Spaulding, C. C. (Charles Clinton Spaulding), 1874–1952, African-American insurance executive, b. Columbus co., N.C. In 1900, Spaulding, who had previously worked as a grocery-store manager and part-time insurance salesman, was hired to manage what became the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, then a fledging African-American-owned insurance business. Bringing the Durham-based insurer first to viability and then expanding it to nearby states, he became its vice president (1908), secretary-treasurer (1919), and then its president (1923). Also a civic leader and community activist, he was a prominent member of the National Negro Business League, founded by Booker T. Washington and committed to black economic independence as a means to racial equality. Spaulding ran the insurance company, which the became the largest black-owned business in the United States, until his death.
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