Brandon K. Winford
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178257
- eISBN:
- 9780813178264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178257.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
The conclusion seeks to understand the last decade of John Hervey Wheeler’s life through a discussion about his lasting legacy as a banker and civil rights lawyer. It explains that Wheeler received a ...
More
The conclusion seeks to understand the last decade of John Hervey Wheeler’s life through a discussion about his lasting legacy as a banker and civil rights lawyer. It explains that Wheeler received a number of accolades ranging from honorary doctorates to a building named in his honor on the campus of his alma mater, Morehouse College, in 1976. Wheeler’s children, Julia Wheeler Taylor and Warren Hervey Wheeler, became the ultimate beneficiaries of their father’s “black business activism,” and they went on to have pioneering careers in banking and aviation. The conclusion identifies some of the black leaders that Wheeler mentored who went on to have successful careers in politics, business, and law in the decades that followed, taking up the mantle of leadership from Wheeler. Moreover, North Carolina congressman G. K. Butterfield from the state’s First District, which includes Durham, pushed through Congress H.R. 3460 to name the federal courthouse in Durham the John Hervey Wheeler United States Courthouse.Less
The conclusion seeks to understand the last decade of John Hervey Wheeler’s life through a discussion about his lasting legacy as a banker and civil rights lawyer. It explains that Wheeler received a number of accolades ranging from honorary doctorates to a building named in his honor on the campus of his alma mater, Morehouse College, in 1976. Wheeler’s children, Julia Wheeler Taylor and Warren Hervey Wheeler, became the ultimate beneficiaries of their father’s “black business activism,” and they went on to have pioneering careers in banking and aviation. The conclusion identifies some of the black leaders that Wheeler mentored who went on to have successful careers in politics, business, and law in the decades that followed, taking up the mantle of leadership from Wheeler. Moreover, North Carolina congressman G. K. Butterfield from the state’s First District, which includes Durham, pushed through Congress H.R. 3460 to name the federal courthouse in Durham the John Hervey Wheeler United States Courthouse.
Brandon K. Winford
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178257
- eISBN:
- 9780813178264
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178257.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This work combines black business and civil rights history to explain how economic concerns shaped the goals and objectives of the black freedom struggle. Brandon K. Winford examines the “black ...
More
This work combines black business and civil rights history to explain how economic concerns shaped the goals and objectives of the black freedom struggle. Brandon K. Winford examines the “black business activism” of banker and civil rights lawyer John Hervey Wheeler (1908–1978). Born on the campus of Kittrell College in Vance County, North Carolina, he came of age in Jim Crow Atlanta, Georgia, where his father became an executive with the world-renowned North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (NC Mutual). As president of Mechanics and Farmers Bank (M&F Bank), located on Durham’s “Black Wall Street,” Wheeler became the Tar Heel State’s most influential black power broker and among the top civil rights figures in the South.
Winford places Wheeler at the center of his narrative to understand how black business leaders tackled civil rights while continuously pointing to the economy’s larger significance for the success and advancement of the postwar New South. In this way, Wheeler articulated a bold vision of regional prosperity, grounded in full citizenship and economic power for black people. He reminded the white South that its future was inextricably linked to the plight of black southerners. He spent his entire career trying to fulfill these ideals through his institutional and organizational affiliations, as part and parcel of his civil rights agenda.
Winford draws on previously unexamined primary and secondary sources, including newspapers, business records, FBI reports, personal papers, financial statements, presidential files, legal documents, oral histories, and organizational and institutional records.Less
This work combines black business and civil rights history to explain how economic concerns shaped the goals and objectives of the black freedom struggle. Brandon K. Winford examines the “black business activism” of banker and civil rights lawyer John Hervey Wheeler (1908–1978). Born on the campus of Kittrell College in Vance County, North Carolina, he came of age in Jim Crow Atlanta, Georgia, where his father became an executive with the world-renowned North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (NC Mutual). As president of Mechanics and Farmers Bank (M&F Bank), located on Durham’s “Black Wall Street,” Wheeler became the Tar Heel State’s most influential black power broker and among the top civil rights figures in the South.
Winford places Wheeler at the center of his narrative to understand how black business leaders tackled civil rights while continuously pointing to the economy’s larger significance for the success and advancement of the postwar New South. In this way, Wheeler articulated a bold vision of regional prosperity, grounded in full citizenship and economic power for black people. He reminded the white South that its future was inextricably linked to the plight of black southerners. He spent his entire career trying to fulfill these ideals through his institutional and organizational affiliations, as part and parcel of his civil rights agenda.
Winford draws on previously unexamined primary and secondary sources, including newspapers, business records, FBI reports, personal papers, financial statements, presidential files, legal documents, oral histories, and organizational and institutional records.
