1901 1941 Fortieth Anniversary Afro-American Life Insurance Co. [wrapper title]

[N.p., likely Jacksonville, Fl., 1941. [4],61,[2]pp. Original pictorial wrappers, stapled. Substantial creasing, rubbing, dust-soiling, and overall wear to wrappers. Faint foxing and spotting to initial and terminal leaves, but mostly clean internally. Very good. A rare pamphlet celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, an important African-American-owned-and-operated insurance company in Florida.  The work includes reproductions of congratulatory letters to the company from Florida governor Spessard Holland and others, portraits and information on the company’s founders, passages on the history of the company, information on the successes of the company’s current operations, and more.  The work is interspersed throughout with a legion of photographs showing the company at work, scenes from various branch offices, the company’s Funeral Services Division, and so forth.

"Florida's First African-American Insurance Company -1901-2001.  The Afro-American Insurance Company, formerly the Afro-American Industrial and Benefits Association, was founded in 1901 to provide affordable health insurance and death benefits to the state's African-Americans.  Founded by the Reverend E.J. Gregg, E.W. Latson, Abraham Lincoln Lewis, A.W. Price, Dr. Arthur W. Smith, J.F. Valentine, and the Reverend J. Melton Waldron, the Afro's first office at 14 Ocean Street was destroyed by the great Jacksonville Fire two months after it opened on May 3, 1901.  It then moved to 621 Florida Avenue, the home of treasurer and future president, Abraham Lincoln Lewis (1865-1947).  From their next home office at 105 E. Union Street, the company wrote millions of dollars of insurance policies and started district offices in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas..." -  Historical marker at the site of the company's original location in Jacksonville.

OCLC reports just two copies, at Howard and the University of North Florida.