The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep
South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune
worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning
communications, real estate, and insurance. Gaston was, by any
measure, a heroic figure whose wealth and influence bore comparison
to J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Here, for the first time, is
the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, told by his
niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol
Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines.
Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstruction
still poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determined
to make a difference for himself and his people. His first job,
after serving in the celebrated all-black regiment during World War
I, bound him to the near-slavery of an Alabama coal mine--but even
here Gaston saw not only hope but opportunity. He launched a
business selling lunches to fellow miners, soon established a
rudimentary bank--and from then on there was no stopping him. A
kind of black Horatio Alger, Gaston let a single, powerful question
be his guide: "What do our people need now?" His success flowed
from an uncanny genius for knowing the answer.
Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of American social
and economic history, Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Hines unfold
Gaston's success story against the backdrop of a century of
crushing racial hatred and bigotry. Gaston not only survived the
hardships of being black during the Depression, he flourished, and
by the 1950s he was ruling a Birmingham-based business empire. When
the movement for civil rights swept through the South in the late
1950s and early 1960s, Gaston provided critical financial support
to many activists.
At the time of his death in 1996, A. G. Gaston was one of the
wealthiest black men in America, if not "the" wealthiest. But his
legacy extended far beyond the monetary. He was a man who had
proved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make a place
for himself as a leader, a captain of industry, and a far-sighted
philanthropist. Writing with grace and power, Jenkins and Hines
bring their distinguished ancestor fully to life in the pages of
this book. "Black Titan" is the story of a man who created his own
future--and in the process, blazed a future for all black
businesspeople in America.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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