Famous Black American Stockbrokers

A Salute to Chris Gardner

Jul 30, 2009 Mark Dennis

August is Black Business Month. It is also an appropriate time to recognize the achievements of some noteworthy black Wall Street entrepreneurs.

Amidst recent headlines of crooks and Ponzi schemes perpetrated by financial professionals, it is refreshing to reflect briefly on the positive achievements and contributions of some model financial professionals and business owners, who, as circumstances would have it, just happen to be African Americans. In the world of Wall Street, perhaps no other black businessman is more well-known or respected than Chris Gardner.

Chris Gardner's Story

As owner and CEO of the multi-million dollar Chicago investment firm, Gardner Rich LLC, Chris Gardner truly embodies the American dream. Although his life story of bringing himself literally out of poverty and into substantial amounts of personal wealth is famous in its own right, Gardner has also enjoyed public fame from both books and cinema. Portrayed by actor, Will Smith, his life story has been depicted in the film, The Pursuit of Happyness, which was based on a book by the same title.

Homelessness Leads to the Pursuit of Happyness

At what was perhaps the lowest point in his life, Gardner found himself to be simultaneously homeless on the streets of San Francisco and a single parent caring for his young son. With nowhere to live and the responsibility of providing for a youngster, Gardner was extremely motivated to turn his fortune around and lead a successful career. A chance encounter with a stockbroker who drove a red Ferrari led Gardner to strike up a conversation about what the Ferrari owner did for a living and how he achieved his impressive income. Landing an unpaid internship with a brokerage firm gave Gardner the opening he needed to achieve his own personal level of greatness, going from homeless single parent to eventually become the owner of a multimillion-dollar investment firm. Kenneth Meeks, in his January 2007 article in Black Enterprise, "Backtalk with Chris Gardner," asked Gardner if he had any words of wisdom for others who seek to become as successful as he has. In response, Gardner suggests that homelessness can be an excellent "training camp" for anyone who is looking to start a business from meager resources, though few take him up on this suggestion.

Black Stockbrokers on Wall Street

Although Gardner’s is a recent story of successful black enterprise, he is but one of the most recent of many famous black businesspeople and entrepreneurs that preceded him in the investment world. In 1949, the first black men in America to become registered stockbrokers were Thorvald McGregor and Lawrence L. Lewis. Shortly thereafter, Norman McGhee in 1952 launched the first black-owned investment firm to obtain a license from the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), now known as the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority, or FINRA. Just three short years later, in 1955, the so-called “Wizard of Wall Street,” Philip Jenkins, co-founded Special Markets, Inc., which was the first black-owned and operated investment firm actually located within the Wall Street financial district.

The copyright of the article Famous Black American Stockbrokers in Entrepreneurs is owned by Mark Dennis. Permission to republish Famous Black American Stockbrokers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

From the Mean Streets to Wall Street