Gillespie, Frank L.

Impact on the world

After observing the inferior insurance terms routinely offered to Black customers by a white-owned company he worked for, Gillespie founded Liberty Life Insurance Company in Chicago in 1919, the first Black-controlled legal reserve insurance company established in the North; the company later merged into Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company, which grew into one of the nation's largest Black-owned insurance firms.

Life & background

An Arkansas native who worked as an insurance agent in the 'colored department' of the white-owned Royal Life Insurance Company, Gillespie observed firsthand the inferior policy terms offered to Black customers and founded Liberty Life Insurance Company in Chicago in 1919, the first Black-controlled legal reserve insurance company in the northern United States. The company wrote more than $5 million in policies by 1925 and survived the Great Depression, later merging with two other firms in 1929 to form Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company, which grew into one of the largest Black-owned insurance companies in the nation, with the company's historic Chicago headquarters later designated a city landmark.

Sources

1. Gilder Lehrman Institute; Insurance Museum