Richmond is the home of numerous famous and historic figures, among them the great writer Edgar Allen Poe, Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, tennis legend Arthur Ashe, musicians D'Angelo, Jason Mraz, and (let's not forget) GWAR, actors Bill (Bojangles) Robinson and twins Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine, the list goes on.... But if you asked me which Richmonder had the biggest impact on the city itself, I'd have to say Maggie Lena Walker, who spent her whole life here, working tirelessly for a more equitable, accessible and compassionate city.
You probably know that Walker, in 1903 at the height of Jim Crow, opened the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, the first woman-owned bank in America, one focused on the needs of Black Virginians cut off from the mainstream economy; you may know of her efforts with the Independent Order of St. Luke charitable organization aimed at uplift and support for the poor; and you may have seen her statue on Broad Street or visited her home downtown, now managed by the National Park Service. Maybe you graduated from Maggie Walker High School.
The ten-foot tall bronze monument, sculptor Antonio Tobias Mendez,
98 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA.
From the first, I wanted to include Maggie Walker (somehow) in my biographical novel The Night Doctor of Richmond, about her contemporary, the notorious Medical College grave robber Chris Baker. There is no record that the two ever met, however, so making that happen required a bit of a fictional stretch. Surprisingly, that stretch led to important turns in the novel.
For instance, I learned that Walker grew up across the street from Baker’s home and workplace, the Egyptian Building. Though a decade younger than he, it seems likely that they would have crossed paths, so I invented a way for that to happen, she glimpsing from her window his hauling of a corpse into his workshop at night, and his providing lye soap (made, it is implied, from human fat) in exchange for garden veggies.
Walker was a lifelong member of the First African Baptist Church just down the street from her childhood home, and her biography (A Right Worthy Grand Mission) includes a lively anecdote about her baptism in the font there. Ecstatic in the awareness of her sudden salvation, the youngster leapt out of the water and went running into the street raving with joy. That tale sparked a pivotal chapter in my novel, in which Baker is baptized at the church and undergoes a very different spiritual experience.
First African Baptist Church, 1865, photographer unknown, Library of Congress,
as it was at the time of my novel and Walker's membership there.
Little is known about Baker’s marriage, but some accounts say his wife Martha and son John lived away from the Egyptian Building and that she worked as a laundress (other accounts have her living in the Egyptian Building and working as a custodian there). In my story, she and Walker become friends. Walker teaches Martha to read and encourages her to grow her laundry business; when the Baker’s can eventually afford a house of their own, Walker’s bank holds the mortgage. These are ways that Walker helped countless people. I wanted to honor that work.
You can learn more about Maggie Walker by visiting her home in Jackson Ward (110-1/2 East Leigh Street) and by reading the biography, A Right Worthy Grand Mission: Maggie Lena Walker and the Quest for Black Economic Empowerment (by G.W, Marlowe, 2003, Howard University Press). I’m glad I was able to find a place for her in my novel. She has meant so much to the city of Richmond, her example global in its sweep.
Maggie Walker's home, 110-1/2 West Leigh Street, Richmond,
which you can tour by appointment with the National Park Service.
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