Universal Life Insurance Building / Universal Life Insurance Company

Dr. J. E. Walker founded the company on September 6, 1923, in the Fraternal Bank building, after leading Mississippi Life. Of the charter officers only he, M. W. Bonner and A. W. Willis stayed active. Capital grew from $100,000 to $200,000 by 1926, when the first home office opened at 234 Hernando Street, and in 1947 it became the second Black-owned company in the country to reach million-dollar capital. Walker led a $2 million war-bond drive in World War II. In 1956 his son Maceo was the only Black member of an Eisenhower advisory committee.

What the plaque says

Universal Life Insurance Building / Universal Life Insurance Company Universal Life Insurance Building: Designed by the African-American architectural firm of McKissack and McKissack and constructed in 1949, this building houses the national headquarters of the Universal Life Insurance Company. The Egyptian-Revival style of this building is an ongoing example of the interest that African Americans developed in the 1920s in Egyptian art. During the era of racial segregation, it was one of the few places where Blacks could gather for their civic and social affairs. Universal Life Insurance Company: Founded in 1923 by Dr. J.E. Walker, with co-founders A.W. Willis, Sr. and M.W. Bonner, this family business grew to be the fourth largest African-American-owned life insurance company in the United States. Dr. Walker's son, A. Maceo Walker, continued the business from 1952 until 1983. He was succeeded by his daughter, Patricia Walker Shaw, who ran it until her death in 1985. Descendants of all three families made significant contributions to the company's growth.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beale Street — 0.4 mi
  The street that became the center of Black Memphis after the Civil War, home to Church's Park, W. C. Handy, Ida B. Wells and the blues, now a National Historic Landmark district.
• Sun Studio — 0.5 mi
  The small Union Avenue room where Sam Phillips recorded Rocket 88, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley and the Million Dollar Quartet, now a National Historic Landmark.
• 1866 Memphis Massacre Marker at Army Park — 0.7 mi
  A privately funded NAACP marker in a small downtown park, placed in 2016, that names the May 1866 attack on Black South Memphis as a massacre.
• National Civil Rights Museum — 0.7 mi
  The Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on April 4, 1968, kept as a museum of the civil rights movement from the nineteenth century to today.

More markers nearby

• Mary Church Terrell — steps away
• Church Park — steps away
• George W. Lee 1894-1976 — steps away
• Sara Roberta Church 1914-1995 — steps away