Today in our History – May 10, 1908 - Elmore Bolling was born.

GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion is the story of a successful black businessman’s murder, by his jealous white neighbor in Alabama in 1949 was just a glimpse into a pattern of racist violence that terrorized African Americans for generations. On a broader scale, during the Jim Crow era, white Americans destroyed prosperous black businesses in many communities.

There is a sign that stands in a small landscaped area at the turn-off to Haynesville (County seat of Lowndes county AL) off the US 80, the Selma-to-Montgomery March Route in March 1965. The sign reprints a story about a local lynching that ran in a local African-American newspaper that also ran in an African-American newspaper in Chicago. This marker is at the site of the lynching on a part of US 80 that our champion and his trucking business helped build.

Remember – “You ask anybody in this country to name one African-American lynched between 1877 and 1950, and they can’t give a single name, We have no consciousness about this history. None.” - Bryan Stevenson - Executive Director (EJI) - Equal Justice Initiative

Today in our History – May 10, 1908 - Elmore Bolling was born.

In 1931, Elmore married Bertha Mae Nowden Peterson and became a deacon at Hopewell Baptist Church. Shortly thereafter, he started his livestock business and used the proceeds to buy a Model T Ford which he converted into a truck. Soon, he was making a living by hauling bone, kindling, scrap iron, and tin from Lowndes County to Montgomery (town).

As the business flourished, he bought a ton and a half truck and began transporting persons to town to shop. On Sundays, he carried parishioners to various Lowndes County churches. With the help of his wife and children, Elmore was able to offer his riders prepared foods and drinks. Ice cream was a favorite of his clientele. His children made excellent ice cream crackers.

Even though his children were very important to his businesses, he was ever mindful of the importance of education. Since the plantations schools were in session only four months of the year, Elmore placed Louis and Elmore Jr., in school in town. They returned home every Friday to prepare for the weekend, Fish Fry.

Many farmers hired Elmore to haul feed and animals to the stockyard to sell. As his reputation for reliability spread, many whites began to patronize him. Solid success in business allowed Elmore to buy his first tractor-trailer truck.

After purchasing the tractor-trailer, the “short truck” became the “milk truck.” Elmore employed drivers to pick up milk from sharecroppers and dairies and transport the milk to the big dairy at Whittle. This provided a needed source of income particularly when cotton was out of season. His clientele worked hard toward earning the monthly “milk check” and was delighted to go to town on “check day”.

Soon, Elmore earned the reputation of being a philanthropist. People often commented that “the only way Elmore would not help you, is that you didn’t ask.” If a person did not have money, Elmore would let him/her ride free. And, if someone could not repay a loan, Elmore canceled the debt. He employed farmhands and grew many plants, including cotton, corn, sugar cane, millet, and peanuts. Further, he raised livestock such as hogs, cows, goats, geese, guinea, and chickens.

Elmore’s trucking business was so successful that he bought a brand new tractor-trailer and hired more drivers. He was known to pay well and often better than the white farmers. He provided a place for his employees to live. He often said, “as long as a man will work, he has a place to stay.”

After acquiring property and establishing a multiple-use general merchandise store with a gasoline tank, certain whites determined that Elmore was “making more money that the average white man”. He was gunned down on December 4, 1947. The arrested white man stated Elmore “insulted my wife on the phone” as the motive for the murder. The NAACP and local residents determined that he was murdered because “he was too prosperous to be a Negro”

Elmore Bolling was a native of Lowndes County, Alabama. By the 1940s, he was a well-to-do farmer, entrepreneur and small business owner. Due to his success, he became a philanthropist, aiding less fortunate residents of the county.

Soon he became a community organizer and assisted many of the local residents in becoming self-sufficient through profiting from their use of their own animal stocks by providing milk and other goods to the nearby township of Montgomery.

As a Negro community leader, his success drew negative attention and he was lynched in 1947. NAACP investigators discovered that Bolling's wealth was the motive behind the slaying. He was "too prosperous as a negro farmer."

Yet, seventy-three years later, his community deeds are still remembered and honored. His legacy of achievement and giving are still being shared inter-generationally. As a result of his tireless labor to help individuals succeed, a Historical Marker was erected in his honor on December 4, 2007.

THE SIGN READS AS FOLLOWS:

“ELMORE BOLLING”

May 10, 1908 - December 4, 1947

Lowndesboro, AL - Enraged whites, jealous over the business success of a Negro are believed to be the lynchers of Elmore Bolling. Bolling, 39, was found riddled with a shotgun and pistol shots 150 yards from his general merchandise store. It is believed that more than one person figured in the murder but Producers Commission Company Union Stock white employee, resident of Braggs is the only person held.

He was released on a $2500 bond. Bolling's small trucking business frequently hauled cattle to the Montgomery Stockyards. The man, working at the stockyards passed daily in front of the Negro's business. He inferred that Bolling "insulted" his wife in a telephone conversation. Bolling, married, father of seven children had an excellent reputation in this community. Those who "know" say Bolling has long been a "marked man" since he was rated by whites here as "too successful to be a Negro."

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