Maggie lena walkers biography

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Who Was Maggie Lena Walker?

Maggie Lena Walker graduated from school in , having been trained as a teacher. She married a brick contractor in and left her teaching job, at which point she became more active within the Independent Order of St.

Luke, an organization dedicated to the social and financial advancement of African Americans. In , Walker became the grand secretary of the organization — a position that she would hold for the rest of her life. During her tenure, she founded the organization's newspaper and opened a highly successful bank and a department store.

Maggie lena walkers biography wikipedia

By the time she died, on December 15, , Walker had turned the nearly bankrupt organization into a profitable and effective one.

Early Years

Walker was born Maggie Lena Draper on July 15, , in Richmond Virginia. Her mother, Elizabeth Draper, was a formerly enslaved and the assistant cook for Elizabeth Van Lew, an abolitionist on whose estate Walker was born.

Walker's biological father was