The first woman to start a bank — a black woman — finally gets her own monument

It’ll be in the Confederacy’s capital too

The Lily News
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read
(Courtesy of Toby Mendez/iStock/Lily illustration)

Original story by The Washington Post’s Michael S. Rosenwald.

Maggie L. Walker was the first woman in the country to found a bank — St. Luke’s Penny Savings, which gave loans to black business owners and residents at fair rates, then recycled the interest earned to keep building the community.

Her accomplishments in the face of racial oppression and segregation have never been honored in her hometown in the same way as the Confederate leaders whose statues are the focal point of downtown Richmond.

But last Saturday, 153 years to the day she was born in the former capital of the Confederacy, Walker got her own monument, a towering statue of her as she lived — her glasses pinned to her lapel, a checkbook in hand.

How Maggie L. Walker was a female pioneer

  • The country’s first woman to start a bank
  • She started a newspaper
  • Walker also opened an emporium for African Americans to shop and sell their goods without being forced to use side doors. She refused to tolerate any oppression of people of color — enough was enough.
  • Humanitarian
  • Teacher
  • She was also the daughter of a former slave

Walker’s own words

“Let us put our moneys together,” Walker said in 1901. “Let us use our moneys; 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.”

Confederate monuments in Richmond

While New Orleans and other cities have removed Confederate monuments, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who is black, is moving forward with plans to recast signage and add context to the statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee and others along Monument Avenue.

Instead of tearing down the controversial monuments, Stoney wants to add new ones devoted to the heroes who fought against slavery and championed civil rights. Those who have criticized New Orleans and other cities for dismantling Confederate history have lauded his restraint.

Others accuse him of dodging the issue and essentially sanctioning the continued celebration of slavery’s proponents and defenders.

“I think it really becomes a math equation,” said Gary Flowers, a Richmond resident who helped lead the effort to honor Walker. “For equal display of honor, we must add statues of African Americans who have been left out of the history books.”

About the sculptor of Walker’s monument

Antonio “Toby” Mendez, the sculptor, was chosen in part because of his own history with projects honoring civil rights leaders.

His work includes statues of

  • U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall at the Maryland State House
  • Ernest Everett Just (a famous African American biologist) at a Prince George’s County Middle School
  • Indian independence and civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi in Long Island, N.Y.

Mendez said he thinks the coming years will see more efforts like the one honoring Walker — not just honoring more African American figures in bronze, but female ones as well.

“These places bring people together,” Mendez said. “They tell stories that should be told.”

The Lily

The Lily was the first U.S. newspaper for and by women. We’re bringing it back.

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The Lily News

Written by

The Lily

The Lily

The Lily was the first U.S. newspaper for and by women. We’re bringing it back.

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