Alonzo Franklin Herndon

Alonzo Franklin Herndon was an African American entrepreneur who founded and was the first president of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Herndon worked on his father’s plantation near Social Circle, Georgia.  Freed by the 13th Amendment, Herndon and his mother, younger brother, and maternal grandparents became sharecroppers.  Herndon supplemented the family income by working as day laborer and peddler of peanuts, homemade molasses, and axle grease. In 1878, at the age of 20, Herndon left his family and moved to Jonesboro, Georgia where he opened his first barbershop.  He developed a great reputation as a barber and his business thrived.  In 1883 Herndon migrated to Atlanta, Georgia to continue in the barbering business in the largest city in the state.  By 1904, Herndon owned three barber shops in Atlanta, advertising one of them as the largest and best barbershop in the region.  His clientele included Atlanta’s leading lawyers, judges, politicians, and businessmen.  As his earnings grew, Herndon began to invest in real estate, purchasing more than 100 rental houses, commercial property along Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, and a plantation near Tavares, Florida.  At the time of his death Herndon’s real estate holdings were valued at nearly $325,000. In 1905, Herndon purchased a failing insurance company, which he incorporated as Atlanta Mutual Insurance Association.  He took over a company which had $5,000 in assets in 1905.  By 1922 the company had more than $400,000 in assets.  That year Herndon changed the name of the company to Atlanta Life Insurance Company.  The Company rapidly expanded, establishing branches in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.  Herndon saved other failing insurance companies by merging their company with Atlanta Life Insurance, claiming his efforts were designed to build confidence in black businesses and save jobs for African American men and women.  Regardless of the reason, his acquisition strategy made Atlanta Life one of the most successful black businesses in the nation by the 1920s.