“We now have our cars insured by Lloyd’s of London. I do not anticipate any further insurance problems” – Martin Luther King
By Paul Miller Compliance Recruiter: London Market Insurance
In the late 1940s, Millard D. Robbins founded the Robbins Insurance Agency.
He was born in October 1919 in Columbus, OH. His family moved to Chicago in 1924. He attended university, and after serving in the infantry during WWII, he returned to Chicago and worked at the Veteran’s Administration as a registration officer. An interest in working for himself motivated him to study insurance and in 1947, he began operating an insurance brokerage on the porch of his home. The Robbins Insurance Agency was a success and he soon moved from his back porch to his own offices. Millard refused to be confined by artificial limitations and was one of the leaders against redlining practices which led to major insurers refusing to cover African American property or casualty business.
He convinced The Insurance Company of America and other national insurers of the potential business they were missing out on in Chicago’s south side and became an important firm in Chicago. Hs expertise saw him become one of the first African American ”Names” at Lloyd’s, resulting in his appearance in ”Who’s Who in America” in the 1970’s.
During his leadership of the Robbins Insurance Agency, Inc., he trained and nurtured a number of Black entrepreneurs who went on to become successful in their own businesses. He was an active supporter of the civil rights movement, and a member of the Urban League. He sadly passed in 2003.
Another insurance professional who actively supported the Civil Rights Movement was Theodore M. Alexander, a man who, in 1931, founded the Alexander & Co. property and casualty insurance brokerage. It grew to have offices in Georgia, Alabama and the District of Columbia and became one of America’s oldest and most successful minority-owned independent insurance agencies before it closed its doors for business in 1992.
Mr. Alexander is credited with playing a key role in keeping the Montgomery Bus Boycott alive. As you’ll know, the Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama which began in December, 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger.
Refusing to ride public buses, African-Americans in the area set up a car pool, whereby, they would drive each other to work, or meet family, setting up 23 dispatch centres where people gathered to wait for free transportation.
After insurers cancelled policies for the cars used in the pool; Mr. Alexander was contacted by Martin Luther King Jr. who explained the situation and asked for his help. Working tirelessly on the matter, Mr. Alexander obtained insurance at Lloyd’s for the vehicles involved in the boycott, meaning that the protest could continue.
This led to Mr. King Jr. making a speech, during which he announced: “We now have our cars insured by Lloyd’s of London. I do not anticipate any further insurance problems.”
