Griffin Speaks

A DETERMINED SOUL

On November 1, 2001 Morehouse College lost one of its most distinguished alumnus, Dr. T. M. Alexander. He was affectionately known by his friends and colleagues as T.M., Theodore Martin Alexander Sr. He was born on March 7, 1909, in Montgomery, Alabama, to the late James and Hattie Alexander. He attended the former Morehouse Academy High School, and after graduating, he went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Business Administration from Morehouse College in 1931. Morehouse College honored him with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1970. For more than 70 years he was a pioneer and leader in the Atlanta community, always in the forefront of important national and local social, political and economic change. He made his mark on the world, particularly the South, and was determined to overcome the many obstacles confronting an aspiring southern African-American man at the time.

He founded Alexander & Company in 1931, a property and casualty insurance brokerage agency with offices in Georgia and Alabama. The company grew to become one of the nation’s oldest and most successful minority-owned full-time independent insurance agencies and served major clients throughout the United States, including MARTA, the City of Atlanta, The Coca-Cola Company, and Fulton County. One of his most memorable and unprecedented challenges was the placement of liability insurance on the automobiles used in the Montgomery bus boycott in 1957.

At a critical point in the Civil Rights Movement, white insurance companies decided to cancel the liability insurance policies on these vehicles, thus causing a temporary setback for the boycotters. Word circulated throughout the insurance industry that any insurance broker providing coverage for the involved vehicles would be barred. When the late Dr. martin Luther King Jr. Approached him for assistance, T.M. made a contact with Lloyd’s of London Insurance and successfully obtained the desperately needed coverage. This bold and daring move enabled the boycott to continue and ultimately achieve its goals. Recognizing his leadership and civil rights activities, in 1964 the late President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the National Citizens Committee for Human Relations, an advisory committee organized to provide advice on the implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

T.M. Alexander’s passing touched me personally in that he helped me to convince his son the late T.M. Alexander Jr. to personally pay all of my expenses to study in Europe for the summer of 1978. It seems like yesterday that I was thanking Mr. Alexander for his assistance. He was a generous man. He had a profound impact on my life.

I attended his funeral on Wednesday in Atlanta. It was held on the campus of Morehouse College. It was an excellent celebration of his life. The most touching moment at the funeral was when Maynard Jackson recited by heart T. M.’s favorite poem:

WILL

THERE IS NO CHANCE, NO DESTINY, NO FATE;

CAN CIRCUMVENT OR HINDER OR CONTROL

THE FIRM RESOLVE OF A DETERMINED SOUL.

GIFTS COUNT FOR NOTHING, WILL ALONE IS GREAT;

ALL THINGS GIVE WAY BEFORE IT, SOON OR LATE

WHAT OBSTACLES CAN STAY THE MIGHTY FORCE

OF THE SEA SEEKING RIVER IN ITS COURSE

OR CAUSE THE ASCENDING ORB OF DAY TO WAIT?

EACH WELL BORNE SOUL MUST WIN WHAT IT DESERVES

LET THE FOOL PRATE OF LUCK. THE FORTUNATE

IS HE WHOSE EARNEST PURPOSE NEVER SWERVES.

THE ONE GREAT AIM. WHY EVEN DEATH STANDS STILL,

AND WAITS NO HOUR SOMETIMES FOR SUCH A WILL.

                                        ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

I am convinced that T. M. Alexander exceeded everyone’s expectations, but his own. May God rest his soul.

Greg Griffin is a columnist for the historic Montgomery-Tuskegee Times. He can be reached at www.greggriffin.com