Uniontown entrepreneur

Fighting the good fight

[Reprinted from Issues & Views November 5, 2001]

A slice of history - When we were colored

"Until the civil rights movement, people [in Uniontown, Alabama] did not even know what race they belonged to. They didn't know, didn't care, gave it no thought. Everybody got along. White people worked for black people, black people worked for white people. Just recently we have got these hate things. We didn't have no trouble with racial things."

Those words are the reflections of Glenn White, in an interview last year with Issues & Views. White, a black man and a lifetime resident of Uniontown, was sharing with us his memories of the successful black businessman, William Henry Eldridge, who was a major figure in the town from the early years of the 20th century until his death around 1963.

W. H. Eldridge & Co., General Mdse. is listed in the 1905 edition (and in subsequent editions) of Young & Co.'s Business and Professional Directory of Alabama. Eldridge was known as a diligent manager and a "square dealer." His mercantile company grew as he became the primary supplier of groceries and miscellaneous farm items to Uniontown residents and farmers in the region. He ran a credit business for both blacks and whites, and sold wholesale goods to smaller stores in the surrounding counties.

In another interview, Uniontown resident Arthur Hayden (who served as Mayor of the town for 26 years) remembers being told about a mosquito spray that Eldridge manufactured during a period when malaria hit that part of the South. Hayden, whose father was a church minister, was one of 10 children. He remembers that Eldridge "was always sending something to the house," to help with the pastor's large, needy household.

Hayden also tells about the many other successful black businesses in Uniontown. "Some bought and sold coal by the car load, some bought and sold bananas by the car load, one owned a cafe. Many of the overseers of the biggest farms in the area were black men." He sums up, "Black and whites got along well in the whole town."

Because Eldridge was so well known and trusted, when wealthy whites planned parties or receptions, they would call on him. As a kind of side business, he would take the initiative to locate and hire the necessary workers needed for the event, and engage the caterers and obtain whatever specialty foods or other items that might be requested. Says Hayden, "He showed respect and got respect from the white community."

As a child, Hayden worked for Eldridge after school and remembers his attractive wife Leila, "who drove a Plymouth." Hayden remarks, "Willie Eldridge was a good man. He loved his community and loved his church." And adds, "He did not let the preachers of this area worry about where their next meal was going to come from." Eldridge also supported the local black schools, not only with his money but with his time.

A 1920s directory of black business leaders describes how, as a teenager in 1900, with $125 saved capital, Eldridge "embarked in the grocery business, he having chosen this as his life work." Eldridge eventually bought several business properties in the town, and records of mortgages and deeds show purchases by him and his wife of specific lots of land. A contemporary account of his success relates:

The big business interests which he owns, consisting of property of various kinds, including his big retail and wholesale grocery store, stands as evidence of his thrift and ability to make with a partial education as he terms it, a signal success in the business world.

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