Walker, Maggie Lena (1867–1934)

African-American, first female bank president in the United States, who was a champion of racial and women's equality . Born Maggie Lena on July 15, 1867, in Richmond, Virginia; died of diabetes gangrene on December 15, 1934; daughter of ex-slave Elizabeth Draper, later Elizabeth Draper Mitchell, and (likely) Irish-American abolitionist Eccles Cuth-bert; attended public grammar and primary schools; graduated from Armstrong Normal and High School, 1883; awarded honorary M.S., Virginia Union University, 1925; married Armstead Walker, on September 14, 1886; children: Russell Eccles Talmage Walker (b. 1890); Armstead Mitchell Walker (1893–1893); Melvin DeWitt Walker (b. 1897).

Mother married William Mitchell (May 27, 1868); half-brother Johnnie Mitchell born (1870); stepfather died (February 1876); joined mutual aid society, Independent Order of Saint Luke (1881); taught school (1883–86); named executive secretary treasurer of St. Luke's (1899–1934); founded St. Luke Herald (1902); became president of Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank of Richmond (1903); founded department store, Saint Luke Emporium (1905); suffered debilitating fall thatinjured legs (1907); son, Russell, killed Armstead Walker by accident (1915); ran unsuccessfully for Virginia state superintendent of public instruction on Lily-Black Republican Party ticket (1921); became chair of the board, Consolidated Bank and Trust Company (1930).

As the 19th century drew to a close, the Independent Order of Saint Luke (IOSL) stood on the verge of collapse. The mutual aid society, which included 57 chapters in a number of African-American communities, had only $31.61 in its treasury and $400 in unpaid bills. The IOSL then turned to a leading activist in the organization, Maggie Lena Walker of Richmond, Virginia, who agreed to become its new executive secretary-treasurer. Under the direction of this remarkable woman, it grew into one of the most successful mutual benefit societies in the country. By 1925, the number of local chapters rose to 1,500, membership climbed from 3,400 to 50,000, and its assets stood at $400,000. And Walker, the individual most responsible for this success, had emerged as one of Richmond's most respected and powerful women.142

Maggie Walker was born in Richmond on July 15, 1867, the first child of Elizabeth Draper, a former slave who worked as a cook in the home of Elizabeth Van Lew . According to family legend to which Walker herself subscribed, her natural father was the abolitionist Eccles Cuthbert, but there is little evidence to either support or refute this. In any event, "Lizzie" Draper, as she was generally known, married William Mitchell shortly after Maggie's birth, and he came to assume the role of the male head of the family. The Van Lew house would have provided a relatively good environment for an African-American child to grow up in, because the wealthy, unmarried mistress of the home had been an opponent of slavery and a Northern sympathizer. But William Mitchell got a job as the head waiter at the exclusive St. Charles Hotel in central Richmond. He moved his family to a two-story clapboard house in College Alley between Broad and Marshall streets when Maggie was still very young. In 1870, Elizabeth Draper Mitchell had a second child, Johnnie.

Until the mid-1870s, the Mitchells lived quite comfortably compared to most black families of the period. William continued to work at the St. Charles Hotel while his wife supplemented this income by taking in laundry. Then, in February 1876, William failed to return home from work one night. After a five-day search, his body was found in the James River. The coroner listed death by suicide, but it is likely he was robbed and murdered. Deprived of the majority of their income, the family faced a crisis that threatened to render them paupers. But Lizzie refused to give up their house and independence without a fight. She started taking in as much laundry as she could, and young Maggie, only nine, worked alongside her mother many hours a day. As Walker put it years later, "I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth; but instead, with a clothes basket almost upon my head."

Elizabeth Mitchell and her daughter began their laundering work early every morning. They would build a fire, sort the clothes, and draw and then heat the water. Washing was a tiring, arduous task that involved scrubbing the clothing by hand on washboards and finishing the job by wringing out the cleaned articles. Walker would help roll the clothes in preparation for ironing. She and her younger brother would also be responsible for picking up and delivering the loads of laundry which they toted in wicker baskets. The hard work paid off, though, as the Mitchells maintained a successful operation serving white clients for many years.

Lizzie also dedicated herself to ensuring that her children received a decent education, though such opportunities for Richmond's black youth were extremely limited at the time. Maggie attended a segregated public grammar and primary school, then the Armstrong Normal and High School. She graduated at the top of her class in 1883. There was a great deal of controversy associated with the commencement ceremony that year, as Maggie and her nine classmates demanded that they be honored at the same function as white students. Each year, white graduates of public schools held their exercises in the Richmond Theater, while black students received their diplomas in a church. Arguing that the parents of all children were taxpayers and thus deserved equal treatment, Maggie's class asked principal Elizabeth Knowles to help them bring about the integration of the ceremony in the theater. Knowles was sympathetic to the desires of her African-American students and managed to work out a compromise. School officials and the faculty agreed to hold a single commencement, but insisted that whites and blacks sit in separate locations, with the latter restricted to the balcony. The African-American students balked at this compromise, however, and elected to get their diplomas in the Normal School auditorium. In effect, they conducted what was probably the first student-directed strike against a public school system on the part of American blacks.

Upon graduation at the age of 16, Walker went to work as a schoolteacher in her old

grammar school. She taught for the next three years, starting at $35 a month, and attended night courses in accounting and sales. She also did some work for the Woman's Union, an insurance company she helped create. Deeply religious, Maggie belonged to the Old First Baptist Church. She attended Thursday night "Sunday school" meetings and later taught Sunday school classes. The church represented the center of her social life, and it was here she met Armstead Walker, a young building contractor, whom she married on September 14, 1886. As was customary, she quit working outside the home and began to devote herself to domestic duties. The Walkers had two sons who survived infancy. Russell Eccles Talmage was born in 1890 and Melvin DeWitt in 1897. A third child, Armstead Mitchell, died in the year of his birth, 1893.

When she was 14, Maggie had joined a local chapter of the Independent Order of Saint Luke. Begun by Mary Ann Prout in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1867, this self-help society was founded primarily as a women's sickness and death mutual benefit association. When Maggie became a member, it contained chapters in Virginia and New York as well as Maryland, and admitted men. Walker devoted much of her free time to St. Luke's Good Idea Council No. 16, ultimately becoming its chief, and she attended a number of IOSL conventions beginning in 1883. Her influence quickly spread beyond the local level, and by the mid-1890s she was a recognized leader of the group. In 1895, she organized the juvenile branch of the order, which was directed by female members at the chapter level, and became Grand Matron of the Juvenile Department.

In 1899, the IOSL held its 32nd annual meeting in Hinton, West Virginia. The organization was in crisis with membership declining and funds dwindling. Its secretary-treasurer, William M.T. Forrester, had served this role since 1869. But more interested in his job as head of the Odd Fellows, and certain the organization was dying, he refused to accept reappointment. Some members would not give up hope for the society, though, and Maggie Walker's name was placed into nomination as new St. Luke's executive secretary. Strong willed and optimistic, she accepted this honor and won election to the post.

The appointment of Walker proved to be the turning point of the IOSL. It was obvious from the beginning that the new leader was a brilliant businesswoman and charismatic organizer. She was forceful, but possessed a kind, modest manner and great skill as an orator. Most important, people trusted and liked her. She traveled extensively to existing chapters throughout the eastern United States, and personally founded new ones. She spoke about the evils of segregation and the many hardships that African-Americans faced. But her message was always one of hope. She advocated self-help and economic independence from whites, promoted race pride, and called for women's rights. Within a year, St. Luke's membership doubled.

Prout, Mary Ann (1801–1884)

African-American school founder and educator . Name variations: Aunt Mary Prout. Born, possibly in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 14, 1801 (some sources cite born in 1800, while another source maintains that she was born a slave in South River, Maryland); died in Baltimore in 1884; daughter of mixed-African parentage.

Although there is confusion concerning the date and circumstances of her birth, it is likely that Mary Ann Prout was born free in Baltimore, Maryland, where she was converted at age 12 and became a devoted member of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. "During the early days of Bethel, when it was poor and in debt, Prout was constantly devising ways and means of relieving it," recalled Bishop James Anderson Handy. She remained devoted to the church for her entire life, serving as a member of the church association known as the Daughters of Conference at Bethel AME, and singing in the choir.

It is not known where Prout received her education, but around 1830, she founded a day school in Baltimore, where she taught for over 30 years. After the school closed in 1867, she continued to pursue humanitarian work, becoming one of the two black trustees of the Gregory Aged Women's Home, also in Baltimore. She additionally served as the president of the association in charge of the home, the National Reform Educational Association.

Also in 1867, Prout founded a secret order which evolved into the Independent Order of St. Luke, a black organization which provided financial aid to the sick and funds for burial of the dead. The Order eventually split in two, one section taking up headquarters in Richmond, under the leadership of Maggie Lena Walker , who frequently paid homage to Prout as its founder. Under Walker, the Order flourished and in 25 years had grown from 57 local chapters to 1,500, and had accrued assets of nearly $400,000. It also spawned several other institutions that benefited blacks, including a newspaper, a savings bank, and a short-lived department store. Mary Ann Prout died in Baltimore in 1884.

sources:

Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1992.

At the 1901 annual meeting, Maggie Walker proposed the creation of a newspaper and a savings bank. On March 29, 1902, the St. Luke Herald began publication, and the paper was far more than a fraternal newsletter. The Herald announced it was "against mob law, against 'Jim Crow' cars, against the curtailment of Public School privileges and against the enactment and enforcement of laws which place a premium upon white literacy and treat black illiteracy as a crime." While Walker was the weekly newspaper's guiding force, Lillian Payne served as managing editor. The periodical included a children's page devoted to publishing poems and short pieces written by young people, and contained advice from Right Worthy Grand Matron Walker.

Maggie Walker also convinced her St. Luke colleagues: "We need a savings bank, chartered, officered, and run by the men and women of this order." To prepare for directing this enterprise, Walker spent many hours in the Merchants' National Bank of Richmond as an observer. The new institution was then chartered in 1903 as the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank of Richmond. The IOSL purchased 200 shares of stock in the bank, three quarters of which were made available solely to organization members. Maggie Walker assumed the duties of bank president, the first woman to hold this position in the United States. She would earn a salary of $25 a week, an amount which hardly compensated her for the exhaustive efforts on her part to make the project work. She became the project's principal promoter who called on each individual at Saint Luke "to open an account, if for even so small amount as a dollar" and to purchase "at least one share of stock which costs $10.00 and can be paid for upon monthly installments of one dollar per month."

The bank's first day proved to be a success. The Richmond News Leader reported: "The main office has been crowded all day with colored people representing all stations of Afro-American society"; 280 people made deposits totalling over $8,000, and $1,247 worth of stock was sold. African-American leaders from throughout the mid-Atlantic states made the trip to Richmond for the opening to deposit money. But it was the common folk of Richmond, and particularly women, who became the backbone of the institution. Many of the first customers were laundresses, including Maggie's own mother.

The Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank grew slowly but consistently in subsequent years. Once success seemed assured, it moved its offices from St. James Street to 112 East Broad Street in 1905, purchasing the structure for $13,500. Deposits rose from about $21,000 to over $85,000 between 1904 and 1910. Then changes in Virginia's banking and insurance laws placed the enterprise at risk. As regulation became more extensive, two rival black-run financial institutions closed down. Secret orders were also prohibited from banking, so the Penny Savings Bank had to be separated from the IOSL. Walker navigated the treacherous waters of banking reform, and helped reorganize the institution as the Saint Luke's Bank and Trust Company, a separate entity from the parent organization. It continued to flourish for many years.

Soon after Maggie Walker saw two of her ideas achieve fruition—the newspaper and the bank—she set out to create a department store. In 1905, 22 women from the Order of St. Luke collectively founded the Saint Luke Emporium. The goal was to provide goods at lower prices for the African-American community. The three-story establishment stood on East Broad Street in central Richmond and employed 15 women as sales clerks. But the enterprise faced stiff resistance from the white business community from the start. The white Retail Dealers' Association pressured wholesale merchants not to sell to the Emporium. Fearful that black merchants would "get a few dollars which would otherwise go to the white merchant," the Retailer's Association threatened to boycott the wholesalers. White competitors also made new efforts to appeal to black customers, and many chose not to abandon the older, white-run stores in favor of the new Emporium.

As the department store began to lose money, Maggie Walker appealed to the African-American community to support the store. At a mass meeting in 1906, she asked:

Hasn't it crept into your minds that we are being more and more oppressed each day that we live? Hasn't it yet come to you, that we are being oppressed by the passage of laws which not only have for their object the degradation of Negro manhood and Negro womanhood, but also the destruction of all kinds of Negro businesses? There is a lion terrorizing us, preying upon us, and upon every business effort which we put forth. The name of this insatiable lion is prejudice.

Walker went on to associate that discrimination with the "the white press, the white pulpit, the white business associations," and the state legislature, and warned that the "only way to kill the Lion is to stop feeding it." In the long run, however, pleas like this too often fell upon deaf ears. Many blacks continued to frequent the older, white-owned stores. Seven years after the Emporium opened, it closed its doors for good in January 1912.

The failure of the Saint Luke Emporium represented the most significant disappointment of Maggie Walker's public career. Throughout her many years of leadership in Saint Lukes, the bank, and her community, she weathered most ordeals with an unyielding positive outlook. But the same cannot be said of her personal life. In 1905, her family moved into a new home at 110½ East Leigh Street. A nice two-story brick row house when they took possession of it, the Walkers expanded it over the next few years until it included twenty-two rooms, including eight bedrooms. Her entire extended family lived there, including her sons, and ultimately, their wives and children. It was on the porch of this house that Maggie experienced a bad fall in 1907 that injured her knees. In subsequent years, she suffered from severe leg pain, and her ultimate reliance on a wheelchair by the late 1920s may have been related to this accident.

A worse tragedy struck the Walkers on that same porch in 1915 when oldest son Russell shot and killed his father there. Russell was arrested before the coroner's inquest, which ultimately determined the death to be accidental. But rumors continued to swirl around Richmond that the son had murdered his father. An investigation led to a murder charge. The body was exhumed for further examination, and the family agonized for five months waiting for the trial to open. Finally, on November 12, the case went before a jury, and witnesses provided a day of testimony about the affair. Walker faced examination for three hours, and Russell testified on his own behalf. He claimed that he had mistaken his father for a prowler who had been reported in the neighborhood. The testimony was concluded by 10:00 pm that night, but the court adjourned until Monday. As Maggie described the delay in learning the verdict:

My son was carried to jail to spend that time. I hated awfully to see him go. He said, "Mama, it is my papa; I don't mind going." He stayed in jail Saturday night, Sunday, and on Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. we were all back in the court to get the final verdict…. When the jurors returned, a death-like silence filled the court room. The verdict was "Not Guilty."

Even after the acquittal, this ordeal was not over. Maggie Walker's rivals in the Order of St. Luke tried to wrest power from her under the pretext of saving the organization from the taint of scandal. Walker's long-time friend, Wendell P. Dabney, who later wrote a biography of her, believed the murder charge had actually been instigated by "a certain group of our colored men [who] secured the services of [a lawyer] to assist the prosecuting attorney." Though Russell was found innocent, they called for Maggie's resignation at the next annual meeting. But the strong-willed matron of the order would not back down, and after a passionate speech announcing her intent to continue, "an ovation, the like of which Richmond had never seen," greeted her determination.

It proved fortunate for the IOSL in general and the bank that she won this battle, for both continued to flourish. By 1920, the bank had financed black ownership of 645 houses in Richmond. During the next decade, it continued to experience growth until it became the strongest black-run financial institution in the city. In 1929 and 1930, it merged with two other African-American banks, the Second Street Savings Bank and the Commercial Bank and Trust Company, to form the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. Maggie Walker was named chair of the board of directors at the time of the merger, a position she held for the rest of her life.

Though her duties as a businesswoman commanded a great deal of her time, Maggie Walker also emerged as a prominent community activist, as well as a leader of a number of national reform organizations. She founded the Richmond Council of Colored Women (CCW) in 1912 and served as its president for over two decades. This organization raised funds for various causes, including the Piedmont Tuberculosis Sanitorium for Negroes at Burkeville, a visiting nurse program, and the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls. Walker served on the board of the latter institution, which was created by Janie Porter Barrett 's Virginia Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, to which Maggie belonged. The CWW also purchased a house on Clay Street as a community center. Among other purposes, this building provided an office for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Walker had co-founded the local branch of the NAACP and later served on the national board. She was also one of the organizers of Virginia's Negro Organization Society, which was created to unite every African-American organization in the state into a force to promote black education and similar goals.

Maggie Walker, moreover, served as a board member of the National Urban League, the Virginia Interracial Committee, and Colored Women's Clubs, while belonging to a host of other reform and community service groups. In 1921, she ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent of public instruction on the Lily-Black Republican Party ticket, and served as the treasurer of the National League of Republican Colored Women.

Throughout her long career as an activist, Maggie Walker never missed an opportunity to promote racial equality and justice. She believed that African-Americans, working collectively, could undermine the barriers imposed by white intolerance and oppression. As she argued in an address in 1909, blacks could not rely on anyone else to help them, other than God. But even His "help is something that comes only when we are doing, striving and making the best effort of which our brains and hands are capable. We can do; we will do; we are going to do now." The commitment to "race uplift," moreover, was something women must play a leadership role in. She called on black women to "band themselves together, … put their mites together, put their hands and their brains together and make work and business for themselves." She believed that women should seek gainful employment, and that this work would strengthen the family, not weaken it as was widely argued at the time. A woman who uses "her powers, ability, health and strength" in the workplace will help a marriage succeed. "What stronger combination could ever God make," she asked, "than the partnership of a businessman and a businesswoman?"

Maggie Walker's own marriage had been just such a union before Armstead's tragic death in 1915. They had lived according to Maggie's creed that "the woman and man are equal in power and should by consultation and agreement mutually decide as to the conduct of the home and the government of the children." Then Walker carried on as the sole head of the household, an extended family that included her mother, children, grandchildren, the informally "adopted" Polly Anderson Payne (and eventually Polly's husband), and sometimes others. Walker loved to be surrounded by family and friends, and she revelled in the fact that the house was a center of civic activism in Richmond. Maggie's granddaughter recalled that "there were always guests seated at the large dining room table" who might be members of Richmond's African-American political and business elite or prominent black leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes.

In her later years, Maggie Walker was the recipient of many awards and honors. In 1924, a "testimonial of life" celebration was held for her in the city auditorium, sponsored by the Order of St. Luke and people of Richmond. Virginia Union University awarded her an honorary master of science degree in 1925. She received an honorable mention in the 1927 Harmon Award for Distinguished Achievement in the business category. These acknowledgements, however, were hardly evidence that Walker was drifting into retirement. Though difficulty in walking had led her to seek treatment at spas, use braces, and ultimately, rely on a wheelchair and chauffeured automobile (she had her Packard altered to accommodate the chair), her work slowed down very little after her 60th birthday.

In the fall of 1934, some African-American organizations decided to designate October as Maggie Walker Month in recognition "of her outstanding achievements as Christian mother, fraternalist, banker, philanthropist, and minister of international good will," as the Richmond News Leader noted. By that point, the Independent Order of Saint Luke had chapters in 14 states and a record of $3 million in paid claims. The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company had met the challenges associated with the darkest days of the Great Depression, and stood poised to offer its services for many decades to come. Maggie had seen her beloved mother pass away in 1922, a loss followed all too quickly by the death of son Russell the next year. But the remaining members of her family enjoyed relative prosperity; in fact, all but Russell's widow, Hattie Walker , and her daughter, Maggie Laura Walker , had moved away from the Leigh Street mansion to their own houses.

The celebration of Maggie Walker Month would prove to be the last honor the great activist and businesswoman would receive during her lifetime. On December 15 of that year, she died of diabetes gangrene, and was buried on December 19 in Evergreen cemetery. The service at the First American Baptist Church proved to be among the largest in city history. The day before the funeral, the Richmond News Leader eulogized the beloved grandmother:

Mrs. Maggie Walker was the greatest of all Negro leaders of Richmond. She probably was the most distinguished Negress ever born in Richmond and, in solid achievement, one of three or four ablest women her race ever produced in America.

Of course, a more fitting tribute to this champion of racial justice and gender equality would be to omit the references to the color of her skin and her sex and to simply appreciate the amazing accomplishments and decency of this great American.

Today, in Richmond, a street, theater, and high school bear the name of Maggie Walker. Her home, at 110½ East Leigh Street, has been designated the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site. The house has been restored, complete with many original furnishings, to its appearance at the time of her death. The museum's existence ensures that people of many generations to come will be familiar not only with the name of Maggie Walker, but leave inspired by the story of how the daughter of an ex-slave laundress achieved wealth and fame through hard work, intelligence, and kindness.

sources:

Brown, Elsa Barkley Brown. "Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke," in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Vol. 14. Spring 1989, pp. 610–633.

Dabney, Wendell P. Maggie L. Walker: Her Life and Deeds. Cincinnati, OH: Dabney Publishing, 1927.

Simmons, Charles Willis. "Maggie Lena Walker and the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company," in Negro History Bulletin. Vol. 38. February–March, 1975, pp. 345–349.

suggested reading:

Bird, Caroline. Enterprising Women: The Innovators. NY: W.W. Norton, 1976.

Daniel, Sadie Iola. Women Builders. Washington, DC: Associated, 1931.

collections:

Maggie Lena Walker Papers, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Richmond, Virginia.

John M. Craig , Professor of History, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, author of Lucia Ames Mead and the American Peace Movement and numerous articles on activist American women