In 1968, a group of businessmen in Portland, Oregon saw the recently founded Bank of Finance in Los Angeles, California as a model for their creating the first black-owned commercial bank in the Pacific Northwest. The businessmen, with help from Los Angeles, founded the Freedom Bank of Finance, which opened in 1969. The … Read MoreFreedom Bank of Finance (1969-2000)
The Bank of Finance, the first state-chartered, black-owned commercial bank in Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1964. The bank was established by Onie B. Granville, a local real estate broker. Granville was frustrated by his real estate clients’ difficulties in obtaining home loans and the discriminatory practices they faced … Read MoreThe (Los Angeles) Bank of Finance (1964-1981)
Liberty Bank was Washington State’s first primarily black-owned bank. It opened on May 31, 1968 in Seattle’s Central District (CD) at 24th Avenue and East Union Street. Liberty Bank grew out of the desperate need for a black-owned bank that would lend to African American homeowners and … Read MoreLiberty Bank Seattle Washington (1968-1988) and Liberty Bank Building
The Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers in Richmond, Virginia was the first bank owned by African Americans in the United States. It was founded on March 2, 1888 by Reverend William Washington Browne and opened on April 3, 1889. … Read MoreThe True Reformers Bank (1888-1910)
The Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, commonly referred to as The Freedmen’s Bank, was incorporated on March 3, 1865. It was created by the United States Congress along with the Freedmen’s Bureau to aid the freedmen in their transition from slavery to freedom. By late … Read MoreFreedmen’s Savings and Trust Company (1865-1874)
