大象传媒

The Freedman鈥檚 Bank was established in 1865 after the abolition of slavery and the Civil War. The Bank was designed to help newly freed African Americans in their quest to become financially stable. At its peak, it stretched across huge swathes of America. But what began with huge promise ended in massive failure nine years later, leaving a legacy of distrust in its wake. For US Black History Month, Szu Ping Chan looks in the the history and lessons from the collapse of America's first black bank.

(Photo: The north side of the 1500 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C, with Riggs Bank (no.1501) at right, and the Department of Justice building (formerly the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company bank) at left, on Madison Place, circa 1888. Artist: Frances Benjamin Johnston. Credit: Heritage Art/Heritage Images/Getty Images)