On Jul 1, 2007, at 4:45 PM, Basil Forest wrote:

>
> Maggie Walker's
...snip...
> .  The most
> significant thing she did was start a bank for  Negroes in  
> Richmond, which is racist
> in and of itself.
Good grief, that is one of the more absurd arguments in this thread.  
Given the times, black people were more than a little wary of  
investing in banks. What she accomplished was not only making a safe  
place for black people to put their money, but also enabled via loans  
other black businesses to start that would never have been possible  
in those times. It also meant that money deposited couldn't be robbed  
out of their homes, another small but significant part of the picture.

Could black people have invested their money in banks which prior to  
her start-up were 100% white? Sure. IFF they'd been willing to endure  
the hassles, the very real and probably realized potential for fraud  
and outright theft, etc. There were very valid reasons why the black  
community did not frequent banks. But, I am not an expert on that  
particular field of history so my memories are of long-past classes  
and some reading. Doubtless our colleagues on this list can further  
enlighten us or point us to publications.

Lyle Browning