Maggie L. Walker was a former slave, a Black woman, in the capital of the Confederate. BUT much more than that, she was the first Woman and first Black woman to open a bank in the United States in 1920s Richmond, Virginia.

She faced racial oppression, segregation and much more but she wanted to help her people and overcame so much to do so.

As the Washington Post wrote

Walker’s accomplishments in the face of racial oppression and segregation have never been honored in her hometown in the same way as the Confederate leaders whose statues are the focal point of downtown Richmond.

But on Saturday, 153 years to the day she was born in the former capital of the Confederacy, Walker will get her own monument, a towering statue of her as she lived — her glasses pinned to her lapel, a checkbook in hand.

“She’s ready to work,” said Antonio “Toby” Mendez, the celebrated Maryland sculptor who brought Walker back to life, 10 feet tall, in bronze. “She wasn’t just raising the bar for her community. She was working to create opportunities.”

Community leaders have for decades wanted to honor Walker, who was the first African American woman in the country to found a bank — St. Luke’s Penny Savings, which gave loans to black business owners and residents at fair rates, then recycled the interest earned to keep building the community.

Amazing! Read more here.

Below is the unveiling of the statue: