Black History Month: This Black-owned bank is celebrating 100 years in business
An old building at the intersection of 20th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue in Milwaukee has a history as storied as the neighborhoods it represents.
"There was Walnut Way, there was Halyard Park, there was Bronzeville," Wesley McKenzie said. "These were strong, thriving, African American neighborhoods in the central city of Wisconsin."
Founded on Sept. 24, 1924, by Ardie and Wilbur Halyard, Columbia Savings and Loan Association filled a big void.
"You can imagine that a Black-owned business, in the U.S. was not a welcomed thing, not alone a Black-owned bank," McKenzie said. "The reason the Halyards started it was because they understood we didn't have access to funds at regular banks and financial institutions at the time."
McKenzie is the new vice president of the bank, which was one of the only banks to give his great-grandfather a loan decades ago.
"For me, personally, to be able to work at a financial institution where my great-grandfather got a loan — at a time when he couldn't walk into most banks and get a loan — that to me is the priceless part," he said.
When the Halyards started the bank in 1924, it was difficult for Black people in Milwaukee to bank with or get loans from financial institutions in the U.S.
"We always hear about grandma has this 'mattress money' or just keeping money in a coffee can somewhere; it's because one day they went to the bank and they were told 'no you can't have your money," McKenzie said. "These things actually happened. So when your grandmother and your grandfather and your uncles and your aunts are telling you 'don't put money in the bank because one day it won't be there for you,' because that was their experience, it leads down through generational mistrust."
Those seeds of generational mistrust are what McKenzie is working to address.
"It's day by day, one by one," he said. "We understand we have to get the customers in here and show them the importance of financial literacy."
This year, the bank is celebrating 100 years. It's one of the oldest banks in the state and one of just 41 Black-owned banks in the nation.
"The way we study Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I hope that one day people will study Columbia Savings and Loan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and what it did to not only change the city, but change the nation and the way finances are handled and looked at in our community," McKenzie said.
When asked what the Halyards would say 100 years later, this is how McKenzie responded:
"I hope he would say, 'good job.' I hope he would be impressed," McKenzie said. "The thing that I hope he would say most is just keep going-- that motivation to say 'good job and keep going, you're doing the right thing.'"