Case file 05
May 1, 2026
25 min
Defier
She chartered a bank, organized a boycott, took on some of the most powerful men in her city — and designed her own wheelchair when illness tried to slow her down.
Identity confirmed
Maggie Lena Walker
This episode's subject became the first woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank — a milestone made even more remarkable by the era and the barriers stacked against her.
Banking wasn't her only front. She organized a streetcar boycott, built a fraternal order into a major economic institution, and kept working on behalf of her community even as illness eventually confined her to a wheelchair she redesigned herself to keep moving.
Episode references
- National Park Service — Biography of Maggie L. Walker
- Library of Congress — First Black woman to charter a bank
- FDIC — Maggie Lena Walker: America's national treasure in banking
- Encyclopedia Virginia — Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934)
- National Women's History Museum — Biography
Compiled from the show's publicly listed episode notes.
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