Happy Birthday, Mrs. Walker! Richmond area residents took time recently to remember pioneering Richmond businesswoman Maggie L. Walker in honor of what would have been her 157th birthday on July 15. While she is best known as the first Black woman to found and serve as president of a bank in the United States, she also was a civil rights and voting rights advocate, newspaper publisher, store owner and politician and all around community leader. Her home at 110 ½ E. Leigh St. is a national historic site run by the National Park Service, which held a public celebration of Mrs. Walker’s birthday July 17 in the courtyard behind her home and the NPS visitors’ center on the site at 600 N. 2nd St. Samuel L. Houston, 11, of Short Pump enjoys a birthday celebration cupcake in the courtyard, where he joined with his parents, Pamela and Cedric Houston, to learn about Mrs. Walker and her legacy.
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Happy Birthday, Mrs. Walker!
Richmond area residents took time recently to remember pioneering Richmond businesswoman Maggie L. Walker in honor of what would have been her 157th birthday on July 15.