History | Feature Spotlight
Norris B. Herndon (July 15, 1897 – June 7, 1977) was a prominent, philanthropist Harvard Business School MBA graduate, and the first black gay millionaire in the United States.
Born three decades after chattel slavery on July 15, 1897, in Atlanta, Georgia, Herdon was the only child of businessman Alonzo Franklin Herndon and actress and educator Adrienne McNeil Herndon.
The Herndon family’s light complexion and ability to “pass” as caucasian helped them rise to prominence amongst Atlanta’s elite. Despite their ability to assimilate the Herndons became active in the Niagara Movement, eventually evolving into the NAACP.
By 1905 at just 7 years old Norris had rubbed shoulders with black historical figures such as John Hope and W.E.B. Dubois.
That same year Alonzo Franklin Herndon founded Atlanta Life Insurance Company where Norris spent his teenage years shadowing agents at the company and working as a cashier.
“The significant organizations we have today such as the NAACP, the Urban League, Tuskegee University—all of those institutions have their roots with Alonzo Herndon and his son Norris Herndon and the Atlanta Life Insurance Company,” said Roosevelt Giles, Current board president of Atlanta Life.
In 1919 Herndon graduated from Atlanta University, He then went on to further his education obtaining a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard University’s Business School in 1921, being one of two black African Americans in his graduating class.
After Alonzo’s passing in 1927, Norris succeeded his father as president of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. After decades of work, Norris took the company assets which once totaled $1 million, to $54 million.
When Norris retired from the company in 1973 its assets were estimated to have surpassed $84 million.
According to The Reckoning, Atlanta Life board president Giles, who also chairs the board of the non-profit Alonzo F. and Norris B. Herndon Foundation noted that Norris was gay in the online presentation he made for Business Insurance’s Diversity and Inclusion Institute; but other Herndon Foundation leaders are less certain of that conclusion.
“We can never tell for sure, we can only speculate,” says Elsie McCabe Thompson, who serves on the boards of Atlanta Life and the Herndon Foundation. “We’re only guessing. We don’t have anything written that proves he was in the LGBTQ community – all that was said was that he never married and was childless.”
Despite accumulating a vast amount of wealth Norris used his assets and resources for philanthropic efforts including; the establishment of the Alonzo F. and Norris B. Herndon Foundation, Inc., NAACP, United Negro College Fund, Phyllis Wheatley YMCA, Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, First Congregational Church in Atlanta and the National Urban League.
On June 7, 1977, Norris passed away from a heart attack. He is currently interred in the South View Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Norris was a very modest man. He wasn’t a boastful kind of person. He gave generously without any publicity. He gave generously to anything that helped uplift Black people in this town, especially the colleges.” said E.L. Simon, Atlanta Life executive, in eulogizing Norris at his funeral.