inly white church groups
were almost nonexistent. Those blacks who did belong to such white
denominations usually attended all-black congregations within the larger
institutional structure. Negro colleges also sprang up throughout the
South as well as an occasional one in the North. These included such
well-known schools as Howard, Hampton, Tuskegee, and Fisk. The churches
and colleges became training grounds for a growing middle-class and for
future community leaders. Each in its own way provided a debating center
in which racial problems closing in from all sides were considered.

As Negroes were frequently denied employment by whites, they began to
develop businesses of their own. Because their capital was almost always
small, their task was made more difficult. White-owned banks hesitated to
lend money to Negroes, forcing them into developing banks of their own.
By 1900 blacks had founded four banks which appealed mainly to a Negro
clientele. They had a combined capital of more than $90,000. White-owned
insurance companies often refused to sell insurance policies to Negroes.
Standardized mortality charts showed that Negroes died at an earlier age
than whites. When insurance companies did accept them as clients, they
were charged higher rates than were whites. During the nineteenth
century, various Negro secret societies attempted to develop insurance
programs for their members. In 1898 the National Benefit Insurance
Company was opened in Washington. Owned by blacks, it deliberately
sought out Negro patronage. In the same year, the Mutual Benefit
Insurance Company was opened in North Carolina along similar lines.

White undertakers and beauticians were reluctant to cater to Negro
customers. Aside from their personal tastes, they feared that it would
alienate their white patrons. A similar situation held true for dentists
and doctors. This forced the Afro-American community to develop its own
professionals. By 1900, Negroes had invested half a million dollars in
undertaking establishments. That same year, the Afro-American community
had produced 1,700 physicians, 212 dentists, 728 lawyers, 310
journalists, an several thousand college, secondary, and elementary
school teachers.

Other Negro professionals, finding themselves excluded from existing
official affiliations formed their own professional fraternity in 1904.
Two years later, the first Greek letter society for Negroes was
established to help its members i