East Denver Directory of Business and Citizenry 1950-1951 Bright, Rai Upchurch. (editor) African Americana,Business,Women

8½" x 5½". Stapled photographically illustrated self-wrappers. Pp. CVI; 162. Very good: moderate wear and soiling to wrappers; uncoated leaves toned. This is a rare African American directory for residents of Denver, Colorado which is filled with photographic illustrations. Even better, it was edited and published by a woman, Rai Upchurch Bright. While we find nothing about her in secondary sources, the directory makes clear that she was a homeowner and business owner; in addition to creating this directory she also ran a millinery shop. A full-page photograph of Rai in the book further pointed out that she founded the Denver Metropolitan Council of Negro Women and was its vice president. Rai shared the reason she started the directory: "many, many times the question of Negro businesses, citizenry and the general classified labor, white collar and professional abilities have been discussed pro and con. This led to a door to door canvassing project. We hope to present to our public a more comprehensive and complete directory giving important information relative to this minority group." The introduction to the book stated that "this publication offers its readers a general directory of citizens, enterprises, professions, firms and corporations [which includes] the name, address, occupation, telephone, property status, auto registration or ownership and family relationship of every Negro citizen residing in the City of Denver." There's also a two-page essay on Denver which highlights African Americans' contributions to numerous aspects of the city, despite being only three percent of the population at the time. That same essay mentioned that Denver's public schools were not segregated. The book is broken up into two sections: the first is a Yellow Pages of sorts, dealing almost exclusively with businesses and the second section is on coated paper and covers mostly residential. The business section has a complete index of advertisers which included beauty shops, car dealers, pharmacies, grocery stores and more. Importantly, there are approximately 60 photographic images showing Black business owners and their businesses. Many women are shown, and there are internal views of a gift shop, cooking school, casino ballroom and a hotel. We also see building frontage for a couple of doctor's offices, two mortuaries, a couple of churches and a home for the aged. The residential section has thousands of names and addresses along with 38 different notations about the individuals, such as whether they were employed, their occupation (if any) and their level of education. A stupendous directory, overseen by a woman, and an important source document for African American life in Denver at mid-century. OCLC locates one copy.