inger Solange Knowles, sister of pop star Beyonce, recently announced that she was moving her dollars to a Black-owned bank. Last month, Knowles posted on her Instagram account—where she has over a million followers—“I’m proud to say I made that step today. Time to literally put my money where my mouth is.”
Her post included a list of the Black-owned banks in the United States. There are 22 of them. In addition, there are 318 credit unions with African American designations to also choose from.
Calls to “bank Black” generated nearly a million dollars of new deposits for Citizens Trust Bank.
Over the past several weeks, the movement to #BankBlack has grown, partly in response to the recent police shootings of Black men and boys, and celebrities like Knowles have spotlighted the movement, calling for unity and a focus on rebuilding Black communities—dollar by dollar. There was a similar campaign that grew out of the Occupy movement five years ago to get money out of big corporate banks and into local banks. Millions of dollars were reportedly moved into communities as a result.
In July, calls to “bank Black” generated nearly a million dollars of new deposits for Citizens Trust Bank, which has branches in Georgia and Alabama. Rolling Out Magazine reported that more than 8,000 people each transferred at least $100 into Citizens Trust in five days. A week later, several Houston-area rappers joined the movement by transferring their money to Black-owned banks. They opened their accounts at Unity Bank, the only Black-owned bank in Houston.
National Bankers Association chairman Preston Pinkett III credits the Black Lives Matter movement for generating the attention and focus on economic empowerment. “The Black Lives Matter movement is a complement to an emerging economic empowerment movement that is engulfing Black communities all over America,” he told the Philadelphia Tribune.
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