Born: December 7, 1942, Baltimore, MD

Education: Virginia State College, B.A., 1965; Harvard Law School (HLS), LL.B., 1968

Died: January 19, 1993, New York, NY

One contemporary called Lewis the “Jackie Robinson of Wall Street ... the man who broke the color barrier in large-scale mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts.”

Lewis instilled strong values in a household where his mother and grandparents taught him to be hardworking and self-confident. As a Baltimore high school athlete, he learned to play hard and smart. He excelled in college, in law school, and as an entrepreneur.

His career reflected “the third-wave rise of black corporate America.” Lewis bought McCall Patterns in 1984 for $23 million, doubled its profits, and sold it in 1987 for $90 million. He managed to buy Beatrice International Foods for $985 million, “the first such acquisition by a black in American business history,” which made him CEO of TLC-Beatrice International. The largest African American business, it owned sixty-four companies in thirty-one countries. Beatrice Foods, its center, was the thirty-fifth ranked American corporation. Lewis, who accumulated an estimated $400 million in personal wealth, became one of the 400 richest Americans. A philanthropist, he donated to higher education, historic preservation, black political campaigns, the NAACP, and the Rainbow/Push Coalition. Baltimore's inner-city youth programs and African American Museum are beneficiaries of the Lewis Foundation.