Enterprising Spirits: African American Entrepreneurs in Middlesex County

Program to Explore Black-owned Businesses in Middlesex County

Join the Middlesex Museum Black Business Committee on Sunday, February 23, at 3:00 PM as theypay homage to Black entrepreneurship by highlighting 20th century Black-owned businesses in Middlesex County. A slide show, curatorial talk, and roundtable discussion at the Historic Courthouse, 865 General Puller Highway, Saluda, will explore objects and themes that are included in “Enterprising Spirits: African American Entrepreneurs in Middlesex County,” an exhibition on display at the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society. Attendees will be encouraged to share their recollections of 20th century Black businesses inn Middlesex.

While facing the challenges of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, African Americans created economic opportunities by establishing their own businesses which ran the gamut from retail to the building trades, from personal services to the professions, and beyond. Black-owned businesses provided goods, services, and employment that were often not otherwise available…