The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago by Robert E. Weems Jr

Author:Robert E. Weems Jr. [Weems, Robert E. Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, African American & Black, Biography & Autobiography, Business, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies
ISBN: 9780252051920
Google: WL3NDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2020-03-09T00:58:17+00:00

A “Man of the People”

After praising both the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal selection committee and Anthony Overton, the Chicago Bee asserts that his receipt of this honor was truly special because “Mr. Overton is given to doing big things without bombast, trumpetry, display of arrogance … he worked quietly, honestly, steadily, and studiously toward his goal.” Moreover, Overton was “a commoner beloved of the common people.” Considering how Anthony Overton had previously used the Half-Century, it is not surprising that the Chicago Bee offered an extremely laudatory analysis of his receipt of the 1927 Spingarn Medal. However, an assessment of this phenomenon published by the Pittsburgh Courier corroborates much of the Bee’s reporting. A June 18, 1927, front-page article titled “‘Man of [the] People’ Wins Spingarn Medal” includes an illuminating subtitle: “Anthony Overton, Chicago’s Millionaire Banker, Walks to His Office Every Morning—Has Never Owned an Automobile.”79

This article, from the Chicago-based Associated Negro Press (ANP) news reporting agency, begins by asserting that “interviews among a number of leading Chicago Negroes this week, following the award of the Spingarn Medal to Anthony Overton, reveal a consensus of opinion that this year’s bestowal of the prized symbol of merit and achievement is particularly noteworthy because it is made upon one of those plain men who do high thinking.” The Courier continues: “possibly excepting George Carver of Tuskegee, Anthony Overton is more a man of the common people than any of the other thirteen remarkable Negroes who have achieved the distinction of winning the medal.” To support this assertion, the June 18, 1927, Pittsburgh Courier article, citing its ANP source, declares that “on the street corners around here [Chicago]when the smiling old man is coming the folks who see him coming whisper that he is a millionaire, and probably he is. But one would never know it. He wears the clothes of ordinary folk, has the same feelings they have, enjoys their small talk, and believes in their God.”80

Part of Overton’s persona as a “man of the people” was the fact that he, despite his wealth, did not own an automobile. As the Courier reported, “each morning, except when the weather is very bad, he walks the twenty blocks from his home to his place of business, where he usually reports at half past eight. When it rains, he takes the street car or he may ride down in his son’s car.” Besides examining perceptions of Anthony Overton in the broader black Chicago community, this article also discusses his interaction with personnel in the Overton Building: “at the age of 62, he works right along with his employees. He not only works with them—he eats with them, eats the same kind of things, and when they play, he plays.” The article concludes by asserting that Overton has “just tried to be a busy man, living simply, feeling simply and plainly, but thinking all of the time in ‘high.’”81

This late 1920s assessment of Anthony Overton illuminates the complexity of his personality. Clearly, some of the techniques he employed to become a tycoon revealed his competitiveness.

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