Gillespie, Frank L.

1876–1925 · Contribution: 1919

Founded Liberty Life Insurance Company, the first Black-controlled legal reserve insurance company in the northern United States

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Impact on the world

Gillespie brought legal-reserve insurance, real, regulated financial protection, to Black Northerners on fair terms for the first time, seeding an institution that anchored Black economic life in Chicago for decades.

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    Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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