlets toured Wanamaker’s department store and afterward converged on Egyptian Hall, where elaborate hors d’oeuvres and an orchestra awaited them. Late in the festivities, Wanamaker himself welcomed his guests. The event caused the women to note in their minutes: “This was the rarest feast of the Convention. We have never had such an experience before.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 783

Categorization

• CANDY: A big-city merchant entertaining black Baptist churchwomen with an orchestra is a strikingly pleasant counter-image to Jim Crow, good elevator material.
• XREF: connects to: Black Baptist women prized institutions owned and staffed by their own race — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 308

Broader Connections

• Black Baptist women prized institutions owned and staffed by their own race #complicates (0.72) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 308