Maggie Lena Walker was born July 15, 1867, in Richmond, Va. When she was 11, she joined the Grand United Order of St. Luke, a fraternal and cooperative insurance society. She received a diploma with honors in 1883 from Armstrong Normal School and immediately began teaching.
While she taught, Walker began studying bookkeeping at night school and working as a part-time insurance agent. Walker had worked her way up in the Order, and in 1899, she was named Right Worth Grand Secretary. Under her business leadership, the organization thrived.
In 1902, Walker founded a newspaper, the St. Luke Herald, to increase the Order’s profile. Then in 1903, she decided that black people could help themselves economically if they pooled their money and lent it out. She founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and became the nation’s first female bank president.
Walker worked constantly for women’s suffrage, and in 1921, she ran for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She lost the race, but her candidacy challenged the political establishment.
In 1930, Walker’s bank merged with two others and was renamed the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, and she became the chairman of the board.
Walker died Dec. 15, 1934, but her bank continued on. It still operates today as the oldest continuously run black-owned bank in America.

— Michael J. Kleckner