America's first Black billionaire Reginald F. Lewis was a trailblazing businessman from Baltimore, Maryland.

Born to middle-class parents in 1942, his mother was a teacher, while his father worked at the post office. When he was nine years old, he started selling newspapers, earning roughly $20 a week and saving $18, according to the New York Times.

Before enrolling in Harvard Law School, he earned his degree from Virginia State University. After graduating in 1968, he joined the New York law firm of Paul Weiss Rifkin Wharton & Garrison LLC. He established his venture capital-focused legal practice, Lewis & Clarkson, in the early 1970s.

In 1983, he started one of his biggest business ventures, getting involved in purchasing the McCall Pattern Company. He oversaw a $23 million takeover of the small dress-pattern manufacturer using the $1 million he had saved from his work as a corporate lawyer. Four years later, after bringing the struggling business back to health, Mr. Lewis sold McCall to the British John Crowther Group for $63 million in cash, making a profit of $50 million for himself.

According to estimates by Fortune magazine, Lewis had $400 million in personal assets after purchasing the Beatrice Companies, a food manufacturing business, for $1 billion in 1987. It was the business deal that broke him into the mainstream.

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The transaction paved the way for the creation of Lewis' own company, TLC Beatrice International. The Lewis Firm, or TLC, became the biggest company in the U.S. run by a person of colour by acquiring the Beatrice operations.

Lewis, though proud of his background, disagreed with the idea that his race should elevate him to a significant position.

"I'm very proud of the accomplishments of African Americans," Lewis said in an interview with the New York Times, shortly after the acquisition.

"And I'm delighted that people feel this accomplishment adds to that list. But to dwell on race — to see that as something that becomes part of my persona — is a mistake, and I do everything I can to discourage it."

Lewis, one of the wealthiest Black men in the world in the 1980s, blazed a trail before he died in 1993 after a bout with brain cancer. He provided a path for other Black entrepreneurs to follow.

TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. was eventually liquidated over the next several years following his death in 1993 to provide profits for investors and the Lewis family.

Today, a museum in Baltimore with his name on it showcases the achievements and historical contributions of other African Americans in Maryland.

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His example, and the legacy of the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, has provided Black entrepreneurs with five valuable lessons we can take away in life and business. Check it out!

Source: Because of them, We Can