Merrick, John
1859-1919 · Contribution: 1898-1919
Founded the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became the world's largest Black-owned business within its first years
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- Business & Misc.
Impact on the world
Merrick built, from a barber's chair, the institution that anchored Black Durham, a company whose survival through a near-failure first year seeded the wealthiest Black business district in the South.
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