Title: S.B. Fuller 
Pioneer in Black Economic Development 

Author: Mary Fuller Casey 

Genre: Biography 

Published: 2003 

Format: Paperback 

Pages: 200

This is a biography of the great entrepreneur S.B. Fuller.  Written by his daughter Mary Fuller Casey with a large epilogue of tributes from men and women who benefited from the acts and teachings of S.B.  From 1905-1988 S.B. Fuller was not just a dynamic and successful businessman.  During this time, he greatly influenced, trained, or aided legions of other blacks to start, build, and grow successful businesses or organizations of their own.

This book is important because Mr. Fuller is not well known in black American history and he should be.  He is worth idolizing.  But like Booker T. Washington he sometimes clashed with the civil rights movement that advocated political solutions whereas Mr. Fuller advocated self-help solutions.  He eschewed victimhood.  He called that “masterism”.  The problem with political solutions is that they depend on politicians that have more incentive that problems remain.  They derive power from this.  Not to mention most of these politicians are white.

The book covers the entire life of S.B. Fuller.  From his childhood in the Fuller cabin in the swamps of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana to Chicago, Illinois where he owned many buildings and a business striving for the $100 million dollars in sales.

The remarkable stories I want to share are:

1. S.B. was one of 7 children by the time the family moved to Memphis. When his mother Ethel was dying upon having an eighth child die at birth, she made S.B. promise to keep the family together.  S.B. was the oldest at 17.  She correctly predicted his father would leave upon her death.  S.B. kept his promise.  He declined offers of relatives to take some kids because it would break up the family.  He declined welfare from the “welfare people” that came around because of the shame he felt if people didn’t think they could make it on their own.
2. In 1928 S.B. left Memphis for Chicago on foot and with no money! He prayed to God that he could get their sooner then walking.  Along came a young white man that offered S.B. a lift if S.B. agreed to do the driving.
3. In 1934 S.B. refinanced his car and received a $25 rebate. With this as his venture capital he rented a room in a Chicago building for $4 a week and started Fuller’s Quality Soap.  Soon he was selling soap so fast his partner, and wife, Lestine could not keep up in converting the bulk bought soap into Fuller labeled soap.
4. In follow up to the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama Dr. Martin Luther King was in Chicago when S.B. Fuller met with him. Fuller suggested “Blacks should buy the bus line, mostly blacks ride it and they are not riding now.  The bus company is losing money is willing to sell.  We should buy it.”  But Dr. King had a different agenda.  So S.B. went to Alabama to try to get support for the idea.  But he “couldn’t get the cooperation needed to make it happen, any more than W.E.B DuBois was able to, when he said, “Don’t worry about the Jim Crow cars, buy the railroad line.”   S.B. then said “Dr. Martin Luther King thinks civil rights legislation is going to solve the black man’s dilemma, but I know better.”
5. In 1963, U.S. News and World Report carried a four-page exclusive interview with S.B. Fuller. Titled “A Negro Business Man Speaks His Mind”, this pro-capitalism in American promotion of blacks building their own businesses caused quite a stir in the black community.  Unfortunately, too many in the civil rights community saw it as downplaying racial barriers.  Jackie Robinson even promoted a boycott of Fuller products.   Sad that they didn’t embrace Mr. Fuller as another champion of black betterment just with a different tactic then their own.  But plenty of black leaders who understood Mr. Fuller’s work did stand up for him.   Fuller’s response to the criticism was “I don’t blame them; they don’t understand”.  I as a libertarian can relate to this thought.

The Epilogue contains glowing tributes from such notable people as: George E. Johnson, founder of Johnson Products Company.  The first black company listed on the American Stock Exchange.  John H. Johnson (unrelated), founder of Johnson Publishing, publisher of Ebony, Jet, and many leading black oriented magazines.  Joe L. Dudley, Sr. founder and CEO of Dudley Products Company and Dudley Cosmetology University.  Rose Morgan successful owner/operator of Morgan Houses of Beauty and Morgan Fashion Tours.  The list is a long one.  All helped getting their starts in business by Mr. Fuller.

The book contains a large number of classic photographs from the 1940’s to 1980’s of Fuller Company facilities, grand ballroom business conventions, award ceremonies, employees, and famous people interacting with Mr. Fuller like President Eisenhower, Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich author),  and John H. Johnson.

I love this book because it shows in great detail an example of how capitalism is the best engine of prosperity for blacks in American.  In spite of real and imagined barriers.  S.B. Fuller saw this and made the most of it.  Bringing as many people along with him as chose to follow in his footsteps.  This especially important to me because my grandchildren are black.  I hope they don’t embrace victimhood like too many around them in Detroit do.  But instead become self-directed entrepreneurs.