Between 1888 and 1930, African Americans opened more than a hundred
banks and thousands of other financial institutions. In Banking on
Freedom, Shennette Garrett-Scott explores this rich period of black
financial innovation and its transformative impact on U.S. capitalism
through the story of the St. Luke Bank in Richmond, Virginia: the first
and only bank run by black women.
Banking on Freedom offers an unparalleled account of how black women
carved out economic, social, and political power in contexts shaped by
sexism, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation. Garrett-Scott
chronicles both the bank's success and the challenges this success
wrought, including extralegal violence and aggressive oversight from
state actors who saw black economic autonomy as a threat to both
democratic capitalism and the social order. The teller cage and
boardroom became sites of activism and resistance as the leadership of
president Maggie Lena Walker and other women board members kept the bank
grounded in meeting the needs of working-class black women. The first
book to center black women's engagement with the elite sectors of
banking, finance, and insurance, Banking on Freedom reveals the ways
gender, race, and class shaped the meanings of wealth and risk in U.S.
capitalism and society.