Jesse Hill

Jesse Hill Jr. (May 30, 1926 – December 17, 2012) was an African American civil rights activist. He was active in the civic and business communities of the city for more than five decades. Hill was president and chief executive officer of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, from 1973 to 1992, and was the first African American to be elected president of a chamber of commerce in a major city. During Hill's presidency of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company it became the largest black-owned life insurance company in the nation. He was a member of the board of directors for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Early life Born in 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Nancy Dennis Martin and Jesse Hill, he grew up in a poor socio-economic background and attended public schools in St. Louis. He graduated from Lincoln University in Jefferson City with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics in 1947. He received his MBA from the University of Michigan in 1949.

Career Hill's career in business began in 1949 when he moved to Atlanta, the center of African American entrepreneurship in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. He joined the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, one of the country's largest and most successful black-owned businesses, as assistant actuary; he was only the second African American actuary in the country. When he first moved to the city, Hill lived at the Butler Street YMCA in Atlanta, the headquarters of the city's black leadership during the period. He also volunteered for both the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

During his first two decades with Atlanta Life, Hill became vice president and the chief actuary of the company. From 1973 to 1992, Jesse Hill Jr. was president and chief executive officer of Atlanta Life, becoming the company's third president and the first not to be a family member of Alonzo Herndon, Atlanta Life's founder. During Hill's tenure as chief executive, Atlanta Life experienced a significant period of growth. Total assets, revenues, profits, and shareholder value all surpassed previous levels. During the 1970s, Atlanta Life Insurance Co. was the largest privately held black business in the country, with 85 million dollars in assets.

With Herman Russell, he bred the black "social worker types" to reach for more black representatives in local politics. This new black political class was eventually criticized as the "new old guard" since voters felt those new leaders forgot about the black cause once they had been sworn into office.

In Atlanta, Butler street was renamed Jesse Hill Junior drive after him.