Lewinsohn's Clothing Store

Ralph Ellison was an elevator operator and general help in this store during his high school years in the early 1930s. It was here he received his first real, substantial income as well as a marked improvement in his dress. He formed a strong bond with the owner, Milt Lewinsohn.

Lewisohn’s was owned by Milt Lewisohn, a fashionable though slightly affected white man whose style the young Ellison emulated. The job not only afforded him a way to build the dapper wardrobe he wanted to take with him to Tuskegee but allowed him to count on $16 a summer operating the elevator. Caught in the cross hairs of bigotry even in the atmosphere of a business owned by a fairly progressive Jew, Ellison was stung by a manager’s request to address a white female peer as “Miss” while working the elevator. After Lewisohn caught Ellison reading George Bernard Shaw, he promoted Ellison to assistant window designer. Lewisohn’s long-term effect on Ellison is worth noting. Years later Jewish neighbors in Ellison’s New England home were impressed that he could speak Yiddish. Ellison reported that he had picked it up in Oklahoma City when he was young. Friends often attributed it to the fact that had worked for Jews in Oklahoma City. Ellison expressed, even in jest, an admiration of Jewish tradition, once teasing another Jewish friend, “...ain’t us colored folks got no relationship to Jewish tradition?...[W]e do after all, identify with the Hebrew children.”

Callahan, John F.. Conner, Marc C.. The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison. New York City, New York. Random House, 2019.

Jackson, Lawrence. Ralph Ellison: The Emergence of Genius. New York City, New York. John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

Rampersad, Arnold. Ralph Ellison A Biography. New York City, New York. Vintage, 2007.