The African American as “shoe shine boy” is a stereotypical image. As an African American icon, however, the shoe shine boy, often called “shine,” was seen as a servant rather than as a person who needed to make a living or as one who had a skill or craft. Nonetheless, shoe shining was one of several lines of business in the South and elsewhere that gave blacks a monopoly for many years. Until recent years, when shoe shine stands opened in airports, hotels, and various public places and may have become white owned, shoe shining appeared not to be a big business interest of whites.
The poverty that surrounded many blacks forced them into menial labor with poor wages. When the economic boon of the 1920s came, America’s black population did not, on the whole, share that wealth. Thus, many times their living came in outlets that required them to serve and/or to entertain whites. The development of the shoe shine parlor and street shiners is an example of an occupation that helped to meet blacks’ economic needs.
Accounts of early shoe shine businesses among African Americans appear in scattered sources. In 1921, a shop advertisement in the city directory for Salem, Oregon, read “Cigars and Tobacco, Periodicals, Confectionery, Ladies’ and Gentlemens’ Shoe Shining Parlors, the Place That Pleases Everybody.” The owner was William Halsell, who moved to Salem around 1912 and also worked as a janitor, laborer, and farmer sometime between 1913 and 1917.
Clearly, shoe shining provided means of support for small-time enterprisers who worked in the trade until they could find a more lucrative job or pursue their own field of dreams. Oscar Micheaux (1884? 1951) is an example. In the early 1900s, Micheaux worked as a shoe shine boy in Chicago while pursuing his dream of becoming a writer and filmmaker. He fulfilled his dream when he became a homesteader in South Dakota, founded a film and book company, published his own novels, and later produced a film.
A 1933 survey of businesses in Tucson, Arizona, showed African Americans in a variety of enterprises. There were three automobile repair stations, three restaurants, and several shoe shine parlors.
Joseph Pierce’s study of Negro business and business education among blacks covering the period 1944-1946 found that the shoe shine establishment was one of a few businesses that blacks could operate in main business areas without receiving pressure, racial prejudice, or corporate competition. It also offered the possibility of considerable expansion.
An example of a prosperous shoe shine establishment identified in Pier-ce’s study is Short’s Shoe Shine, located opposite the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. Haywood Douglass Short (1872-?) opened the business on January 3, 1921. It became a family business when his two sons, Kenneth Belle and Lawrence Short, joined the establishment. Haywood Short, of California, Missouri, arrived in Iowa City on August 1, 1895, in search of work. He held odd jobs until he became a porter in Whitaker’s Barber Shop. He bought the building that housed the shop in 1934 and later equipped the space to house his business. Then a modern shoe shining, repairing, and dyeing business, his enterprise grew from eight to eighteen chairs.
Short designed an adjustable chair for use in his shop so that it would comfortably accommodate a child or a six-foot-tall adult. In time, he hired as many as twenty-six employees, and they shined 2,000 shoes in one day. He also maintained a shoe repair business in the back of his shop. Short’s business provided jobs for young black students who attended the university and needed to help support themselves. Rather than exploit their labor, Short gave them 50 percent of the money that they took in.
Numerous accounts exist of contemporary black businessmen who worked as shoe shiners when they were in their youth. Among them is Cleophus Ashburn, an eighty-two-year-old Detroit resident and retired automobile factory worker who grew up in the Black Bottom section on the east side. He shined shoes there and used his wages to purchase a Western Flyer bicycle. Similarly, Kenneth Cunning, a second-generation operator of Village Shoe Repair near downtown Milwaukee, hustled the central-city tavern circuit in that city early on. As a child, he built his own shoe box to carry his wares and to provide a resting place for the feet of his customers.
Other shoe shine businesses operated within shoe repair shops; however, statistical data on shoe shining as a separate business are lacking. For these and other black-owned businesses to grow, Pierce called for the owners to study the market; examine its purchasing habits and preferences; improve standards of service; give special attention to good record-keeping, advertising, and experience of the facility; study the location of certain lines of business; and venture into partnerships and cooperatives.
Curley Randle (1944- ), owner of Mighty Fine Shoe Repair in Houston, Texas, operates a shoe shine business as well as a shoe repair business. He became interested in the trade in the 1950s and 1960s and visited neighborhood parlors to watch men shining shoes. He wanted to master the trade. Randle and his brother started working at different local car dealerships, shining shoes for the salesmen and later for the customers, both men and women, who waited for their cars. He continues his shining business by taking his service to local sites such as Duke Energy, the 3DI Building, and the U.S. Home.
As African Americans celebrate their heritage with festivals and outings, they acknowledge their rich history and showcase, among other activities, their history as owners of businesses. An example may be seen in Franklin County, Virginia, where on August 20-21, 2004, the Warren Street Festival 2004 was held. Local residents celebrated the black heritage of Rocky Mount and Franklin County, particularly citing former slave Stephen Warren who, over a hundred years ago, built a house at Warren and West Court Street in Rocky Mount, Virginia, and raised a large family. Warren Street was named in his honor and continues as a center of African American business enterprises in the town and county. Among the businesses that have flourished there is the Morgan Dixon Shoe Shine shop.
African American shoe shining enterprises continue in various places. Some, however, may be losing out to decisions of public agencies and officials who set policies for businesses in public facilities. For example, in 1998 the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), the agency with control over the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, sought to close a shoe shining business run by six elderly African American men. Owner Royal Zeno had operated in the airport for thirty-six years. Public outcry emerged and gave city officials everywhere important factors for consideration: Facilities such as airports belong to a geographic community, and therefore community concern should be a factor in determining decisions that affect local businesses, such as Zeno’s shoe shine parlor.
