Maggie Lena Walker Becomes First Black Woman to Charter a Bank in the United States

Maggie Lena Walker chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia on July 28, 1903, becoming the first Black woman to found and serve as president of a bank in US history. Walker built the bank on the financial networks of the Independent Order of St. Luke, of which she was executive secretary. The bank survived the Great Depression (later merging to become Consolidated Bank and Trust) and served as a vehicle for Black economic development in a city that denied Black access to white financial institutions.