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Remember the Freedmen Bank?
We’re the Freedmen and That Was Our Money!
After the Civil War, the enslaved and freed blacks were reclassified as Freedmen, American Freedmen. American Freedmen were fantastic business owners, and our towns were highly profitable. Freedmen had lots of towns, shops, and businesses. American Freedmen had multiple Black Wall Streets! Not just Tulsa.
“Pretty much goes to Hispanics and immigrants.”
At its peak, the Freedman’s Bank had 37 branches in 17 states, according to the National Archives. It had assets totaling $3.7 million, or $80 million today after inflation. The Freedman’s Bank ultimately collapsed after less than a decade due to mismanagement. As a result, descendants of the enslaved grew up distrusting banks and white people.
Fast forward to 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hosted the annual Freedman’s Bank Forum on Dec. 14th. Harris and Yellen announced $8.7 billion in federal funding for financial institutions serving ALL minority and underserved small business owners. Not the depositors, Black American Freedmen. Since the fall of 2021 Asians, Arabs, Latinos, and Black immigrants have received loans and money from the Freedmen Bank.
Supposedly Black Americans are only 13.4% of the U.S. population, control only 4.3% of wealth but yet are estimated to reach $0 net worth by 2053. Slavery was one of the biggest robberies of the century. Enslaved people were robbed of their bodies, families, culture, labor, wages, and subsequently, their Freedman Bank deposits. This is why reparations for slavery are vital!
“None of the money…us Freedmen will never see that money. It’s pretty much described as a minority investment, which sounds good. Still, none of that money will go into Freedmen’s pockets…it will pretty much go to Hispanics and immigrants,” USADOF co-founder Charles “Logic Supreme” Ware said on the “Be The Power” YouTube show hosted by USADOF chairman Nyhiem “Lord Abba” Way.
