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Ernesta G. Procope Quotes

1923–2021

Ernesta Gertrude Procope (née Forster) (2 September 1923 – 30 November 2021) was an American investment banker and insurance executive who was the head of the largest insurance agency run by a Black woman.

Random Ernesta G. Procope quote

9 quotes

"The industry does nothing to attract young people to the business."

“We're not selling potatoes or onions. We're selling service.”

"We have continued to insure and service the people in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community."

"It's been a constant battle to open doors and get a chance to show what we can do."

"This wasn't a neighborhood at risk. These were well-built, owner-occupied brownstones."

"They didn't know that Bedford-Stuyvesant had substantial, middle-class homeowners, blacks and whites, who needed and deserved coverage."

“I never operated with a complex—as a woman, as a black woman, as a black. But instead, as a person in business. We knew there were problems, but I could not let that be a deterrent to me.”

"Here was a black company from Bedford-Stuyvesant coming to Wall Street–that was significant. It showed that we had entered the mainstream of the American economy, And it opened doors for other blacks."

"There remain vestiges of racism and sexism that continue to make our job more difficult than it should be. But significant progress has been made over the last 50 years. We look forward to an America where people are only judged by their abilities and talents and willingness to work."

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ernesta G. Procope (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.