A Black-owned bank in Milwaukee , Wisconsin is still going strong after 100 years in business. Columbia Savings and Loan Association, founded by Ardie and Wilbur Halyard in 1924, has persevered through the decades despite the tremendous challenges it faced due to discrimination.
“You can imagine that a Black-owned business, in the U.S., was not a welcomed thing, not alone a Black-owned bank,” Wesley McKenzie, who is the new vice president of the bank, said in an interview with WBAL-TV . “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’s grandfather received a loan from Columbia Savings and Loan Association decades ago when the bank was still in its early days.
“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,” McKenzie said.