"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE": William Reuben Pettiford

During my recent research of Black Owned Banks in America, I found that as of February 2023, there are between 15-42 Black Owned Banks currently operating in the United States. Additionally, I found that there are between 100 - 142 financial institutions listed as being “Black Led”(meaning that the bank meets the requirements as being a minority depository institution ). Furthermore, I also discovered that the government “qualifications, definition,and designation” for a bank to be considered a Black Owned Bank is quite different from what most Black People would call a Black Owned Bank. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation[ FDIC ] in order for a minority depository institution to be designated as Minority Owned or Black Owned Bank, the institution must meet the following requirements : 51 percent or more of the voting stock is owned by minority individuals or a majority of the board of directors is minority, the community that the institution serves is predominantly minority, and ownership must be by U.S. citizens or permanent legal U.S. residents. So what caused me to go and seek this information? Well,of course it has to do with this week’s article about the main founder of “The Penny Savings Bank”{ the first financial institution in the state of Alabama owned-and-operated by Negroes }, William Reuben Pettiford. William was born in North Carolina, in 1847. Although his parents were Negroes , they were not slaves. Nothing was reported about his earlier schooling in North Carolina, however ,he reportedly moved to Alabama in 1869, because he wanted to further his education. Once in Alabama, William enrolled in Lincoln Normal School( the predecessor of Alabama State University). He had to work odd jobs while attending school, but around 1876, he was able to obtain his degree. In 1877, William was able to gain a teaching position at Selma University [ where he also took classes in theology toward becoming a minister ]. In 1880, he decided to leave his teaching position to accept his call to the ministry. He became the pastor of First Baptist Church of Union Springs{ in Alabama }. Also, William became principal of the city school for Negroes. In 1883, he was urged by Booker T Washington and other Black Baptist church leaders to become the pastor of First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham( the same church that would later be named “The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church,” where the four innocent Black girls were killed in the tragic bombing on the morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963. The church was targeted because it served as a meeting place for civil rights meetings & activities ). So he packed his bags and moved to Birmingham,Alabama. Although William was a minister of the gospel, he was more than just a preacher of the gospel. He allied himself with several of the leading Black citizens of Birmingham . These relationships and his strong relationship with Booker T Washington proved to be of great help when he came up with the idea of forming a local bank in the city of Birmingham. Additionally, William strategically allied himself with several of the White Bankers in Birmingham. On October 15, 1890, the Alabama Penny Savings Bank opened its doors with William Reuben Pettiford as President[ they later established bank branches in Selma, Anniston, and Montgomery , Alabama ]. It was because of the Penny Savings Bank that many Negroes were able to own their own homes and achieve financial independence! Along with being a member of the National Negro Business League, William helped organize the National Negro Banker’s Association in 1906 and served as its president until his death. When it came to the Black financial movement, he was one of the leading Black figures of his era! One of his biggest accomplishments as president was the construction of the Alabama Penny Savings Bank Building { similar to the Miller-Roy Building that was built on Desiard St in Monroe, Louisiana }that was built in 1913. The building was located on Eighteenth Street in Birmingham’s thriving business district. The building was five-stories high and housed over 50 other Black businesses. Sadly, William Reuben Pettiford died in September 1914,at the age of 67[ and the PennySavings Bank died shortly thereafter ; it failed in 1915, less than a year after his death ].

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : JANE ELLEN MCALLISTER

Most of the time when I hear people mention Vicksburg, Mississippi, they either say something about the “Famous American Civil War Battle” or the “Casino” in Vicksburg. However, I never ever heard anyone mention the fact that the “First African-American Woman” to receive her Doctorate Degree in Education was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Yes, in 1929, Jane Ellen McAllister earned her “PhD in Education”from The Prestigious Columbia University! She was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi , on October 24, 1899. Thanks to her father being employed as a mail carrier, and her mother working as a teacher, Jane and her family were able to live better than many of the Black families of Vicksburg during that time. Also, Jane performed so well in school that she ended up graduating from high school at the age of 15! From there she attended Talladega College in Alabama. Her parents were so proud of her when she graduated with honors in 1919( at the age of 19 ), and became the the youngest college graduate at Talladega! After obtaining her B.A. Degree, Jane accepted a teaching position at Emerson College in Mobile,Alabama. Jane’s hunger for knowledge led her to attend the University of Michigan[ where she earned her M.A. Degree in 1921 ]. Amongst the many Universities she taught and worked during her “50” year career in Education included, Straight University in New Orleans, Louisiana ; over 24 years at Miner Teachers College in Washington D.C.{ where she served as Professor of Education } ; at Jackson College ( at the special request of the president,Jacob L Reddix ) ; Jackson State University ; Southern University[ where she taught piano, Latin, and education ] ; Grambling State University ; Fisk University ; Dillard University ; and Virginia State University. Jane was a tireless crusader for the education of Black teachers and Black students. Along with developing programs for the Universities, she helped oversee the funding for the programs and the Universities as well. Jane Ellen McAllister died in Vicksburg, Mississippi on January 10, 1996. In her memory and for the contributions she made at Jackson State University, the school decided to name a dorm in her honor, and remembers her work with lectures.

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : John Gilmore Riley

For those who didn’t know, the reason why I chose to write my “Our Rich Black Heritage” articles is to highlight other African-Americans besides the ones that we are use to hearing about during Black History Month. Also, I did it to help other Black People to realize that our Black ancestors were more than just slaves for White People, and they had Black-Owned Insurance Companies, Black-Owned Hotels, and Black-Owned Banks! Not only that, but they were able to establish Black Business Districts in just about every major city in America( and many of the small towns). Also, they had their own Black-Owned funeral homes,Movie Theatres, and Grocery Stores[ there was even a Black-Owned Dairy, owned by the “Willis family” in West Monroe, Louisiana ]. Recently, I discovered that there were “8 Black Millionaires” in the state of Florida, between 1870 - 1955! You see, we as Black People need to do as my dad use to say,”Go Back And Check The Record!” When you go back and check the record, you’ll see that our Black ancestors were more than slaves for the White People!Now, back to this week’s Black Hero, John Gilmore Riley. He was born a slave in 1857. John spent almost “50 years” as an Educator and decades as a Civic Leader. He received formal schooling at private and public schools. At the age of 20, he was hired to teach at a school in Wakulla County, in Tennessee. In 1892 he became principal of the Lincoln Academy[ located at 438 West Brevard Street in Tallahassee, Florida ]. He remained principal of the school for 34 years, and retired in 1926. An interesting fact about John Gilmore Riley is that he was one of the few Negroes to have owned land in Tallahassee in 1903. He was able to purchase seven major downtown parcels of land, among them including the property on which he built his home in 1895 { the site of the Department of Natural Resource and Bryant Building and the parking lot of the Florida State University Law School }. The wood-frame home that he built is the last physical evidence of what was once a thriving Negro community in downtown Tallahassee at the turn of the 20th century. A hundred years later, in 1995, his home was converted to a museum. Also, in 1996, the Riley House became the John G. Riley Center/Museum of African American History and Culture( the museum sits at the bottom of a hill in downtown Tallahassee, at the corner of Meridian and Jefferson Streets). John Gilmore Riley died in 1954, the same year that the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision was rendered.

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : FRANCES BARRIER WILLIAMS

Ever since before the American Civil War, Civil Rights and Education have been two of the top priorities for Black People in America. Although Black People have more representation today than they had in the early 1970s[ in the form of Black Senators, House Representatives, City Council Members, Police Jurors, and School Board members ], the fact is that the problems in the areas of Civil Rights and Education still exists similar as they did in the early 1970s. Somehow or another Black People are going to hath to organize, strategize, and plan ways of getting our elected public officials to address these two concerns. If not, we may as well go ahead and accept the second-class citizenship that they been trying to give us for years! Well, this week’s Black Heroine is Frances Barrier Williams. She was a Negro Educator and Civil Rights & Women’s Rights Activist. Frances was born on February 12, 1855 to Anthony and Harriet Barrier. Their family lived in Brockport, New York( an area mostly populated by White People ). Her father owned several profitable businesses and had built a solid real estate portfolio{ in case you didn’t know, since New York had “ALREADY” granted slaves their “FREEDOM” as early as 1827, Negroes were allowed to own Businesses and property }. In 1870, Frances became the first Negro to graduate from Brockport State Normal School[ now Suny-College at Brockport ]. She experienced racism at its worst when she accepted a teaching position in Hannibal , Missouri. Words can’t describe what Frances had to endure and witness when she moved there( this experience is said to have been what got her started in activism and civil rights ). From Missouri, she traveled to Boston, Massachusetts to study piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. While at the Music Conservatory , she once again had an encounter with racism. It seems that many of the Southern White students that attended the Music Conservatory objected to Frances’s presence, and she was pressured to leave! She packed her bags and headed for Washington, D.C.{ a area where many Black Educators were migrating to }. Once she got there, Frances began socialising and making connections with other Black Educators[ it was in Washington, D.C. that she met her future husband, Samuel Laing Williams, they were married in August 1887 ]. To her dismay, when she enrolled in the School of Fine Arts to study portrait painting in Washington, D.C., she once again experienced significant difficulties due to her race. After staying in Washington for about 2 years, the couple moved to Chicago, Illinois. From 1900 up until 1921 when her her husband died, she was an outspoken supporter of Booker T Washington and The National Negro Business League. In 1924, Frances Barrier Williams became the first woman and the first Black American to be named to the Chicago Library Board. Additionally, it is duly noted that Frances was the first Black female to gain membership to the Chicago Woman’s Club . On March 4, 1944, Frances Barrier Williams died after a long illness.She was buried at the Brockport Cemetery on March 14, 1944. In 2014, Suny-College at Brockport named Fannie Barrier Williams Women of Courage Scholarship after her. In 2022, the school renamed their Liberal Arts Building in honor of her, it now being named the Fannie Barrier Williams Liberal Arts Building. The village of Brockport has also designated October 6, 2022 as Fannie Barrier Williams Day.