Financial Issues Forum Presents Justene Hill Edwards on “Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank”

Featured Events | Mar 17, 2025 | Gabelli School of Business

On February 27, 2025, the Financial Issues Forum presented: Justene Hill Edwards – Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank. In the years immediately following the Civil War, tens of thousands of former slaves deposited millions of dollars into the Freedman’s Bank. African Americans envisioned this new bank as a launching pad for economic growth and self-determination. But only nine years after it opened, their trust was betrayed and the Freedman’s Bank collapsed. Fully informed by new archival findings, historian Justene Hill Edwards unearths a major turning point in American history in this comprehensive account of the Freedman’s Bank and its depositors.

Click here to watch the full presentation: