Racial Desegregation and Black Chicago Business

Using Edward Franklin Frazier’s important 1947 essay “Human, All Too Human: How Some Negroes Have Developed Vested Interests in the System of Racial Segregation” as a reference point; this chapter examines how racial desegregation affected two black Chicago insurance companies, the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company and Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company. Frazier predicted that if racial segregation were eliminated, it would ultimately result in the decline and disappearance of African American enterprises. As the evidence indicates, Professor Frazier proved to be a fairly accurate prophet in this regard. Some of the city’s long-standing African American firms, including the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company and the Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company, have, indeed, been removed from the landscape of American business.