The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School in Evanston. Photo: Nick Number / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Long before national supermarket chains opened in Evanston, west side families bought their daily and weekly groceries from a married couple who lived steps from the stock room. Fleming Grocery and Market, run by John Fleming and Carrie B. Dent Fleming, is remembered by the Shorefront Legacy Center as the first Black-owned grocery store in Evanston. Shorefront is the local nonprofit that collects and preserves the history of Black residents of Evanston and neighboring North Shore communities, and its profile of the store, titled “More Than a Store,” is the main record of the business.
From Clark Street to Simpson Street
According to Shorefront, the Flemings opened the store in the 1920s at 1101 Clark St. In 1937 they moved it to 1723 Simpson St., a large lot that also held their house and garage. The back door of the home opened toward the back door of the store, a walk of less than two minutes. The couple had no children, and relatives from the Avery family worked at the butcher counter and the checkout.
The shelves carried packaged goods and fresh produce, and the butcher weighed and wrapped cuts of meat to order. The store sold no liquor, since Evanston was a dry town.
Credit and community
Much of the store’s reputation rested on trust. Customers could ask to “put it on the bill,” and most families settled up on Fridays after payday. Each family kept a receipt book with carbon copies so both sides had a record. Shorefront’s account also describes the store as a gathering place, and recalls the Flemings handing out popsicles to neighborhood children.
The Flemings eventually retired to Arizona, and relatives James and Joseph Avery bought the business. The Flemings came back within about a year and took it over again. After John Fleming’s death, Carrie Fleming owned the Simpson Street building and rented it out, according to the account, collecting rent into her nineties while she still lived on the property. A separate family convenience store, opened around 1970 by relatives Donald and Laura Avery at 1623 Emerson St., was its own business.
Shorefront, founded by Dino Robinson, has documented local Black enterprise like this for years from its center in the basement of the Lula B. Sherman church building in Evanston.
Details come from the Shorefront Legacy Center’s published history of Fleming Grocery and Market.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
