"Coleman-Manufacturing-Company"

Coleman Manufacturing Company was incorporated in mid-1897 with an initial stock of  $50,000,which rose to $ 100,000 with the subscriptions of other African-Americans living in or near Concord,and a number of  businessman,including Tobacco King,Benjamin Duke,who

subscribed $1,000 at six-percent interest.

On February 8,1898,the cornerstone of the 80x120 feet three-story brick building which would house Coleman Cotton Mill was laid,and following the election of officers, R.B.Fitzgerald was appointed President;E.A.Johnson,vice-president,and  W.C. Coleman secretary & treasurer,whist the Rev.S.C.Thompson; L.P.Berry; John C.Dancy;Prof  S.B.Pride;Prof C.F.Meserve; and  Robert McRae constituted;the board of directors.

According to Evidence of  Progress Among Colored People:

The mill is to have from 7,000-10,000 spindles,and from 100-250 looms,and,by their charter,will be allowed to spin,weave,manufacture,

finish,and sell wraps,yarns,cloth,prints,or other fabrics made of cotton,wool,or other material.They own a present,in connection with the plant,about 100 acres of  land on the main line of  the Southern Railway,and near the site of the mill.

The mill and machinery with all the fixtures complete will represent and outlay of  nearly $66,000,and will give employment to a number of hands.

Stock Certificate,Coleman Manufacturing company  it seemed as though all the world was watching this unique,enterprise,though four-room mill houses were built in 1900 and the mill was held up as an example of African American progress at the Negro Exhibit during Paris' Exposition that same year,Coleman Manfacturing ran into a bevy of problems stemming from the initial purchase of  second-hand

English machinery,Coleman's inability to raise enough cash to pay his workers ( who were initially paid in company stock),and the high price of cotton.

Coleman was able to inform investor Washington Duke,of the company turning a profit,in 1901,the financial problems were too great to solve and the mill closed temporally in 1902.

A definite stroke screwdness was the establishment of under slavery, African Americans had been the primary source of labor for the cotton industry,after the collapse of slavery and Reconstruction,and the sharp rise in immigration,cotton mills of the "New South" began to turn to cheap immigrant labor to the near exclusion of  African-American hands.African-American continued to labor in the fields- mostly as sharecroppers the lucrative positions  in factories eluded their grasp,particularly when immigrants began to emulate the attitudes towards African-American factory workers.

With these barriers in mind,North Carolina businessman Warren C.Coleman exorted with fellow African-American Southerns to support his plan to build a cotton mill owned,operated and run strictly by  African-Americans:

Please  allow me to call the attention of the public to the fact that a movement is on foot to  erect a cotton mill  at Concord to be operated by  colored labor.The colored citizens of the United States have no  opportunity to utilize  their talents along this line.Since North Carolina has fairly and  justly won for herself in the Centennial at the World Fair at  Chicago and at the Atlanta Exposition the honored name of being "the foremost of the States," she will further evidence  the fact if she is the first to have a cotton mill to be operated principally by the

colored people.We are proud of the spirit and energy of  the white people in encouraging and assisting the enterprise and will our colored not catch the spark of the new industrial life and take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to engage in the enterprise that will prove to the world our ability as operatives in the mills thereby solving the great problem "can the Negroes be employed in cotton mills to any advantage"? and now that the opportunity  is opportunity  is before us,experience alone wih will determine the question and it behooves us to better ourselves and do something,and as one man... [make] the effort that is to win for us a name and place us before the world as  industrious and enterprising citizens...