Alvin J. Boutte
Alvin J. Boutte, Sr. (October 10, 1929 – April 1, 2012) was an African American banker and businessman in Chicago, Illinois. He was co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Independence Bank – the largest Black-owned bank in the United States in the 1970s – and its holding company, Indecorp, Inc., which reclaimed that title in the 1990s with more than $200 million in assets. He was connected to many civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, and Harold Washington. The Chicago Tribune once described him as a "moderate militant." Early life Boutte was born and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the youngest of 10 children in a Louisiana Creole family. His parents were Arthur Hyacinthe Boutte, Sr., and the former Adorea Darensbourg. Arthur Boutte was listed as an "odd-job laborer" in the 1930 census and an office janitor in the 1940 census. Growing up in Jim Crow Louisiana, the Bouttes faced racism and discrimination. Speaking of his father, Boutte told a biographer: "I can remember how he'd dress me up and we'd walk down to the voting place and they'd tell him, 'You know you can't vote.' He'd just walk back and try again the next time. I guess I should be bitter, but I'm not." Boutte attended Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Lake Charles and attended Xavier University of Louisiana on a basketball scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in pharmacology in 1951. One of his classmates there was Ernest "Dutch" Morial, who would later become the first Black mayor of New Orleans. After graduation, Boutte joined the U.S. Army, attending Officer Candidate School, where he finished second in a class of 220. He was honorably discharged in 1954 with the rank of captain, having been stationed in Germany. He settled in the Black middle-class neighborhood of Chatham-Avalon on Chicago's South Side and began work at a local drugstore named Lakeside Pharmacy. A year later, with a $28,000 loan, he bought the store. Within a few years, he'd opened three new locations under the name Independent Drug Stores. He quickly became a leader in a growing group of Black entrepreneurs in Chicago. Independence Bank In 1964, with several other Chicago Black businessmen, he co-founded Independence Bank. A key partner was George E. Johnson Sr., founder of the cosmetics and haircare company Johnson Products; both he and Boutte had been frustrated by the difficulties Black businessmen faced accessing capital at white-owned banks. Initially, Johnson was the bank's chairman and Boutte its vice chairman. But the bank got off to a rocky start, so in 1969 Boutte sold his pharmacy chain and moved from bank investor to bank president. Within three years, Independence's assets had grown from $16 million to $55 million. By 1973, it was the largest Black-owned bank in the United States, and in 1977, it opened a new $4 million headquarters on Chicago's South Side. Independence became a consolidator of other Black-owned banks with lesser financial positions. In 1979, state and federal