Queen City Heritage Madison Avenue & Pike St., Covington, Ky. Sudduth was born in Covington, Kentucky on August 8, 1888, the second child of Charles and Mattie Sudduth. Summer 1991 "We Must Not Fail!!!' We Must Not Fail!!!"*: Horace Sudduth; Queen City Entrepreneur Stephen Middleton 1957), poses a similar challenge. I first heard about Sudduth in the fall of 1985. At the House of Style barbershop on University Avenue, two "During the past thirty years or so," writes John blocks north of the University of Cincinnati, middle-aged men Hope Franklin, "there has been a veritable explosion of the bragged about the Manse, a hotel allegedly founded by an field of Afro-American History."1 Although African American African American. I paid little attention at first, thinking that history has exploded since the publication of pioneering this was only "barbershop gossip." On subsequent visits, works by William Wells Brown, George Washington House of Style patrons inevitably drifted to Black History, and Williams, and Carter G. Woodson, "the father of Black to Sudduth and the Manse. Their discussions were intense. History,"2 scholars have been fascinated mainly with national Jacob Elder, the proprietor, frequently talked until sweat topics and persons who were well-known among the movers dripped from his brow. He proclaimed Sudduth's significance and shakers of their generation. More is known about African in Cincinnati history.6 Americans who were prominent as national leaders — Ida B. This oral history intrigued me, and I launched Wells-Barnett, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois, an investigation, not fully convinced about the legacy of but studies about blacks and their leadership in state and local Horace Sudduth. I soon discovered that his contemporaries communities remain relatively scant. remembered him fondly, and his name is listed in the card In Cincinnati, for example, until the publica- catalogue at the Cincinnati Historical Society. These sources tion of Franklin's recent biography, nothing had been written enabled me to create his biographical sketch. about George Washington Williams. In 1879 Williams became Sudduth made constructive contributions in the first black man elected to the Ohio legislature and one Cincinnati and the nation before the Civil Rights Revolution. of the first northern blacks to be elected to a political office. Born in poverty to mulatto parents during the late nineteenth But if scholars have neglected to write about local black century, and a prisoner of a system that limited his potential, politicians and men of letters (Williams was both), less prominent black Cincinnatians have been almost forgotten. There have been no scholarly studies on Cincinnatian Peter Clark, who worked tirelessly as an abolitionist, editor, and educator to improve life for black people, and in 1845 helped organize the Cincinnati Colored Orphan Asylum.3 Wendell Phillips Dabney, an Oberlin-educated journalist and founder of the Union, Cincinnati's first black- owned newspaper, has also escaped scholarly investigation. Nor have scholars analyzed the political career of Theodore Berry, the first black elected mayor in the Queen City.4 Most of these leaders, whose combined careers spanned more than a century, did not recognize their importance to American history. They rarely left papers and were even less noticed by the larger culture. Possibly scholars have been discouraged because so few records are available. Franklin admits that in preparing his biography of Williams, he "stalked" him for over forty years.5 Cincinnati entrepreneur, Horace Sudduth (1888- Stephen Middleton, an assis- Horace Sudduth, an entrepre- tant professor of history at neur, owned a real estate North Carolina State Univer- business, started a savings sity, is the author of Ohio and and loan, and was the city's the Antislavery Activities of first black hotel builder and Salmon P. Chase and is cur- restaurateur. rently doing research on the Black Laws of Ohio. Queen City Heritage School in Covington, named for state Representative William Grant, who had deeded property in 1880 to the Covington Board of Education to fulfill a promise he had made to African Americans.8 Kentucky, a border state during the Civil War, usually marched ahead of states in the deep South on racial matters.9 Blacks there were enfranchised after the war, and in 1875 Grant promised to build a "colored school," if black voters helped him win the election. He kept his promise, and the segregated school survived until the onset of integration in 1965.10 Horace was a dedicated pupil and his high school education was all the formal training he received. But he obtained the skills and confidence needed to pursue a career in business. Horace did not remain in Covington, where opportunities for blacks were limited. After graduating from Lincoln-Grant about 1906,11 he obtained employment with the Pullman Company, one of the largest companies to employ blacks. There Horace mingled with college-educated blacks he succeeded against the odds. Undeterred by segregation, who often could not find work elsewhere. Pullman porters Sudduth, a tireless worker and risk taker, was willing to served railroad travelers, and Horace, obviously adaptable, sacrifice his life for his dreams: the belief that history and the tolerated the servant's role for a few years.12 As a porter he forces of the universe will produce fruits for a committed traveled widely, ultimately as far west as Oklahoma. There he person. Emboldened by civil rights litigation of the NAACP realized that in this formerly unorganized Indian Territory, during the early twentieth century, he anticipated the collapse blacks had greater opportunities than they did in other areas of segregation and urged black businessmen to expand to and states. Moreover, in Oklahoma, a freshly minted state, nontraditional markets. Horace envisioned a boom in the real estate industry.13 It is important to commemorate his achieve- Although he was not aware of it then, streams ments. An unsung entrepreneur, Sudduth not only survived of African Americans had migrated to Oklahoma since the late as a realtor in Cincinnati, but also became the city's first black 1870's, motivated by the collapse of Reconstruction. Southern hotel-builder and restaurateur. He served as president of the blacks had lived through an era of political involvement in the prestigious National Negro Business League (NNBL), where South. They had been elected to Congress, state legislatures, he inaugurated an agenda that survived for decades after his and to a few judicial posts.14 But Reconstruction ended in 1877 death. Until this study, Horace Sudduth has been a "lost man" when President Hayes withdrew troops from the South. A in American history. "reign of terror" followed and large numbers of blacks Horace Sudduth's life began in Covington, hurriedly migrated to escape the wrath of the white South.15 Kentucky, on August 8,1888, the second child of Charles and Anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells-Barnett Mattie Sudduth. Charles eked out a living as a general laborer, had urged blacks in Tennessee to migrate to Oklahoma to and Mattie worked as a domestic. Barely literate themselves, escape racial violence in Memphis. She anticipated greater they stressed the importance of education to their children. security and opportunity for blacks among Native Americans. From them Horace learned to be diligent, especially in matters Oklahoma retained this appeal for black nationalists, who vital to his economic welfare. Their instructions took root. wanted to form an independent black state there well into the When Charles suffered a crippling paralysis in 1896, Horace, twentieth century. So Sudduth, "a man with native business age nine, took on a part-time job to supplement the family sense, instinctively envisioned greater opportunities for income.7 He might have withdrawn from school but for the himself in Oklahoma."16 The real estate industry intrigued values imparted by his parents. These were difficult years for him. Consequently, he resigned from the Pullman Company young Horace, who suffered because of limited opportunities in 1908 to launch a career in real estate. available to blacks and the blight of poverty. Horace soon faced difficult choices, especially Sudduth attended the William Grant High because of matters of the heart. He had strong ties to The school Sudduth attended changed its name frequently. Its names included William Grant High School, Lincoln- Grant High, and Covington High. Summer 1991 "We Must Not Fail!!!' Covington — his high school sweetheart and fiancee — a segregated school.19 Very probably the first black full-service Melvina Jones. Horace returned to Covington about 1909, realtor in Cincinnati, Sudduth quickly won the confidence of planning to marry Melvina and return to Oklahoma. But black property owners. He emphasized service, not profits. He Melvina, an independent woman, did not want to move so advised his staff that financial success would come if they far away from home. Although supportive of Horace, she matched a buyer with the right property. He also advised his obviously lacked his adventurous spirit. Horace could not clients that purchasing a home should be seen as an leave behind the woman he loved so he cancelled his plans investment: "You do not buy a home like you buy a hat."20 and married Melvina.17 Sensing that there might be more In the Union, a black-owned newspaper founded by Wendell opportunities in Cincinnati than Covington, they moved P. Dabney, Sudduth consistently placed his favorite ad, across the Ohio River to the Queen City. Apparently, Sudduth "Sudduth still sells."21 He was most proud of the Wheatley never regretted his decision, especially after the birth of their Flat Building, a twenty-two room complex on Lincoln children, Horvina, named in honor of her father Horace; and Avenue, sold to the Progressive Benefit Society for Old Melace, named in honor of her mother Melvina.