Miss Naomi C. McLean opened Winston-Salem’s first Black public stenographic office in 1939, and the first Black business school in 1941. Both were located in the Bruce Building on Patterson Avenue. The school was equipped with all modern machines, plus a piano, and offered a complete secretarial course. Day and evening classes were offered to provide opportunities for men and women to acquire skills in the business and clerical fields. Miss McLean retired in 1987. She passed on September 18, 1995.
Excerpt from The Compass, the publication of the American Association of Commercial Colleges, May 1961
“…Since its founding in the fall of 1941 as a pioneer business school for Negroes, the school has been eminently successful. It enjoys the confidence of business men in the area, and has consistently graduated students who have held responsible positions very successfully.
Much of the outstanding success of the school can be traced directly to the founder, energetic Naomi C. McLean. The-idea of operating a business school came to her while she operated an-other enterprise—the thriving McLean’s Stenographic Service. Working early and late to keep up with demands for stenographic service, Naomi McLean decided there were not enough qualified stenographers and secretaries. She set about educating some.
She now operates a business school equipped with all modern machines, plus a piano, and offering a complete secretarial course. A Registered Public Stenographer, the only RPS in Winston-Salem, Miss McLean has continued her public stenographic work, and does an ever-increasing volume of it…”