Jul 3, 2009 4:41 pm US/Central
Realtor, Civil Rights Activist Dempsey Travis Dies
Travis Founded Realty Company That Became One Of Nation's Biggest Black-Owned Businesses
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Author, realtor and civil rights activist Dempsey Travis in a 1990 interview with CBS 2.
CBS
Dempsey Travis had a handful of careers: real estate entrepreneur, civil rights activist, author, and historian.
Dempsey Travis, a stockyards worker's son, died at age 89. The self-made millionaire died Thursday at his home, his family said.
What's even more amazing: he broke barriers and excelled in every single one, as CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports.
blakley: His 87th street office building is draped in the black and purple bunting of mourning and inside his office, the void left by Dempsey Travis' departure is only now being felt.
When Travis said: "This is drama, this is exciting, this is politics," he was talking about the 2000 Presidential election, but he could have been describing his own life.
A native South Sider, Travis attended DuSable High School, then Roosevelt University. One of his classmates and closest friends was Harold Washington.
"We used to have some pretty big dreams when we were classmates together," Travis said in an earlier CBS 2 video.
After graduating from DuSable in 1939, Travis served in a racially segregated Army unit during World War II, once being among several black troops shot by a white MP.
After studying at Roosevelt, Travis formed the first of his several real estate firms in 1949. Travis Realty Company became one of the largest black-owned businesses in America. As a developer in the 1950s, he sought to increase mortgage availability for African-Americans.
Dreams were fulfilled, when Washington was elected Chicago's first black mayor, with crucial backing from Travis.
"A lot of people didn't believe black people could raise money and there was no money in the black community, but there was plenty of money in Dempsey Travis' pocket because he was a successful entrepreneur," said Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington.
Through his companies -- Travis Realty and Sivart Mortgage -- Dempsey Travis became a self-made millionaire, an entrepreneur who fought for social justice. As head of the local NAACP, Travis organized Martin Luther King's first march on Chicago in 1960. And he worked to provide African-Americans access to mortgages -- the key to building middle class black communities like Chatham.
"When others didn't see the value of building homes in the city, he showed you could build and sell at a profit," said Ald. Fredrenna Lyle (6th).
Travis built another career, too -- that of a historian and author of 21 books, including the best-selling autobiography of black Chicago.
"He himself made history, worked closely in the civil rights movement, but he also chronicled that history, as well," Washington said.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Moselynne.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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