of the new company. W. B. Cogle served as president, Perkins as vice president, and Franks as treasurer of American Mutual. Their company aggressively sold "fraternal" insurance to Texas blacks and quickly grew to one of the largest black-owned businesses west of the Mississippi. In the wake of American Mutual's success, American National sued them because of the similarity in their names and also because they were not operating under the fraternal system as their charter stipulated. As a result, Nickerson and the other officers were called before the insurance commissioner. The night before the meeting, Nickerson drafted a formal ritual for policyholders to comply with the requirement that they be a "lodge" or fraternal order. The Department of Insurance ruled in American Mutual's favor on both counts, but the incident caused Nickerson to re-examine the direction of American Mutual. After extensive research in the law, Nickerson decided that industrial or fraternal insurance schemes were not in the best interests of black insurance firms or their policyholders. Instead, Nickerson advocated the establishment of traditional, whole life insurance policies, but the other officers did not share his enthusiasm. While still working in his capacity at American Mutual, Nickerson set up a south Texas office for Standard Life Insurance Company of Atlanta, Georgia, an ordinary life insurance company, recently organized by Herman Edward Perry. This provided Nickerson with valuable experience in whole life insurance and also demonstrated to him the advantages of operating in more than one state. However, when he presented his associates at American Mutual with a proposal to open offices in Oklahoma and California, they were indecisive. Nickerson added publishing to his growing list of enterprises, when he founded the Houston Observer newspaper in 1916. Three years later in a partnership with Clifton H. Richardson and H.F. Edwards established the Informer Publishing Company, which published the Houston Informer newspaper. In the wake of the Longview, Texas Riots of 1919 (and perhaps the Tulsa Riots two years later), Nickerson grew concerned about the racial climate in the Southwest. After members of the Ku Klux Klan allegedly burned a cross in front of his home, he finally moved to Los Angeles and established a branch of the American Mutual Benefit Association. While there Nickerson said he needed a "live wire" or someone with local connections to get the new branch off of the ground. That person was Norman O. Houston, a