The CDU Advantage Pillars: Part I, Social Justice( continued)
Neighborhood Move-In, ca. 1948( photo by Gilbert Dwoyid Olmstead) near the corner of Vernon and Central Avenues
Life and Health Association( OLHA) that was incorporated by the State on April 12, 1935. The OLHA founded a TB sanitarium that opened its doors to anyone in need regardless of race or ability to pay. By the early 1950s, with TB largely under control, the OLHA turned to building affordable housing.
Legendary architect Paul Williams designed the first facility, and Dr. H. Claude Hudson, founder of Broadway Federal Savings and Loan, secured the financing. In tribute to Dr. Stovall’ s work, the organization’ s name was changed to the Stovall Foundation. Sadly, Dr. Stovall died in 1956, two months before the opening of that first facility. Dr. Stovall had a tie to King / Drew through his son-in-law, Dr. Theodore Brooks.( Full disclosure: I am the current President of the Stovall Foundation).
In the mid-1920s, when William Nickerson Jr., an insurance salesman and publisher from Texas arrived in Los Angeles, he was alarmed to discover that most of the 16,000 blacks living in the city were unable to obtain life insurance. Unable to afford an attorney, Nickerson studied law to determine the state’ s requirements to form a corporation to accommodate this need. He partnered with fellow insurance salesman Norman O. Houston and businessman George A. Beavers Jr. to secure 500 pre-paid life insurance applications as well as the $ 15,000 deposit required by the State of California. Houston raised the $ 15,000 and Beavers found 500 Black people that would pay premiums for a company that was yet to be established.
On July 23, 1925, they opened as the Golden State Guarantee Fund Insurance Company in a one-room office at 1435 Central Avenue with few amenities and $ 17,800 in capital. Within three months the company had outgrown its office and moved to a storeroom at 3512 Central Avenue. By the end of its first year the company had established an office in Oakland which sold more than $ 260,000 in policies and had $ 6,000 in reserves and a surplus of over $ 16,000. Within three years, Golden State Insurance had over 100 employees including sixty agents as well as branches in Pasadena, Bakersfield, San Diego, and Fresno.
The name was changed to Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1931, and by the end of the 1930s, assets had grown up to $ 437,000 with $ 6 million in policies. In 1938 they set up operations in Illinois and in 1944 they opened a branch in Texas. By the end of World War II, assets stood at $ 2 million, surplus funds at $ 750,000, and they had nearly $ 24 million in policies.
When the company’ s founder William Nickerson Jr. died in 1945, Houston became president and Beavers was elevated to board chairman. Under the new leadership, the company continued its expansion. Eventually Golden State Mutual had offices in 14 states with over $ 4 billion in policies.
In 1949, Golden State Mutual opened its new headquarters at 1999 West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles, which was designed by Paul Williams As a major institution within the Black community, representatives of Golden State Mutual were active in the civil rights movement.( Source: Wikipedia)
Restrictive housing covenants and the conventional redlining activity by lenders beginning in the 1930s were the death knell of so many African American hopes and dreams. The excuse for such covenants was allegedly a housing shortage that was acknowledged by the federal lending agencies. The reality of both de facto and de jure discrimination remained in effect
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 24