A Brief Biography: Maggie Lena Walker (1864-1934)
Maggie Lena Walker was a social entrepreneur and activist during the “golden age” of black business in the United States (1900-1930). Maggie Lena Draper was born in 1864 to Elizabeth Draper, a formerly enslaved woman, in Richmond, Virginia, and raised by her mother and step-father. The family was left without a source of income in 1876 when Maggie’s stepfather, William Mitchell, was killed, prompting Maggie’s mother to take work as a washerwoman. Young Maggie helped the family by caring for her younger brother and collecting and delivering laundry for her mother while attending Richmond public schools. After graduation, Maggie was a school teacher for three years until she married Armstead Walker, Jr., in 1886. While attending school, teenage Maggie had joined the Independent Order of Saint Luke, a mutual benefit society for African Americans that provided insurance, promoted economic development, and engaged in political activities. As an adult, Maggie Walker’s active engag...
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