Courtesy of Tim Todd
On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Tim Todd, executive writer and historian with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and author of Let Us Put Our Money Together.
Decades before the Civil War, there were discussions about creating African American-owned banks in the United States. These institutions would serve not only as vital and necessary catalysts for economic opportunity, but also stand as powerful symbols in the fight against slavery and for racial equality.
Todd talks about why these banks were important; the people who formed these financial institutions; how these banks provided training opportunities and jobs for African Americans; and why they declined over the years.
