Abraham Lincoln Lewis: Business Leaders and Jacksonville's History

Black business and community leaders played a large role in preserving historical documents and building collective memory. Individuals and lay historians often played the largest roles in preserving African American history, a trend common in the American South. Business leaders could provide resources to make such efforts possible.

As seen in Jacksonville's Emancipation Celebrations, black entrepreneurship was highly respected in the city in the early twentieth century. Black business owners demonstrated economic autonomy and self-sufficiency. With the money earned by their own hard work, black people in Jacksonville could create their own spaces which they could patronize without fear of discrimination.  

One person who embodied these ideals was Abraham Lincoln Lewis, the founder and president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company in Jacksonville. His business allowed many black citizens of Jacksonville to purchase insurance which was normally unavailable to them. A leading citizen in Jacksonville, Lewis was also the first black millionaire in Florida. His support was needed to promote and fund such a project.

In this letter, Abraham Lincoln Lewis expresses his support for the History Society for Jacksonville Negroes. He emphasizes the organization's benefits to Jacksonville's African American community younger generation. He wanted young black people to understand the origins of their ancestors, the struggles of their parents and grandparents, and the achievements of black people in spite of racist systems that excluded them. Through letters such as this one, Lewis coordinated with White to organize these efforts, an arrangement which was not uncommon for White.