Photograph: Board of directors of the Coleman manufacturing co., Concord, N.C., the only Negro cotton mill in the U.S.
1899?
Reportedly displayed as part of the American Negro exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

The Coleman Manufacturing Company (1899–1904) had the first cotton mill in the United States owned and operated by African Americans.Organized in 1897 by Warren Clay Coleman and others, and operating under original leadership until 1904, it was located in the Piedmont area about two miles from the county seat of Concord, North Carolina in Cabarrus County. Textile manufacturing had been established here before the American Civil War, but the mills hired only white industrial workers. The Coleman property later became part of Franklin Cotton Mills and a Fieldcrest Cannon plant.

Photographs of the mill and a description were featured in the Negro Exhibit of the United States installation at the Paris Exposition of 1900 in France, showing African-American progress in this country. In the early 21st century, the mill building, now known as the Coleman-Franklin-Cannon Mill, houses the production facilities of Southern Grace Distilleries, Inc. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places]]


The company was established in 1897 in Concord, south-central Piedmont, primarily by black capitalists in North Carolina, most based in its largest city of Wilmington. To promote the economic security of people of color, they intended to establish a cotton mill to be entirely managed and operated by blacks. At the time, the cotton mills in North Carolina, and the South overall, were white owned and discriminated against black workers. Managers hired blacks only for menial positions.

Richard B. Fitzgerald, a major brickmaker and businessman of Durham, North Carolina, was the company's first president; Edward A. Johnson its first vice-president (and was later president), and Warren Clay Coleman of Concord was its first secretary, treasurer, and manager. The initial board of directors were S. C. Thompson, L. P. Berry, John C. Dancy, federal collector of customs in Wilmington; S. B. Pride, C. F. Meserve, and Robert McRae.

About $50,000 was subscribed, which soon increased to $100,000, by "several hundred" African Americans, who mainly lived in the Concord area. A few white philanthropists, such as Benjamin N. Duke, who subscribed $1,000 (at six-percent interest), also invested in the capital stock of the company. Washington Duke, a tobacco magnate, made two $10,000 loans to the company to get construction of the mill underway.

The mill was to have between 7,000 and 10,000 spindles, and from 100 to 250 looms. According to their state charter, it was "allowed to spin, weave, manufacture, finish, and sell warps, yarns, cloth, prints, or other fabrics made of cotton, wool, or other material".

The mill had "a 270 horse power Corliss engine there and machinery that will compare favorable with any in or around Boston".Coleman was said to have purchased used equipment, described by one source as inefficient "second-hand English" works. This eventually caused production problems.