The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago

Anthony Overton and the Building of a Financial Empire

Robert E. Weems Jr.

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780252084935
  9780252043062
• eBook ISBN:
  9780252051920
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Business Biographies
• Index: History

Born to enslaved parents, Anthony Overton became one of the leading African American entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Overton's Chicago-based empire ranged from personal care products and media properties to insurance and finance. Yet, despite success and acclaim as the first business figure to win the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, Overton remains an enigma.

Robert E. Weems Jr. restores Overton to his rightful place in American business history. Dispelling stubborn myths, he traces Overton's rise from mentorship by Booker T. Washington, through early failures, to a fateful move to Chicago in 1911. There, Overton started a popular magazine aimed at African American women that helped him dramatically grow his cosmetics firm. Overton went on to become the first African American to head a major business conglomerate, only to lose significant parts of his businesses—and his public persona as "the merchant prince of his race&#8221—in the Depression, before rebounding once again in the early 1940s.

Revealing and panoramic, The Merchant Prince of Black Chicago weaves the fascinating life story of an African American trailblazer through the eventful history of his times.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Anthony Overton’s Early Life: Myth versus Reality
• 2. A Star Is Born: Initial Years in Chicago
• 3. The Half-Century Magazine: 1916–1925
• 4. Business Titan: The Douglass National Bank and the Victory Life Insurance Company
• 5. What Goes Up Must Come Down: The Impact of the Great Depression
• Epilogue: Final Years and Legacy
• Appendix A: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Appendix B: Atlanta Life Insurance Company
• Appendix C: Liberty Life Insurance Company
• Appendix D: Victory Life Insurance Company
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover