Directory of Negro Businesses, Professions and Churches for Detroit and Environs

Detroit: Associates Advertisers’ Service, 1953. 88 pp. Good+ illustrated stapled wraps (worn and creased covers, text block separated from top staple, light staining and soiling throughout, chip to one leaf affecting page numbers).

John Cuspart and Reuben Hughes, editors and publishers of the Directory, note in their Dedication, “We sincerely hope the 390,000 Negroes of this great city will find its pages useful in their everyday life. It is YOUR directory to use as needed.” Includes advertisements that run the gamut of black-owned businesses in the city, from Barber Shops and Record Shops to Funeral Homes and Sign Painters, many with pictures of the proprietors. Larger sections for Auto Dealers, Churches, Cleaners and Tailors, Dressmakers, Gasoline Stations, Hotels, Insurance, and Restaurants. Features include “Accounting and Good Records,” “Condensed Biography—Dr. Louis Thompkins Wright,” “Household Hints,” “Life Insurance,” “What is a Realist?” and “Travel Etiquette—by Carmen Murphy, House of Beauty.” Index of all advertisers in directory at rear.

A rare surviving edition of this directory, the second in a series that apparently was published annually from 1952-1957. Only 5 holdings per OCLC. Item #917

Price: $2,750.00