Maggie l walker biography

Summary

Maggie Lena Walker was an important African American leader. She broke unfair laws and became the first Black woman to start a bank in the nation. She was also the first Black woman to be the president of a bank. Walker’s bank was called the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond. It was the oldest bank led by an African American in the United States. Walker became the leader of the Independent Order of Saint Luke. She organized projects that helped the African American community. Her leadership set an example for many other women. As an African American woman living in the South, she faced many obstacles in her life. However, Walker encouraged investment and collective action. She helped bring important changes for African Americans.

In This Entry

Contributor: Muriel Miller Branch

Early Years and Family

Maggie Lena Mitchell was born on July 15, in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Elizabeth Draper, was a former slave. Her mother worked as a cook for Elizabeth Van Lew, an abolitionist and Union spy for the during the Civil War. Soon after Walker was born, her mother married a man named William Mitchell. The couple had a child, Maggie’s half-brother, Johnnie, in

Her stepfather left the Van Lew home and became the headwaiter at a respected hotel. The family was able to rent a small house. In February , William Mitchell died. His death drove the family into poverty. As a way for the family to provide for themselves, Maggie’s mother began a small laundry business. Maggie helped by bringing clean laundry to white customers. This allowed her to see the unfairness between the races.

Walker went to a public school for African Americans in Richmond. She then went to Richmond Colored Normal School, where she was trained as a teacher. After graduating in , she became a teacher and taught for three years. In , she marrie

African-American businesswoman (–)

This article is about the Virginia businesswoman and first African American woman bank president in the United States. For the poet, see Margaret Walker.

Maggie Lena (née Draper Mitchell) Walker (July 15, – December 15, ) was an American businesswoman and teacher. In , Walker became both the first African-American woman to charter a bank and the first African-American woman to serve as a bank president. As a leader, Walker achieved successes with the vision to make tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans. Disabled by paralysis and a wheelchair user later in life, Walker also paved the way for people with disabilities.

Along with her leadership of the Independent Order of St. Luke, Maggie Walker was also involved with the NAACP, The National Association of Colored Women, the National Urban League and National Negro Business League, and the United Order of Tents.

Walker's restored and furnished home in the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia has been designated a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service.

Childhood

Maggie Lena Draper was born on July 15, , the daughter of Elizabeth Draper and Eccles Cuthbert. Her mother, a former slave, was an assistant cook at the Van Lew estate in Church Hill of Richmond, Virginia, where she met Cuthbert, an Irish American journalist for the New York Herald, based in Virginia. There is no record of a marriage between Draper and Cuthbert. Draper was employed by E

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Maggie Lena Walker&#;s Story

Maggie Lena Walker was born in Richmond, Virgina, on July 15, , in the final years of the Civil War. Her mother, a former slave, was a laundress and Walker spent her early years taking in laundry for the white elite of Richmond. She went to school for eleven years and in , graduated from a Black teacher training school where, aside from academics, she was taught the importance of race pride and economic empowerment. Walker joined the fraternal organization the Independent Order of the Sons and Daughters of St. Luke, strengthening her network among Richmond’s black elites.

She started teaching at the Valley School in , but her teaching career ended by when she married Armstead Walker Jr. According to Virginia law, married women were not allowed to teach, as they were expected to be homemakers. Walker split her time between her family and her work for St. Luke, and was appointed the organization’s grand secretary in St. Luke was on the verge of bankruptcy and Walker’s vision to uplift the organization was the creation of businesses employing and serving the Black community of Richmond.

She became the first African American female bank president in the United States when she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in At a time when white-owned banks did not accept deposits from Black customers, Walker not only grew her bank, but expanded the economic base of the Black community in Richmond by hiring and training Black women workers, and financing over home and business loans for Black families by She was the largest employer of Black women in Richmond at the time. Walker turned the Order of St. Luke into a national organization, with over , members in 2, councils in 28 states.

Walker also founded a newspaper, The St. Luke Herald, for which she served as managing editor. Her publication shed light on the

Who Was Maggie Lena Walker?

Introduction

In spite of humble beginnings in post-Civil War Richmond, Virginia, Maggie Lena Walker achieved national prominence as a businesswoman and community leader. Her business acumen, personality, and lifelong commitment to a beneficial burial society fueled her climb to success. She was the first African American woman in the United States to found a bank. As a leader her successes and vision offered tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans and women.

Achievements

When she was a teenager, Maggie Mitchell joined the local council of the Independent Order of St. Luke. This fraternal burial society, established in in Baltimore, administered to the sick and aged, promoted humanitarian causes and encouraged individual self-help and integrity.

She served in numerous capacities of increasing responsibility for the Order, from that of a delegate to the biannual convention to the top leadership position of Right Worthy Grand Secretary in , a position she held until her death. Under her leadership the Order's membership and numbers of councils were significantly increased throughout the country and its finances achieved solvency. Through sound fiscal policies, a genius for public relations and enormous energy, she took a dying organization, gave it life and helped it thrive.

In Mrs. Walker established a newspaper, The St. Luke Herald, to promote closer communication between the Order and the public. In speeches Mrs. Walker had reasoned, "Let us put our money together; let us use our money; Let us put our money out at usury among ourselves, and reap the benefit ourselves." In she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Mrs. Walker served as the bank's first president, which earned her the recognition of being the first African American woman to charter a bank in the United States. Later she agreed to serve as chairman of the board of directors when the bank merged with two other Richmond banks to become