The first African American woman to found a bank in the United States, businesswoman and community leader Maggie Lena Walker facilitated success for entrepreneurs in her city of Richmond, Virginia.
In 1889, Walker was elected to a leadership position with the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal association she had been involved with since she was a teenager. Her guidance transformed the Order, which had been on the brink of financial failure, into a powerful benefit society for African Americans that encouraged education, economic growth, and community advancement. To allow for direct communications from the Order to the public, Walker established a newspaper, the St. Luke Herald. And in 1903, she founded St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and served as its first president. The bank employed Black women and allowed the emerging Black middle class in Richmond economic opportunities previously denied to them in the era of Jim Crow.
In addition to raising funds for education and health programs in Richmond, Walker viewed civic participation as key in helping women and African Americans obtain economic and social independence. She served as the vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and following the passage of the 19th Amendment, she helped to organize voter registration drives for women in her community.
Learn more about Walker’s life and accomplishments from
Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site
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