Of business. 2020 marks a special year, our one hundredth anniversary and we are celebrating 100 years of purpose driven business education. Since our inception we believed in the power of partnerships to inform and lead change. I would like to thank the center for Global Security analysis and our wonderful partners, the museum of American Finance and cfa society of new york for cosponsoring the conversation. One of the goals of the centennial series is to shine the light on the importance history plays on shaping the future. In shennette garrettscott at latest book banking on freedom black women in u. S. Finance before the new deal she explores the rich period of black financial innovation and its Transformative Impact on us capitalism. Todays session will take place in 3 parts. First my colleague and friend david cowan, president and ceo of American Finance will introduce shennette garrettscott. Then she will discuss her book banking on freedom black women in u. S. Finance before the new deal. Following this discussion david and i will facilitate audience questions. We ask that you type your questions in the q and a section near the bottom of the screen. Im very excited to share that as a participant of todays webinar, to win a free ecopy of the book banking on freedom black women in u. S. Finance before the new deal. Winners will be notified by the end of the week. Before i turn it over to david, i want to remind everyone the school and museum rely on your Financial Support to continue the mission. I encourage you to take some time to think about a donation to both of our outstanding organizations. Now i would like to turn it over to david. Guest it is great to be with you and the cfa. Our speaker today is a native texan who receives her phd at the university of texas, currently a professor at ole miss, university of mississippi. In her research and writing she talks about race, gender and capitalism. The Research Behind this book is incredible. There are over 475 detailed footnotes. The book has received much phrase including awards from the organization of american historians, association of black women historians, the Southern Historical associations best book in 7 economic history and also on the short list of the highly prized best book in womens history in 2020. A friend of the museum and former speaker in this lecture series, quote, innovative and backbreaking as well as, quote, beautifully written and deeply researched. Shennette garrettscott can turn a phrase and that starts with the dedication which i really like which reads to my wind and my wings. Given the social climate it is timely to understanding the deepseated issues of inclusion and participation within the Free Enterprise capitalist system. Tell us about banking on freedom black women in u. S. Finance before the new deal and Maggie Lena Walker who said about herself she wasnt born with a silver spoon in her mouth but a Laundry Basket on her head. Shennette garrettscott, welcome. Guest thank you so much for that wonderful introduction and thank you for inviting me and everyone who made this possible. We will go ahead and get started talking. I appreciate people taking time out of their busy schedule to learn more about black womens contributions. Today i will talk for about 35 minutes and talk about the world of black finance in harlem but for the 1929 stock market crash. And finance corporation. And how black women used Financial Institutions like the finance corporation, institutions said they lead and control to challenge the constraints of jim crow, sexism and economic exploitation. They used Companies Like the fls seed to carve out possibilities for themselves and the us economy and society. They understood notions about wealth, value and risk, by gender and race and your place in the economic ladder. They were not simply defined by these factors and processes. They had an active role shaping the meaning of wealth and opportunity and i certainly acknowledge the limitations they face because of their race, gender and class, and wants to demonstrate how black women defined their values in ways that often went counter to the type of messages they received about their worth, as economic actors and also in the larger us economy. We should have a good amount of time left for questions and answers. The best way to understand is through two women who were vitally important to the venture, Charity Jones and Lindsay Robinson jones. In the next slide two images, i only have three pictures of those two women but anonymous women in those images captured their spirit. We start imagining their early lives, to understand the kinds of challenges black women face and briefly describe the independent order of saint luke, the Harlem Branch of the order form the finance corporation and talk about the successes and challenges faced especially, comprised totally of women. Charity. Charity hesitated, on the dusty dirt streets. What are they doing she said to herself, to spend it on the streetcar door between her old life that way behind her and this awful new place, the smell, the boys, people, so many pressing and buzzing like flies rising from horsemen or, this was 1885 and the charity paused for a while, mostly empty seats, the streetcar beckoning. And two handfuls of years, all of them taken from her. There was no their back in virginia. Charity drew her breath and planted her feet on the unforgiving ground, she dared not look back at the tiny hands prints, the babies and breath off of the streetcar windows. Calling her back home. Lulu hesitated a moment before stepping onto the wooden floor, hundreds of dancers, and they murmured, in the hard written seats. A sudden rush of wind washing and jostling me. This was harlem 1916, lulu cost for amendment stated between the noisy back stage going on and the expected audience just beyond the velvet curtain. She i acquired place, a pocket she could pour her voice into z drew in her breath and planted her feet on the expected floor and as she stepped into the spotlight, darkness swallowed up the side of the stage where she stood a moment ago, their newest book back, holding on to silence. Charity jones and Linda Robinson jones, her daughter in law had different experiences has Migrant Women who moved to new york city in the late nineteenth and early Twentieth Century but did share important things in common. They shared charitys only surviving child, a son, but hundreds of other black women, they also left the south, to pursue better lives in the north, the chance to earn money, the humiliating social etiquette and Sexual Violence of jim crow defined excitement in the big city of the north. Those two women shared her devotion to the independent order of saint luke, a secret society founded in the 1850s, in 1899 the independent order, on the ambitious Maggie Lena Walker. Headquarters in richmond, saint lucy would become black control, and largely black women controlled Financial Institution in the country at its peak in the mid1920s, the order ran a bank and an insurance company, boasted 100,000 members in different states and employed 200 people, the majority of them women, and 31 million in modernday dollars. What was the venture that brought the into porn independent order down and scandal involved Charity Jones and Lulu Robinson jones, that was the saint luke finance corporation headquartered in harlem and organized in the late 19 teens by the independent order of st. Louis. The finance corporation reflects the opportunity for women in us finance by the 1920s, a complex tapestry, made up of thousands of Financial Institutions. These included formal banks and Insurance Companies as well as thrift, saving clubs and loan associations, Credit Unions and finance corporations. This complex tapestry controls millions of African American dollars and expanded the boundaries of their dreams. The great migration around world war i, the increasingly urban and northern organizations tacked the capacity of these Financial Institutions. It was worn in places, the saint luke finance corporation shows, reflected these anxieties about black womens bodies in these new urban spaces and there were these conflicting tensions that saw black women as both the victim but also the sources of social disorder. Both in need of financial protection but also new economic opportunities. Who stretched these Financial Institutions like the independent order of saint luke . They desired better career options, the efforts to police their behavior and the way they spend their leisure time. These will be called new negro women attracted to the promises of investment, as a vehicle for Political Rights and efforts to destroy, dismantle jim crow but also grew tired of these things that apply that men are the proper producers and consumers of these investment products, markers of citizenship. Financial institutions women lead and experimented in innovative ways, they struggled and experienced, the intractable problem of racial and sexual discrimination. Dealing with a number of these tensions i am going to focus on the rise and fall of the saint luke finance corporation. It is 1916, and the struggling new York District of saint luke heart headquartered in harlem elected a new president , dennis bryce. The harlem saint luke had new dollars, 0. 45 in its coffers, more than 400 in debt. Bryce may have been a formal hand at the wheel, but an Ambitious Group of women controlled the leaguers. In 1981, 21 members most of them Women Incorporated the saint luke finance corporation and set their sights on investments in real estate. The 7 members of the finance corporations board and robinson jones, widowed by 1909 shares the advisory committee, they turned to Charity Jones to help recruit new members. She was known as the mother of saint luke in new york. Membership in the new York District sword in the midst of the great migration. It was not womens charms alone that fueled a resurgence, they are square focused, laser focused on addressing the need of black women, lift the spark that revised the order. The new negro woman tested and expanded on the boundary of these organizations, a model of modern womanhood and we have scholars that talk about the new negro woman and stress a cultural and political importance but economic concerns placed high among their priorities, desperately needed jobs and housing, and in the 19 teens, like many young black women likely confronted limited employment opportunities. Skyrocketing rent is over policing and overcrowding and segregated section is of the city. Robinson jones and other women of the Advisory Board were able to borrow from the Saint Luke Bank in richmond, very cautious finance committee would likely either unwilling to invest more in this real estate scene or are they unable to do so, they will say even then require substantial capital and the d mans, we have to remember, were compounded by the racial tariffs that made the cost of credit and consideration higher for blacks than for whites. Jones envisioned new and returning members as potential investors. She also understood the business of leisure in harlem and arranged these Fundraising Affairs the combined entertainment and enterprise. She organized a fundraising reception at the manhattan casino and changed a famous orchestra provided the music. In just a few months, they raised enough money to secure a mortgage on a building, purchased a former convent on west 100 thirtieth street in 1921 just a few years later, 24 room apartment building, on 120 ninth street on casanova. It remodels its first acquisition former convent on 130th and transferred into the saint luke hall, the district headquarters and the equivalent of more than 1 million, modern dollars to remodel the call on 100 thirtieth. This accommodated every thing in the black community, to International Delegation for Union Meetings and in 1924, further added to its holdings on third property. Apartment buildings, restaurants and Retail Stores on west 130 ninth street. So the free properties, put granite and steel monuments to black economic progress located in the heart of burgeoning, growing black communities, an important center for business for Community Activities and entertainment. So the pastor of first emmanuel church, the police where bootlegging, cabarets, and the pastor of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church and adopted father of harlem renaissance poet calls saint luke hall nothing less than one of the hellholes of god. So it was very likely in restaurants and stores and office spaces, make ends meet and run numbers games which is extralegal but highly profitable gambling game and very popular. The business of leisure and living required a foot in both the formal and extralegal economy in harlem. Lets recount. In 1916, the harlem saint lukes are broken. In 1918 they form the saint lukes finance corporation. Within a few years the Corporation Makes ambitious advocate of Real Estate Investments so that by 1929 in little more than a decade they went from being 400 in debt to having more than 5 million, that is a very conservative modernday daughters, having 5 million in property so as our country slid toward economic decline by the end of the decade the failure to sell all of the corporations stock listed under capitalize it was generating more than 10, 000 in annual profits and that accounts for 150, 000 in modernday dollars and in the apartments in the building, using those revenues to provide jobs for a topheavy workforce of 2 dozen employees but also funding a public commitment, for harlem families. Let me stress here, these concerns affect affordable housing, and restaurants, retail spaces that offer fair prices and a variety of goods and services, good paying stable jobs. With respect lands not so respectable amusement and leisure activities. These are important priorities for black communities in general and these were central social economic and i would add political concerns that animated those women who were leading the corporation. The district ended up raising the equivalent of 1. 2 million in modernday dollars from a bond offering. The incredible amount of money they were able to raise the highlights the democratization investing among black communities. Let me say that another way. What demonstrates the ways in investing was popular and accessible for most africanamericans and also reveals a commitment to working and middleclasses so in banking on freedom black women in u. S. Finance before the new deal are highly black peoples participation in investment and get rich quick schemes that made the 1920s more, i would say 1. 2 million, thousand dollar loans and Swanky Affairs cannot explain at least on their own the dramatic rise in the harlem saint luke fortune, might also reveal creative financing. Im not going to go into detail here but the creative financing schemes that the ladies of finance corporation experiment with impressive summons in such a short amount of time to the country at the economic downturn coupled with past investigations into similar organizations like the universal Negro Improvement Association finances really left creative financial schemes of all kinds of black organizations which included the independent order for state scrutiny. In 1928, the new York State Attorney general began an investigation into the order, but it was insolvent. And they sold its real estate holdings. Just as i imagine at the beginning of my talk how chair eddie jones, an actual figure of Charity Jones the only picture i have of her might have felt moving to new york city, i can only ponder how they must have felt when their beloved order lost its crown jewels, Charity Jones must have felt particularly bereft because she lost her home, she lived in one of the model opponents apartments that they purchased. From her will i know that she died in 1929 and still resided at 127 w. 130th street but it was no longer glorious saint luke all, that has to be bittersweet. Robins and joan sold a census taker that she was not working, that she was unemployed. And it is likely she never again held such a powerful position in a multibilliondollar concern. As i close, by eliminating this fascinating story about the rise and fall of the Saint Luke Bank in banking on freedom black women in u. S. Finance before the new deal on which this story is a part i try to connect these major developments in us history, talking about reconstruction that deals with age, the great migration, world war i. The destructive ways the economy limit black womens opportunities. So look at the st. Luke finance corporation as a case study, we see investment as a form of community and institution building, but also of protests and resistance that i think stand alongside other kinds of demand for economic justice, like the labor strike or the boycott. So when powerful ways black womens