Class Date: October 29th

Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!

This week we are looking at the life of Maggie Lena Walker, the first Black woman to charter and run a bank. But before we do that, let’s look see both how banks developed in the United States, as well as how Black citizens fared:

• 1781 - Bank of North America

Robert Morris created the Bank of North America to serve two purposes: create a strong currency and fund the war against Great Britain with loans from France and the Netherlands. Eventually, it would become a private bank but still served as an important financial source through the 1800s, even loaning money to the federal government during the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

• 1791 - First Bank of the United States

Alexander Hamilton calls for a central bank to regulate the nation’s currency and help government finances. Many feared that a centralized bank would have too much power over the nation, so Hamilton engineered a compromise that included a 20 year bank charter and moving the nation’s capital from New York to the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia. The First Bank operated until 1811, when Congress failed to renew the charter by a single vote in the Senate and a single vote in the House. 

• 1817 - Second Bank of the United States

The financial crisis following the end of the War of 1812, Congress proposed a second central bank. The bank was larger than the first, with a 25 year charter and regional branches. Andrew Jackson became a staunch opponent of the Bank and refused to sign the charter during his presidency. He ended the bank in January of 1836. 

After the Second Bank of the United States ended, the era of “free” banking. Without a federal banking system states gave a charter to any bank that requested one with little to no oversight. Many banks came and went, and private companies even issued their own currency. 

• 1863 - National Bank Act

Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Senate Finance Committee member John Sherman created the act to create a market for war bonds, develop a stable bank-note currency, and most importantly, to reestablish the central banking system that had been destroyed under Andrew Jackson’s administration. 

• April 14, 1865 - President Lincoln is assassinated

While attending a play at Ford’s Theater, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (got it this time!).

• 1865 - The Ku Klux Klan beings

A group of former Confederate veterans founded a ‘social club’ in Pulaski, Tennessee. This newly formed terrorist organization was meant to establish an ‘Invisible Empire of the South’. They selected former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest as their first leader. Klan membership peaked in the 1920s, with more than 4 million members of the hate group. 

• 1869 - John Willis Menard is the first Black man elected to Congress, but he is never seated

John Willis Menard ran in a special election to succeed the late James Mann, who represented New Orleans in the House of Representatives. Though Menard received 64% of the vote, his opponent, Caleb Hunt, contested the election. The House deemed that neither candidate was qualified and left the seat vacant for the remainder of the session.

• 1881 - Tennessee votes to segregate railroad passenger cars

Often marked as the beginning of Jim Crow laws across the South, the law codified segregated train travel. Over the next decade, most southern states would enact similar laws.

• 1883 - Civil Rights Cases

5 legal cases were combined by the Supreme Court (due to their similarity). The Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional. The Court held that the 13th and 14th Amendments did not allow Congress to outlaw racial discrimiation by private individuals. Effectively, this ruling gave Congress very little power to legislate against segregation. It paved the way for decades of Jim Crow laws and inequality.

• 1896 - Plessey v. Ferguson

In 1892, Home Plessey, a man who had ⅛ Black ancestry, deliberately violated Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890 and boarded a whites only train car. He was charged with violating the law and he pleaded not guilty, saying the law was unconstitutional. He took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In May of 1896, in a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not eliminate legal distinctions based on color. Essentially, the case established that “separate but equal” was legal, according to the Constitution. 

That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources and check your e-mail for a link to this week’s lecture!

To read more about this period, here are some great books to get you started:

For kids:

For adults:

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/civil_war/NationalBankActs.htm

https://www.okhistory.org/historycenter/federalreserve/edutimeline.html

https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan

https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voice/keeping-vote/state-rules-federal-rules/poll-taxes