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Maggie Lena Walker
Maggie Lena Walker (1867–1934) was the daughter of Elizabeth Draper, a former kitchen slave and then cook in the Civil War household of
Union sympathizer Elizabeth Van Lew. Walker grew up helping her
mother run a small laundry service.
This early business experience led her to be elected at age
seventeen to office in the Independent Order of St. Luke, a black
burial society. In 1903 she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings
Bank and was probably the first woman bank president in America.
St. Luke Penny Savings Bank is still in operation today as
Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, the nation's oldest
continuously existing African American bank.
Maggie Walker's interests and energy extended beyond her
business ventures. She founded the Richmond Council of Colored
Women, a group that raised money for education and health
programs. She was a political activist in the black community
and worked for women's suffrage and then voter registration after
the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. She published a
newspaper, The Saint Luke Herald, and was an active member of
First African Baptist church.
Until her death in 1934, Walker worked tirelessly to help
African Americans achieve economic and social independence.
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