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Anderson Schweich ...... (Continued from page 12.)
tions and other money-producing com
modities—directly in the hands of the white
business community.
These assets alone, if even reasonably
shared specifically for the proportionate
benefit of black Americans, would bring all
segments of the black economy “at least to
the edge of the stream.” Schweich, a firm
believer in the private sector of the eco
nomy holds that “Realistically the rich and
the major private corporations are directly
aided by government more than are
others—including the nation’s poor and its
major black minority.” “It is realism and
not opportunism or favoritism which
decrees that new and responsibly super
large investments Tie placed with black
business on the part of government, simply
to offset, to a minimally workable degree,
the total assets which have been shared with
white business for more than a century and
a half.” In Schweich’s mind, this is not
, self-interest but self-protection for
blacks. . and for a balanced, orderly and
potentially peaceable economy geared
toward optimum progress.
In this same connection, leaders of a
wide spectrum of black economic life have
felt that the time has come for black busi
ness leaders to come together and to place
before the President and the Congress a
black economic “Bill of Rights” which will
alter, for the good of the nation as a whole,
the self-perpetuating pattern of excluding
blacks from the “no cost” economic bene
' fits of government alone historically shared
entirely by the white business community.
“This is of the highest priority, as a part of
what we must do for ourselves to protect
ourselves from the ultimate ‘logic ol
extinction’ which we now face in a non
integrated business climate,” Schweich
holds.
Another immediate route is for govern
ment to require equitable participation of
all white corporations with black business
of all types—including insurance. And, for
re-insurance by white-owned insurance
companies.
Corporate Cooperation
Some white businessmen and national
corporations have been urged successfully
to take a thoroughly positive leadership
position in ceding employees group in
surance programs to black insurance com
panies. While good in intent, Schweich
notes, such programs fail to supply a
necessary ingredient for capital accumula
tion: that is, premium income.
Schweich and others like Ernesta
Bowman (Procope) of the prestigious and
highly-successful Bowman Procopes Asso
ciates in New York City agree that in order
for such a corporate spirit to be ultimately
or optimally beneficial to black insurance
firms, a combination of ingredients are
i needed:
1. Direct placement of employee benefit
plans with black insurance companies.
», (This would make the major corporations
. into effectively non-predatory partners or
“cost-free” benefactors of the black com
munity from which many of its assets are,
and long have been, derived.)
2. Set-aside programs covering a per
centage of the total employee benefits pro
grams. (The spirit of current minority en
terprise legislation and executive orders
could make this effort into an immediate
major boost to the black insurance in
dustry.)
3. Co-insured employee benefits plan.
(In New York State for example such a plan
is in effect on a limited basis.) If black em
ployee groups, civil rights agencies and
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government simply required the equitable
investment in black as well as white com
munities, this alone would tend to increase
rather than decrease the number and assets
of black insurance companies.
Final Goal
“In the end,” Schweich notes, “all that
our black insurance industry wants is an
even chance to survive.” This will not come
our way by waiting, Schweich believes.
“The day is late.” he notes, and in fact far
later than we think. We cannot reach our
goals—or even hope to survive—if we do
not have the sense of urgency. Now is the
time to start to generate our survival and
deserved progress.”
For all black Americans, Schweich as
serts, “we must invest proportionately in
our own businesses and do everything
humanly possible to get both government
and private industry to invest in—but not
control —all black business.
Whenever a pension fund or any other
type of investment is brought to our atten
tion, Schweich would have us—almost
instinctively—bear in mind the 37 member
companies of the National Insurance As
sociation. All of us must deal with white
owned companies that demonstrate they
are treating us equitably at all levels. How
ever, blacks working together and creating
their own future which they can control
and benefit from, is thus seen as the major
key to continued growth and progress.
In this spirit, the pioneering, farsighted,
large-purposed and aggresively determined
president of the National Insurance Asso
ciation would have each of us keep near at
hand the following roster of black life in
surance companies. That business is, in the
final analysis, a type of high priority
politics is evident in the challenge with
which Anderson Schweich would leave us
all.
Roster Os Black Life Insurance
Companies
The roster of present black life insurance
companies whose investment and insurance
should be commended to both business and
industry and in which we must also person
ally invest, for the good of our total life,
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New National BLACK MONITOR - March, 1978
follows:
Afro-American Life Insurance Company
Jacksonville, Florida
American Woodmen’s Life
Insurance Company Denver, Colorado
Atlanta Life Insurance Company
Atlanta, Georgia
Benevolent Life Insurance Company
Shreveport, Louisiana
Booker T. Washington Insurance
Company Birmingham, Alabama
Bradford’s Industrial Insurance Company
Birmingham, Alabama
Central Life Insurance Company
of Florida Tampa, Florida
Chicago Metropolitan Mutual
Assurance Company Chicago, Illinois
Christian Benevolent Insurance Co., Inc.
Mobile, Alabama
Gertrude Geddes Willis Life Insurance
Company New Orleans, Louisiana
Golden Circle Life Insurance Company
Brownsville, Tennessee
Golden State Mutual Life Insurance
Company Los Angeles, California
Keystone Life Insurance Company
New Orleans, Louisiana
Lighthouse Life Insurance Company
Shreveport, Louisiana
Lovett’s Life and Burial Insurance
Company Mobile, Alabama
Majestic Life Insurance Company
New Orleans, Louisiana
Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance
Company Louisville, Kentucky
National Service Industrial Life
Insurance Co. New Orleans, Louisiana
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Company Durham, North Carolina
Peoples Life Insurance Company
of Louisiana New Orleans, Louisiana
Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance
Company Augusta, Georgia
Progressive Industrial Life
Insurance Co. New Orleans, Louisiana
Protective Industrial Insurance Company
of America Birmingham, Alabama
Purple Shield Life Insurance Company
Baton Ridge, Louisiana
Reliable Life Insurance Company
Monroe, Louisiana
Security Life Insurance Company
of The South Jackson, Mississippi
Southern Aid Life Insurance Company
Richmond, Virginia
Supreme Life Insurance Company
of America Chicago, Illinois
Union Protective Life Insurance
Company Memphis, Tennessee
United Mutual Life Insurance Company
New York, New York
Unity Life Insurance Company
Mobile, Alabama
Universal Life Insurance Company
Memphis, Tennessee
Virginia Mutual Benefit Life
Insurance Co. Richmond, Virginia
Winnfield Life Insurance Company
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Winston Mutual Life Insurance Company
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Wright Mutual Insurance Company
Detroit, Michigan
Page 13