Lesson 193:
Norris B. Herndon
An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 06/29/2025
To wrap up Pride Month 2025, I did want to spend at least a couple of minutes talking about Norris B. (Bumstead) Herndon, a name you almost certainly haven't heard of. Born in 1897 Atlanta, Georgia, Norris was the only child of Alonzo Herndon, himself a former slave and then sharecropper who had risen out of poverty to become the founder of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company --literally one of the richest Black men in America at the time, already setting Norris very much apart, as a person of colour born into such relatively high status and to such a 'legend-in-his-own-time' figure. His mother Adrienne was likewise a successful and popular actress, instilling in her son a love of the theater and artistry. At the age of seven Alonzo brought his son along to an early organizational meeting of the Niagra Movement --a precursor to what would eventually become known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Norris was by all accounts an extremely introverted and private man, even though his father was intent on encouraging him to follow a "straight and narrow" path through life, with an eye towards eventually inheriting his role as president of Atlanta Life Insurance. Herndon graduated from Atlanta University in 1919, and then attained a Master's from Harvard University's Business School in 1921 (one of only two Black Americans in that year's graduating class). Alonzo rebuked his son for his "lifestyle choices" during his years at Harvard, which may have been a veiled code for behaviours that could have potentially jeopardized his upcoming succession. More or less on cue, after his father's death in 1927, Herndon did indeed assume leadership of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company; at the same time his stepmother, Jessie Gillespie, became the company's vice president. Over the tenure of his stewardship, Atlanta Life Insurance's assets would grow from $1 million to $45 million. Among the company's clients included Martin Luther King, Jr., who was considered too "high risk" for mainstream life insurers.
What Norris was perhaps best known for, was the scale of his philanthropic donations. Over the years he donated to many civil rights advocacy movements, to include the United Negro College Fund, Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, the National Urban League, and of course the NAACP. His notoriety landed him on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1955, under the headline "The Millionaire Nobody Knows." Despite his unparalleled generosity, his reclusive nature was always something of a talking point --he disdained large-scale public events and deeply disliked the necessity of having to meet with famous or other wealthy people as a routine part of his own charitable giving. Norris never married nor fathered any children, and died in 1977. In 2002 it was first theorized that Herndon's sexual orientation may have been something of an "open secret" in his day, given the social circles in which he moved and his status --not to mention his strikingly good looks and his naturally sweet disposition. Despite never having come out the closet in his lifetime, the still-extant Herndon Foundation (which today controls 73% of Atlanta Life Insurance), acknowledges Norris's probable orientation.
Read a 2021 essay by Ryan Lee, 'the Black Gay Millionaire Nobody Knows,'The Reckoning magazine
Next lesson - Lesson 194: Violet Thayer
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