The Southern Aid and Insurance Company is an insurance company that was founded in 1893, 28 years after the end of the American Civil War, by a group of black men (American men of African ancestry) in Richmond, Virginia.
The purpose was to furnish adequate and affordable insurance protection to African-Americans.
It was also the largest African-American insurance company in the United States at one time.
The company's name was later changed to the Southern Aid Society of Virginia which was the forerunner of the Southern Aid Life Insurance Company that sold Life insurance.
They were licensed in New Jersey, Virginia and District of Columbia, and had offices in Alexandria, Bristol, Charlottesville, Danville, Farmville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Richmond, Roanoke, Saluda, Suffolk, Winchester, Virginia; and Washington, D.C.[2] The insurance company purchased John Mitchell, Jr.'s Mechanics Savings Bank building on Clay Street in 1930.