(BUSINESS) Promotional postcard for the Black owned West Sid

Sale 2631 - Lot 137

Price Realized: $ 625

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(BUSINESS.) Promotional postcard for the Black-owned West Side Apparel Shop in Lansing, Michigan. Postcard, 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches; unused, minimal wear. Chicago: Willens & Co., circa 1940s

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Described on verso as an "up to date shop of merchandise for ladies, gents and children; novelties and notions." Clara Busby (1894-1994), seen in the photograph assisting a customer, operated the West Side Apparel Shop from at least 1942 until about 1950. Over the course of a busy life, she was also her area's first Black woman to be licensed as a realtor, launched the city's first Black-owned full-service restaurant, was ordained as a minister at the age of 62, and then received a sociology degree from Michigan State University. She was active in organized and informal charity, and provided aid to the family of young Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X), who spent much of his childhood in Lansing. The Lansing State Journal of 28 and 29 July 1994 called her "a legend in the Lansing Black community" and "a quiet but effective pioneer."