Banking on Freedom

Starred review from May 1, 2019

Garrett-Scott (history & African American studies, Univ. of Mississippi) writes a detailed, historical account of the evolution of the St. Luke Bank in Richmond, VA, that was formed by African American women in 1903. The bank later merged with two other local institutions to become Consolidated Bank & Trust Company, and served African Americans for over 100 years. With five chapters covering differing time periods in the bank's development, Garrett-Scott describes how women such as Maggie Lena Walker battled prejudice, gender discrimination, and institutional racism in an effort to help their community achieve financial literacy. Like many banks owned and organized by African Americans, this institution emerged from burial societies and survived competition from overzealous regulatory surveillance and financial crises, such as the Great Depression. Walker, whose mother had been born into slavery, was a pivotal figure in this bank's growth. She is recognized as the first U.S. woman to charter a bank and as the first African American woman to become president of a bank. VERDICT Given the few historical treatments of black women is business, this book is long overdue. It will appeal to all interested in U.S. and African American history.--Caroline Geck, Somerset, NJ

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2019
In her first book, Garrett-Scott, assistant professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Mississippi, expertly explores the financial lives of black women from just before the Civil War to the beginning of the New Deal. She traces the women’s involvement—as owners, employees, and customers—in organizations ranging from formal banks to burial organizations, mutual aid groups, and secret societies. Garrett-Scott argues that women “played essential roles in blacks’ efforts to use finance to carve out possibilities within U.S. capitalism and society” and, in the process, “forged their own definitions of economic opportunity and citizenship.” Garrett-Scott highlights institutions including the Freedman’s Bank, a short-lived post–Civil War bank created to help freed slaves and black veterans, and the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank opened in Richmond, Va., by powerful businesswoman Maggie Lena Walker to give black Americans access to loans and protection from the racism encountered in other banks. Garrett-Scott also explores how, in the 20th century, banks in general presented opportunities for black women to work in finance. This recovery of one aspect of black women’s history will appeal to scholars as well as those with a serious interest in the history of finance and women’s history. Illus.