Struggle & Resistance Achievement & Excellence

1903

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.

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Key events

July 28, 1903
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.
April 18, 1903
W.E.B. Du Bois publishes "The Souls of Black Folk"
Du Bois's landmark book rejects accommodation, names the "color line" as the problem of the century, and demands full rights now.