“It Will Take Business to Complete the Emancipation of Lincoln”: Migrant Entrepreneurs and the Development of Detroit’s Black Business Community

Historians of the Great Migration have mostly imagined black Southern migrants as laborers seeking high wages in Northern cities. As a consequence, scholars have overlooked the importance of entrepreneurship to the migration experience. I will offer a new interpretation of the Great Migration by placing black business at the center of the story.

My paper will demonstrate that black migrants came to the North searching for freedom through business and analyze how entrepreneurship influenced the first wave of migration to Detroit, from 1915 to 1930. I contend that many migrants imagined business, rather than wage labor, as the key route to autonomy and economic independence. I argue that opportunities for business influenced their decisions to leave the South, shaped their expectations of the North, and directed migration patterns. Between 1910 and 1920, due to an influx of Southern migrants, Detroit’s black population grew by 611 percent—faster than any other major city in the United States. This dramatic increase produced a new black consumer base and created unique opportunities for migrants to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations in an emerging market driven by a demand for new goods and services. For example, black migrants founded the Home Milling Company in 1922 to manufacture cornmeal, hominy grits, and whole-wheat flour to meet Southern migrants’ demand for these products. 

Drawing on organizational records, letters, newspapers, and oral histories, I will outline how migrants navigated a new economic landscape, gained skills necessary for conducting business in the urban North, and ultimately built a strong business community in Detroit. By examining the entrepreneurial activities of black Southern migrants in Detroit, my paper will shed light on the ways African Americans used business to gain the self-determination and greater freedom they sought in migrating North and provide a deeper understanding of the Great Migration experience.