H. W. Sewing was born in poverty in Texas on February 15, 1891, the third of seven children born to Thomas and Margaret Sewing. He began picking cotton at the age of 9 and later completed his education through Boyd Academy, Tillotson College, and Fisk University.

Sewing came to Kansas City, Kansas in the early 1920s and began a series of business ventures. These included the Sentinel Club, Sentinel Loan and Investment Company, Land Investors Company (which developed the Brentwood Hills subdivision in the early 1950s), Twin City Federal Savings, and the H.W. Sewing Company that specialized in real estate and insurance. He also started the Douglass State Bank, the first bank known to be owned and operated by African Americans in the Midwest. The bank had its origins in the Sentinal Loan Club and Sentinal Loan and Investment Company and was organized in the mid-1940s, opening its doors in 1947.

Sewing was a community leader, mentoring several other people to become good business people. He used his network to help develop Kansas City, Kansas.

H. W. Sewing married Ina Rebecca Widmon in 1917, and they had two daughters, Margaret Walker and Dimple Jamison.

[Information retrieved from collection materials.]