page_title: Maggie L. Walker
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Maggie L. Walker / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Maggie L Walker National Historical Site, Richmond Virginia
context_page_description: Maggie Lena Walker was an African-American businesswoman and teacher. Walker was the first African-American woman to charter a bank and serve as its president in the United States. As a leader, she achieved successes with the vision to make tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans. Disabled by paralysis and limited to a wheelchair later in life, Walker also became an example for people with disabilities.
  Walker's restored and furnished home in the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia has been designated a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service.
context_section_description: In Walker's honor Richmond Public Schools built a large brick high school adjacent to Virginia Union University. Maggie L. Walker High School was one of two schools in the area for black students, during the period of racial segregation in schools; the other was Armstrong High School. After generations of students spent their high-school years there, it was totally refurbished to reopen in 2001 as the regional Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies.
  The St. Luke Building held the offices of the Independent Order of St. Luke, and the office of Maggie L. Walker.  As late as 1981, Walker's office was being preserved as it was at the time of her death in 1934.  The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
  The National Park Service operates the Maggie L. Walker Historic Site at her former Jackson Ward home. In 1978 the house was designated a National Historic Site and was opened as a museum in 1985. The site states that it "commemorates the life of a progressive and talented African-American woman. She achieved success in the world of business and finance as the first woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank, despite the many adversities. The site includes a visitor center detailing her life and the Jackson Ward community in which she lived and worked and her residence of thirty years.The house is restored to its 1930's appearance with original Walker family pieces."
  Walker was honored as one of the first group of Virginia Women in History in 2000.
  On July 15, 2017, a statue of Walker, designed by Antonio Tobias Mendez was unveiled on Broad Street in Richmond. The bronze, 10-foot statue shows a depiction of how she lived, with her glasses pinned to her lapel and a checkbook in hand.
  In 2020, Walker was one of eight women featured in "The Only One in the Room" display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
caption: Maggie L Walker National Historic Site, Richmond
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