Maggie Lena Walker

Address to the Federated Organizations of the Independent Order of St. Luke

About the author

Maggie Lena Walker

Maggie Lena Walker was an African American businesswoman who in 1903 became the first woman of any race to charter and serve as president of a bank in the United States, founding the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia. Her vision of Black economic self-sufficiency through cooperative enterprise was decades ahead of its time.