Maggie Walker
By
John C Abercrombie
Maggie Lena Walker was a powerful voice for civil rights and outstanding in financial responsibility and entrepreneurial advancement and achievement. Maggie Walker is the first woman of any race to charter and serve as president of a bank in America, yet her story is largely unknown.
The home of Maggie Walker has been restored and furnished and stands in the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond and has been designated a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service.
She was born Maggie Lena Draper on July 15, 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother was a former slave, Elizabeth Draper, a cook on the estate of Elizabeth Van Lew. Maggie’s biological father was Eccles Cuthbert a Confederate soldier. Later, her mother married William Mitchel and they had one son Johnnie and Maggie took the name of Mitchell.
Elizabeth Van Lew was an abolitionist and philanthropist who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Elizabeth Van Lew was educated in a Quaker school. Her father had vast holdings and when he died in 1843, she and her mother freed the family’s slaves. Many continued as paid servants for the family. One of those was a young woman referred to as Mary Bowser.
Mary Bowser was known by many names during her spying career. She was a spy for the Union army during the Civil War. Enslaved from birth in Richmond, Virginia, she was freed when her owner John Van Lew died in 1843 by his daughter Elizabeth Van Lew. Elizabeth freed all his slaves.
Elizabeth Van Lew sent Bowser to school. When the Civil War broke out, she recruited Bowser to serve as a spy for the Union cause. Bowser relayed information she heard to Van Lew and that information was relayed to Union leaders. Bowser was only 1 of a spy ring, run by Van Lew, but Bowser was considered one of her most important sources.
Elizabeth spent the entire holdings to purchase and free former slaves’ relatives. When a family was about to be split as was common during slavery, Van Lew would purchase them bring them home and issue them freedom papers.
The family moved to Richmond when William was offered the job of headwaiter at the St Charles Hotel. He died under mysterious circumstances. He was found drowned in the river, yet the police ruled it a suicide. This left the family in poverty. Maggie’s mother Elizabeth began a laundry business. Maggie assisted by delivering the cleaned and pressed laundry to their White customers. This exposure allowed her to discover the gap in quality of life between the races.
Maggie attended the Lancaster school and later the Richmond Colored Normal School. Both schools were dedicated to the education of Blacks. At the Richmond Colored Normal /school, she joined the Independent Order of St Luke, an organization dedicated to the advancement of Blacks in financial and social matters. This organization had a positive influence on her life and future success.
After completing her training to become a teacher, she returned to the Lancaster School and remained until she married in 1886. She married Armstead Walker Jr, a brick contractor. In those days it was considered improper for teachers to be married and she had to quit teaching.
She then began to split her time between her family and the Order of St Luke which was so instrumental in her business life.
In 1895, she became Grand Deputy of the Order of St Luke. At that time, she established a youth arm. In 1897 she became the became the Grand Secretary.
When Maggie Walker assumed control as Grand Secretary, the organization was on the verge of bankruptcy. A person with vision and perseverance, she outlined her plans to save the organization. In the coming years, she followed up on each and every aspect of the plan.
In 1902, Maggie Walker founded the St Luke Herald to inform the members and to carry on the educational work.
The next year, she opened the St Luke Penny Saving Bank. Under her leadership, several women served as board members. Walker served as chair of the board of directors when the bank merged with 2 other Richmond banks to become the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company which served several generations of Richmond citizens.
Walker received an honorary master’s degree from Virginia Union University in 1925, and was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2001
In 1905, she opened the St Luke Emporium a department that offered Black women the opportunity to work and gave the Black community access to cheaper goods. Keep in mind that many stores did not allow Blacks to enter and if they did, denied them the opportunity to try on clothes without buying first. Then they would not accept returns.
Around 1915, Maggie Walker developed diabetes, however, she continued to work.
She ran for superintendent of public schools in 1921 but lost in the election. By 1924, her strong leadership the bank served a membership of more than 50,000. She managed to keep the bank viable she during the Great Depression.
In 1937 the Maggie L Walker High School was built and named in honor of her. It was one of 2 schools for Black students in Richmond. In 1990, the building was abandoned. In 2001 it was reopened as Maggie L Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies.
Please notice that in most cities and communities across America Black History has been destroyed as the Black High Schools were changed to Middle Schools and in many cases demolished, taking that small part of history away. Search your community for those deserving heroes of the Black accomplishment that have been sent into obscurity.
In 1937, Maggie L. Walker High School was built and named in her honor; it was one of two schools for black students in the Richmond area during the time of racial segregation. In 2001, the high school, which had been abandoned since 1990, reopened as Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies.
During the last years of her life, she was confined to a wheelchair and the complications of diabetes. December 15, 1934 at the age of 70 she died. Her legacy lives on! Her spirit lives on! Her example should inspire and motivate!
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“Carry On: The Life and Legacy of Maggie Lena Walker”
This orientation film from the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site traces the trials and triumphs of Richmond’s pioneering banker and civil rights activist. Combining the latest scholarship with rarely seen archival images, this narrated documentary chronicles Walker’s unique leadership and her enduring influence on the struggle for social justice. Narrated by Zeke Alton with Daphne Maxwell Reid as the voice of Maggie L. Walker.
Foot, Hand and Nail Care
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Maggie L. Walker: Pioneering Banker and Community Leader (Trailblazer Biographies)
Retells the life and career of Maggie L. Walker, who founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, the first bank established specifically for African Americans.
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Maggie Lena Walker
The First Black Woman in the United States to become a president of a local bank.
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MAGGIE WALKER, SOFTCOVER, SINGLECOPY, BEGINNING BIOGRAPHIES
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Make Up
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Maggie L. Walker Monument Unveiling, July 15, 2017
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Maggie Lena Walker: First Female Bank President (62) (1000 Readers)
Maggie Lena Walker became a strong leader in the black community in Richmond, Virginia. She used her knowledge and business ability to found a bank, becoming the first woman to do such a thing! She continued to be a successful businesswoman and community leader.
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1979 Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site Deed Transfer Ceremony
Maggie L. Walker’s 115th birthday, July 15, 1979.
The descendants of Maggie Lena Walker – the nation’s first African American female bank president – deeded their ancestral property to the National Park Service to be preserved and managed as a furnished house museum, the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site.
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United in Rivalry:: Richmond’s Armstrong-Maggie Walker Classic (Sports)
Around Richmond, it’s simply known as “The Classic.” From 1938 to 1979, Armstrong High and Maggie Walker High, the only two all-black high schools within the city limits, converged on the gridiron each Thanksgiving weekend as spirited rivals. Each year more and more people packed the old City Stadium, sometimes as many as thirty thousand, sometimes too many to count. They cheered as the players fought for field position, pride, and bragging rights, and when the game was over, they fought for equality in the face of segregation, prejudice, and Jim Crow justice. Enjoy a view from the press box as Richmond sports historian Michael Whitt offers a summary of every Armstrong-Maggie Walker Classic and the often volatile social and political context in which they were played. The two schools may have produced one of Virginia’s greatest prep rivalries, but they also helped shape its greatest achievement in unity.
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Hidden Figures: Maggie L. Walker
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Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal (Columbia Studies in the History of U.S. Capitalism)
Between 1888 and 1930, African Americans opened more than a hundred banks and thousands of other financial institutions. In Banking on Freedom, Shennette Garrett-Scott explores this rich period of black financial innovation and its transformative impact on U.S. capitalism through the story of the St. Luke Bank in Richmond, Virginia: the first and only bank run by black women.
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Entrepreneur Maggie Lena Walker | Unladylike2020 | American Masters | PBS
Maggie Lena Walker was a civil rights activist and successful businesswoman. She gained national prominence when she became the first African-American woman to own a bank.
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