AG Gaston: Economic Freedom Fighter & Civil Rights Financier

AG Gaston was one of the most important icons of the civil rights era. He was one of the financier of the civil rights struggle that ended discrimination in America. He was the man who wrote the check that financed the civil rights fight for justice. Social justice must be financed and AG Gaston the businessman is the one who provided the funds to fight white supremacy. His finances helped bring down segregation and bring dignity to millions of African American people.

AG Gaston’s business empire included:

• Citizens Federal Savings Bank
• Gaston Motel
• Booker T. Washington Business College
• Vulcan Realty and Investment Company
• A. G. Gaston Home for Senior Citizens
• A. G. Gaston Construction Company
•  Real estate business
• Booker T. Washington Insurance Company ($34 million in assets)
• Booker T. Washington Burial Society.
• Smith and Gaston Funeral Home
• Two cemeteries
• Radio stations WENN-FM
• Radio Station WAGG-AM

AG Gaston was born in poverty but was always striving for a better life. He was very entrepreneurial, and his net worth was valued at $40 million. A remarkable achievement today and more so in those days for an African American. He was born at a time when black people were second class citizen and not supposed to own property.

How AG Gaston Financed Civil Rights:

• Wealth creator and legacy builder: Gaston sold the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company with assets totaling $34 million in assets to his employees for only $3.5 million creating wealth for his long time employees and their families.
• Economic freedom fighter who believed that economic rights and property ownership were key to achieving civil rights
• Employed African Americans with good wages which allowed them to be empowered to live better lives.
• Bailed out of jail Martin Luther King, Jr. and other incarcerated activists after the Birmingham protests in 1963.
• Provided financial assistance to Tuskegee activists who challenged voting discrimination and were forced out of their homes.
• Provided meeting place in his downtown offices for Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, organization.
• Civil rights activists’ campaigns were planned at the Gaston Motel meeting rooms
• Donated money to the legal team of Autherine Lucy, who in 1955 filed a lawsuit to integrate the graduate school at the University of Alabama