Profiles in Countermoonbattery: S.B. Fuller

Blacks were not always showered with privilege and preference. Just a few generations ago, they were still getting a raw deal. In those days, belligerent whining would get them nowhere. So they rolled up their sleeves and took advantage of their greatest asset: being American.

A case in point is businessman S.B. Fuller. Read his inspiring story at Moonbattery sponsor Ammo.com.

Nowadays, people think they have it tough if they imagine a microaggression. Fuller really did have it tough. He dropped out of school in the sixth grade to help support his family of Louisiana sharecroppers. By the time he turned 18, his mother had died, leaving him six siblings to raise.

Relief organizations came by to offer assistance, but Fuller turned them down because he didn’t want his neighbors to think his family couldn’t make it without handouts.

Democrats still had some work to do when it comes to destigmatizing welfare.

He relocated to Chicago where he took a series of backbreaking, menial jobs, before rising up to become the manager of a coal yard. During the Depression, he was working as an insurance agent at the Commonwealth Burial Association, a black-owned firm. Despite having a secure position at that company, he decided to strike out on his own and build his own business.

Using his car as a security deposit, he got a $25 loan and bought some soap that he resold door to door. The money he made went back into the enterprise. The rest is history.

In 1939, Fuller opened his own factory. In 1947, he saved his supplier from going under by purchasing it. He used his newly acquired capital to sell everything under the sun, from deodorant to suits. He purchased black newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Courier and the New York Age. In Chicago, his footprint loomed large, especially after he purchased the Chicago Regal Theater and the South Center Department Store.

Like most blacks prior to Lyndon Johnson, Fuller was a Republican. Even in his time, his attitude got him in trouble:

His comment at his induction ceremony [into the National Association of Manufacturers in 1963] that “a lack of understanding of the capitalist system and not racial barriers was keeping blacks from making progress” combined with an interview in U.S. News and World Report where he stated that “Negroes are not discriminated against because of the color of their skin. They are discriminated against because they have not anything to offer that people want to buy” caused some black leaders to call for a boycott of Fuller products.

This hurt his reputation among blacks, which is a shame, because he was a vastly more constructive role model than the Jesse Jackson types who make names for themselves by wielding victimhood like a mugger’s weapon.

Read more of the story at Ammo.com, and of course, stock up on discount ammo while you are there.

The post Profiles in Countermoonbattery: S.B. Fuller appeared first on Moonbattery.