On This Day in July 15th 1864, African American business woman Maggie L. Walker was born in Richmond, Virginia. In 1899, Walker became the grand secretary for the Independent Order of St. Luke, an organization dedicated to the social and financial advancement of African Americans. She held this position until her death in 1934.
Walker assumed the helm of the leadership at a time when the organization was facing a financial crisis. In 1902, she founded the St. Luke Herald newspaper to improve communication between the organization's chapters.
She also opened the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, becoming the first African American woman to charter a bank in the United States. In 1905, she opened the St. Luke Emporium, a department store specially created with African American employees and shoppers in mind.
๐ธ Courtesy of National Park Service, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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