One important element of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s rousing 1963 I Have A Dream speech that’s not talked about enough is its spotlight on financial inequities the Black community suffered at the hands of the government. Redlining and discriminatory lending practices are among some of the many challenges Black families faced back then, and even still now.
Sadly, Black disenfranchisement have only become more stark U.S. in the 60 years since the speech was made. That’s why it’s especially important for Black ownership to happen in the financial sector, something Dr. King preached. More than 60 years later, his daughter is helping to carry that torch.
Per a report from Black Enterprise, Bernice King has become an investor in Holladay Bank and Trust, the first commercial bank that will be a Black-owned Minority Depository Institution.
A Black-owned investment group, Redemption Holding Company (RCH) will purchase the Utah-based bank. The outlet also points out that the US had 50 Black-owned banks in 1976. In 2022, just 16 Black-owned banks were still standing. Holladay Bank and Trust is adding to the small but mighty list.
“Black banks make the American dream possible for all Americans by deploying resources that uniquely address the financial realities of communities that have been systematically excluded, overcharged, and under-capitalized for hundreds of years,” Ashley Bell, RHC’s executive chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement to The Hill. “Redemption will serve as a lifeline to the next wave of Black and Brown first-time home buyers and small business entrepreneurs across the country.”
Bernice King joins retired NFL player Dhani Jones as investors and will also have seats at the bank’s advisory board.
“In my father’s last public address on April 3, 1968, he preached the imperative to accelerate the financial inclusion of Black Americans by supporting mission-driven Black banks—something he called a ‘bank-in movement,’” King said in a statement as reported by The Hill. “More than half a century of struggle and incremental progress later, we’re making good on daddy’s call to bank-in by creating new centers of opportunity for people of color, starting with this Black-led bank acquisition. Redemption is just that: delivering families from the cycle of unjust financial exclusion and intergenerational poverty.”