Research leads to... Onie B. Granville
- marthaengber
- Aug 27
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 3
While doing research for my next book, I found an article by the Los Angeles Urban League, “Remembering Onie B. Granville, Founder of First Black-Owned Commercial Bank in California." He was truly a dude who specialized in turning lemons into lemonade.
In the 19402 he got his undergrad in his home state in Texas and his master’s at the University of CA in real estate appraising, banking and finance. He became a real-estate broker in 1960s Los Angeles during the tumultuous Civil Rights era when most banks didn’t want to work with Black customers on real estate purchases.
Onie partnered with his brother and a variety of other business people to create a black-owned real estate purchasing infrastructure:
He co-founded the Quality Escrow Company and Burnett Investment
He was a member of the all-black Consolidated Realty Board.
He worked with CA Governor Pat Brown on the California Fair Housing Act.
He served on the city’s Building and Safety Commission
He co-founded the West Adams Community Hospital, the Southern California Minority Capital Corporation and The Pacific Coast Regional Job Creation Corporation (now the Pacific Coast Regional Small Business Development Corporation).
That’s the best thing about research: discovering the people who’ve pushed our society to improve.
Who's the person in history you think has achieved that?
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SCATTERED LIGHT, a novel, sequel to WINTER LIGHT, (Nov. 2025)
THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD a historical novel
BLISS ROAD, a memoir
WINTER LIGHT, a novel, in paperback and audiobook
THE WIND THIEF, a novel
GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers
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