T. J. Huddleston, Sr.

T. J. Huddleston, Sr. (June 1, 1876—1959) was a prominent African American entrepreneur and community leader in Mississippi. He owned dozens of funeral homes in Mississippi. He was the grandfather of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, Mayor Henry Espy of Clarksdale, Mississippi and great-grandfather of Mississippi Representative Chuck Espy (D - Clarksdale).

Huddleston was also the father of Leon Finney, Sr. (1916-2008), the founder of a popular barbecue chain in Chicago, who in turn was the father of Leon Finney, Jr. (1938-), a prominent Chicago minister and current president and CEO of the Woodlawn Organization. The Chicago and Mississippi branches of the family retain political ties.

T(homas) J(efferson) Huddleston, Sr. was born on June 1, 1876.

In 1924, Huddleston founded the Afro-American Sons and Daughters, a fraternal organization in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Four years later, he built and operated the Afro-American Hospital in Yazoo. It was Mississippi's first hospital owned and operated by blacks.

Huddleston's children with his wife Patience included:

Huddleston had one child with Georgiana Colvin called Blanche Huddleston.

Huddleston had one child with Jennie Parker: Christopher Columbus Huddleston (April 18, 1896 - December 12, 1982)

"Under the burden of Jim Crow, how did African Americans obtain health care? For nearly 40 years the Afro-American Hospital of Yazoo City, Mississippi, was a leading health care supplier for blacks in the Mississippi Delta. It was founded in 1928 by the Afro-American Sons and Daughters, a black fraternal society, and provided a wide range of medical services. The society, which eventually had 35,000 members, was led by Thomas J. Huddleston, a prosperous black entrepreneur and advocate of Booker T. Washington's self-help philosophy. The hospital had a low death rate compared to other hospitals that served blacks in the South during the period. It ceased operation in 1966 as a fraternal entity after years of increasingly burdensome regulation, competitive pressure from government and third-party health care alternatives, and the migration of younger dues-paying blacks to the North." .

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