Banks were not 100% white before Maggie Walker started the St. Luke's Penny 
Savings Bank.  We are forgetting the bank of the Grand Fountain of the 
United Order of True Reformers (and also the bank of the Virginia Knights of 
Pythias, though I am not sure it preceded the St Luke's Bank).  The key 
difference was that the True Reformers and Pythian Banks were founded in 
insurance services that were not actuarially sound and ultimately fell into 
bankruptcy, drawing their banks down with them.  Since Walker corrected the 
problem with the St. Luke's life insurance, it secured the St. Luke's Bank.

It is my understanding from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that the St. Luke's 
Penny Savings Bank survives, with name changes through multiple mergers, 
today.  It is a major achievement of both black capitalism and the business 
skills of black women in Virginia.

Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lyle E. Browning" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: VA homeschooling & SOL


> 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