The Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company
In May of 1956, Ebony Magazine, the nationally circulated publication read by millions of African Americans, ran an article entitled, “The Big Business That $2.50 Built.” What’s more impressive is by the time the article ran, 58 years after this “Big Business” was established, the $2.50 investment made by four teenagers and a formerly enslaved minster had grown to 8 million dollars. The focal point of the four-page article in Ebony was an insurance company founded in Augusta, Georgia: The Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company.
The Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company, the first insurance provider for African Americans in Georgia, had its humble beginnings on May 2, 1898, at 1741 Milledgeville Road, the residence of Reverend Thomas Jefferson Hornsby, the influential pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Augusta and the Moderator of the Walker Baptist Association. Reverend Hornsby was approached by his cousin, 17-year-old Solomon Walker, with a vision to start a black-owned insurance company in Augusta that would cater to the needs of their community. The young Walker once remarked, “but why is it that only white men are employed to solicit and collect on business among my people? Are there not Negroes of sufficient training and intelligence to do this work among their own folk?” They were joined by three other teenagers: Reverend Hornsby’s son, Walter Spurgeon Hornsby, Solomon Walker’s brother, Thomas Joseph Walker and a family friend, James Collier.
Originally called the Pilgrim Benevolent Aid Association, the small fledgling company pooled its financial resources between 1898 and 1905 and began to consolidate many of the benevolent associations and mutual aid societies in the Augusta area. By 1905, it had consolidated the Benevolent Relief and Benefit Association, the Southern Mutual Aid Society and the Cooperative Industrial Society and formed the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company. The merger of these smaller companies into one larger more controlled entity allowed for these “adventurers” and “builders of destiny” to do two things: generate the $5,000 operating cost imposed by the state of Georgia on insurance companies and utilize the remarkable talent from the benevolent associations and mutual aid societies that merged with Pilgrim. For example, Reverend C.T. Walker, founder of Tabernacle Baptist Church and by this time considered one of the leading African American ministers in the nation, was one of the Directors of the Benevolent Relief and Benefit Association. He would serve as General Manager of Pilgrim. Professor John Wesley Gilbert, Professor of Classical Languages at Paine College and a world-renowned classicist and archeologist, was the Director of the Cooperative Benevolent Association. He would serve as Auditor for Pilgrim.
The purpose of Pilgrim in its early days was to provide insurance to its members “against sickness, accident or death.” Although small in number at the early years, the company quickly grew to encompass many of the African American enclaves outside of Augusta proper. Much of Pilgrim’s early success was due in part to strong leadership. Reverend Thomas Jefferson Hornsby would serve as the first president when it was still a benevolent aid association. However, he would be followed by several pillars of the Augusta community to include ministers Charlie Williams and A.B. Powell. Local grocery store owner, Treasurer of Tabernacle Baptist Church and cousin to C.T. Walker Henry C. Young would follow Reverend Powell. Reverend Williams would serve a second term and then the leadership of the company would come full circle when Solomon Walker, the visionary founder of Pilgrim would take over as President after the death of Reverend Williams in 1931. Augusta would serve as the home base, with a local city office on Campbell Street (9th Street, now James Brown Boulevard) and the national headquarters located on the corner of 12th and Gwinnett Street (Laney-Walker Boulevard). The national headquarters would cost $16,000 to build and would be completed in 1917.
Known as “The Old Reliable”, the company would grow to become not just the largest African American business in Augusta, but the largest employer of African Americans in Augusta in the early 20th Century. Soon, Pilgrim regional offices were established in other parts of Georgia, to include, Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Covington and Conyers. By the late 1910’s Pilgrim had close to 80,000 policyholders. In 1923 Pilgrim began issuing policies in Alabama, followed seven years later with a license to begin issuing policies in South Carolina. In 1931, Pilgrim acquired Georgia Mutual Life Insurance Company of Augusta. In 1938 Pilgrim insured the finances of the Mutual Relief and Benevolent Association of Columbia, South Carolina, saving the company from financial ruin. Pilgrim received a license in 1951 to begin issuing policies in Florida. The “Old Reliable” was on the move and its growth signaled to many African Americans that despite the ever-present clouds of Jim Crow there were ways in which African Americans would not just survive but thrive under the system of legal segregation.
Pilgrim’s sustained success throughout much of the 20th Century came from leadership at the top but also its ability to enhance its already strong foundation with the best and the brightest throughout the state of Georgia. One of Pilgrim’s early employees was Dr. Thomas Walter Josey, a 1901 graduate of the famed Haines Normal and Industrial Institute and Howard University School of Medicine. Called “Doctor Sociologist” by many in Augusta, Dr. Josey was one of four dozen African American doctors and dentists that practiced in the Augusta area during the first half of the 20th Century. He came up through the ranks of Pilgrim to become Vice-President and Chief Medical Director for Pilgrim. He was second to none in the number of charities he was involved in. Aside from the extensive work with Pilgrim Dr. Josey was active with the National Medical Association and the Stoney Medical Association. Another driving force employed by Pilgrim was A.B. Sinkfield. Mr. Sinkfield was in charge of the Pilgrim office in Savannah, Georgia.
Pilgrim was a member of the National Negro Insurance Association and in 1937 hosted the national convention in Augusta. The host site was Tabernacle Baptist Church and political, civic and business dignitaries as well as entertainers came to Augusta to participate in the convention activities.
In 1948 Pilgrim celebrated its Golden Anniversary. They delayed the official ceremony to May 2, 1949 to allow for renovations to their national headquarters to be completed. Pilgrim rolled out the red carpet to the citizens of Augusta, hosting daily tours of the national headquarters so they could put on full display the measure of their success. By the time of the 50th Anniversary Pilgrim had $50,862,538 of insurance in force.
The post-World War II years continued to see growth and expansion for Pilgrim. Its number of employees continued to grow, as well as the number of policyholders. By the 1950’s Pilgrim was one of the top 10 insurance companies for African Americans in the United States and ranked 7th out of 24 African American-owned legal reserve life companies. But Pilgrim would be viewed as much more than an insurance provider. It would come to symbolize to many African Americans an attainable level of wealth and success within the African American community and a way to keep that wealth in the African American community and build upon it. For example, where in most instances streams of capital were closed to most African Americans at white-owned banks, Pilgrim provided the loans and guidance that allowed for a level of home ownership.
The Hornsby Subdivision as well as The Belair Hills Estates Subdivision are great examples of how Pilgrim invested in the African American community. The Hornsby Subdivision, which had a December 1952 groundbreaking, was located not far from the national headquarters of Pilgrim and this million-dollar development boasted no less than 150 “beautifully built modern homes in Augusta, Georgia.” Established in the late 1950’s by Pilgrim executive Matrice M. “Skipper” Scott and several others Belair Hills Estates was the first African American subdivision in Augusta located outside of the inner city.
In addition to the physical infrastructure built by companies like Pilgrim, Pilgrim also provided a blueprint of success that would be emulated by generations of up and coming business people, politicians and others seeking to improve the quality of life for African Americans throughout the South. Mr. Solomon Walker, II often spoke about this “Pilgrim Effect” when reminiscing about his grandfather, Pilgrim co-founder Solomon Walker. He once recalled that every morning his grandfather came to the breakfast table already dressed with briefcase ready to get to the office. This had a lasting effect on him as he got older and would inspire future generations to reach for greatness in their respective fields of endeavor. Many of Pilgrim’s agents would take their leadership skills beyond the insurance agency.
In a similar way the African American church gave ministers financial independence and a weekly platform with a large audience to speak out against racial injustice, insurance companies provided a level of autonomy for those executives involved in social change. Reverend James Hinton, Sr., pastor of 2nd Calvary Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina and the Regional Director for Pilgrim in Columbia, became actively involved in civil rights, worked for voter education and registration in the 1940’s and fought for equal pay for African American teachers in South Carolina. In later years many Pilgrim agents would go into politics, including Edward M. McIntyre, Vice-President of Public Relations for Pilgrim and Augusta, Georgia’s first African American mayor.
Pilgrim celebrated its 75th Anniversary on May 2, 1973. At the time Pilgrim operated out of 19 regional offices in four states. In September of 1980, Solomon Walker, II was elected Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of the Board. Walter Hornsby, III, Great-Grandson of founder Thomas Jefferson Hornsby, was elected President. He would become the fourth generation of the Hornsby family to hold a leadership position at Pilgrim. In 1983 Pilgrim was named Insurance Company of the Year by Black Enterprise Magazine. However, as Pilgrim Vice-President Joseph Greene once remarked, “As changing times at the beginning of the twentieth century created the conditions that gave birth to Pilgrim, so changing times at the end of the twentieth century contributed to its demise.” Integration to a certain degree, coupled with movement of African Americans to the suburbs not only affected Pilgrim’s bottom line, but it signaled the impending closure of many black-owned businesses throughout the South. Pilgrim continued to maintain a presence in Georgia in the 1980’s, but it soon would have to close its door for good.
For a company that stood for nearly a century it was a dark day for many to see it merge with one of its rivals, The Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Pilgrim Personnel Manager Carman Matthew recalled being the last employee in the office on Laney-Walker Boulevard. The janitor cleaned up around her as she typed out the letters of separation for Pilgrim employees.
Pilgrim would always symbolize civic-minded virtues and a belief that through building strong businesses you build a strong community. Dr. Dorothy Gandy, the spouse of Pilgrim Executive Solomon Greene, called Pilgrim “a symbol of black entrepreneurship.” Inside of the Walker Group building, once the national headquarters for the Pilgrim Insurance Company there is a bronze plaque dedicated to the five founders of Pilgrim, which reads, “Seeth Thou A Man Diligent in his Business, He Shall Stand Before Kings.” For nearly a century the men and women employed at Pilgrim were kings and queens of business and entrepreneurship throughout the South. Their lasting impact is a blueprint that has allowed future generations to follow in their footsteps. Although the company no longer exists the spirit of what they stood for still drives the small business creators and civic-minded individuals focused on uplifting their community through political and social action.