Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology Report on Findings in Insurance (Black Life Insurance Companies, Mortgages, and African American Homeownership Before 1964): Insurance

2026 JUN 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Data detailed on Insurance have been presented. According to news reporting from Atlanta, Georgia, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “Life insurance companies, including those founded by African Americans, historically sought to invest their policyholders’ premiums in reliable securities, including mortgages. With fewer safe investment outlets after the Great Depression, government-backed mortgages resulting from New Deal housing market reforms attracted insurers seeking security, into the early 1950s.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, “However, with the post-World War II economy on an upswing and growth-related inflation looking likely, the potential downsides of federally insured mortgages grew clearer. The Eisenhower administration (1953-1961) especially leaned on institutional investors to underwrite low-interest home loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration. However, Black-owned life insurance firms faced competitive disadvantages due to their small size, information asymmetries, and a postwar housing market characterized by pervasive racial discrimination, mounting civil rights gains notwithstanding.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “This situation put African American life insurers in a difficult position as they continued to function as a credit reserve for the Black middle class, while simultaneously trying to work with federal agencies and remain profitable despite their limited influence in the broader financial economy.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Black Life Insurance Companies, Mortgages, and African American Homeownership Before 1964. Business History Review, 2025;99(4):573-601. Business History Review can be contacted at: Cambridge Univ Press, Edinburgh Bldg, Shaftesbury Rd, CB2 8RU Cambridge, England. (Cambridge University Press - www.cambridge.org; Business History Review - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=BHR)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Todd M. Michney, Georgia Institute of Technology, Sch Hist & Sociol, Atlanta, GA 30308, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007680525101360. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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