12/05/2025
Most people recognize the man on the right—actor Darryl Bell, best known as Ron Johnson from the hit show A Different World. But many don’t know that his father, Travers Bell Jr., co-founded the first Black-owned firm on the New York Stock Exchange in 1971. With just $175,000 in starting capital, he built Daniels & Bell Inc. into a thriving Wall Street securities company valued at nearly $15 million by the time of his death in 1988. Travers was also a major shareholder in Freedom National Bank and Cocoline Chocolate Co., the company that produced chocolate chips for Nabisco.
When Travers died at age 46 from a heart attack, he left his multimillion-dollar enterprise to his son Darryl—a decision that proved challenging. Due to limited financial experience, Darryl ultimately lost most of his father’s wealth, gradually depleting the assets completely. The story carries an important lesson: if we don’t prepare our children to manage the wealth we work hard to create, those assets can easily become liabilities for the next generation.
