First Black-owned Business, Former James Atus Dry Cleaners

Mr. James Atus was the owner of the first, Black-owned business established in the ‘city of champions’ Brockton, MA. His business was a “modern dry cleaning establishment” as listed in the program advertising for the esteemed National Negro Business League, an organization founded in Boston by Booker T. Washington in 1900. The advertisement was noted according to the publication “Black Studies Research Sources…Records of the National Negro Business League,” Edited Kenneth Hamilton.

Born 1858- Death 3 April 1933