[4] After graduating from VSU with a degree in political science in 1965, he took part in a summer program at Harvard set up by the Rockefeller Foundation that introduced African Americans to the study of law.

After 15 years as a corporate lawyer with his own practice, he moved to the other side of the table by creating TLC Group L.P., a private equity firm, in 1983.

He managed to negotiate the price down, then raised $1 million from family and friends and borrowed the rest from institutional investors and investment banking firm First Boston Corp.

The deal partly was financed through Mike Milken of the maverick investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert.

In order to reduce the amount needed to finance the leveraged buyout, Lewis planned to sell some of the division's assets simultaneous with the takeover.

At its peak in 1996, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. had sales of $2.2 billion and was number 512 on Fortune magazine's list of 1,000 largest companies.

In 2005, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture opened in Baltimore with the support of a $5 million grant from his foundation.

[12] It is the East Coast's largest African-American museum occupying an 82,000 square-foot facility with permanent and special exhibition space, interactive learning environments, auditorium, resource center, oral history recording studio, museum shop, café, classrooms, meeting rooms, outside terrace, and reception areas.