Name Charles Spaulding | Role Business person | |
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Education Tuskegee University, Clark Atlanta University | ||
YSNH News: Charles Clinton Spaulding
Charles Clinton Spaulding (August 1, 1874 – August 1, 1952) was a prominent business leader who founded North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became America's largest black-owned business, with assets of over US$ 40 million at his death.
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Biography
Spaulding was born Columbus County, North Carolina to Benjamin Mack Spaulding, Senior (1845-1921) and Margaret Ann Virginia Moore (1849-1920).
He started out as a dishwasher and later, general manager of a grocery company when John Merrick, a progressive barber, and A. M. Moore, a practicing physician, thought of an idea of an insurance company in 1899 (then named North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association) and enlisted Spaulding as general manager.
Spaulding provided leadership in the National Negro Insurance Association and the National Negro Bankers Association by 1920. In 1942 the New York Chamber of Commerce, mainly a white body, elected him to membership. He served as a trustee for Howard University, Shaw University, and North Carolina College.
He was also active in politics. As national chairman of the Urban League's Emergency Advisory Council from 1930 to 1939, he campaigned to secure New Deal jobs for African-Americans.
Spaulding died on his 78th birthday in Durham, North Carolina.
Awards and honors
In 1926 Spaulding was awarded the Harmon Foundation Gold Medal for distinguished achievement in business. Shaw University, Tuskegee Institute and Atlanta University conferred honorary Doctorates of Law on him.