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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re telling the story of how the daughter of a formerly enslaved person became the first African American woman to charter a bank. With a vision of bettering her community, she increased access to employment, education, and financial instruments during a time when the Black community had limited or no access to these vital resources due to segregation. Let’s talk about Maggie Lena Walker!
Maggie Lena Walker was born on July 15, 1864, in Richmond, Virginia on the estate of famed abolitionist and Civil War spy Elizabeth Van Lew. Maggie’s parents were Elizabeth Draper and Eccles Cuthbert, but she never had a relationship with her biological father. William Mitchell, who Elizabeth married when Maggie was just an infant, filled the role of Maggie’s father. While on the estate, Elizabeth worked as an assistant cook and William as a butler.
In 1870, the family welcomed Maggie’s baby brother, Johnnie. Later that same year, William got a job as head waiter at a prestigious Richmond hotel. With the money from the new job, Maggie’s family was able to move into a small home not far from the Van Lew estate. Sadly, tragedy struck only six years later when William was found drowned in a river. The cause of his death is uncertain, but Maggie believed that he was murdered.
With two children to feed, Maggie’s mother started a laundry business. Maggie helped her mother by delivering the clean clothing to her various white customers. This experience taught Maggie the importance of financial literacy and management, while also illuminating the large socio-economic gap between white and Black Americans.
Maggie was a product of the Richmond public school system; first attending the Valley School and later graduating from the Richmond Colored Normal School in 1883. While in high school, she joined the Independent Order of St. Luke, an organization dedicated to empowering Black men and women through encouraging and funding efforts towards financial freedom and education.
Between 1883 and 1886, Maggie juggled her membership duties for the Order of St. Luke and her responsibilities as a new teacher at the same Valley School she attended as a child. Due to a policy against married teachers, Maggie was forced to leave her post in 1886 when she married Armistead Walker Jr. Armistead was a talented brickmaker who was luckily able to serve as the sole provider for Maggie and their son Russell, who was born in 1890.
Over the next decade, Maggie focused on taking care of her family, while also rising through the ranks of the Order of St. Luke. In 1895, she was promoted to grand deputy matron and in 1899, two years after giving birth to her son, Melvin, she was elevated to the organization’s top leadership position: Grand Secretary. When Maggie inherited the organization, it was on the verge of collapse due to lack of funds and mismanagement, but Maggie was not dismayed. Instead, she was propelled forward by her ambitions to found three businesses that would enable African Americans to enhance their economic power – the St. Luke Herald newspaper in 1902, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903, and the St. Luke Emporium in 1905.
Under Maggie’s direction, the Order grew from 1,000 members to almost 4,000 members in the first year. Maggie focused much of her efforts on developing the bank, which was of particular importance to the community, as at that time many banks refused to lend to Black borrowers. Her work as an insurance agent at a white-owned bank years earlier had provided her with the skills needed to quickly learn the ins and outs of banking.
To ensure the success of the bank’s opening day, Maggie enlisted the help of local children to pass out invitations for the big event. She also traveled throughout the region and as far north as New Jersey to encourage Black depositors to trust her with their money. This was no easy feat since many were still recovering from losing money to corrupt white bank managers at the Congress’ Freedman’s Savings & Trust Co, a bank which was set up to purportedly serve newly emancipated people after the Civil War. But Maggie slowly earned their trust, and on opening day, the bank accrued more than $9,400 in deposits.
Maggie’s life mission was to employ and uplift the Black community. Besides the bank, the newspaper she started improved communication between the Order of St. Luke and the community and publicized the triumphs of the Order. The emporium Maggie started provided work opportunities for Black women and increased community access to more affordable goods. At the height of their success, these enterprises employed at least 100 Black women.
The Emporium was Maggie’s only short-lived business endeavor. The department store was forced to shut down in 1912 after receiving backlash from the white community. A neighboring landlord threatened to build a saloon next to the store so that it would attract shady clientele. And white merchants told vendors they would stop buying from them if they continued to supply goods to the Emporium.
In a horrible accident in 1915, Maggie’s son, Russell, shot and killed his father after he mistook him for a burglar in the dead of night. Maggie coped with her grief by pouring herself into her work and by 1920, the Penny Savings Bank’s assets hit $530,000, about $7 million in today’s money. Further success included bank patrons paying off almost 650 mortgages. Nearly 40 percent of Black households in Richmond were now owned by their inhabitants.
The bank was able to achieve such success because Maggie truly understood the needs of her community. She made loans as small as $5 since that was what many of her customers made in a week, and she extended bank hours so that those who worked past 5 p.m could still make deposits and request loans. Maggie also converted local community members into make-shift credit committees so that borrowers could use trusted community members as references to secure loans.
Maggie was not easy on her employees and expected excellence. Her former secretary, Alice Gillam, recalled how on one occasion an audit that was due later that day came back with one nickel missing. Instead of dismissing the small discrepancy, Maggie required two of her employees to stay until they found the missing nickel. The search lasted until midnight.
Maggie was one of the few bank owners who was able to maintain operations during the Great Depression by absorbing two smaller Black-owned banks in 1930. The consortium was renamed Consolidated Bank and Trust Co. Until 2009, it was the United States’ oldest Black-owned bank in continuous operation.
Over the course of Maggie’s 25 years in charge, the Order of St. Luke collected close to $3.5 million and boasted 100,000 members across 24 states. Maggie also founded the Richmond branch of the NAACP and served as a board member of the Virginia Industrial School for Girls for many years.
On December 15, 1934, Maggie died from complications due to diabetes.
Maggie’s life’s work consolidated communication, money, and industry in order to help her vastly under-resourced community become economically independent, mobilized, and self-sustaining.
This was our final episode of our month of Women in the Driver’s Seat. Tomorrow, we’re introducing a brand new theme for the new month.
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Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.