Historical Spotlight: A.G. Gaston
Entrepreneurship is an amazing tool if you have the lifestyle, work ethic, and perseverance to support it. Black Americans have always faced difficulties in owning businesses simply because of the unjust system that permeates society. There have been individuals here and there that have gotten ahead and built successful organizations over the years, but they were oftentimes sabotaged to their demise. Join me as we shine a historical spotlight on businessman A.G. Gaston and the impact he had on the local Birmingham community.
Arthur George Gaston was born on July 4, 1892 in Demopolis, Alabama to his parents Tom and Rosa. Unfortunately, his father died while he was still very young, so he grew up in a log cabin with his mom and grandparents, Joe and Idella. At the age of 13, he moved to Birmingham, Alabama with the family that employed his mom as a cook.
After his formal education ended at 10th grade, he went on to serve in the army in France during World War I. He then worked the mines in Fairfield and Westfield Alabama upon returning to the States.
While working in the mines, he came up with his first business venture of selling lunches to the other miners. After a while he expanded into loaning money to them at 25% interest. After noticing many mine widows were collecting donations to bury their lost husbands, he decided to offer burial insurance to his co-workers to help offset the costs.
In 1923, he founded the Booker T. Washington Burial Insurance Company which was renamed to the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company in 1932. He took it a step further in 1938 when he bought and renovated a property in downtown Birmingham with his father-in-law, A.L. Smith to start the Smith & Gaston Funeral Home. The company sponsored gospel music programs on local radio stations and even launched their very own quartet.
Over the course of running his insurance company, he noticed there weren’t enough black people with sufficient training to work in the insurance and funeral industries. In order to fulfill that need in the community, he opened the Booker T. Washington business school in 1939. He also opened the first black-owned financial institution in Birmingham named Citizens Federal Savings and Loan Association and the A.G. Gaston Motel.
With the increased net worth coming in from his business ventures, he decided to keep a low political profile through most of the 1940s and 1950s. Even though he was reluctant to confront white authorities and white businesses directly, he supported the civil rights movement financially behind the scenes.
He provided support to Autherine Lucy, the first Black American to attend the University of Alabama and also provided assistance to residents of Tuskegee who faced foreclosure as retaliation from a boycott of white-owned businesses. The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights held its first meeting at Smith & Gaston’s offices after the NAACP was outlawed in Alabama in 1956. A.G. also posted $5,000 bail for Dr. Martin Luther King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy when they were arrested.
He was often criticized for his approach at tackling the racial issues of the time because it typically produced token changes, but no significant progress towards actual change. He was called a “super Uncle Tom” by Hosea Williams who insisted A.G. was more focused on negotiating with white business leaders instead of really pushing for substantial change.
Unfortunately, because he focused so much on negotiations, he often faced challenges from both sides of the civil rights issue. He disagreed with Dr. King’s demonstrations in Birmingham but also had his hotel bombed, along with other buildings, that sparked riots. Even though the bombings were likely started by members of the KKK, more than 50 rioters and bystanders were injured and beaten by local police and state troopers that arrived on scene to clear the area.
A.G. also faced violence since he was a prominent member of the community. On September 8, 1963, firebombs were thrown at his house, just one day after he and his wife attended a state dinner at the White House with President John F. Kennedy. On January 24, 1976, he and his wife were kidnapped and beaten by an intruder. Police found them two hours later, bound in the backseat of his very own car.
A.G. died in Birmingham on January 19, 1996 at the age of 103. He left behind the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company, the A.G. Gaston Construction Company, the Smith and Gaston Funeral Home, and a financial institution called CFS Bancshares. His net worth was estimated to be more than $130 billion at the time of his death.
He was an innovative businessman who helped pave the way for other Black Americans to own businesses. While some definitely disagreed with his stance regarding civil rights, no one questioned his expertise in creating successful businesses. A.G. famously said, “I never went into anything with the idea of making money…I thought of doing something, and it would come up and make money. I never thought of trying to get rich.”
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Signed,
Jessica Marie
