Activism

Reginald F. Lewis: A Wall Street Titan

By 1983, Reginald F. Lewis’ dream was to “do the deals himself,” thereby establishing the venture capital firm TLC Group, LP. The firm purchased the failing McCall Pattern Company for a reported $22.5 million. After successfully reviving McCall, Lewis sold it for $90 million. He later outbid Citicorp and purchased TLC Beatrice International for $985 million. It was the largest offshore buyout in American history at the time.

Published

3 years ago

November 6, 2022

Oakland Post

Reginald F. Lewis. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. (Photo: reginaldlewis.com)

By Tamara Shiloh

In 1965, a select group of Black students participated in a summer school program funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and held at Harvard Law School. Each student lobbied for acceptance in the program, which introduced them to legal studies. One student’s confidence and leadership skills made him stand out: Reginald F. Lewis (1942–1993).

Lewis made such an impression that Harvard Law welcomed him as a student that fall. This acceptance made him the only person in the law school’s 148-year history to be admitted before applying.

In 1968, Lewis began his career with the New York City firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he practiced corporate law. He served as counsel to the New York–based Commission for Racial Justice and represented The Wilmington 10, a group of civil rights activists who had been unjustly convicted of an arson fire in 1971. He successfully forced North Carolina to pay interest on the Wilmington 10 bond. In 1970, after networking with colleagues, he opened Wall Street’s first African American law firm.

By 1983, Lewis’ dream was to “do the deals himself,” thereby establishing the venture capital firm TLC Group, LP. The firm purchased the failing McCall Pattern Company for a reported $22.5 million. After successfully reviving McCall, Lewis sold it for $90 million. He later outbid Citicorp and purchased TLC Beatrice International for $985 million. It was the largest offshore buyout in American history at the time.

Looking back, in 1960, Lewis told a friend, “I know that what I’d like is to be the richest Black man in America.” He was on his way. TLC became the first Black-owned company to pass the billion-dollar mark with its annual sales of $1.8 billion.

Lewis had strong influences in his life from childhood. Growing up in East Baltimore, his parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts always encouraged him to “be the best that you can be.”

Young Reginald’s grandmother instilled in him the importance of saving, “even cutting and peeling strips from the bottom of a tin can and nailing it to the floor of a closet to protect his savings,” according to his website.

He set up a delivery route at age 10, selling the Afro American newspaper. What began with 10 customers grew to more than 100 over two years. Even then young Reginald had the business savvy to sell his route at a profit.

About Lewis, former-president Barack Obama commented: “[He] had the work ethic, the skills, and the know-how. Beyond that, he had the temperament, the self-assurance, and the confidence that he belonged there. Being the first of anything requires a certain mindset. Reginald Lewis had it.”

Lewis’ life was cut short by his untimely death after a short illness in January 1993. He was 50 years old.

Learn more about young Reginald Lewis and the challenges he overcame as he transformed himself from ordinary to extraordinary in Lin Hart’s “Reginald F. Lewis Before TLC Beatrice: The Young Man Before the Billion-Dollar Empire.”

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

2 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.