Dunbar National Bank
Dunbar National Bank, Harlem, U.S.A., C. 1920
Photographer unknown.
African-American men and women established and operated their own businesses
both during and after slavery. They practiced the barbering trade as early
as the sixteenth century and remained prominent in this field well into
the twentieth century. By the nineteenth century, they had founded and
were running, among other businesses, their own banks, newspapers, restaurants,
shipping companies, and manufacturing enterprises, among others.