Nathaniel Bronner Sr. was born in 1914 on a farm in rural southern Georgia. His father, Gene, was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. Bronner was one of 11 children and learned early to work on the farm. Bronner and his siblings picked cotton, helped harvest the hay, and performed many of the daily chores generated on a farm.The family had first-hand experience with the Ku Klux Klan. Gene Bronner had found success with his farm and a small town store only to be run out of town by the Klan.

The Bronners began again on a new farm, only to have the house burned down by the KKK in 1919. The family moved to Kelly, Georgia, and began a new farm, which became successful. Education was a high priority with Gene Bronner, and he put together a library in their home so that the children would have access to books.Bronner’s education came to a halt with the completion of primary school; further education was not available to rural southern blacks in his area. He had to move to Atlanta for high school and college. In Atlanta he found segregation and slums, but he had been instilled with his father’s work ethic and a strong faith in God. He joined the Butler Street Methodist Church and the YMCA when it was popularly known as the Young Men’s Christian Association. He also enrolled in high school.He later told in an interview with The World, “In both the church and the YMCA, I could continue to build on prayer, the spiritual foundation and worship, the principles on which I have been nurtured all my life.” He said that he had learned to put God first when he was growing up. Over the years he developed and followed one edict: place God first, family second, and business third. His first business experience was in a job delivering newspapers. He transcended this life in 1993.