Maggie Lena Walker

Maggie Lena Walker, 3/4 Length, Studio Portrait, Washington DC, c 1905., Maggie L Walker National Historic Site (National Parks Service, August 12, 2019), https://npgallery.nps.gov/MAWA/AssetDetail/8ecdf83c60a84551ad0c4374131d08fc.

Many men are celebrated for their business accomplishments during the early twentieth century. Some fewer women are even mentioned. Maggie Lena Walker is of the even smaller group of people that did great things during this time being African American as well as a woman. She had to fight harder for her place than most others, yet she is rarely discussed. This article is a tribute to her greatness during a time when African American women were looked at as less than nothing.

After the Civil War, there was not an automatic integration of the African American population. The reconstruction is viewed by many as a failure due to the events that took place. The segregation laws and what became known as the Jim Crow laws hampered the African American community’s ability to thrive and integrate. There are a few that fought against this system, Maggie Lena Walker, happened to be one of them. She not only had to fight against racism but sexism as well. This is what makes her a greater hero than many of the others that are generally discussed. She also didn’t do it just for herself. Maggie was concerned and focused on raising the prospects of her entire community. She was able to do this while many White elites were trying to temper the success of the African American community. She was going up against the ideologies that created the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.1 Between 1880 and 1910 African American businesses did grow in number in the major cities, however. For instance, in Richmond Virginia, where Maggie lived, in 1880 there were reportedly one hundred and ten African American businesses and by 1910 there were nine hundred and twenty-seven.2  Part of this is because of people like Maggie Lena Walker who defied the odds and created opportunities for African Americans.

Maggie was born just after the end of the Civil War. Her life was hard, and she had to help her mother raise her younger brother. She taught and worked to help provide for her family. At the young age of fourteen, she joined the local branch of a fraternal insurance society called Independent Order of Saint Luke. In this order, she learned about the role of leadership and that of helping others. She possessed keen leadership skills that did not go unnoticed. She climbed through the ranks of the Order and soon received the position of national deputy. Then she soon rose higher within the organization. She advocated for African American women to rise above their perceived stations and create businesses. She was someone that encouraged entrepreneurial ideologies within her community.3

Maggie was not born into wealth but did see some from her marriage to Armstead Walker. He had connections to the upper-class African Americans. She still worked hard to become the woman she was known to be. While being a mother she continued to work within the Order and eventually created her own newspaper, St. Luke Herald. She believed it would keep people of the Order informed of what they were working on. She was responsible for raising the funds for the charities she felt were important. One thing that she wanted to raise money for was student loans for young people to further their education. She did this long before the government established the national student loan system.

As many banks and insurance companies would not accept African American patrons, she took matters into her own hands. Maggie established an insurance policy for Christian African Americans.  She had a firm belief in God and that the African American community should be able to sustain itself.4  These enterprises were established through the Order. Her guidance allowed them to open their own bank. She is reported to be the first African American woman to open a bank in the United States. In 1903 she opened the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. This was designed not for her to gain wealth but to provide a place for African American businesses and people to come together and grow. She spoke in many places about banding together and combining resources to better improve people’s lives.

Maggie should be spoken about in business circles as she defied the odds stacked against an African American woman during the early twentieth century. She not only grew her own wealth but that of her community. She became the first female African American Bank president and through her hard work and leadership grew the wealth of this bank and the patrons within. She did not do this for her own sake but for that of everyone's. She deserves to be remembered for her greatness of character. 

Notes:

1 Lugar et al., “The Historic Emergence of Intersectional Leadership," 223.

2  Ingham, “Building Businesses, Creating Communities," 648.

3 Suggs, “Maggie Lena Walker,” 42.
4 Hines, "Virginia's Remarkable Women," 103-104.

References:

Hines, Emilee. Virginia's Remarkable Women: Daughters, Wives, Sisters, and Mothers Who Shaped History. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2016. 

Ingham, John N. “Building Businesses, Creating Communities: Residential Segregation and the Growth of African American Business in Southern Cities, 1880–1915.” Business History Review 77, no. 4 (2003): 639–65. https://doi.org/10.2307/30041232. 

Laurenett, Lee L. “Maggie Lena Draper Mitchell Walker Biography.” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, 2020. https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.php?b=Walker_Maggie_Lena. 

Lugar, Caleb W, Shennette Garrett-Scott, Milorad M. Novicevic, Ifeoluwa Tobi Popoola, John H Humphreys, and Albert J Mills. “The Historical Emergence of Intersectional Leadership: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of St. Luke.” Leadership 16, no. 2 (2019): 220–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715019870375. 

Simmons, Charles Willis. “Maggie Lena Walker and The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company.” Nero History Bulletin 38, no. 2 (1975): 34–5349. 

Suggs, Celia Jackson. “Maggie Lena Walker.” Negro History Bulletin 63, no. 1-4 (2000): 39–44.