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Supreme Life: The History of a Negro Life Insurance Company, 1919–1962

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Robert C. Puth
Robert C. Puth
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of New Hampshire
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Abstract

The history of Supreme Life Insurance Company, now the third largest black insurance firm in the United States, is representative of its industry as a whole. In this first study of an individual Negro life insurance firm, Professor Puth suggests that Supreme Life may also serve as a barometer of future trends as black firms compete with larger white companies now being drawn into the formerly segregated market by falling mortality rates and rising incomes among Negroes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , Spring 1969 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1969

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References

1 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports: Consumer Income, Series P-60, No. 52 (Washington, 1967), 3.Google Scholar

2 Abner, David III,“Some Aspects of the Growth of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies, 1930–1960” (D.B.A. thesis, Indiana University, 1962), 65, 172.Google Scholar

3 A. M. Best Company, Best's Life Insurance Reports, 1966 (Philadelphia, 1966).Google Scholar

4 See, for example: Bryson, W. O. Jr., Negro Life Insurance Companies: A Comparative Analysis of the Operating and Financial Experience of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies (Philadelphia, 1948)Google Scholar; Gardner, Thomas J., “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes: Historical Development, Current Trends, and the Future in Business” (D.B.A. thesis, New York University, 1958)Google Scholar; Kinzer, Robert H. and Sagarin, Edward, The Negro in American Business: The Conflict Between Separatism and Integration (New York, 1950)Google Scholar; Stuart, M. S., An Economic Detour: A History of Life Insurance in the Lives of American Negroes (New York, 1950)Google Scholar; and Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies.”

5 Puth, Robert C., “Supreme Life: The History of a Negro Life Insurance Company” (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1967).Google Scholar

6 Interview with James H. Jones, former Treasurer of Supreme Life, June 1965.

7 Institute of Life Insurance, Life Insurance Fact Book, 1966 (New York, 1966), 19.Google Scholar

8 Duncan, Otis D. and Duncan, Beverly, The Negro Population of Chicago: A Study in Residential Succession (Chicago, 1957), 21.Google Scholar

9 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 49.

10 Gardner, “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes,” 104–15.

11 Spear, A. H., Black Chicago (Chicago, 1967), 12.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 158.

13 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago (Chicago, 1922), 102, 165.Google Scholar See also Spear, Black Chicago, 156–7.

14 Duncan and Duncan, The Negro Population of Chicago, 88–91.

15 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago, 362.

16 Kinzer and Sagarin, The Negro in American Business, 130–1. For a stronger and better documented presentation of similar evidence see Sterner, Richard, The Negro's Share: A Study of Income, Housing, and Public Assistance (New York, 1943), 92–4.Google Scholar

17 Institute of Life Insurance, Life Insurance Fact Book, 1966, 95.

18 Bryson, Negro Life Insurance Companies, 7–9; Gardner, “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes,” 26; Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 28–9; Kinzer and Sagarin, The Negro in American Business, 74–5.

19 Spear, Black Chicago, 181–2.

20 Interviews with Earl B. Dickerson, President of Supreme Life, August, 1965, and W. Louis Davis, former salesman of Supreme Life, July, 1965. See also, Liberty Life Insurance Company, “A Golden Opportunity” (Chicago, 1921); and Minutes of the Board of Directors' Meeting, July 9, 1921, Liberty Life Insurance Company, Chicago, Illinois.

21 Liberty Life Insurance Co., “A Golden Opportunity.”

22 Board of Directors' Meeting, Liberty Life Insurance Company, July 9, 1921.

23 Interview with James H. Jones, July, 1965.

24 Interviews with W. Louis Davis, July, 1965, and Earl B. Dickerson, August, 1965.

25 Interview with W. Louis Davis, July, 1965; and Liberty Life Insurance Co., “A Golden Opportunity.”

26 Bryson, Negro Life Insurance Companies, 11–16.

27 Ibid., 17.

28 James, Marquis, The Metropolitan Life: A Study in Business Growth (New York, 1947), 172.Google Scholar

29 See chapter 20 of Stalson, J. O., Marketing Life Insurance: Its History in America (Cambridge, Mass., 1942).Google Scholar

30 Executive Committee Minutes, June 14 and December 6, 1927, Liberty Life Insurance Company.

31 Ibid., February 1, 1924.

32 Best's Life Insurance Reports. See also, Bryson, Negro Life Insurance Companies, 81–2.

33 Directors' Minutes, June 13, October 10, and November 14, 1922, November 1 and 2, 1923; Executive Committee Minutes, August 21, 1925; and Stockholders' Meeting, April 3, 1928, Liberty Life Insurance Company.

34 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

35 Executive Committee Minutes, March 13, 1923, Liberty Life Insurance Company.

36 Ibid., February 13, 1923.

37 For the first thirty years or more of the company's operations, the Executive Committee Minutes include detailed information on all mortgages approved. In this period, the usual rate was 7%.

38 Directors' Minutes, April 3, 1928, Liberty Life Insurance Company.

39 Calculated from Best's Life Insurance Reports.

40 Drake, St. Clair and Cayton, Horace R., Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (New York, 1962), 78–83.Google Scholar

41 Interview with Earl B. Dickerson, August, 1965.

42 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

43 Spear, Black Chicago, 12, 142.

44 Interview with Lloyd B. Wheeler, Secretary of Supreme Life, June, 1965.

45 Executive Committee Minutes, August 21, 1929, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.

46 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 49–50.

47 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

48 Drake & Cayton, Black Metropolis, 214.

49 Sterner, , The Negro's Share, 85–7.Google Scholar

50 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 65.

51 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

52 Interview with Lloyd B. Wheeler, June, 1965.

53 Executive Committee Minutes, October 29, 1932, Supreme Liberty life Insurance Company.

54 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

55 Directors' Minutes, April 24, 1934, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.

56 James, Metropolitan Life, 210.

57 Stockholders' Meeting, April 3, 1934, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company. Only the 50% liens were used.

58 Ibid..

59 Interview with Edward S. Gillespie, Vice-President and Public Relations Director of Supreme Life, June, 1965.

60 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

61 Directors' Minutes, April 3, 1945 and October 7, 1947; Stockholders' Meetings, August 22, 1946 and April 6, 1948, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.

62 Figures computed from Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 65; and Best's Life Insurance Reports.

63 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 81, 88.

64 Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 217.

65 Best's Life Insurance Reports; interview with Lloyd B. Wheeler, July, 1965.

66 Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, 5, 10, 28.

67 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 154–6.

68 Executive Committee Minutes, September 26, 1947, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.

69 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

70 Ibid.. See also Executive Committee Minutes, October 1, 1945.

71 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

72 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 227, for Negro industry; Best's Life Insurance Reports for data on Supreme Liberty Life.

73 Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, appendix, XLIII, L; Duncan and Duncan, The Negro Population, 21.

74 Gardner, “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes,” 62; Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 230.

75 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

76 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 230, for Negro industry; and Best's Life Insurance Reports for data on Supreme Liberty Life.

77 Executive Committee Minutes, May 26, 1944, Supreme Liberty Life. In 1948, Dr. M. O. Bousfield, the Medical Director, died; and W. Ellis Stewart, Secretary of the company since its founding, became seriously ill for two lengthy periods in the late Forties and early Fifties.

78 Fulbright, S. B. Jr., “Training Programs in Negro Life Insurance Companies” (Ph.D. thesis, Ohio State University, 1953), 48–53.Google Scholar

79 Directors' Minutes, October 4, 1953, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.

80 Ibid., April 2, 1957.

81 Directors' Minutes, April 4, 1961; Executive Committee Minutes, March 22, July 18, September 30, 1957, and February 21, 1958, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company.

82 Executive Committee Minutes, January 19, 1962, Supreme Life Insurance Company.

83 Annual Report, 1965, Supreme Life Insurance Company.

84 Directors' Minutes, April 2, 1957; and Executive Committee Minutes, March 22, 1963, Supreme Life Insurance Company.

85 Minutes of the Executive Committee, Board of Directors, and Stockholders' Meetings, Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company and Supreme Life Insurance Company of America, 1955–64. The addition to insurance in force achieved through these transactions depends upon the amount of shrinkage in acquired business. See Puth, “Supreme Life,” Appendix D.

86 Interviews with Lloyd B. Wheeler, July, 1965, and Earl B. Dickerson, August, 1965.

87 Ibid.

88 Best's Life Insurance Reports.

89 Executive Committee Minutes, June 14, 1963, Directors' Minutes, January 7, 1964, Supreme Life Insurance Company.

90 Institute of Life Insurance, Life Insurance Fact Book, 1966, 29–30; Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 65.

91 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 65.

92 Preliminary calculations by theauthor, covering approximately 80 percent of the Negro life insurance industry. Data from Best's Life Insurance Reports.

93 Institute of Life Insurance, Life Insurance Fact Book, 1966, 95.

94 Gardner, “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes,” 56–57.

95 Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 158.

96 Ibid., 230.

97 Ibid., 227.

98 Author's calculations on data from fourteen Negro firms with approximately eighty per cent of all Negro life insurance in force. Data from Best's Life Insurance Reports.

99 Gardner, “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes,” 40. See also Abner, “Aspects of the Growth of Negro Life Insurance Companies,” 190.

100 Stuart, An Economic Detour.