Maggie Lena Walker

By: BlackEntrepreneurProfile.com

Company: St. Luke Penny Savings Bank/Consolidated Bank & Trust

Position: Founder

Industry: Financial Services

Country: United States

---

The first woman in the United States to found a bank. The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank which was founded in 1903 with $9,430 in deposits gathered from members of the Independent Order of St. Luke, an African-American benevolent society. At the turn of the century, Walker became the societies executive secretary, its membership began to dwindle. Walker reinvigorated the institution, building its national membership to 100,000. The bank was founded because no white banks wanted to accept deposits from a black organization. The bank became the order's financial arm.

Walker said "Let us put our moneys together; let us put our money out at usury among ourselves, and reap the benefit ourselves, Let us have a bank that will take the nickels and turn them into dollars."

By 1913, assets had grown to over $300,000. The bank made loans to black businesses, students and for people to buy houses. While many of the largest black-owned banks went under during the Great Depression, St. Luke Penny Savings Bank survived, in part by merging with two smaller, black-owned banks in 1930, when it was renamed Consolidated Bank & Trust which still exist today with assets of $116 million and the majority of its share holders are still Black Americans.

Walker also started a weekly newspaper, the St. Luke Herald, which she edited. Their was also a department store that ultimately failed after the white community boycotted it and its suppliers.

---