Dickerson, Earl B.
1891-1986 · Contribution: 1940s-1970s
Served as president of Supreme Life Insurance Company, one of the largest Black-owned insurance firms in the nation

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Impact on the world
Led Supreme Life Insurance Company through decades of growth following the Great Depression, building it into the third-largest Black life insurance company in the country by the 1960s, with over $33 million in assets and $208 million of insurance in force by 1965.
Life & background
A lawyer and civil rights advocate, Dickerson served as president of Supreme Life Insurance Company, guiding the firm through a period of substantial post-Depression growth that made it the third-largest Black-owned life insurance company in the United States, with assets exceeding $33 million and over $208 million in insurance in force by 1965.
Sources
- Business History Review (Supreme Life: The History of a Negro Life Insurance Company, 1919-1962); National Park Service
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