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Dempsey J. Travis is an entrepreneur, historian and self-made multi-millionaire.
He is the president of Travis Realty Company®, which has been
listed among the Largest 100 Black Business in America by Black Enterprise
Magazine. Mr. Travis was also listed for seven years in Ebony Magazine
as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Americans and as Black Businessman
of the Year by Dollar and Sense Magazine.
Mr. Travis has authored 25 best selling books including An
Autobiography of Black Chicago, An Autobiography of Black
Politics, Real Estate is the Gold in Your Future, and, Harold:
The People’s Mayor, to name a few titles. He was financial
editor for Dollars and Sense Magazine for several years, and
was also a contributing writer for Ebony Magazine and Black
Scholars.
Among his other achievements, Mr. Travis was listed in Who’s
Who in America, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, and
Who’s Who in the World. He was also listed among the
People Who Have Made a Difference in the Chicago Sun-Times’
Sesquicentennial Celebration issue. He has been the subject
of numerous radio and television programs, with five shows
receiving Emmy nominations, as well as hundreds of newspaper
and magazine articles. Mr. Travis was presented with the Black
Enterprise Magazine First Annual Finance Achievement Award
by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller at the White House on
February 21, 1975. |
Always active in civics, Mr. Travis was coordinator of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first civil rights march in
Chicago in 1960, and he is a past president of the Chicago
NAACP branch. He has participated in several presidential
administrations including President Lyndon B. Johnson’s
1966 civil rights meetings, President Richard Nixon’s
Housing Task Force, and President Gerald Ford’s Presidential
Task Force on Urban Renewal and the Presidential Task Force
on Inflation.
Mr. Travis was one of the first African Americans appointed as
a trustee of various organizations including the Chicago Historical
Society, Northwestern Memorial Hospital; member of the Chicago Board
of Roosevelt University; and member of The Auditorium Board. He
served two terms as president of the Dearborn Real Estate Board,
and was elected first V.P. for the National Association of Real
Estate Brokers. He founded The United Mortgage Bankers of America
and served as president from 1961 to 1974. He received Ameritech’s
Small Business Community Service Award in 1995. He was also inducted
into the Junior Achievement Chicago Business Community Hall of Fame
in 1995. Dempsey Travis is a graduate of the Northwestern University’s
School of Mortgage Banking. He served in the United States Army
for four years. Mr. Travis was born and raised in Chicago, and has
been married to his wife for over 50 years. He is currently working
on three more books chronicling black life in America.
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