Banks Committee for Negro Business Development. Loan Committee. Records, 1968.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Materials housed in the Nashville Room of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Housed in Small Collections Box 1.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Restricted: Several documents relating to a loan application have had portions redacted by library staff to protect the privacy of the individual concerned.

Scope and content: Photocopies of records, consisting predominantly of meeting minutes, and supplemented by a variety of other materials including promotional literature, applications, and reference materials from organizations such as Operation Northtown of the Middle Tennessee Business Association; the Small Business Administration; and the Businessmen's Development Corporation of Philadelphia, Penn., which served as a model for the N.B.D. and which was developed in part by First Pennsylvania Banking and Trust Company.

Cite as: Banks Committee for Negro Business Development. Loan Committee Records, Ephemera Collections, Nashville Room, Nashville Public Library.

Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

John B. Hardcastle;,Gift;,2000.,Acc. RT-177.

Related Materials: A publication entitled "Operation Northtown" is in the holdings of the Special Collections Division, which includes various data on the business climate for African Americans in Nashville, Tenn. circa 1969. Please consult online catalog for further details.

The Banks Committee for Negro Business Development (referred to by its organizers as N.B.D.) was formed on March 29, 1968 with representatives from five major Nashville, Tenn. banks: First American National Bank; Commerce Union Bank; Capital City Bank; Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company; and Third National Bank. The N.B.D. pledged to make available $1 million in loans to the black business community of Nashville. Loans were to be made for business or professional purposes, and repaid in a "reasonable length" of time. Long term loans like those for real estate were not part of the plan. The banks would pool their credit; Citizen's Savings Bank and Trust Company, Nashville's only African American owned bank, would process the applications without charge; and a loan committee composed of representatives from all five banks would review and approve or disapprove loan applications.

Members of the loan committee were: Murray M. Nicolson, vice president of First American National Bank; William G. Simms, senior vice president of Commerce Union Bank; Nile E. Yearwood, president of Capital City Bank; J. F. McClellan, director of Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company; and Joe T. Howell, vice president of Third National Bank, who also served as the committee's chair.

The development of the N.B.D. coincided with the construction of Interstate 40 in North Nashville, which threatened many black-owned businesses. Organizations such as the North Nashville Model Cities program; Operation Northtown of the Middle Tennessee Business Association; and the Small Business Administration had a special interest in African-American businesses in that part of Nashville, although the N.B.D. emphasized its purpose was broader: "to aid any Negro business firm," not just those in North Nashville. Most of the banks that established the N.B.D. have since been acquired by other institutions and now bear different names.

In English.

John B. Hardcastle was an alternate member of the loan committee, which was headed by his supervisor, Joe T. Howell, Jr., vice president of Third National Bank. The materials were in the possession of Mr. Hardcastle until the time of donation to the Nashville Room.

No further accruals are expected.