In Hidden Hospitality, Calvin Stovall Celebrates Stories of Black Hotel Entrepreneurs

More than 30 years ago, Calvin Stovall, MPS ’93, a graduate student in the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, researched and put together a monograph of brief vignettes describing about 20 to 30 American, Black-owned hotels going back to the 18th century: Hospitality Historiography: An African American Perspective.

Long forgotten, the small volume was tucked away in an old box of belongings until 2021. When a friend asked what the monograph was about, and he told her, she exclaimed, astonished: “What? We owned hotels in the 1700s?”

“Yeah, we did,” said Stovall.

“Is this a book?” the friend asked.

That exchange was all it took for Stovall to embark on a much more ambitious project: a book that tells the stories of more than 70 minority-owned hospitality businesses and the entrepreneurs that launched them. His book, Hidden Hospitality: Untold Stories of Black Hotel, Motel, and Resort Owners from the Pioneer Days to the Civil Rights Era, is slated for publication this coming fall .

A story that takes you on a journey through every era

The seed for the monograph Stovall wrote as a graduate student was planted when Evan Frazier ’92, Nolan Hotel School student and chair of the Cornell chapter of the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality, asked Stovall to research and deliver a presentation on Black hotel ownership. Stovall spent many hours in the library, searching through old sources on microfiche, and got intrigued by the information he was finding.

More recently, while doing research for his book (in between speaking engagements and parenting two teenage sons), Stovall rediscovered how much he loves spending time in libraries, digging through and comparing different sources of information. The stories he dug up about Black hotels and their owners inspired him to “tell a story that takes you on a journey through every era,” he said—from the 1800s through to the Civil Rights era.

“Most people in the book were either former slaves or children of slaves, and for them to be able to open up a hotel during these challenging times in our nation was just amazing to me,” said Stovall. “People are going to open the book and see a 220-room Black-owned hotel in the 1900s—it’s going to kind of blow them away. Because in our minds, we know the whole story of slavery, but we don’t know this side of our story. This is a whole different side of Black history.”

Here is a sampling of the people and places whose stories Stovall tells in Hidden Hospitality.

The Marshall Hotel in the early days of jazz

The Marshall Hotel in Manhattan, which flourished in the early 20th century, 1900-13, was owned by James “Jimmie” Marshall, who was known as a dynamic, charismatic figure. While the clientele was primarily Black, the jazz bands that played in the Marshall’s music lounge made it a popular night spot for whites, too, said Stovall. But powerful people steeped in New York City’s Jim Crow racism frowned on Blacks and whites socializing in the same room. So Marshall “got in trouble for race mixing,” as Stovall put it. “They put so many barriers in place for him that he just couldn’t survive anymore.”

The “Chitlin’ Circuit”: Popular and safe havens for Black travelers

Stovall describes hotels once known as part of the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a network of establishments active throughout the East Coast, South, and upper Midwest from the 1930s through the 1960s that welcomed Black guests and were popular venues and safe havens for traveling Black musicians like Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Otis Redding, and Ray Charles. Initially known through word of mouth, Chitlin’ Circuit hotels were later included in Victor Hugo Green’s Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide to services and places that welcomed and were safe for Black travelers. “You didn’t want to be an African American driving around in some sundown town; it was very dangerous,” said Stovall. “Travel guides like the Green Book really made it safer for Blacks to travel.”

Embracing innovation and setting new standards

The Berry Hotel in Athens, Ohio, a first-class hotel built, owned, and operated by Edward Cornelius Berry and his wife, Martha Jane (Mattie) Berry, 1892-1923, catered to whites. As Stovall points out, the Berry Hotel was the first to introduce many innovations that would become standard practice in hotels around the world. It was the first hotel to place Bibles and sewing kits in guests’ rooms. Each room was equipped with electric call bells, electric lights, hot water, a closet, and a private bath. In addition, Edward gathered guests’ clothes for Mattie to mend or press and returned them to guests’ rooms. “Edward Berry was a true entrepreneur,” said Stovall. “He really took care of his guests.”

Successful hoteliers: Black woman entrepreneurs

For Stovall, one of the most surprising findings is how many Black women entrepreneurs were leaders in the hospitality industry. Some went into business with a husband and carried on after he died. Some started out as cooks—a lot of hotels began as restaurants—and later added a hotel. “Because I was looking so far in the past, I thought most entrepreneurs I’d find would be men,” Stovall said. “It was just cool to see how many successful woman entrepreneurs there were.”

For example,Rebecca Groundage Howard opened the Pacific Restaurant in Olympia, Washington, in 1860, and added lodging in 1862 to make it the Pacific Hotel and Restaurant.

Annie Box Neal was the proprietor and manager of the Mountain View Hotel, a “grand resort” opened in 1895 in Oracle, Arizona, a western mining town in the Catalina Mountains.

In 1948, Dorothy Nash Tookes and her husband, James, turned their home in Tallahassee, Florida, into a rooming house and hotel, becoming the only lodging establishment for Black visitors to segregated Tallahassee. Over time she expanded their house to 11 bedrooms. “The hotel hosted several famous Black entertainers and luminaries including Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin,” wrote Stovall. The Tookes Hotel was still so popular after desegregation, it remained in operation until the early 1980s.

The Civil Rights Act marked the end of an era for Black hotels

After the Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964, ending segregation, hotels dedicated to serving exclusively Black guests went under, said Stovall. “When African Americans realized they could stay wherever they wanted, Black hotels were pretty much abandoned. Some tried to survive, but eventually they deteriorated and could no longer operate.” Consequently, many were razed. But their stories live on.

About Calvin Stovall, MPS ’93

As the chief experience officer at ICONIC Presentations, Calvin Stovall delivers customized keynote presentations focused on teaching audiences practical customer experience and leadership principles. He draws on his experience in the hospitality and nonprofit sectors, including stints as vice president of global brand training at Hilton Worldwide; director of brand marketing and strategy at ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; and director of learning and development at the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. Stovall is also director of executive programs at the Advanced Leadership Institute, a nonprofit focused on positioning Black leaders for executive advancement.

Stovall remains an active member of the Cornell Black Alumni Association , and attended the reunion of the National Society of Minorites in Hospitality, Cornell chapter, when he was on campus in June 2024 to celebrate Cornell Reunion with fellow Nolan Hotel School alumni.

Stovall’s book, Hidden Hospitality: Untold Stories of Black Hotel, Motel, and Resort Owners from the Pioneer Days to the Civil Rights Era, is  available for pre-purchase on Amazon.com.

Learn more about the history of Black hospitality establishments in this eCornell webinar featuring Calvin Stovall interviewed by Victor Younger, director of diversity and inclusion at Cornell’s Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration: Heroes and Hoteliers: A History of Black-Owned Hotels