Picture 1 of 1

The Herndons: An Atlanta Family by Carole Merritt (Hardcover, 2002)

superbookdeals (79572)

95.9% positive Feedback

Price:

£36.98

Free postage

Estimated delivery Mon, 2 Jun - Wed, 4 Jun

Returns:

30 days return. Buyer pays for return postage. If you use an eBay delivery label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.

Condition:

New

Herndons : An Atlanta Family, Hardcover by Merritt, Carole, ISBN 0820323098, ISBN-13 9780820323091, Brand New, Free P&P in the UK A fascinating study of one of the Georgia's most important black families retraces the steps of a former slave who became an extremely wealthy man within the four decades of being freed from bondage.

About this product

Product Information

Born a slave and reared a sharecropper, Alonzo Herndon (1858-1927) was destined to drudgery in the red clay fields of Georgia. Within forty years of Emancipation, however, he had amassed a fortune that far surpassed that of his White slave-master father. Through his barbering, real estate, and life insurance ventures, Herndon would become one of the wealthiest and most respected African American business figures of his era. This richly illustrated book chronicles Alonzo Herndon's ascent and his remarkable family's achievements in Jim Crow Atlanta. In this first biography of the Herndons, Carole Merritt narrates how Herndon nurtured the Atlanta Life Insurance Company from a faltering enterprise he bought for 140 dollars into one of the largest Black financial institutions in America; how he acquired the most substantial Black property holdings in Atlanta; and how he developed his barbering business from a one-chair shop into the nation's largest and most elegant parlor, the resplendent, twenty-three chair Crystal Palace in the heart of White Atlanta. The Herndons' world was the educational and business elite of Atlanta. But as Blacks, they were intimately bound to the course of Black life. The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 and its impact on the Herndons demonstrated that all Blacks, regardless of class, were the victims of racial terrorism. Through the Herndons, issues of race, class, and color in turn-of-the-century Atlanta come into sharp focus. Their story is one of by-the-bootstraps resolve, tough compromises in the face of racism, and lasting contributions to their city and nation.