1. Maggie L. Walker: Lady Banker

2. Maggie Lena Walker was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1867 to parents who were former slaves. Maggie’s mother, Elizabeth Draper Mitchell, was an assistant cook and father William Mitchell was a butler in a mansion owned by the Van Lew family.

4. After the tragic death of her father, she was forced to take on a number of responsibilities as a young girl. Maggie worked as a delivery woman and as a babysitter while attending segregated public schools in Richmond.

5. As a teenager she joined the Grand United Order of St. Luke, a group that built racial pride. By age 18, she was one of its leaders.

6. She became a teacher, but when she married, she had to quit since married women were not allowed to teach. Mrs. Walker still wanted to help others, so she decided to start a small bank.

7. “Let us have a bank that will take nickels and turn them into dollars,” she said. Her little bank, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, was started with pennies and nickels, but it began to grow.

10. Maggie Lena Walker was the first African American woman to start a bank and become a bank president in the Unites States- quite an accomplishment for a woman who liked to joke that she was born with a laundry basket on her head!

11. In 1929 she opened the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, which is still in business today.

12. It was wonderful to help make dreams come true with loans of money, but Mrs. Walker wanted to do more. She raised money for schools and health programs for African Americans, fought to get women the right to vote, and ran a newspaper.