Robert Theophilus Bess Jr. (February 5, 1889 – after October 1958) was a British-American stockbroker, civil rights activist, public relations manager, and pharmacist.[1][2] He founded the R. T. Bess Company in New York City, a stock brokerage firm, which was the only black-owned stock brokerage on Wall Street in 1932.[3][4] He was also the only black stockbroker in New York City the early-1930s.[5][4] Bess founded the Anti-Discrimination Job League, Inc. in 1936, which worked to fight for law change in New York and nationally. Starting in 1947, he formed Robert T. Bess Assoc., a public relations firm.[1][6][7]

Biography

Bess was born a British subject in Plaisance, British Guiana (today Guyana), one of three sons of parents Isabella Elizabeth (née Cappell) and Robert T. Bess.[8] One of his brothers, Dr. Edward E. Bess (1895–1956) became president of the local NAACP branch from 1939 to 1940.[9] Bess worked as a pharmacist in his early career in British Guiana between 1911 and 1921.[8] In 1913, he married Ellen Maud Talbot, and together they had 4 children.[8] He was a Methodist and a member of the St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church (now St. Mark's United Methodist Church) in New York.[1][10]

From 1923 until 1933, he was the founding president of the R. T. Bess Company (also known as Robert T. Bess Corp.), a stock brokerage firm, initially located at 206-208 Broadway Street, New York City.[1][11][12][13] He became a naturalized American citizen in 1927.[14]

In 1931, he was taken to court on larceny charges related to the R. T. Bess Company, and he was exonerated of the charges a few months later.[4][5] In 1932, his company was the only Black-owned stock brokerage on Wall Street, and he was reportedly the only black stockbroker.[3][5][4][15] The company was able to survive the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the resulting economic turmoil by "sticking at the wheel". During this time, Bess employed 9 white and 6 black office workers, and "promoted the interests of the Standard Television and Electric Company", asserting that they "offered an opportunity to colored people to reap millions of dollars in profit".[15]

Bess worked as an organizer for the Consolidated Tenants League, Inc. of Harlem.[16][17] Starting in 1936, he was the founding president of the Anti-Discrimination Job League, Inc., and the National Anti-Discrimination Movement.[1][18] Bess and the Anti-Discrimination Job League, Inc. lectured and fought for many years for the passage of laws to protect people from discrimination by insurance companies and employment agencies.[18][19] The group supported the passage of the Ives-Quinn Act (signed in 1945 by Governor Thomas E. Dewey).[20][21]

From 1943 to 1950, he worked as a pharmacist in New York City.[1][22] Starting in 1947, he formed Robert T. Bess Assoc., a public relations firm located at W. 125th Street in West Harlem, New York City.[1][7][16]

He authored, "Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands to God" (1949).[1] Bess was the founding president of the Nannie C. Burden Book Lovers Club, Inc.[1][23] He eulogized Nannie C. Burden on Decoration Day in 1950 at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Park cemetery.[23] In October 1958, he was noted to be scheduled to speak at a public meeting on responding to the possibility of a hydrogen bomb attack.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Who's Who in Commerce and Industry. Marquis Who's Who. 1965. p. 100.
  2. ↑ "Ethiopian Federation Has Green Light; Maps Action". The New York Age. 1949-08-27. p. 23. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  3. 1 2 Juliet E. K. Walker, Encyclopedia of African American Business History (Greenwood Press, 1999), p. 322, 630.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Robert T. Bess, Stock Broker, Exonerated on Larceny Charge". The New York Age. 1931-12-26. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  5. 1 2 3 "Negro Stockholder of Wall Street Faces $105 Larceny Charge". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1931-11-07. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  6. ↑ "Booker T. Washington Coins Cease Circulation This Year". The New York Age. 1951-03-31. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  7. 1 2 "Public Relations Group Selects Robert T. Bess". The New York Age. 1951-07-14. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  8. 1 2 3 Who's Who in Commerce and Industry. Marquis Who's Who. 1959. p. 108.
  9. ↑ "Dr. Bess, NAACP Leader, Is Dead", The New Rochelle Standard-Star (October 10, 1956), p. 2.
  10. ↑ "Manhattan and Bronx Newsettes". The New York Age. 1934-02-17. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  11. ↑ "Granny Branch Coal Company Pays Regular Dividends to Stockholders". The New York Age. 1925-11-21. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  12. ↑ "Robt. T. Bess Corporation". The New York Age. 1926-09-18. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  13. ↑ "Negro Needs Courage in Business, Says Broker". California Eagle. 1931-06-12. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  14. ↑ New York, U.S., Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in New York City, 1792–1989
  15. 1 2 "Juliet E. K. Walker, The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship (1998), p. 259.
  16. 1 2 "Robert T. Bess Opens Public Relations Office". The New York Age. 1948-06-12. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  17. ↑ "Crowd Riots, Halts Harlem Relief Quiz". Daily News. 1935-06-15. p. 133. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  18. 1 2 "Seven Year Fight For Anti-Bias Bills Facing Success??". The New York Age. 1950-02-25. p. 29. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  19. ↑ "Club to Hear Labor Talk". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1942-05-01. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  20. ↑ "Leaders Plead For, Denounce Anti-Bias Bill". Press and Sun-Bulletin. 1945-02-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  21. ↑ "Anti-Bias Bill Battle Is On". Press and Sun-Bulletin. 1945-02-20. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  22. ↑ "Lyons Drug Co. Located on West 125th Street 35 Years". The New York Age. 1950-03-25. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  23. 1 2 "Nannie C Burden 7 years president New York City Federation of Colored women's clubs". The New York Age. 1950-06-17. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
  24. ↑ "If H-Bomb Falls", New York Daily News (October 12, 1958), p. 58.
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