A RIGHT WORTHY WOMAN
by Ruth P. Watson
Watson chronicles more than 50 years in the extraordinary life of Maggie Lena Walker, the first Black woman to charter an American bank.
When she’s 12, narrator Maggie Mitchell finds her life upended when her father is found floating facedown in the James River in Richmond, Virginia. Forced to grow up fast, Maggie helps her grief-stricken mother in her laundry service and soon begins attending meetings of the Independent Order of St. Luke, a humanitarian group for Black people in the community. Here, Maggie eventually meets and marries Armstead Walker, a man who admires her self-sufficiency, and they go on to have three children. Over the span of five decades, Maggie’s unwavering dedication to improving the lives of Black people is depicted in meticulous detail. Her efforts to expand the Order, eventually taking over its leadership, and her triumphs in establishing both a newspaper and the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank are challenged at every turn. Maggie weathers physical assaults, intimidation by White businessmen, and colorism from her darker-skinned peers, yet she remains dedicated to her causes even amid personal tragedies. Historically minded readers will enjoy the accurate details here; Maggie’s life is anchored around concrete dates that add context. Others may be disappointed by the expositional prose and dialogue. There are conversations between close friends that feel more like public speeches, as do parts of Maggie’s narration: “Negro women, hemmed in and circumscribed with every imaginable obstacle in our way, blocked and held down by the fears and prejudices of whites—ridiculed and sneered at by the intelligent Blacks. Let us all advance.” In addition, the time span means some milestones are given only glancing treatment—Watson shines when conveying Black patrons’ joy at finally having an emporium that caters to their needs, yet the passage is all too fleeting. At the same time, repetition takes up precious space. Armstead’s vacillation between approval and dismay at Maggie’s not being a typical housewife grows tiresome after the umpteenth mention. Still, Watson’s love for Maggie shines through.
A stirring fictional account of a remarkable figure that’s occasionally hampered by wooden prose.