Atlanta Life Insurance
272 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:15 Aug 2003
ISBN:9780817350451
Atlanta Life Insurance
Guardian of Black Economic Dignity
University of Alabama Press
An important and richly detailed and researched history of Black entrepreneurship in the American South, Atlanta Life Insurance Company traces the inspiring success story of Black Americans to build and sustain a thriving business and an institution important to the Black population of Georgia and surrounding states.
Efforts to develop an economic base within the Black community began even before the Civil War. These efforts gained new meaning in the post-Reconstruction period as Blacks strove to adapt to radically changing economic circumstances and the emergence of the Jim Crow South. In Atlanta, shortly after the turn of the century, Alonzo Franklin Herndon, a former slave, joined a long line of Black entrepreneurs by creating Atlanta Life Insurance Company. More than three-quarters of a century later, it remains an important enterprise that is the nation’s largest Black-controlled shareholder insurance company. The firm is today a significant example of the efforts of Black Americans to achieve economic independence and dignity in America.
Efforts to develop an economic base within the Black community began even before the Civil War. These efforts gained new meaning in the post-Reconstruction period as Blacks strove to adapt to radically changing economic circumstances and the emergence of the Jim Crow South. In Atlanta, shortly after the turn of the century, Alonzo Franklin Herndon, a former slave, joined a long line of Black entrepreneurs by creating Atlanta Life Insurance Company. More than three-quarters of a century later, it remains an important enterprise that is the nation’s largest Black-controlled shareholder insurance company. The firm is today a significant example of the efforts of Black Americans to achieve economic independence and dignity in America.
Henderson's fascinating book reveals the historic roots of Atlanta Life, its economic growth and development as a Black-owned institution, and its social and economic involvement with the challenges and progress of Black America.
Henderson's ten-year labor of love produces a story of one of the most stable and conscientious black enterprises around. Too few black historians take up the charge to chronicle black economic development that began during the late 1890s and early 1900s.' —William G. Pickens, Morehouse College
Alexa Benson Henderson is Professor of History and Chair of the Division of General Education at Clark College.
