Florida or Bust: Maggie L. Walker National Historical Park

 2-24-22

NY to Florida (Richmond VA)

Our next stop on the road was to a little place in Richmond Virginia called Maggie L Walker National Historical Site.

We arrived at this national park around 3:15 and the park closes at 4. As such we missed the last house tour by only a few minutes. I wasn't to disappointed. The small visitor center, store and restrooms were still open and I had a chance to speak with the NP ranger who gave me some tips about Maggie and the adjacent property.

Before this trip I had never heard about Maggie L Walker, but she was something pretty prominent back in her time. She was both an inspiration to women and the African American community.  Maggie was 

a leader in equality and abolitionist. 

Maggie's mother was a slave, her father was a white Irish man of the Conservative army. Her lighter colored skin did not offer her any advances in the world of the post Civil War. By all laws she was considered a black women. During these  changing times in the United States the Black American's were just beginning to see changes from the days of slavery and the free man. Maggie was fortunate to be among some of the first black children to attend public school. 

She was among some of the first young people to protest discrimination for denial of a graduation ceremony. She became a teacher and was expected to leave her career after marriage. She was challenged by this idea, and this stirred something inside her. A women was not expected to have a career, but this only made Maggie fight more for equal rights. 

After she married, Maggie focused her attention on raising her children and became active with the Independent order of St. Lukes, a black fraternal organization. She dedicated her time to the organization and soon became an active leader within the organization. As the organization faced bankruptcy and the chief of order stepped down, Maggie fell into the position. 

The Jim Crowe law of the 1870's oppressed and limited the black people of our country through segregation and equality. Maggie believed financial empowerment could help fight against limitations brought on by continued racism and such laws. In 1901, she started a bank, a department store and a newspaper under her ranks of the Independent order of St. Lukes. 

She hired many African American women, identifying the African American women as doubly oppressed. She opened the St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank in 1903 in the Jackson Ward section of Richmond , the first bank and charter ever open and run by an African American women. The bank offered the African American loans, mortgages and a savings account.

Maggie encouraged her community to "buy black" as a means to continue to surplus the black community. She helped to develop the St Lukes general store which stood strongly against the Jim Crowe laws. The St. Luke Hearald was her way of publishing and dominating the civil rights activism. 

She started a boycott of the Street Cars forcing them to file bankruptcy. Her success and financial gain allotted her respect and property. (The home where this National Park now stands). 

Maggie went National as she traveled to communities throughout the country, speaking on financial Independence and community unity. She also was an active member of the Equal Rights Community and started one of the local 1st African American girl scout troops. 

As the Great Depression ascended on the United States, it's affects dominated all American people, but the African American community was hit perhaps the hardest. It was Maggie's proposal to conjoin with the local African American owned banks to form one bank; The Consolidated Bank and Trust. This bank survived the depression and continued to be the oldest African American owned bank well into the future centuries. 

Maggie died in 1934 as a direct result of her diabetes. Though her lifetime she set out to challenge the injust and fueled the generations of the futures. 

I was inspired by this women's achievements. I was honored to learn of her role in history and step on the property where such an inspiration once lived and took action for her rights and the rights of others. 

TTFN