THE UPRISING MARCHES ON
Black-Owned Banks Are Finally Getting the Attention They Deserve
Decades of government policies and systemic racism have often left Black banks unable to survive and thrive
This piece is part of The Uprising Marches On, a package on what’s next for the movement for Black lives.
After yet another moment of horrific police violence against Black Americans, Byron Brooks decided he’d had enough.
“The murders of both George Floyd and Breonna Taylor was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me,” says Brooks, 25, founder of From the Hood For the Hood, a Michigan-based nonprofit that, with its other community program, grants college scholarships to Black students across Michigan and recently started an initiative called the Road to Equity. “We’ve experienced over 400 years of oppression, but these two situations really made me look. They birthed the activism flame within me.”
That activism for Brooks has come in many forms: organizing Black Lives Matter rallies throughout the state, working to create a free legal clinic, and opening bank accounts for himself and his organization with First Independence Bank in Detroit, a Black-owned bank.
