Alonzo Herndon
Alonzo Herndon

Alonzo Herndon, born June 16, 1858 in Social Circle, Georgia, was the founder of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company back in 1922. Herndon had made multiple attempts at success prior to creating the Atlanta Life Insurance Company doing things such as investing in real estate, insurance business, and acquiring a failing mutual aid association in 1905. Alonzo Herndon would get involved in various Civil Rights Movement activities in the early 20th century with W.E.B. Du Bois. Alonzo Herndon would join groups such as the Niagara Movement in 1905 making large statements about the state of Civil Rights in America. Herndon would later become one of Atlanta’s first African American millionaires attributed to the success of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Herndon married Adrienne McNeil in 1893 and had a son, Norris Herndon, who would inherit the company after Alonzo’s death. In 1910 Adrienne McNeil passed away and Alonzo Herndon would later marry Jessie Gillespie. Alonzo Herndon would remain the president of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company up until his death on July 21, 1927 at the age of 69.

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