Ray Christian is a Doctoral Student at the
University of North Carolina,
Greensboro. He received a MA in Public History from
North Carolina State
University in 2002 and a BS in History from Regents
College in 1999. He
currently teaches at University of North Carolina,
Greensboro in addition to
serving as Archivist/Historian for North Carolina
Mutual Life. He created and
developed the organizations archival program making
useful the documents that
tell the story of this company.
Since its beginning in 1898, North Carolina Mutual
Life Insurance Company
(http://www.ncmutuallife.com) has grown to become
one of the nation's most
widely-known and successful business institutions.
It is the only insurance
company domiciled in North Carolina with a charter
dated before 1900; North
Carolina Mutual is the oldest and largest African
American life insurance
company in the United States.
NC Mutual: In 1898, two men, John Merrick and Dr. Aaron Moore,
founded the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham.
After some early financial problems, North Carolina Mutual would
become the cornerstone of the African-American business community
known as Black Wall Street and by the mid-1950’s, the company was
the largest black-owned business in the country. Host Frank Stasio
speaks to Ray Christian, an archivist working to preserve documents
and other memorabilia from the company; and Chuck Watts, corporate
secretary and general counsel. (17:00)
