Charles Banks Case

Charles Banks and his family were pretty close to the Clark family and the Clark family was pretty close to Charles. The Clarks were a very nice and reasonable people. They allowed their employees to bring their children to work. The Banks' and the Clark's relationship was an everlasting one. Charles often spoke about his relationships with his white friends. His white friends were very nice to him and his family. The Clark family helped Charles out finacially when he went to school. Charles learned a lot about owning a business from the Clarks.

The old Negro elite was a group of black people that was put together a while back. To get into the old Negro elite, they looked at your wealth, skin color, education occupation and it also depened on your heritage and family. Many people in the group were free during the antebellum period and/or fought against slavery. The majority of the old Negro elite members were light skinned blacks that had a lot of money.

Now, the new Negro elite was another group of people made a while back. This group was made up of men and women that were much less expressive and less outgoing than the other group. Banks considered himself to be part of the "New Negro" because his parents were used to the old Negro elite.

Charles was Booker T. Washington's chief "lieutenant" in Mississippi. Banks might have been the most important African American in the state. Yes we all know brother.