Black History Month: Business Profiles
February 2, 2023
Maggie Lena Walker (1864-1934) – Maggie Lena Walker was the first Black woman to charter a bank in the U.S., opening St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, where she served as president. After having three sons, she went to work part time as an agent for an insurance company, the Women’s Union, while attending night school for bookkeeping. She also volunteered at St. Luke and eventually worked her way up in 1889, to become the executive secretary-treasurer of the renamed organization, the Independent Order of St. Luke. Walker started publishing the St. Luke Herald in 1902 to publicize and promote the
