After Maggie graduated from high school, she got a job as a teacher. In 1886, she married Armistead Walker. They had two sons and Maggie stayed home to care for them. She also volunteered to help a social organization called the Order of St. Luke. This organization helped African Americans take care of the sick and bury the dead. Maggie Walker loved the work of the organization. The organization believed that African Americans should take care of each other.
Over the years, Maggie Walker had more and more responsibilities with the organization. In 1895, she suggested that St. Luke begin a program tor young people. This program became very popular with schoolchildren. In 1899, Walker became Grand Secretary Treasurer of the St. Luke organization. However, because she was a woman, she received less than half the salary of the man who had the job before her.
The Order of St. Luke had a lot of financial difficulties when Walker took over. It had a lot of unpaid bills and only $31.61 in the bank. But soon Maggie Walker changed all of that. Her idea was to get new members to join the organization. In just a few years, it grew from 3,400 members to 50,000 members. The organization bought a $100,000
office building and increased its staff to 55. Now Walker was ready for her next big step.
In 1903, Walker decided the organization needed its own bank. So she helped to establish the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Maggie Walker became its president—she was the first woman to be a bank president in the United States. The bank was very important for African Americans. It gave loans to families so they could buy their own homes. The bank also encouraged children to save money. They could save small amounts of money in a little box the bank gave them. Then they could open a savings account with only $ 1. But Walker’s hard work and generosity also helped white people. Other banks wouldn’t give the city schools more money. St. Luke’s gave them a loan and saved the school system. The bank still exists today under the name Consolidated Bank and Trust Company.
Walker was not only a businesswoman. She always found time to help her community. She published a newspaper called the St. I.uke Herald, raised money for a girls’ school, started a visiting nurse service for the poor and sick, and helped to build a hospital. In 1907, Walker fell and was never able to walk again. She was in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. But she continued her work at the newspaper and the bank for almost 30 more years.
In 1915, something terrible happened in the Walker house. Maggie’s son shot her husband, Armistead, by mistake because he thought Armistead was a thief. There was a trial, and Walker supported her son all the time. Luckily, he did not go to prison.
In 1932, Maggie Walker retired from the bank. She died two years later. Her funeral theater, and a street after her. The Walkers' home is now a national histoic site.
