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2. Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White, x.

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4. Sociologists have attempted to link sociocultural factors to varying degrees of entrepreneurship among ethnic groups. For a summary of this scholarship, see Aldrich, Howard E. and Waldinger, Roger, “Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship,” Annual Review of Sociology 16 (1990): 111–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For studies asserting that the African American community lacked the necessary characteristics to support a vibrant business tradition, see Light, Ivan, Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bonacich, Edna, “A Theory of Middleman Minorities,” American Sociological Review 38 (October 1972): 583–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilson, Kenneth and Martin, W. Allen, “Ethnic Enclaves: A Comparison of the Cuban and Black Economies in Miami,” American Journal of Sociology 88 (July 1982): 135–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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7. Histories of black-owned insurance companies include Puth, Supreme Life; Weems, Black Business in the Black Metropolis; Weare, Black Business in the New South; Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company; Stuart, M. S., An Economic Detour: A History of Insurance in the Lives of American Negroes (College Park, Md., 1969)Google Scholar; Trent, “Development of Negro Life Insurance Enterprises”; Thomas J. Gardner, “Problems in the Development of Financial Institutions Among Negroes” (D.B.A diss., New York University, 1958); Winfred Octavus Bryson Jr., “Negro Life Insurance Companies: A Comparative Analysis of the Operating and Financial Experience of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1947); David Abner, “Some Aspects of the Growth of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies” (D.B.A. diss., Indiana University, 1962).

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10. Trent, “Development of Negro Life Insurance Enterprises,” 15–18.

11. Walker, History of Black Business in America, 216–17, 226; Light, Ethnic Enterprise in America, 159; Cohen, Making a New Deal, 150–51.

12. Abner, “Some Aspects of the Growth of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies,” 62; Life Insurance Fact Book(New York, 1940).

13. Klein, Jennifer, For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public-Private Welfare State (Princeton, 2003), 16–52Google Scholar, 210–11; Hacker, Jacob S., The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (New York, 2002), 93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 200–201, 306. For statistical data that document black insurance companies’ deteriorating growth rates, see Abner, “Some Aspects of the Growth of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies,” 62; Life Insurance Fact Book(New York, 1960).

14. Abner, “Some Aspects of the Growth of Negro Legal Reserve Life Insurance Companies,” 91–92; Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company, 157–58. One black-operated insurance company was permitted to participate in the Federal Employee Benefits Program.

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17. For examples of church groups, fraternal associations, and mutual aid societies that North Carolina Mutual turned away, see Ralph Riley to C.C. Spaulding, 28 June 1939; E. M. Bella to A. T. Spaulding, 14 November 1940; A. T. Spaulding to S. S. Abrams, “Insurance for Members of Corinth Baptist Church,” 10 February 1941; A. T. Spaulding to W. H. Headen, 28 August 1941; A. T. Spaulding to Charles N. Ford, 12 August 1942; A. T. Spaulding to C. W. Moore, 8 December 1942; A. T. Spaulding to F. I. Neiderer, 21 April 1944; A. T. Spaulding to J. W. Windham, 19 November 1946; all in Box NCM-29, Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers (Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham) (hereafter Spaulding Papers).

For examples of small black enterprises that North Carolina Mutual rejected for group coverage because of state laws requiring a certain number of employees, see A. T. Spaulding to J. B. Danes, “Insurance for Hub Laundry Corporation,” 10 February 1941; A. T. Spaulding to A. J. Clement Jr., “Group Insurance for Booking Agency for Dance Orchestra Employees,” 15 April 1941; A. T. Spaulding to Joseph Connelly, 11 August 1941; A. T. Spaulding to J. D. Lewis, 2 June 1943; all in Box NCM-29, Spaulding Papers.

18. Asa Spaulding, “Life Insurance Operations Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” 24 June 1948, Box AWS-9; N. H. Bennett Jr., “Let’s Design the Product to Fit Today’s Market,” 21 March 1962, Box AI-20; Richard W. Foster, “Statistical Report for Year Ending Dec. 31, 1960,” National Insurance Association, Box AI-19; Harold J. Whalum, “National Insurance Association Actuary’s Report,” 31 December 1960, Box AI-19; all in Spaulding Papers.

19. Lewis, J. Leonard, “The President’s Annual Address,” Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Session of the National Negro Insurance Association, 21–24 September 1953, Miami, 61–70.Google Scholar

20. N. H. Bennett Jr. to the Board of Directors of the National Negro Insurance Association, 15 September 1952, Box AI–19, Spaulding Papers; Dickerson, Earl B., “Problems and Responsibilities in a Changing Economic and Social Order,” Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 20–23 July 1964, Philadelphia, 35–37Google Scholar; Bennett, N. H. Jr., “Report of the Reinsurance Committee,” Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 20–23 July 1964, Philadelphia, 42–43.Google Scholar

21. See note 4.

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27. Henderson, “Preliminary Report,” 16–17. See also Weems, Black Business in the Black Metropolis, 115; Robert P. Lyons, “Developing Manpower and Markets,” 94–101; Mauck, Fred A., “Trends in Marketing and Sales,” Proceedings of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 21–24 July 1974, Chicago, 56Google Scholar; Walker, S. W., “Golden Opportunities for Insurance Industry,” Proceedings of the Fiftieth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 20–23 July 1970, Richmond, 88–93Google Scholar; Houston, Ivan J., “Agency System: Endangered Species?” The Pilot 26 (Spring 1977): 7–8Google Scholar, 17; Davis, J. Mason, “An Overview of the Program,” The Pilot 30 (Summer 1980): 14Google Scholar. The NIA published The Pilot.

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31. B. T. Bradshaw to Board of Trustees, 12 November 1958; “Virginia Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Weekly Bulletin,” no. 1234, 12 November 1956 for quote; B. T. Bradshaw to the Board of Trustees, 11 October 1960; 17 September 1963; 15 January 1964; “Virginia Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Weekly Bulletin,” no. 1630, 17 June 1964; all in Bazile Papers. North Carolina Mutual purchased Virginia Mutual in the 1980s.

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33. Puth, Supreme Life, 146–47, 157–58, 169–71; Chambers, Jason, Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry (Philadelphia, 2009)Google Scholar, chap. 1; Newman, “The Forgotten Fifteen Million,” 115–35; Lewis, “The President’s Annual Address,” 61–70; Martin, Dan B., “Annual Report of Agency Section Chairman,” Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Session of the National Negro Insurance Association, 1–3 September 1954, Durham, 115–19.Google Scholar

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37. Asa T. Spaulding to Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors, 8 January 1940, Box NCM-54, Spaulding Papers; Asa T. Spaulding, “Is the Future of Private Enterprise Being Jeopardized?” April 1947, Box AWS-8, Spaulding Papers; Gilliam, H. A., “The Road Ahead: An Introspective Look at Agency Management,” Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Session of the National Negro Insurance Association, 1–3 September 1954, Durham, 138Google Scholar; Thompson, Donald, “Report of Region I,” Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 21–24 July 1969, Miami Beach, 43Google Scholar; Hamrick, William J., “This I Believe,” Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Session of the National Negro Insurance Association, 21–24 September 1953, Miami, 76.Google Scholar

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40. Young, Whitney M., Beyond Racism: Building an Open Society (New York, 1969), 90–94Google Scholar, 116–18, 153, esp. 80; Weiss, Nancy J., Whitney M. Young, Jr., and the Struggle for Civil Rights (Princeton, 1989)Google Scholar; Skrentny, Ironies of Affirmative Action, 31–33.

41. King, Martin Luther Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (New York, 1964), 137–38Google Scholar, esp. 134; Dyson, Michael Eric, I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York, 2000).Google Scholar

42. Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White. Similarly, Katznelson employs a broad interpretation of affirmative action. Today, we use a narrower definition of the term “affirmative action” to signify programs for individuals in the job market and higher education. This usage reflects history, in that mainstream civil rights leaders won the argument about how to redress economic inequality, namely, through integration into the white economy rather than through black-operated institutions.

43. This account challenges the assertion that affirmative-action programs were primarily initiated by Washington, D.C., elites. Part of the reason for this different interpretation is my more expansive characterization of affirmative action. For traditional narratives that stress affirmative action as a top-down process, see Graham, Hugh Davis, “The Origins of Affirmative Action: Civil Rights and the Regulatory State,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 523 (September 1992), 50–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Graham, , The Civil Rights Era: Origins and Development of National Policy, 1960–1972 (New York, 1990), 40–43Google Scholar; Skrentny, Ironies of Affirmative Action, 4–5; Kevin L. Yuill, Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action: The Pursuit of Racial Equality in an Era of Limits(New York, 2006); and Kotlowski, Dean, Nixon’s Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy (Cambridge, Mass., 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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48. Weems, Black Business in the Black Metropolis, 106–7. See also Weare, Black Business in the New South, 2nd ed., 282–84.

49. Weems and Randolph, “National Response to Richard M. Nixon’s Black Capitalism Initiative”; Innis, Roy, “Separatist Economics: A New Social Contract,” in Black Economic Development, ed. Haddad, William F. and Pugh, G. Douglas (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1969), 50–59Google Scholar; Ofari, The Myth of Black Capitalism; McCartney, John T., Black Power Ideologies (Philadelphia, 1992)Google Scholar, chaps. 7–10; Van Deburg, William L., New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965–1975 (Chicago, 1992), 116–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Allen, Robert L., Black Awakening in Capitalist America (Garden City, N.Y., 1969), 17–20Google Scholar, 119, 155–57.

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55. Charles A. Davis to Asa T. Spaulding, 9 December 1968; Charles A. Davis to Donald C. Stow, 9 December 1968; Charles A. Davis to Asa T. Spaulding, 7 August 1969; all in Box AI-23, Spaulding Papers.

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58. Kotlowski, “Black Power—Nixon Style,” 427; Charles A. Davis to Blake T. Newton, “Institute of Life Insurance,” 12 March 1969, Box AI-23, Spaulding Papers; Charles A. Davis, “Executive Director’s Report,” Proceedings of the Fiftieth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 20–23 July 1970, Richmond, 115–17; “Joint Conference on Company Problems,” 21 January 1970, Box AI-20, Spaulding Papers; L. R. Taylor, “President’s Report,” 36–44; “Report of the Joint Conference on Company Problems,” Proceedings of the Fifty-First Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 26–29 July 1971, Detroit, 132–34.

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62. Weems, Black Business in the Black Metropolis, 110; Weare, Black Business in the New South, 284–85; Goodloe, “A Black-Operated Firm,” 710–15; “Westinghouse and Black Insurance,” Wall Street Journal, 27 September 1972, 35; Alexander Auerbach, “Old Idea Pays Off for Black Insurance Firm,” Los Angeles Times, 5 December 1976, Il; “Black Firms to Share MIT Life Insurance Business,” The Pilot25 (June 1976): 4.

63. Croft, “The President’s Annual Message,” 62–66; Kotlowski, “Black Power—Nixon Style,” 430–32; Duker and Hughes, “The Black-Owned Life Insurance Company,” 227; “New Minority Technology Clearing House Announced,” The Pilot25 (August 1976): 14.

64. Davis, Edward D., “Five Billion Dollar Group Insurance Program,” Proceedings of the Fifty-Sixth Annual Session, 18–21 July 1976, New Orleans, 24.Google Scholar

65. The MESBIC program was created through the Small Investment Act Amendments of 1972. Kotlowski, “Black Power—Nixon Style,” 423, 427; Richard Nixon, “Special Message to Congress Urging Expansion of the Minority Business Enterprise Program,” 13 October 1971, Public Papers of the Presidents: Nixon (Washington, D.C., 1971), vol. 37, 1041–46; Charles A. Davis, “Executive Director’s Report,” 115–17; “MESBICs: Comforted by Legislative Bandages, the Program May Yet Recover,” Black Enterprise 3 (January 1973): 19–22; “Federal Programs for Financing Minority Business,” December 1978, Box 3, Subject Files of Faye P. Hewlett, Records of the Department of Treasury, RG 56 (National Archives, College Park, Md.) (hereafter NARA); “An Outline Proposal for a Development Company to Assist Minority-Owned Insurance Companies,” Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 21–24 July 1969, Miami Beach, 124–25; Davis, Charles A., “Report of the NIA Executive Director,” Proceedings of the Fifty-Third Annual Session, 22–25 July 1973, Atlanta, 52–54Google Scholar; “President’s Address by Edward D. Davis,” Proceedings of the Fifty-Sixth Annual Session, 18–21 July 1976, New Orleans, 23–24.

66. Imbriano, Robert, “OMBE: The Sound of One Hand Clapping,” Black Enterprise 8 (June 1978): 87–93Google Scholar, 188–190; Poole, Isaiah J., “If Acronyms Could Cure,” Black Enterprise 10 (June 1980): 101–8Google Scholar; “Commerce Undersecretary Harman Outlines New Initiatives for Minority Business,” NBA News Report(June 1977), Box 3, Subject Files of Faye P. Hewlett, Records of the Department of Treasury, RG 56, NARA for quote.

Additional obstacles hindered the success of federal programs. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and OMBE hampered the effectiveness of minority aid by engaging in turf battles throughout the 1970s. Within the SBA, frequent scandals infected the minority loan program: federal money found its way to politically connected cronies, the mafia, and businesses that only existed on paper. The SBA’s 8(a) plan also drew political fire as most agencies tasked with assigning government contracts to minority businesses “gave a great deal of lip service to the program” but fell short of making a “total commitment.” See Jonathan Bean, Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration(Lexington, 2001), chaps. 5 and 6; Alex Armendaris to the Secretary, “Status Report of SBA/OMBE Coordination Effort,” 6 May 1974, Executive Secretariat’s Subject File, Records of the Department of Commerce, RG 40, NARA; Gerald Marks to John K. Tabor, 29 October 1974, Executive Secretariat’s Subject File, Records of the Department of Commerce, RG 40, NARA.

67. Farmer, James, “Speech at President’s Banquet,” Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 21–24 July 1969, Miami Beach, 114–16Google Scholar; “Report of Urban Affairs Committee,” Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association,21–24 July 1969, Miami Beach, 49–51.

68. “Text of Remarks by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson,” Proceedings of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Session of the National Insurance Association, 21–24 July 1974, Chicago, 65. See also R. C. W. Perry to A. T. Spaulding, 9 March 1948, “Summary of Activity Relating to Group Insurance and Group Annuity Contracts,” Box NCM-54; North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, “News Release,” 12 January 1961, Box AWS-5; The Actuarial Department to Asa T. Spaulding, “Information for Report to Policyholders,” 5 January 1968, Box NCM-20; all in Spaulding papers.

69. At the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, the black insurance industry was further challenged by political and regulatory attacks on industrial life insurance. Consumer advocates claimed that industrial coverage exploited the poor because high administrative costs meant that subscribers reaped a low benefits to cost ratio. In response, some states increased regulations on industrial life insurance products. “Industrial and Small Policy Home Service Ordinary Life Insurance,” The Pilot 30 (Fall 1980): 2, 22–23; “The Legislative and Regulatory Outlook for 1981,” The Pilot 31 (Summer 1981): 8–10; Hill, George E., “President’s Page,” The Pilot 31 (Summer 1981): 2, 19Google Scholar; Hiltz, Starr Roxanne, “Why Black Families Own Less Life Insurance,” Journal of Risk and Insurance 38 (June 1971): 225–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Isaacs and Barbour, “The Only Color That Matters Is Green,” 10–12.