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A Historian On The Power Of African American-Owned Banks

The cover of Let Us Put Our Money Together by Tim Todd
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.

John L. Hanson is the producer and host of the nationally syndicated radio series In Black America. It’s heard on home station KUT at 10 p.m. Tuesdays and 6:30 a.m. Sundays — and weekly on close to 20 stations across the country. The weekly podcast of IBA, the only nationally broadcast Black-oriented public affairs radio program, is one of KUT’s most popular podcasts.
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