Investor's Business Daily, June 1st, 2007
Maggie Lena Walker (1867--1934) overcame racial discrimination, poverty and sexism to become the first female bank founder and president.
She championed black American and women's causes and worked tirelessly to help them achieve economic and social independence.
"She was self-motivating and self-taught," said David Ruth, assistant superintendent and historian at the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site in Richmond, Va. "She was a contemporary of Booker T. Washington, and she emulated important African-American personalities at the time. ... She had a way of crossing race boundaries at a time that was racially divided."
Walker was born to former slaves in Richmond two years after the end of the Civil War. Her childhood was shaken when her father was murdered in a robbery. Just 9, she had to help her mother do laundry to earn a living.The Jim Crow laws curbed blacks' freedoms. But Walker did not let racial prejudice limit her ambitions.
At age 14, she joined the local council of the Independent Order of St. Luke. The African-American fraternal and cooperative insurance society was founded by a former slave in Baltimore in 1867. It promoted humanitarian causes and helped the elderly and ill after the Civil War.
With all her school and family work, Walker found time to volunteer at the organization's office. There she learned about public speaking, social activism and the troubles facing black Americans.
Walker managed to finish high school at age 16. She took her first job as a grade school teacher -- one of the few jobs available to women. She continued her education with night school to study business and accounting, but then faced a setback. Upon her wedding at age 19, she was forced out of teaching because Virginia law forbade married women from teaching.
While bringing up her children, she continued volunteering at the Independent Order of St. Luke.
"She wouldn't accept the popular roles for women at the time, which were being a wife and mother only," said Laurenette Lee, curator of African-American History at the Virginia Historical Society, which hosts a community birthday celebration in honor of Walker every year.
Lee added, "Black women didn't have many opportunities outside of working in the homes of other people as maids and servants."
So Walker made her opportunities. She took on more responsibility in her volunteer work. And when the St. Luke organization suffered losses and fell into debt, she grabbed her chance, taking on the role of secretary-treasurer in 1899.
The outfit had 3,400 members and inadequate staffing. With Walker running the books, the group expanded to 50,000 members in 1,500 chapters -- plus gained $400,000 in assets and 50 employees -- by 1924.
Under Walker's leadership, the group expanded its mission to financially empower the black community. She opened St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903 to provide loans for homes and college. "She particularly encouraged women to invest their money and not be dependent on a man," Lee said. "She was really vocal about that."
At the new St. Luke firm, Walker earned the distinction of being the first female bank president.
Lee attributes Walker's success to being a good communicator who was able to interact with whites easily. "She asked one of the leading white bankers in Richmond to work with her for a few hours every day for several months to learn the intricacies of banking," Lee said.
Said Rush: "She was a very hands-on practicing banker. She didn't just operate as a figurehead."
She also operated successfully, Rush says. Her bank was one of the few that stayed in business after the stock market crash of 1929.
St. Luke Penny Savings Bank bought the other black-owned banks in Richmond in 1929 and became Consolidated Bank and Trust.
Despite legalized discrimination against blacks, Walker did not accept second-class status. In 1906 she said: "The destroying of Negro business enterprises, the refusal of employment to Negroes; the attempt to drive out the Negro barbers, and Negroes from every other occupation, with hostile legislation on the increase -- there are those who still believe that we should look to the Lord and keep our mouths shut. If the ants were being treated as the Negro is in this country, I believe that they would get together for their own protection."
The next year, Walker and the Independent Order of St. Luke opened a department store, the St. Luke Emporium. She encouraged blacks to shop there to support their community.
She employed women because white department stores wouldn't hire them. "Unfortunately, many of the white merchants tried to close her down because they were losing customers," Lee said.
Walker fought the White Retail Dealers' Association, which tried to keep blacks from shopping at black-owned stores.
"If white men are forming combinations and associations for the purpose of crushing us out, is there one single colored man in here that will now deliberately go and carry his dollars to the white merchant so that he can fight us?" Walker railed in a speech.
"Are you really going to feed the lion of prejudice and make him stronger and stronger, so that he can all the more easily devour us?"
The emporium eventually went under in 1911.
The next year, Walker helped found the Richmond Council of Colored Women and served as its president. The group raised money for education and health programs.
Walker also spoke out for women's suffrage and helped with voter registration after the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.
Walker was confined to a wheelchair because of her ailing health in 1928, but she continued working.
She retired as head of the Independent Order of St. Luke in 1931.
She had amassed a fortune, including a 25-room home in downtown Richmond where her grandchildren also lived. She died of diabetic gangrene in 1934.
Her legacy remains with Consolidated Bank and Trust, which has on its Web site President Joseph Williams' quote: "Our mission remains Maggie's to further develop and prosper the people and communities this bank was founded to serve for this century and beyond."
