Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Items containing Social Security Numbers (all folders in Box 11 and Folders 1-3 in Box 12) will not be served. Instead, redacted photocopies will be served.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Southern Aid Society of Virginia. Records, 1893-1977. Accession 36805. Business Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Atlanta Life Insurance, 216 East Clay Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219 on 13 September 1999.

Historical Information

In early 1893, a handful of men in Richmond, Virginia organized the Southern Aid and Insurance Company in an effort both to furnish adequate and affordable insurance protection to African-Americans and to promote jobs for unemployed black youth. Chartered on February 25, 1893, Southern Aid and Insurance was the United States' first black owned and operated insurance company. The company founders chose Z.D. Lewis (1859-1926), pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Richmond, to head the corporation and R. Louis Brown as vice president. The other founding officers and board members were W.G. Carter, Charles Johnson, Jr., W.A. Payne, John E. Taylor, and W.R. Coots.

While the founding members had the insight to realize the possibilities of an insurance society for African-Americans, the business initially lacked the spectacular features of the highly popular fraternal orders and morally established church societies of the 1890's and early 20th century. After nearly a decade of slow growth and moderate profits, company leaders acted to reverse the stagnant business trends and modest cash influx. They replaced the company president Armistead Washington, a local fraternal order organizer and sympathizer, with prominent Hanover County banker and businessman, A.D. Price. Under Price's leadership the Southern Aid and Insurance Company became the Southern Aid Society of Virginia, Inc., a move intended to exploit the popularity of fraternal orders and beneficial societies. With a new president and a new name, the company eventually prospered and expanded with infant branches in other Virginia towns. By 1937 the company employed more than 300 black men and women in branches in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Despite its prominence as the first African-American insurance company, few have written about the Southern Aid Society of Virginia or its members after 1940. While some studies highlight the business' place in local Richmond history or its position as an entrepreneurial endeavor during the period of the beneficial societies and fraternal orders, no comprehensive study of the Southern Aid Society of Virginia exists. Little also was written in the late 1980's when the company's building at 214 E. Clay Street (and presumably the Southern Aid Society of Virginia itself) was bought by the Atlanta Life Insurance Company.

Scope and Contents

The Southern Aid Society of Virginia business records contain 67 boxes of material ranging from 1893-1977 and arranged in five series. Series I consists of executive committee meeting minutes; Series II is employee records; Series III is financial account records and correspondence; Series IV contains policyholder records and correspondence; and Series V consists of memorabilia and miscellaneous material. The types of material found in those five series are minutes, ledgers, correspondence, claims, policies, invoices, receipts, applications, manuals, lists, registers, annual statements, and memorabilia.

This material provides the researcher with an invaluable resource regarding the ongoing corporate affairs of the premier African-American insurance company in the United States. Executive committee meeting minutes ledgers in Series I document the monthly decision-making process of the company think-tank for much of the period between 1910-1934 and for a smaller period between 1954-1958. In Series III annual statements spanning from 1906-1929 record the monetary growth of the company from the time of the business' name change to the Great Depression. Also in Series III company financial records help fill the years missed by the annual statements by detailing the financial dynamics of this prosperous insurance business. Series III also includes correspondence and invoices that trace some of the stock and bond investments made by the company. Also a few folders of correspondence and receipts in Series III concerns the company's decision to invest their modest profits in the redesign and renovation of their permanent business location at 214 East Clay Street.

Aside from the records' obvious worth as an economic research resource, the collection also helps to document the social effect of the Southern Aid Society on the black community in Richmond's Jackson Ward district and in other Virginia and Mid-Atlantic black communities. Employee and employment records and ledgers in Series II provide evidence of company hiring practices, the demographic make-up of the Southern Aid Society of Virginia staff, and evidence of agents' work ethics, earning power, spending habits, and even religious affiliation. Policyholder records and correspondence in Series IV contain social characteristics and demographic data for the larger black community from 1894-1914. The entire collection of ledgers and other papers authenticates not only the rise of entrepreneurial insurance enterprise in Virginia but the development of a financially self-supporting black community first in Richmond and then throughout the Mid-Atlantic United States.

Organization

Organized into the following series: I: Executive Committee Meeting Minutes. II. Employee Records. III. Financial and Investment Account Records and Correspondence. IV. Policyholder Records and Correspondence. V. Memorabilia Miscellaneous.

Index Terms

• Annual reports.
• Business records-- Virginia.
• Corporate minutes.
• Employees' manuals.
• Insurance agents--Virginia--19th century.
• Insurance agents--Virginia--20th century.
• Insurance claims--Virginia- -20th century.
• Insurance claims.
• Insurance companies--Virginia-- Richmond--20th century.
• Insurance companies--Virginia--Richmond--19th century.
• Insurance policies--Virginia-- 20th century.
• Insurance policies--Virginia--19th century.
• Insurance policies.
• Insurance records.
• Ledgers.
• Letters (correspondence)
• Richmond (Va.)--History--19th century.
• Richmond (Va.)--History--20th century.
• Second Baptist Church of Richmond (Va.)
• Southern Aid and Insurance Company of Virginia (Richmond, Va.)