The "New Negro" Directory. Businesses Churches Organizations Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh: Advertising Department of the John H. Adams Agency, 1962. Very good.. 148pp. Original wrappers printed in green and brown, plastic backstrip. Minor wear, soiling, and offsetting to wrappers, chipping at foot of spine. A rare directory of the African-American community in Pittsburgh, published by prominent Black local business and civic leader John H. Adams. The directory lists Black-owned businesses, churches, and organizations that serve the African American community in the city and surrounding areas, as well as "white companies and individuals that hire negroes in positions of responsibility." The motto for the directory is stated as "Spend a Dollar Where You Can Earn a Dollar." The commercial listings are supplemented with numerous advertisements for local African American businesses, sometimes picturing the owners. The work also includes a lecture on the history of Islam by Robert X, an uncredited history of the National Council of Negro Women, and a history of the National Urban League, as well as a reprint of a 1914 background piece on the NAACP. There are also several histories of African-American churches. Despite the claim on the cover that this directory was published annually, it appears that this was the only year in which it was produced. John H. Adams owned the titular agency that published this work, which specialized in commercial casualty and fire insurance. Adams was a veteran of World War II, a reporter for the New Pittsburgh Courier, founder of the Pittsburgh Regional Minority Purchasing Council, and active community leader; he passed away in 2011. OCLC records only four copies of the present work, at the Hagley Museum, Emory, Temple, and Yale.