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Flash Fact

In 1893, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company became the first African American-owned business to hold assets over $100 million.


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Vote for your choice for the Business Innovator & Icon here!
Madam C.J. Walker, John L. Johnson, Richard Parsons, Oprah Winfrey, Kenneth Chenault. The list of African American business innovators keeps on growing. Can you pick just one person for the most inventive business leader?
Who is the most important business innovator?
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Business Top 10
# Person % Tally
1 Madam C.J. Walker 41% 477
2 Oprah Winfrey 39% 448
3 Russell Simmons 4% 41
4 Earvin "Magic" Johnson 2% 21
5 Robert L. Johnson 2% 20
6 oprah 1% 15
7 Reginald Lewis 1% 15
8 Sean "P. Diddy" Combs 1% 14
9 Master P 1% 12
10 John L. Johnson 1% 10

BET CEO Robert L. Johnson, media mogul extraordinaire
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