ABSTRACT
The National Negro Business League (NNBL), founded in the summer of 1900, was a key component in Booker T. Washington's program for racial advancement. Designed to promote black economic self-help, and to spread the Tuskegee philosophy, it was envisaged that the League would create local chapters of small businessmen in African-American communities throughout the United States with the aim of exchanging ideas and increasing entrepreneurial drive. The League was also central in the communications network of the Tuskegee Machine, enabling Washington to keep a careful eye on developments in black society through intelligence provided by regional League members and officials.1
