Born: July 15, 1867, Richmond, VA

Education: Armstrong Normal School, valedictorian, 1883

Died: December 15, 1934, Richmond

Child of a butler and former slave mother, Walker rose from humble circumstances to exemplary leadership in the Jim Crow era. A schoolteacher after Reconstruction, she became head of a growing fraternal order, the Independent Order of St. Luke. During her lifetime tenure, it enrolled more than 100,000 members in twenty-eight states and Washington, DC; established viable businesses; and empowered African American communities.

She advocated efforts for self-help and civil rights. Thrift was her core tenet, “a gospel of financial independence from the white world” (Hine and Thompson, 1999, p. 194). By saving pennies and nickels, blacks could accumulate dollars for homes, farms, and businesses. She founded the St. Luke Herald (1902) newspaper, which promoted industry, thrift, and moral character, as well as the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank (1903), becoming “the first woman bank president in America.” One of six black banks nationally in 1941, it is now the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. Walker helped finance black women and girls’ literacy and welfare; lead blacks’ boycott of Jim Crow streetcars (1904–06); and sustain the NAACP antilynching and women's suffrage campaigns. A candidate for Virginia State School Superintendent on the Lily–Black Republican ticket (1920), she received an honorary master's degree from Virginia Union University (1923). The Maggie Lena Walker National Historic Site honors her today.