Published on February 23, 2026 at 6:52 pm
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BLACKSONVILLE 100 | People who created financial independence for themselves and opened up job opportunities for others through entrepreneurship or executive leadership.
Abraham Lincoln Lewis (1865-1947)
Entrepreneur, philanthropist, developer | Abraham Lincoln Lewis was born in Madison County, Florida, and moved to Jacksonville in 1876. In early 1901, Lewis and other Black business leaders created the Afro-American Life Insurance Co. The firm was organized in January, chartered in March and nearly destroyed by fire in May. Lewis, the company’s first treasurer, became its president in 1919. In 1935, he purchased 200 acres in Nassau County and developed the American Beach community. He is widely credited as Florida’s first Black millionaire. Lewis’ first wife, Mary Sammis, was the great-granddaughter of Anna Kingsley Jai. Lewis is the great-grandfather of both MaVynee Betsch and Johnnetta Betsch Cole.
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(Photo courtesy: University of North Florida, Eartha M. M. White Collection)
Richard Lewis Brown
Architect, legislator, pastor | According to Mary F. Mungen Jameson’s 2010 book Remembering Neighborhoods of Jacksonville, Florida: Oakland, Campbell’s Addition, East Jacksonville- Fairfield – The African American Influence, architect Richard Lewis Brown was born enslaved in South Carolina in 1854. In Jacksonville, he designed Mount Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as Centennial Hall on what is now Edward Waters University. A pastor at Ward Chapel AME Church, Lewis also served two terms in the Florida Legislature. Today, Duval Schools’ Richard L. Brown Gifted and Talented Academy is named in his honor. It is located on the Eastside on property he once owned.
(Photo: Remembering Neighborhoods of Jacksonville, Florida: Oakland, Campbell’s Addition, East Jacksonville- Fairfield – The African American Influence)
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Joseph Haygood Blodgett (1958-1934)
Developer | Joseph Haygood Blodgett built A.L. Lewis’ home on 8th Street in Sugar Hill and other homes. He was also a contractor who built homes and developed properties in LaVilla and Durkeeville. He built more than 200 homes during a 30-year peak that began in the 1890s.
(Photo courtesy: University of North Florida, Eartha M. M. White Collection)
Eric Green
JAXPORT | Eric Green is a Jacksonville native who grew up in the Sherwood Forest community and graduated from Ribault High School. He received a scholarship to St. Andrews University, where he earned a degree in political science. Since 2017, he has served as the CEO at JAXPORT, Florida’s largest container port. He is the first Black person to serve as chief executive of the port.
(Photo courtesy: JAXPORT)
Eric O. Simpson
Newspaper publisher | Eric O. Simpson founded The Florida Star in 1951 to provide news and information about Black Jacksonville that other local media were ignoring. He was born in Guyana and worked as a reporter in New York City and Pittsburgh before arriving in Jacksonville. According to his obituary in The St. Petersburg Times, Simpson also served as a radio disc jockey and newscaster. Simpson died in January 1994. He was 79. He was posthumously inducted into the Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2003.
(Photo courtesy: The Florida Star)
Rita Perry
Newspaper publisher | In 1986, Rita Perry became the first female founding publisher of a newspaper in Florida when she created the Jacksonville Free Press. The North Carolina native grew up in Detroit and then began her news career as a reporter with the Macon (Ga.) Times. Perry moved to Jacksonville in 1972 and wrote for The Florida Star in the early 1970s. Perry then transitioned to broadcasting, where she served in a managerial capacity at WZAZ-AM, WERD-AM and WPDQ-AM prior to founding the Free Press. Perry died in 2018 at age 80.
(Photo courtesy: Jacksonville Free Press)
Pearl Rogers Graham
Entrepreneur | Pearl Rogers Graham grew up in Butler, Ga., and arrived in Jacksonville shortly after she turned 18. Graham started her professional career working at a dry cleaners on Florida Avenue on the Eastside in 1968. She purchased part of Spot Rite Cleaners in 1970 and owned the company by 1975. Affectionately known as Mother Pearl throughout the Eastside, Graham owns several buildings along what is now known as A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, land holdings that have allowed generations of entrepreneurs to own and operate their own businesses.
Carla Harris
Finance | Port Arthur, Texas, native Carla Harris moved to Jacksonville in 1971 as a child. She lived in the Harborview community on the Northside. With both a bachelor’s and an MBA from Harvard University, she has served as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley since 1987. Throughout her career on Wall Street she has served in leadership in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice. In the role, she helped companies including UPS and Martha Stewart Living prepare for their initial public offerings. In 2013, the Obama administration appointed Harris chair of the National Women’s Business Council. Harris is also a classically trained gospel singer who performed a solo concert in Carnegie Hall in 2000. She has released multiple albums, including Carla’s First Christmas and Joy is Waiting. Proceeds from Joy is Waiting are donated to her alma mater, Bishop Kenny High School, as well as to the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Harlem.
(Photo: Will Brown, Jacksonville Today)
Dr. Timothy Groover
Physician, health care administrator | Jacksonville native Timothy Groover is the executive vice president and chief medical officer for Baptist Health. He leads the physician practice for the system’s nearly 3,000 medical providers. Groover grew up in Springfield and graduated from Andrew Jackson High School. He earned degrees from Jacksonville University and the University of Tennessee prior to earning his medical degree from the University of Miami. Groover is an anesthesiologist who has served as a fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and past president of the Duval County Medical Society.
(Photo courtesy: Baptist Health)
B.C. Vanderhorst
Insurance | The local insurance magnate B.C. Vanderhorst managed the People’s Industrial Insurance Co. during the 1920s. The firm was acquired by the Afro-American Life Insurance Co. in 1925. He served as a member of the Stanton High School Board of Trustees that lobbied the Duval County School Board to build one, fire-proof brick structure, rather than smaller campuses for Black students throughout Duval County. The brick building, now known as Old Stanton High School, was completed in LaVilla in 1917. In 1954, Vanderhorst participated in a Negro History Week celebration at Stanton High School. He was a featured guest alongside Daniel W. Perkins and Eartha White. Among the Stanton faculty members who participated that year: Sallye Brooks Mathis, Rutledge Pearson and Arnett Giradeau.
Alice Kirkpatrick
Hotelier | South Carolina native Alice Kirkpatrick moved to Jacksonville as a teenager, shortly after the Great Fire of 1901. In 1909, Alice and her husband George opened the Richmond Hotel on Broad Street in LaVilla. After George Kilpatrick died, Alice operated the hotel for decades. It became a perennial mention in the Negro Motorist Green Book, which listed accomodations known to be welcoming and safe for Black travelers. Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday all stayed at the Richmond Hotel. The Richmond also served as an organizing hub for civil rights activism during the early 20th century. Kirkpatrick died in January 1959. The hotel closed in 1969.
Charles H. Anderson
Entrepreneur, banker | The late Charles H. Anderson operated the Charles H. Anderson Fish and Oyster Co. on Broad Street in LaVilla in the early 20th century. In 1914 he opened Anderson, Tucker & Co., one of the first Black-owned banks in Jacksonville, inside the Masonic Temple on Broad Street. By 1919, the bank had $250,000 in assets, yet it closed in 1921. According to Mary F. Mungen Jameson’s 2010 book Remembering Neighborhoods of Jacksonville, Florida: Oakland, Campbell’s Addition, East Jacksonville- Fairfield – The African American Influence, Anderson was the great-uncle of Jacksonville’s first Black pediatrician, Dr. Charles McIntosh. Anderson was a graduate of Florida Baptist Academy.
(Photo courtesy: Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge of Florida)
This entry is part of Jacksonville Today‘s BLACKSONVILLE 100, a list of influential people with ties to Jacksonville, compiled on the centennial of Negro History Week. See the whole list.
