Robert Reed Church (June 18, 1839 – August 29, 1912) was an African-American entrepreneur, businessman and landowner in Memphis, Tennessee
who began his rise during the American Civil War. He was the first
African-American "millionaire" in the South. His total wealth probably
reached $700,000, not a round million.
Church built a reputation for great wealth and influence in the
business community. He founded Solvent Savings Bank, the first
black-owned bank in the city, which extended credit to blacks so they
could buy homes and develop businesses. As a philanthropist, Church used
his wealth to develop a park, playground, auditorium and other
facilities for the black community, who were excluded by state-enacted
racial segregation from most such amenities in the city.
Charles B. Church, His Father
The son of a mixed-race mother and white father, Church began working
as a steward when his father, a steamboat owner, took him along on his
route between Memphis and New Orleans. Robert Church bought his first
property in Memphis in 1862. He was well established by 1878-79, the
years of devastating yellow fever
epidemics which resulted in dramatic depopulation in the city. With
property devalued, Church bought numerous businesses as well as
undeveloped land, with the long-term view of their appreciation as the
city recovered. He built his great wealth on this real estate. He
purchased the first $1000 municipal bond to help the city recover from
bankruptcy after it was reduced to a Taxing District.
Early Life:
His home at the corner of Lance and Lauderdale in Memphis, TN.
Robert Reed Church was born a slave in 1839 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, as the son of Emmeline, a mixed-race
woman from Virginia. His mother was a slave and his father was Captain
Charles B. Church, a white steamship owner from Virginia who operated
along the Mississippi River.
According to family accounts, Emmeline was the daughter of an enslaved "Malay" Malagasy princess and of a white planter from Lynchburg.
Robert's mother Emmeline died in 1851, when he was 12. His father
Captain Church began taking Robert along on his river journeys to and
from New Orleans. The youth worked as the steward of the steamship's mess hall, picking up business acumen and contacts, including future Louisiana political leader James Lewis
and saving money earned. In 1862 Robert Church bought a bar in Memphis,
which he eventually traded for a saloon and billiard room. (He must
have been free by then to buy property, and his father may have vouched
for him.) In 1860, the black population of the city was 3,000, but it
rapidly increased as fugitive slaves fled from rural plantations to
Union lines in the occupied city. Church had many customers for his
businesses and became influential in the developing black community,
which reached 20,000 by 1865.
The next year, postwar tensions in the city erupted in the Memphis Riots of 1866,
when a white ethnic Irish mob attacked South Memphis, killing 45 blacks
and injuring many more, and destroying houses, churches and businesses.
The dramatic demographic changes had resulted in competition among
ethnic Irish, who dominated the city's police and fire departments;
decommissioned black Union soldiers who had been stationed nearby, and
other African Americans. Church was shot and wounded in his saloon during the riot. A total of two whites died.
Real Estate Empire:
By 1878-79 Church had acquired considerable wealth. Familiar with the high death tolls from the 1873 yellow fever epidemic,
he moved his family to safety outside the city during the even worse
epidemic of 1878, as well as the following year. As the city was
depopulated by the flight of 25,000 people during the 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic and
death toll of more than 5,000, the land was devalued. Church saw a great
opportunity in Memphis real estate and had the resources to buy up
property holdings throughout the city. He acquired commercial buildings,
some residential housing, and bars in the red-light district, as well
as undeveloped land. It is estimated that in later years he was able to
collect approximately $6,000 a month in rent from his properties.
Multiple sources refer to Church as the first black millionaire,
although it is now generally accepted that his wealth reached about
$700,000.
Popular myth holds that Church bought the first $1,000 bond that aided
restoration of the city's credit after the epidemic, but city records do
not support that.
With his immense wealth, Church funded the development of
high-quality facilities for black Memphians, who were excluded by the
state law of racial segregation from many white institutions at the
time. He developed a public park, a playground, a concert hall, and an
auditorium. Church used the properties for related philanthropy: he
helped sponsor graduation ceremonies, political rallies, and shows in
the parks for the city's African Americans. He also hosted and funded a
free annual Thanksgiving meal for the black poor. In 1906, Church, Josiah T. Settle,
M. L. Clay, and T. H. Hayes established the Solvent Savings Bank,
Memphis's first black bank, and Church served as founding president. He
ensured that blacks could gain access to loans for businesses and homes,
to advance their lives.
Beale Street First Baptist Church
Personal Life:
Not
much is known about Church's personal life. He rarely, if ever, wrote
personal correspondence, and never made a public speech, despite his
wide popularity and influence in Memphis.
Church married three times. His first wife, Louisa Ayers, was of
mixed-race, born into slavery. They both supported education for their
two children, a daughter and son. Their daughter Mary Church Terrell
was one of the first black American women to earn a college degree. She
became a teacher, then a principal, as well as a civil rights activist.
In 1909 she was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and in 1896 the first black woman to be appointed to the school board of a major city (Washington, DC).
Church and Louisa divorced.
Secondly he married Anna Wright. They also had a son and daughter. Their son Robert Reed Church, Jr.
became a businessman, taking over his father's enterprises. He became
politically influential, establishing the Lincoln League in 1916 to work
to register black voters, in part by paying their poll taxes. Within a short time, he signed up 10,000 new black voters in Memphis, and worked with E.H. Crump
and his machine politics. Church served as an adviser to Republican
presidents in the 1920s but declined any political appointments.
Church eventually married a third time, after Anna died.
The senior Church generally chose to stay outside the politics of his
era, which enabled him to maintain influence among both white and black
Memphians. He was chosen as a delegate for William McKinley to the 1900 Republican Convention.
Death:
Church died August 2, 1912, after a brief illness. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery on the south side of downtown Memphis.
Source: wikipedia.com
