A Bank for the People: The People’s Savings Bank and Community Building in Philadelphia, 1907–1917

Abstract

This article examines how Black Americans used Black economic nationalism to create community through the formation and support of The People’s Savings Bank in early twentieth-century Philadelphia. Through its lending practices, The People’s Savings Bank offered Black Philadelphians credit opportunities that allowed them to circumvent the Jim Crow practices of the period. Furthermore, the article argues that the success of the bank was the result of inter-gender mutualism by a community determined to achieve self-determination through economic empowerment. Banking in Black Philadelphia went beyond creating a successful moneyed class, it was about crafting an oasis for a people besieged by White supremacist structures.

Publisher

Penn State University Press

Publication Date

Summer 7-1-2024

Publication Title

Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies

Department

Africana Studies

Document Type

Article

Keywords

African American, Black nationalism, Black economic nationalism, Banking, Philadelphia

Language

English

Format

text

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