Meet the first Black millionaire who started out as a barber
- Alonzo Herndon, made history as the first Black-American to become a millionaire
- He started as a sharecropper, a barber and settled as a real estate agent
- Alonzo Herndon was born in 1858 to an inter-racial couple
From working as a professional barber to a real estate dealer, Alonzo Herndon, made history when he became the first African-American entrepreneur to become a millionaire.
Alonzo Herndon went from a sharecropper to a trained barber in 1878 and eventually created an opportunity to operate three large barbershops in the Atlanta area that serve prominent white men.
Born in 1858 into slavery to an inter-racial couple, a Black mother and white father, Alonzo Herndon's journey to becoming a millionaire in 1900, started when he became a founding member of Booker T. Washington’s National Negro Business League.
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After one of his flagship shops got destroyed in 1905 following a riot, Herndon, diversified and started investing in real estate and later purchased a collapsing mutual aid association which became known as the Atlanta Family Life Insurance Company.
Atlanta Family Life Insurance Company, successfully expanded into other markets in the US.
Alonzo Herndon had very dedicated employees who went from door-to-door to sell the company’s low-cost industrial insurance and successfully made sales at a time when they were the only Black men wearing suits and tie through the southern town.
The high-achieving Black millionaire died in 1927 and his son, Norris, took over the company.
The company, Atlanta Family Life Insurance, still operates and is the only African-American owned and privately-held stock firm in the US.
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Meanwhile, of what has become popular as Ghana’s most 'powerful' deity, the Nogokpo shrine, evokes fear and leaves many skins crawling with shivers at the mere mention of the name.
Despite being shrouded in mystery, Nogokpo, is a small village in Volta region, Ghana, and means ''stay in peace''.
However, peace does not mean freedom; one cannot access the entire township freely because there are areas that individuals are not permitted to access wearing either shoes or sandals.
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