Turner, Viola Mitchell

Impact on the world

Built a multi-decade career at North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, headquartered on Durham's Parrish Street, a thoroughfare known as Black Wall Street, rising from an entry-level cashier-clerk position to senior financial leadership within the company.

Life & background

Born in Macon, Georgia, and educated at the business school of Morris Brown College, Turner began her career as a cashier-clerk at North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company's Oklahoma City branch in 1920 before moving to the company's Durham, North Carolina headquarters on Parrish Street in 1924, a thoroughfare known as Black Wall Street, where she rose through the ranks over a multi-decade career in financial leadership.

Sources

1. Columbia University Press Blog (Five African American Women Pioneers in U.S. Finance); ACRES Capital (Viola M. Turner biography)