Overton Entrepreneurship and Legacy
Anthony Overton Jr. established the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company in 1898 in Kansas City, Missouri. Seeking to grow his business, Anthony Jr. attended the second annual National Negro Business League (NNBL) meeting in Chicago and in 1901, established a relationship with Booker T. Washington, NNBL’s founder. A 1903 severe flood in Kansas City, Missouri caused considerable damage to the Overton Hygienic building, and in 1911, Anthony Jr. and his family relocated to Chicago where he would go on to achieve monumental success. He became a serial entrepreneur establishing Half-Century Magazine in 1916, the Chicago Bee newspaper in 1925, and Douglass National Bank in 1921, and Victory Life Insurance Company in 1927.
Lewis, Eva Overton and Julian Herman Lewis, MD, PhD Collection, [Box 3, Folder 1], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
A full page of advertisements inside of a concert program sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha for Anthony Overton Jr.'s businesses: Overton Hygienic, The Chicago Bee newspaper, Victory Life Insurance, and Douglas National Bank.
