‘Of My Chest’: Reclaiming ‘The Reginald Lewis Cover’ Mainstream Media’s Revisionist History

Alfred Edmond Jr. personally reported the narrative as a young associate editor.

In this edition of the Off My Chest, a commentary series by BLACK ENTERPRISE Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, Alfred Edmond Jr., addresses widespread social media misattributions around iconic dealmaker Reginald Lewis. BLACK ENTERPRISE published the landmark story on its November 1987 cover, documenting the first Black-owned enterprise to cross the billion-dollar revenue threshold. Edmond makes it plain— that mainstream business outlets have glazed over the fact that BE broke the news of Lewis’s historic $985 million leveraged buyout of TLC Beatrice International Foods in 1987, while actively repurposing the story and iconography.