Find a Need and Fill It – Civil Rights Leader A.G. Gaston

This Black businessman of the Civil Rights era offers a useful approach to difficult times.

Exhibit poster at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL.

I would like to tell you about a Black entrepreneur who was born dirt-poor and died with a net worth of more than $130 million, which he earned by creating businesses that met the basic needs of people in his community.  His name is A.G. Gaston, and he once described his philosophy very simply: Find a need and fill it.

You don’t need to have a flair for business to put that philosophy to use.  You can use it anywhere: Find a need and fill it.  It’s like taking the Biblical teachings to love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27), to seek what is good for all (1 Thess. 5:15), and to do to others as you would want them to do to you (Matt. 7:12), and mixing in a spark of creativity so that you recognize what people’s needs are and figure out ways to fill them.  We can all do that.

Where did I learn about A.G. Gaston?  At the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama.

Civil rights leaders – sung and less sung

My wife and I recently returned from a 12-day trip touring Civil Rights memorial sites and museums in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  I am still processing what we saw and learned, which will be the subject of future posts, but I would like to share one short insight that has relevance to today and every day.

Most people have a short list of names of people they know were connected to the Civil Rights Movement: names such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and John Lewis.  Many people know a second tier of names, which might include Ralph Abernathy, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, Fred Shuttlesworth, Diane Nash, and others.

But literally thousands of other people played important roles that most people know nothing about.  One such person was A.G. Gaston.

A.G. Gaston: brilliant businessman, quiet supporter of those on the front lines

A.G. Gaston grew up in a log cabin in rural Alabama until his family moved to Birmingham when he was a teenager.  After serving in the military in World War I, he worked in a coal mine but quickly discovered that he had a talent for business.  He created an insurance company offering burial insurance so that when a miner died (which happened all too often), his widow and children would have something to fall back on.

Over the years, he founded one new business after another: a funeral home, a business college, a savings and loan association, a motel, a home for senior citizens, a bank, a construction company, a bottling company that sold Brown Belle soda, and other businesses.

He later said of his business activities, “I found a need and filled it.  That is the principal on which sound businesses are founded.  Filling a need.”  But this was not just a business philosophy. For him, it was a way of life.

When civil rights battles splashed onto the front pages in Birmingham in the early 1960s, Gaston was there.  He allowed civil rights leaders to use his offices for meetings to plan their strategies.  He allowed them to stay at his motel for free.  He provided bail when Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy were jailed for marching without a permit.

His motel was bombed by white supremacists, but that did not stop him.  When voting rights activists marched from Selma to Montgomery – a 4-day trek – on one of those nights the marchers stayed at a farm he owned.

And when Dr. King named people to a committee to present the marchers’ demands to the Governor, he included Gaston as a member of the committee.  He was someone who could work with everyone – Black and White – to try to move things forward.

Anyone can follow A.G. Gaston's example to find a need and fill it

When civil rights leaders pursued more provocative tactics, Gaston was not always keen on their plans.  He was a cautious moderate, which means that behind the scenes, he did not always agree with them.  But he did not let that stop him from supporting them.  He was there when they needed him.  If there was a need that he could fill, he filled it.

I think God probably appreciates that kind of servant heart.

When times are difficult and you feel at loose ends about how to make a positive difference, one step that is always available is to follow A.G. Gaston’s example: Find a need and fill it.