Publisher, businessman, philanthropist, and the founder of Black Enterprise magazine, as well as chairman of the media company Earl G. Graves, Ltd.
He volunteered for Lyndon B. Jonson's 1964 presidential campaign.
His alma mater Morgan State named its business school after him: Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management.
He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York City with his family.
He was appointed by George W. Bush to serve on the Presidential Commission for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.