ppatel60
Herndon's Baths
Date taken: 05/18/2007
Photographer: Priyen Patel
This picture, located in Martin Luther King’s Historical Museum, shows that barbering in the south was mainly a black work that served the whites. It was one of the few opportunities black men had to make good money and a better living. Alonzo Herndon, the owner of this barbershop, started with a one-chair shop in Jonesboro, and slowly worked his way to the top in the Atlanta as well as becoming one of the wealthiest African Americans in Georgia. . It had been said that by 1910 he did not operated his barbershop successfully but owned real estate that was valued to be $37,540. This particular barbershop was located at 66 Peachtree Street in 1906. The shop catered exclusively to a white clientele, conforming to segregations laws of the day. It was a full service establishment that offered haircuts, shaves, baths, shoeshine and pressing to “a better class” of white men. The African American barbers who worked there were well respected in the black community. The shop had twenty-five chairs, crystal chandeliers, marble paneling and mahogany doors. The success of the barbershop owned by Herndon was the foundation of Herndon’s greatest business achievement, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.
Herndon's Baths
Date taken: 05/18/2007
Photographer: Priyen Patel
This picture, located in Martin Luther King’s Historical Museum, shows that barbering in the south was mainly a black work that served the whites. It was one of the few opportunities black men had to make good money and a better living. Alonzo Herndon, the owner of this barbershop, started with a one-chair shop in Jonesboro, and slowly worked his way to the top in the Atlanta as well as becoming one of the wealthiest African Americans in Georgia. . It had been said that by 1910 he did not operated his barbershop successfully but owned real estate that was valued to be $37,540. This particular barbershop was located at 66 Peachtree Street in 1906. The shop catered exclusively to a white clientele, conforming to segregations laws of the day. It was a full service establishment that offered haircuts, shaves, baths, shoeshine and pressing to “a better class” of white men. The African American barbers who worked there were well respected in the black community. The shop had twenty-five chairs, crystal chandeliers, marble paneling and mahogany doors. The success of the barbershop owned by Herndon was the foundation of Herndon’s greatest business achievement, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.