Chicago’s Seaway Bank was founded in 1965 as Seaway National Bank of Chicago. It was created to counter discriminatory lending practices on Chicago’s South Side.

This is the story for many black owned banks which were created to serve the needs of the discriminated black communities up and down the country. To this day black people have a harder time getting loans for their businesses, getting access to fair credit and mortgages and generally a harder time getting the services they deserve.

Seaway became Chicago’s biggest black owned bank but sadly just last week it quietly slipped into white ownership as it was sold off to the State Bank of Texas of Dallas, even at this time it had apparently already lost it’s black owned status.

The downfall of Seaway lay in the housing crisis which hit Illinois and especially Chicago’s Southside, the main area the bank served, very hard. As housing prices plummeted and people struggled to meet mortgage payments the bank was hit hard.

Last year they tried to use the growing #BankBlack movement to drum up new black support and investors but sadly that fell short of needed goals and the bank had no choices ahead of it.

At the time of acquisition Seaway had $361.2 million in total assets and $307 million in total deposits. A significant amount and an amount that is likely being pulled away from the community that needs it.

The black community needs access to fair banking to be able to grow local business, to build individual wealth and stability, to help build structure such as schools and community centres. Having access to tailored and unbiased banking is paramount.

The black community needs to commit to securing the remaining black owned banks. Not just when Killer Mike tells you to think about it, 364, all year round, you need to pull that account out of the mega bank and throw at least some of your daily banking where it’s needed.

There are black owned banks from New York to Texas, California to South Carolina, and if your state doesn’t have a black owned bank then there may be a credit union or you can open an online account with One Direct. Every one of us can support black banking.

And if you are in Chicago, there are currently three other institutions that you can bank with. See our black owned banks in Illinois article here.

We also have a list of black owned banks state by state to help you get started banking black today!

#BANKBLACK NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!

Further Reading:
http://fortune.com/2016/07/19/mortgage-lending-racial-disparities/
http://madamenoire.com/214586/more-than-20-percent-of-black-families-dont-have-bank-accounts/
https://bossip.com/1150218/race-matters-study-shows-blacks-are-least-likely-to-get-a-business-loan-from-banks/