a biography of the day-maggie lena walker (1st woman bank president in US)

[niyad]

Maggie Lena Walker

Dates:
July 15, 1867 - December 15, 1934
Occupation:
bank president, business executive, lecturer, activist, philanthropist, writer
Known for:
first woman bank president in the US
Also known as:
Maggie Lena Mitchell, Maggie L. Walker, Maggie Mitchell Walker; Lizzie (as a child); Lame Lioness (in her later years)
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Maggie married Armstead Walker, jr., after meeting him at church. She had to give up her job, as was usual for teachers who married, and soon she put more efforts into volunteer work with the I. O. of St. Luke. She was elected Secretary in 1899, at a time the Society was on the brink of failing. Instead, Maggie Walker took on a major membership drive, lecturing not only in and around Richmond but around the country. She built it up to more than 100,000 members in more than 20 states. In 1903, Maggie Walker saw an opportunity for the
Society and formed a bank, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, and she served as president of the bank until 1932. This made her the first (known) woman president of a bank in the United States.
. . . . .
She also led the Society to more self-help programs and philanthropic efforts, founded an African American newspaper in 1902 for which she wrote a column for many years, and lectured extensively on race and women's issues.

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In the 1910s and 1920s, Maggie Walker also served on a number of organizational boards, including the executive committee of the National Association of Colored Women and more than 10 years on the board of the NAACP.

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In 1931, with the Depression, Maggie Walker helped merge her bank with several other African American banks, into the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. With her ill health, she retired as bank president and became board chair of the merged bank.

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http://womenshistory.about.com/od/business/p/maggie_walker.htm