Reginald Lewis

About

African American lawyer and entrepreneur who bought and developed Beatrice Foods Company, an international food processing corporation that was ranked in 1996 by Fortune magazine as one of the thousand biggest companies in the world.

Before Fame

He studied economics at Virginia State College and subsequently entered law school at Harvard. He worked for over a decade as a New York-based corporate lawyer.

Trivia

In 2005, he established the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture.

Family Life

He grew up in a middle class family in Baltimore, Maryland. He later married Loida Lewis. Sadly, he died of cancer at the age of fifty.

Associated With

Beauty and hair products mogul Madame CJ Walker was one of the first African Americans to become a millionaire; similarly, Lewis was the first African American to own a billion dollar corporation.