 Articles were submitted by writers from across the nation, reporting on the rise of middle-class blacks in business and the professions.One such article was published in 1924 by T. Gillis Nutter, an attorney and former state representative of West Virginia (1918–1920), elected at a time when most blacks had been closed out of statewide office by disenfranchisement across the South at the turn of the century.He reported on 28 successful men and women in business, the professions and teaching, as well as crops produced by black farmers in the state, and other property held by them.