128. House of Representatives, “Preserving and Expanding Minority Banks,” 36.
129. Ibid.
130. Public Law 111-203, 124 Stat. 1556.
131. National Bankers Association, “Remarks by Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency," October 3, 2013, 2, https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/speeches /2013/pub-speech-2013-155.pdf.
132. Kristin Broughton, “Black-Owned Banks Must Revisit Their Business Models, M&F Chief Says," American Banker 180(89) (June 2015).
133. Ibid.; Russell D. Kashian, Richard McGregory, and Derrek Grunfelder Mc-Crank, “Whom Do Black-Owned Banks Serve?," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Communities in Banking (Summer 2014); Patrice Gaines, “What Happened to the Black Banks?," Ebony, June 15, 2016, http://www.ebony.com /career-finance/black-banks-pt-1#axzz4BgQFnrIF; FDIC, “Minority Depository Institutions: Structure, Performance, and Social Impact," FDIC Quarterly 8 (2014).
134. Tim Fernholz, “Too Small to Save," American Prospect, January / February 2011, http://prospect.org/article/too-small-save-0; Becky Yerak, “ShoreBank’s Financial Hole Deepens," Chicago Tribune, August 2, 2010.
135. David Greising, “Recession Played a Part, but ShoreBank Wounded Itself, Too," New York Times, May 22, 2010, A25A.
136. See Nick Carey, “Regulators Close Well-Connected ShoreBank," Reuters, August 20, 2010.
137. John D. McKinnon and Elizabeth Williamson, “GOP Lawmakers Probe Chicago Bank Bailout," Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2010.
138. Jeremy Hobson, “Big Banks to ShoreBank’s Rescue," American Public Media, May 18, 2010.
139. Glenn Beck, “ ‘Glenn Beck’: ShoreBank’s Tangled Web," Fox News, May 21, 2010.
140. “ShoreBank Fails; Will Be Reincarnated as Urban Partnership Bank," Crain’s Detroit Business, August 22, 2010.
141. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, “Supplemental Fact Sheet for ShoreBank Failure," https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2010/pr10193a.pdf.
142. Aaron Elstein, “Saving Carver Federal, New York’s Last Black Bank," Crain’s New York, March 22, 2015.
143. “At December 31, 2013, the Bank had $10.5 million in subprime loans, or 2.7% of its total loan portfolio, of which $844 thousand are non-performing loans." Carver Bancorp, Form 10-Q, Edgar, February 13, 2014, 46.
144. Elstein, “Saving Carver Federal."
145. Ibid.
146. Beth Healy, “Minority Banks Face Steep Odds," Boston Globe, March 11, 2012. El-stein, “Saving Carver Federal."
147. Carver’s management, its board of directors, and CEO, are black, but its owners, CFO, and other top officials are not. Bloomberg, “Company Overview of Carver Federal Savings Bank," http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private /people. asp?privcapId=4437282.
148. Aaron Elstein, “Shareholders OK Carver’s Rescue by Wall St. Banks," Crain’s New York, October 25, 2011.
149. “Its earnings were a scant $491,000 over the nine-month stretch ended Dec. 31." Elstein, “Saving Carver Federal."
150. Ibid.
151. OneUnited Bank, “Company Profile," https://www.oneunited.com/about-us /company-profile.
152. Paul Kiel, “Bank That Got Bailout Help from Barney Frank Is Struggling," Pro-Publica, July 30, 2009. The $12 million was conditioned on the bank being able to raise $20 million from its shareholders, which it did. Damian Paletta and David Enrich, “Political Interference Seen in Bank Bailout Decisions," Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition, January 22, 2009, A1.
153. Wendell Cochran, “Bank in Maxine Waters Case Was Weakest to Get TARP Help,” NBC News, August 9, 2010; Rosalind S. Helderman, “California Rep. Waters Cleared of Ethics Charges,” Washington Post, September 21, 2012.
154. Michelle Malkin, “Maxine Waters: Swamp Queen,” National Review, April 27, 2011.
155. Beth Healy, “OneUnited Gets ‘Needs to Improve’ on Community Lending,” Boston Globe, November 6, 2014.
156. Mark A. Kellner, “Historic Black Church Faces Foreclosure from Minority-Owned Bank,” Washington Times, March 18, 2012.
157. Ibid.
158. Beth Healy, “Church Members Rally against Foreclosure,” Boston Globe, March 3, 2012.
159. Kellner, “Historic Black Church Faces Foreclosure.”
160. The dispute went to litigation, where a bankruptcy court ruled in favor of the bank. Yawu Miller, “Bankruptcy Court Rules against Charles St. AME,” Bay State Banner, November 9, 2016, http://baystatebanner.com/news/2016/nov/09 /court-rules-against-charles-st.
161. Beth Healy, “Harvard Professor Offers Help in Church-Bank Fight,” Boston Globe, March 6, 2012.
162. Beth Healy, “Minority Banks Are Struggling, Even with Bailouts,” Boston Globe, March 11, 2012.
163. Broadway Federal Bank, “About Broadway,” http://www.broadwayfederalbank .com/history.htm. Broadway Financial Corporation, Broadway Federal Bank Corp. Form 10-K, April 14, 2011, http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data /1001171/000119312512392728/d409680d10ka.htm.
164. Author interview with Jim Sills, 2015.
165. Lisa Allen, “Broadway Financial Completes Recapitalization,” Deal Pipeline, September 4, 2013. E. Scott Reckard, “African American Churches Protest Foreclosures by Black-Run Bank,” Los Angeles Times, November 03, 2012.
166. When Carver bank foreclosed on a mortgage to the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the church claimed that the bank was acting unlawfully, and Carver had to initiate a lawsuit to collect on the loan. The church countersued the bank, painting the foreclosure as unjust, unconscionable, and in bad faith. The court sided with the bank, stating, “[Carver bank] may be ungenerous, but generosity is a voluntary attribute and cannot be enforced even by a chancellor. . . . Here there is no penalty, no forfeiture, nothing except a covenant fair on its face to which both parties willingly consented. It is neither oppressive nor unconscionable. . . . Rejection of [the bank’s] legal right [to foreclose on the property] could rest only on compassion for [the church’s] negligence. Such a tender emotion must be exerted, if at all, by the parties rather than by the court.” But Carver was in no position to extend such a tender emotion—being itself watched by regulators and on the brink of failure. Carver Fed. Sav. Bank v Redeemed Christian Church of God, Intl. Chapel, HHH Parish, Long Is., NY, Inc., 2012 NY Slip Op 50921 (N.Y.S.C.) (2012).
167. Pamela Foohey, “Lender Discrimination, Black Churches, and Bankruptcy,” Houston Law Review 50 (2016): 1-55.
168. RoryVan Loo, “A Tale of Two Debtors,” Albany Law Review 72(231) (2009), https:// papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2353716; Jean Braucher, Dov Cohen, and Robert M. Lawless, “Race, Attorney Influence, and Bankruptcy Chapter Choice,” Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 12-02 (2012); Foohey, “Lender Discrimination.”
169. Larry Muhammad, “The Black Press: Past and Present,” Nieman Reports, September 15, 2003.
170. The study attributed the “striking" trend of bank decline to the fact that “deep poverty figures were substantially larger for communities served by BOBs." Kashian et al., “Whom Do Black-Owned Banks Serve?"
171. Trymaine Lee, “Black-Owned Banks Struggle to Stay Out of the Red," Huffington Post, May 11, 2015.
172. “I believe the need for black-owned and black-run banks is greater now than it was before the recession." Grant explained that those customers who are turned down by mainstream banks “come to black banks as a last resort." Jeanne Lee, “Black-Owned Banks Fight to Bounce Back," Nerdwallet, February 19, 2016, https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/black-owned-banks-fight-to-bounce -back.
173. Kevin Wack, “What Can Be Done to Save Black-Owned Banks?," American Banker, August 30, 2016.
174. Greg Whitt, “An Emotional Killer Mike Preaches Economic Empowerment in the Face of Police Brutality," Uproxx, July 8, 2016.
175. Teri Williams, “Why #BankBlack Is Working," American Banker, January 17, 2017.
176. Carimah Townes, “Black Lives Matter Launches Site to Support Black Businesses across the Country," ThinkProgress, December 20, 2016
, https://thinkprogress .org/blm-businesses-to-support-3cd33537a2e0#.yf96ces7z.
177. John Reosti, “Deposits Surge at Black-Owned Banks after Celeb Appeals," American Banker, July 20, 2016; “Black Money Matters: The Newest Movement," Community Voice, August 8, 2016, http://www.communityvoiceks.com/black-money - matters-the-newest-movement/article_cd822174-5d75-11e6-b98a-43b31 df4eac4.html.
178. Reosti, “Deposits Surge."
Epilogue
1. Ben Johnson, “Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894," Historic UK, http://www .historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Great-Horse-Manure-Crisis-of -1894/; Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Josh Hoxie, and Emanuel Nieves, “The Ever-Growing Gap," Corporation for Enterprise Development, August 2016, 11, http://cfed.org/policy/federal/The_Ever_Growing_Gap-CFED _IPS-Final.pdf.
2. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2011); Richard Wilkinson, “How Economic Inequality Harms Societies," TED Talk, July, 2011, https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson; Christin Paz-zanese, “The Costs of Inequality," Harvard Gazette, February 8, 2016, http:// news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-inequality-increasingly -its-the-rich-and-the-rest/; G. Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017).
3. Richard H. McAdams, “The Economic Costs of Inequality," Chicago Unbound, November 2007, 28.
4. Paul Krugman, “Why We’re in a New Gilded Age," New York Review of Books, May 8, 2014; Joseph Stiglitz, “Inequality and Economic Growth," Political Quarterly 86 (2015), doi: 10.1111/1467-923X.12237; Paul Krugman, “Is Vast Inequality Necessary?," New York Times, January 15, 2016.
5. Robert Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016); Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014); McAdams, Economic Costs of Inequality, 22; Sitaraman, Crisis of the Middle Class Constitution.
6. Hacker and Pierson explain that historically, economic growth has accompanied a mixed economy format—government and private markets working together toward a common goal of economic growth—and that inequality and deregulation of markets are both a drag on growth. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016).
7. The results were not so stark for the young. Among white millennials, 40 percent favored reparations and 11 percent were unsure. Polls taken by Pew and Gallup find that 61 percent of Americans believe that more changes are needed to achieve racial equality. Only 28 percent of whites believe that the government should play a major role in achieving that change, compared to 64 percent of blacks. However, 46 percent of whites supported the government playing a minor role. Jesse J. Holland, “Poll: Millennials More Open to Idea of Slavery Reparations," Associated Press, May 11, 2016, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b183a0228 31d4748963fc8807c204b08/poll-millennials-more-open-idea-slavery -reparations; Gallup, “Race Relations," http://www.gallup.com/poll/1687/race -relations.aspx; Renee Stepler, “5 Key Takeaways about Views of Race and Inequality in America," Pew Research Center, June 27, 2016, http://www .pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/27/key-takeaways-race-and-inequality/.
8. Historically, reparations have been framed as compensation for slavery, such as the Reconstruction-era land grants or a direct money transfer, as was demanded by black militants during the 1960s. Confederate veteran Walter R. Vaughan demanded reparations for slavery during Reconstruction, James Forman asked for $500 million, the NAACP endorsed reparations in 1993, and prominent Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree has made legal arguments in their support in the last decade. Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations," Atlantic, June 2014.
9. Rachel L. Swarns, “272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants?," New YorkTimes, April 16, 2016.
10. Kathryn Vasel, “Georgetown to Offer Slave Descendants Preferential Admission Status," CNN, September 1, 2016.
11. Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (New York: Random House, 2008), 392.
12. Al Brophy, Reparations: Pro & Con (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2006), 179.
13. Frank Newport, “In U.S., 87% Approve of Black-White Marriage, vs. 4% in 1958," Gallup, July 25, 2013.
14. Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), 341-350. For a full discussion of racial superiority myths, see Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields, Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life (London: Verso, 2012); Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (New York: Nation Books, 2016).
15. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1995) (originally published 1845), chap. 2.
16. C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
17. James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (New York: Vintage International, 1963), 83.
18. Ibid. at 94.
19. Melinda D. Anderson, “The Promise of Integrated Schools, Atlantic, February 16, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/promise-of -integrated-schools/462681/.
20. W. E. B. Du Bois, “Is Man Free?," Scientific Monthly 66 (May 1948): 432-433.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you, Jared Bybee, for helping me think and making it possible for me to write; Cyra, for being so loving and supportive; Lucia, for assuring me that no one will read it; Ramona, for tolerating such a boring book. Thank you, Baba and Madar, for your love, support, and encouragement. And thank you, Shima, Hediyeh, and Darius, for being such great examples of hard work. Thank you, Rebecca Smylie, for your brilliant editing, your words of encouragement, and your invaluable friendship.
Thank you, Joyce Seltzer, for believing in this project and helping me shape it and share it, and thank you to Harvard University Press. Thank you to Dean Bo Rutledge for your flexibility, support, and encouragement. Of the many colleagues who spent time reading early versions of this book, making invaluable comments, or otherwise pointing me in the right research direction, I especially thank Kent Barnett, Andrea Dennis, Al Brophy, Andrew Kahrl, Bill Nelson, Daria Roithmayr, Judge Glock, Christy Chapin, Dylan Penningroth, Beryl Satter, Nathan Connolly, Usha Rodrigues, Lori Ringhand, Logan Sawyer, Beth Burch, Dan Coenen, Sarah Gordon, Morgan Ricks, Yesha Yadav, Greg Roseboro, Gregory Kornbluh, and Brian Distelberg. Thank you, Glen Nelson, for your invaluable guidance in framing the narrative.
T. J. Striepe expertly selected and sorted all of the books and articles that went into making this volume. My enthusiastic and hardworking research assistants never cease to amaze me with their thorough research, organizational skills, and tireless efforts to find the right answers. Thank you, Chris Neill, Greg Donaldson, Amble Johnson, Jessie Kimball, Max Wallace, Patrick Shuler, Kelsie Willett, Bradley Daniel Dumbacher, Kaden Canfield, Shreya Desai, Brittni Lucas, Chase Graham, Anna Stangle, Marcol Harvey, Chris Stokes, Olga Gambini, Michelle Tang, Ryan Sullivan, Andrew Smith, Carlos Alexander, Ryan Swindall, Bobby Seifter, Mary Honeychurch, Brittany Sumpter, Charles McGee, Harold Bacon, A. J. Trommello, Maria Rivera-Diaz, Keith Hall, Matthew Courteau, Hamed Roodposhti, and Gilbert Oladeinbo. Thank you to my administrative assistant, Nikko Terry, for your invaluable help, and to Heidi Murphy and Lona Panter for your publicity support.
Thank you to the many black bankers who spoke to me on the telephone or in person about their experiences, whether confidentially or on the record. I am especially grateful to the archivists at the Nixon Presidential Library, the Richmond City Library, the Freedmen’s Bank Archives, the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, the Durham Historical Museum, and the U.S. Treasury archives. Finally, thank you to the University of Georgia for a research allotment so generous that I could travel to these locations and bu
y books—more books than I ever thought would be necessary to complete this project.
INDEX
Abernathy, Ralph, 193 Abrams, Charles, 109 Adichie, Ngozi, 262 Affirmative action, 186, 223-224, 234, 340n47 Affordable Care Act, 262-263 African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church), 12 Alabama Penny Savings and Loan Company, 45-46 Alexander, Archie A., 132 Alexander, Michelle, 324n101, 335n7, 335n211 Allen, Robert L., 193 Alternative financial services, 260-261 Alvord, John W., 22, 23, 24-25, 27, 28 America, Richard F. Jr., 172-173 American Dilemma, 97 “American Dream, The,” 140-141 Anderson, Charles H., 76, 77 Antidiscrimination laws, 131-132, 210-211 Anti-Semitism, 130 Arendt, Hannah, 36-37 Assets, as vulnerability of black banks,
89-93 Atwater, Lee, 212, 218
Backing Black Business, 276-277 Baldwin, James: on ghettos, 4; on
Reconstruction, 21; on black leaders, 46; on treatment of blacks during WWII, 130; on urban renewal programs, 141; on crime, 160, 217; on impact of racism, 284 Baltimore, Maryland, 249 #BankBlack Movement, 276 Banking and banks: community, 4, 123, 124, 127; Hamilton on, 4, 13, 14; lost faith in, 31-32; cooperative, 35; affiliated, 40-44; discrimination in hiring and lending, 194-196, 332n145; change in nature of, 239-242; regulated and unregulated systems in, 260; tax credits for, 266; bailout for, 268-269, 270, 271-273, 352n152. See also Black banking and banks; Minority banks Banking and Currency Committee, 146-148
Banking deserts, 260-261
Bank of America, 6, 126, 240, 258
Bank of Italy, 6, 125-126
Bank of New England, 242
Bank runs, 88
Banks, N. P., 23
Barlow, Frank C., 19
Bates, Timothy, 244
Beck, Glenn, 268-269
Beckert, Sven, 295n150
Bell, Ryan, 272
Benevolent societies, 40
Benga, Ota, 303n123
Berry, Edwin, 112
Biggert, Judy, 268
Binga, Jesse, 71-74, 92, 304n14, 305n27, 308n110
The Color of Money Page 49
