Industrial Bank (Washington D.C.)

Industrial Bank is a historic African American owned bank based in Washington D.C., United States.[1] Industrial Bank is located on U Street and has 6 branches on Georgia Avenue, J.H. Mitchell, F Street, Anacostia Gateway, Oxon Hill, and Forestville.[2]

Industrial Bank
TypeLimited Liability Company
IndustryBanking
Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
,
United States
ProductsRetail banking
Websitewww.industrial-bank.com

History

It was established in 1913[3] as the Industrial Savings Bank by John Whitelaw Lewis and originally operated out of the Laborers' Building and Loan Association building designed by William Sidney Pittman. An Industrial Bank building on U Street was designed by Isaiah Hatton a few years later.

The bank closed in 1932 but was reorganized and reopened by Howard University alumnus Jesse Mitchell in 1934.[3] By 1947 the bank had $6 million in assets from over 14,000 depositors, more than 20% of whom were white. This made it the largest black-owned bank in the U.S. The bank faced staffing difficulties because trained white bank workers were unwilling to work for a black bank, but DC only had a single bank training institute, and that institute had a whites-only policy.[4]

In 2013 the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation invested $1 million in certificates of deposit at the bank to spur lending to the African American community. The number of African American banks fell during the Great Recession and Industrial Bank was the last African American-owned bank in Washington D.C.[5]

On Friday, November 1, 2019, Industrial Bank acquired substantially all assets of New Jersey's insolvent City National Bank.[6]

References
  1. "A black bank witnessed devastation after the 1968 riots. Now 'the future is bright.'". www.washingtonpost.com.
  2. Industrial Bank website
  3. "Industrial Bank of Washington, African American Heritage Trail". www.culturaltourismdc.org.
  4. "Biggest Bank: D.C. Industrial Bank with $6,000,000 in assets is top Negro financial institution". Ebony. July 1947.
  5. "Industrial Bank, D.C.'s last African American-owned bank, receives $1M investment". Washington Post.
  6. "Failed Bank Information for City National Bank of New Jersey, Newark, NJ". FDIC. Retrieved 9 November 2019.


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