The Southern Aid and Insurance Company is an insurance company that was founded in 1893, 28 years after the end of the American Civil War, by a group of black men (American men of African ancestry) in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. The purpose was to furnish adequate and affordable insurance protection to African-Americans. The company was the first chartered insurance company organized by blacks in the United States and had the distinction of being the oldest black owned and operated insurance company in the nation. It was also the largest African-American insurance company in the United States at one time. The company's name was later changed to the Southern Aid Society of Virginia which was the forerunner of the Southern Aid Life Insurance Company that sold

Life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

. The Company's first President was Z. D. Lewis (1859–1926). The company wrote insurance for industrial life, accident and sick benefits insurance. They were licensed in New Jersey, Virginia and District of Columbia, and had offices in Alexandria, Bristol, Charlottesville, Danville, Farmville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Richmond, Roanoke, Saluda, Suffolk, Winchester, Virginia; and Washington, D.C. The insurance company purchased

John Mitchell, Jr. John Mitchell Jr. (July 11, 1863 – December 3, 1929) was an American businessman, newspaper editor, African American civil rights activist, and politician in Richmond, Virginia, particularly in Richmond's Jackson Ward, which became known as ...

's Mechanics Savings Bank building on Clay Street in 1930. The bank had closed in 1922. In the late 1980s the building, at 212 E. Clay Street, and presumably the company itself, was bought by the

Atlanta Life The Atlanta Life Financial Group was founded by Alonzo Herndon in Atlanta, Georgia. Born into slavery, he started in Atlanta as a young barber, eventually owning three shops. He became Atlanta's richest African American and a highly successful ...

Insurance Company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Aid And Insurance Company Financial services companies established in 1893 Insurance companies of the United States