Every dollar you deposit at a bank helps fund loans and investments somewhere. The question is: where, and for who? For Black Americans, that question has always hit different. The U.S. banking system was built during slavery, legally excluded Black people for over a century through redlining and discriminatory lending, and still today, roughly 11% of Black households remain unbanked compared to just 2% of white households, according to FDIC survey data. The gap isn’t a coincidence. It’s a design. That’s exactly why Black-owned banks exist, and why where you park your money is one of the most underrated financial moves you can make.
On October 17, 1888, Capitol Savings Bank in Washington, D.C. became the first bank organized and operated by African-Americans. It was founded out of necessity. Black communities, locked out of white financial institutions, built their own systems to survive and grow wealth.
In 1976, there were over 50 Black-owned banks across the U.S. That number fell dramatically after the 2008 financial crisis, with only 18 surviving. By today, fewer than two dozen Black-owned banks remain in the United States.
When you deposit in a Black-owned bank, that money gets lent back into Black communities for mortgages, small business loans, and lines of credit that big banks have historically denied people of color. The typical Black family holds only a fraction of the wealth of the typical white family, according to Federal Reserve and Urban Institute research. Banking Black is one of the most direct ways to start moving that number.
OneUnited Bank, the nation’s largest Black-owned bank, founded in 1968 in Boston. OneUnited has financed nearly $1 billion in loans to low-to-moderate income communities and was the first Black internet bank in the country. It has branches in Boston, Los Angeles, Compton and Miami.
Industrial Bank was founded in 1913 in Washington, D.C. and is one of the oldest continuously operating Black banks in America, with branches across Maryland, D.C., New Jersey, and New York.
Liberty Bank and Trust, headquartered in New Orleans, is one of the largest Black-owned banks in the country with multiple locations across 10 states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois, and Texas.
Citizens Trust Bank, based in Atlanta, has has provided more than $300 million in small-business lending and continues expanding affordable housing initiatives.
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City First Bank in Washington, D.C. became the largest Black-led Minority Depository Institution in the U.S. after merging with Broadway Federal Bank in 2021, boosting its assets to over $1.37 billion.
Carver Federal Savings Bank, opened in Harlem in 1948 under the leadership of M. Moran Weston, is one of the largest Black-owned financial institutions in the United States, serving New York’s Black and Caribbean-American communities across Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens for over 75 years.
Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company, founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1904, America’s oldest continuously operating Black-owned bank, still standing, still serving.
Greenwood is the digital option, a mobile banking platform built specifically for Black and Latino communities, named after the original Black Wall Street.
All of these institutions are FDIC-insured, meaning eligible deposits are federally insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category, the same level of protection offered by any FDIC-insured bank. Most let you open an account online in minutes. Start with a savings account or redirect your direct deposit. Then put your people on.
Black-owned banks are deeply committed to their communities, financial education, and inclusive lending practices. In a system built to exclude us, they are the infrastructure we built for ourselves. Your money has power. Use it like it does.
