Maggie Lena Walker.
Her name may not sound familiar. She likely never appeared in your textbooks, nor has a Hollywood director ever made her life into a smash biopic. But to the four women you’re about to meet (and many more), Walker is a changemaker and an inspiration. Born to enslaved parents during the Civil War, she became a businesswoman and activist who spent her life fighting for Black Americans' economic freedom. She was also the first Black woman to charter and run a bank in the United States.
"Her story is one of perseverance, dedication, and bravery."
—Dan Schulman, PayPal's president and CEO
Walker's contributions to financial fair pay for women and Black economic empowerment deserve to be celebrated. With that in mind, PayPal established the Maggie Lena Walker Award, honoring women who are building bridges to economic freedom for those who are often overlooked.
"At a time when Black people in the United States were denied opportunities for wealth creation, Walker made it her life's mission to advocate for economic independence in her community," says Dan Schulman, PayPal's president and CEO. "Her story is one of perseverance, dedication, and bravery. In this spirit, we are honoring Walker and her contributions through an award program that recognizes inspiring women who are leading and advancing economic empowerment for underserved communities today."
The honor is bestowed upon four recipients each year, one for Achievement and three for Emerging Leaders. Keep reading to learn about this year's changemakers.
Achievement Award Recipient:
Connie Evans
President and CEO, Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO)
Connie Evans is a woman of firsts. She was the founding president of Chicago's Women's Self-Employment Project, the first and largest microbusiness-development organization in the United States, and also the first Black woman elected as a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She is now the president and CEO of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) in Washington, D.C., an organization that aims to develop economic opportunities for underserved entrepreneurs throughout the U.S.—and often succeeds.
"A micro-loan used to be defined as up to $35,000," she says. "When the JOBS Act was passed in 2012, AEO was able to convince the president to increase that to $50,000. So now it's putting more capital out into the hands of low-wealth entrepreneurs. It was a really big deal."
Asked how it feels to be honored with this year's PayPal Maggie Lena Walker Achievement Award, Evans says, "That's an incredible woman. She wasn't just an entrepreneur. She was a financier, she was a banker, she was an activist—she had everything together. I am just incredibly honored and grateful that the committee selected me. And to have her great-great-granddaughter on the award committee, that really is incredible."
Evans says she will continue to lead AEO to influence changes that help business owners. "We've been able to help get more than $11 billion out into our field from public resources. We are out there on Capitol Hill, really trying to influence and educate lawmakers on why it is so important to keep funds going to these programs across the country that help and support low-wealth entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color."
Emerging Leader Award Recipient: Alethia Mendez
Division President, Elevating Black Women Entrepreneurs at Grameen America
As a Queens native and a graduate of a university on Long Island, Alethia Mendez has long been in a New York state of mind. She realized early on that there was a wealth disparity affecting Black women and was determined to find ways to combat the issue, starting close to home. "I knew that there were differences as a child. I always wondered why, and decided to figure it out—not just for Black women but in general for people of color," Mendez recalls. "As I got into my professional career and my adult life, I saw how women of color, and Black women in particular, have endured long-standing insufficient access to affordable credit and capital."
"[We] share a lot of values with Maggie Lena Walker. We are here to reach communities of color who are facing these systemic barriers to access to financial services." — Alethia Mendez
Today, Mendez is the division president for Elevating Black Women Entrepreneurs at Grameen America, a national microfinance organization that works to ensure all women, regardless of race or income, have access to fair and affordable financial services. "I didn't know who Maggie Lena Walker was and was not aware of her work when I was nominated. So, of course, it sent me into a tizzy of research. I learned that her life was spent breaking down barriers, starting as a teacher. She became the first Black woman to charter a bank in the U.S.," she says, adding, "I don't know why they don't teach these things in history class."
Mendez continued, "I think Grameen America and our Elevate program share a lot of values with Maggie Lena Walker. We are here to reach communities of color who are facing these systemic barriers to access to financial services—in the same way Maggie Lena Walker did in her town, starting St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank. It makes me really think about celebrating women who are carrying on Walker's legacy today, by creating opportunities for economic advancement in underserved communities. I hope that if she were here today, she'd be proud."
Emerging Leader Award Recipient: Diamond Walton
Founder, Elpída Social Capital LLC
Helping close the racial wealth gap and reducing Black student loan debt is Diamond Walton's mission. The founder of Elpída Social Capital LLC and the Black Student Debt Freedom (BSDF) Fund, Walton first began to see how connected the health-to-wealth gap was in minority communities while working in the public-health sector.
In Richmond, Virginia—the same city that Walker called home—Walton found a need for healing of all kinds in the community. "I started seeing over and over again these health disparities that consistently fell along racial lines, and they were connected to situations and issues that were not directly related to the healthcare setting," she says. "It was their housing, or transportation, or violence in their communities, or maternal mortality and the link to stress. There are no extra resources to support folks presenting themselves in healthcare settings with challenges like that."
Walton felt compelled to enact change. She had already been researching impact investing and ways to shift resources to historically disinvested communities when a friend recommended she transition into philanthropy. It was the tiny push she needed.
Walton lights up when she recalls finding out she was chosen to receive PayPal's Emerging Leader Award. "Dan, [PayPal's president and CEO], was talking about the review process and the selection committee. And he's like, 'I wish you'd been in the room, because all of the kind things people were saying, the beautiful things they were saying about you, and they hadn't even met you.' That is like a boon to the ego. It's such a beautiful experience, hearing those words of affirmation and confirmation that this is good, and you can do even more."
Emerging Leader Award Recipient: Mandy Bowman
Founder and CEO, Official Black Wall Street
The Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma is regarded as one of the most prosperous and wealthy Black communities in U.S. history, often referred to as Black Wall Street. Mandy Bowman has pledged to honor the important neighborhood—which was destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre—by helping Black businesses in the present. Launched in 2016, her digital platform and app, Official Black Wall Street (OBWS), helps consumers locate, review, and support Black-owned businesses nationwide.
Thanks to support from OBWS, Black businesses have been prospering—and that makes Bowman beam with pride. "Every once in a while we'll get an email or message from a business owner talking about how grateful they are, or the benefits they've received from being on the app or being listed," she says. "It's a really great feeling when you see that your work is working! We were able to give away close to $100,000 in grants over the past couple of years, and to circulate more than $2 million back into Black-owned businesses since launching the app. Then there are the various partnerships that we have—for example, free legal services to help owners protect their businesses as they grow. It feels great that we are able to do all of these things to benefit business owners."
The honor of PayPal's Emerging Leader Award has made Bowman reflective. "You know, entrepreneurs know the ups and downs, and it can be a bit lonely. So it feels good for people to take note of the work that we've been doing,” she says. "After winning the award, I had a one-on-one with Dan, [PayPal's president and CEO], and learned about all the different ways they've been able to help level the playing field and help underrepresented founders in different ways. It really means a lot to know that this is coming from a company that prioritizes and has similar missions to ours."
Through their everyday efforts to facilitate financial empowerment in underserved communities, these four women are making an impact and carrying on Maggie Lena Walker's legacy. Read more about the PayPal Maggie Lena Walker award recipients here.
