Charles Clinton Spaulding

For close to thirty years, he presided over North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became America's largest black-owned business, with assets of over 40 million US$ at his death.

In 1898, John Merrick, the owner of several barber shops, and Aaron M. Moore, a practicing physician, founded an insurance company, then named North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association.

The company hired salesmen whose main job was to collect small payments (of about 10 cents) to cover the insured person for the next week.

As national chairman of the Urban League's Emergency Advisory Council from 1930 to 1939, he campaigned to secure New Deal jobs for African-Americans.

The posthumous recognition was bestowed upon the group for their contributions to Durham as innovative leaders who established one of the nation's strongest African American entrepreneurial enclaves.