Perspectives S35/Ep27: Maggie Lena Walker: A Right Worthy Woman

Today we talk with author Ruth P. Watson about A Right Worthy Woman. This work of historical fiction follows the remarkable true story of Maggie Lena Walker and Virginia’s Black Wall Street. Maggie Lena Walker was the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman who eventually became the first Black woman to establish and preside over a bank in the United States. As a child, Maggie helped her mother with her laundry service, opening her eyes to the overwhelming discrepancy between Black residents and her mother’s affluent white clients. Maggie was bold and ambitious, vowing to secure the same level of home and finery for herself, and aiming to help others in her community achieve the same. She rose from a schoolteacher to a secretary-treasurer of the Independent Order of St. Luke, founder of a newspaper, a bank, and a department store. Watson describes Walker as yet another "hidden figure" in Black History whose story should be told.