Maggie Lena Walker

She was born on the estate where her mother had been enslaved and grew up in segregated Richmond as part of the first generation of African Americans born into freedom. She learned quickly that there could be no true freedom without economic independence and became the first woman to charter a bank, while also founding a newspaper and opening a general store. Transport yourself to her 1901 speech announcing these plans and hear the soaring words spoken by Maggie Lena Walker…