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V
irginia
C
apitol
C
onnections
, S
ummer
2017
26
Eighty-three years ago, young civil
rights giant-to-be Ferguson Reid and
aging social activist and legend, Maggie
L. Walker were neighbors.
Ferguson “Fergie” Reid would become
the first African American to be elected
to the Virginia General Assembly since
Reconstruction. He also co-founded
the Richmond Crusade of Voters, and
continued working into his nineties
to strengthen voter registration and
participation.
His neighbor, Maggie L. Walker, was already a civil and
women’s rights pioneer: founder of
The St. Luke Herald
newspaper, head of a nationwide insurance agency, and the first
African American woman to charter a bank. Her efforts trailblazing
financial independence were focused on African Americans,
women, and oppressed minorities with limited access to the
services she provided.
In the 1930s, Reid was a child, spending his time playing with
Walker’s grandchildren, sliding down banisters, and accompanying
the family on Memorial Day picnics and cemetery visits, complete
with limousines, flowers, and bologna sandwiches.
“She’d put all of us in her limousine and take us to the various
cemeteries that she had relatives buried in,” recounted Reid.
“Flowers on graves. Lunch for the kids. Specifically, I remember,”
Reid paused and chuckled, “one of the favorite meats was bologna
on white bread with yellow mustard. That’s what we would have in
the picnic basket with drinks and dessert things.”
The Reid family shared an address with the Walker household:
110 East Leigh Street. The houses were adjacent to one another,
and the copycat address led to mix ups.
Once, young Reid remembers opening the door to a dignified
man with a mustache and fine pointed goatee. He was looking for
Mrs. Walker, and Ferguson politely directed him next door.
“I didn’t know who it was until years later,” Reid recounted,
his voice holding an air of amazement. “I was flipping through
history books and found his picture. That was when I realized who
it was. MaggieWalker andW. E. B. Dubois were friendly with each
other.”
Walker was born nearly seventy years prior to this in July of
1867. Walker’s mother, a former slave, pushed for her to receive
a quality education. Walker excelled at the Lancaster School of
the Quakers. On the evening of her graduation, she participated
in the first recorded school
strike by African Americans
in the United States. The
graduating class of 1883
stated that “our parents pay
taxes just the same as you
white folks, and you’ve got
no business spending big
money out of those taxes to
pay for the theater for white
children unless you do the
same for black children.”
Walker continued to
challenge the status quo
throughout her life. After
her graduation she became
involved in the Independent
Order of St. Luke’s, an
independent aid society. By
1899 she became the president of the organization and was able
to turn the financial tides from near bankruptcy to profitable. In
1902 she founded the St. Luke’s Herald, in order to communicate
the work of the Order of St. Luke’s to local chapters. In 1903 she
founded the St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank, allowing African
Americans a place to deposit and borrow funds in a Jim Crow
world that barred access.
She asked her neighbor, friend, and fellow NAACP member,
Reid’s father Leon Reid, to be one of the trustees. He stayed on as
a trustee until he died.
Another of Walker’s accomplishments was to open up a
department store on Broad Street in Richmond aimed at serving
African Americans.
“She worked to advance Blacks,” explained Reid. “And
because Blacks could not shop in various department stores, she
had her department store on Broad Street. She was very active with
that and advancing black business.”
She led a bank merger in 1930 with two other smaller black-
owned banks in Richmond, keeping her business afloat as many
banks collapsed under the financial strain brought on by the Great
Depression.
Ferguson Reid’s memories of Walker take place during those
early years of the Great Depression toward the end of Walker’s life.
“At that time a lot of the kids in the neighborhood were in
various quartets, and they’d sing hymns and songs in front of her
house,” recalled Reid. “She would always send someone down
to give them some money. During the Depression you could buy
bread for 10 cents. The money she gave them was quite a bit of
money for that time period.”
Remembering
Maggie Lena Walker
By Lydia Freeman
FERGIE