[AFRICAN AMERICANA - BUSINESS]. The Houston Negro Chamber of Commerce pamphlet. Ca 1951. [With:] 3 business cards representing Louis W. Dickerson's Houston, Texas, business enterprises. 

Short pamphlet concerning the business and philanthropic activities as well as the membership of the Houston Negro Chamber of Commerce. Single leaf, 4pp, 7 x 3.75 folded (adhesive remnants on left and right sides of front page, toning). Circa 1951.

[With:] A group of 3 business cards, comprising: "Club Matinee" card of Louis W. Dickerson; "Crystal Hotel" card identifying "L.W. Dickerson, Proprietor"; and card of "Madeline Wysingle / Club Matinee."

Louis Wilton Dickerson (1903-ca 1970) was a businessman who operated multiple establishments in Houston's Fifth Ward - a neighborhood near downtown Houston that was traditionally populated by immigrants and African Americans. Located at 3300 Lyons Avenue in the Fifth Ward, "Club Matinee" was a legendary Houston nightspot, labeled "The Cotton Club of the South." The club opened in 1936 and offered segregated audiences some of the greatest musical talent of its time including Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, B. B. King and more. In addition to Club Matinee, Dickerson operated (and depending on accounts, also owned) two hotels and a fleet of cabs as part of "Crystal Enterprises." The development of US. Interstate 10 essentially split the Fifth Ward neighborhood in the 1950s, and once profitable businesses began to shutter. Dickerson, once considered one of the wealthiest and most politically powerful Black man in the city, saw his empire and influence dwindle. In 1973, the enterprise that started it all, Club Matinee, closed.

This lot is located in Cincinnati.