The Citizens & Southern Banking Company of Philadelphia was one of a number of banks established around the country, by and for African Americans, in the early 20th century. It was founded by Major R. R. Wright and opened in September 1920 on the corner of 19th and South Streets. The directory, Negro Banking Institutions in the United States, published in 1924, lists African American banks around the country, including Citizens, as well as four others in Pennsylvania — Modern Savings & Trust Co. and Steel City Banking Co. in Pittsburgh, and Brown & Stevens Banking Co. and Keystone Bank in Philadelphia.
Citizens & Southern’s founder, Richard Robert Wright Sr. was born into slavery in Georgia, graduated from Atlanta University, and was appointed the first president of Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youths (now Savannah State University). During the Great Migration, he, like many southern African Americans, moved his family north. Wright settled in Philadelphia, where he opened Citizens & Southern Bank (later Citizens & Southern Bank and Trust Company). The first day’s deposits were reported to be $17,100, a sign that the bank was off to a good start.
The bank did well. According to the March 19, 1932 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier, the bank was made a “special depository of public funds” by the Treasury Department. In 1933, the Washington Tribune reported on gains made the previous year. The bank’s entry in the September 1934 Polk World Bank Directory indicated Wright was the Chairman of the Board/President, E. W. Thornton was Vice President, and Wright Sr.’s son, Emanuel C. Wright, was Vice President and Treasurer.
Citizens was one of the few African American banks to survive the Depression. Major Wright’s son E.C. Wright took over as president after his father died, and later, another son, Bishop R.R. Wright Jr. also became president. The family continued to be involved with the bank into the 1960s, though by 1965 the bank’s name had been shortened to Citizens Bank. More changes were coming. By 1969, when the Wright family no longer owned the bank, it was involved in a major scandal that damaged the bank’s stability, though not its contributions to the community. Finally, on October 23, 1976, the Philadelphia Tribune featured two relevant front-page stories. While one was about Wright and the founding of the bank, the other reported on how the bank, now known as Centennial Bank, would be taken over by Lincoln Bank.
Wright Sr.’s accomplishments went far beyond his role as a Philadelphia banker. Throughout his life, Wright Sr. was an advocate of National Freedom Day, a day to memorialize the passage of the 13th Amendment. When he died in 1947, the Jackson Advocate listed a host of accomplishments, including serving in the Army during the Spanish-American War as a paymaster and helping to found the National Negro Bankers’ Association (which lives on as the National Bankers Association), where he served as its leader for many years.
If you are interested in Wright or the bank, the Philadelphia Tribune would be a rich source. You might also want to search on Wright and the bank in Chronicling America. Here are a few additional items that may be of interest:
- There is biography of Wright, entitled The Black Boy of Atlanta.
- Goin’ North, a site devoted to the Great Migration, includes images related to Wright and the bank.
- There is a 1931 letter signed by R. R. Wright, Sr., inviting W. E. B. DuBois to address the National Negro Bankers Association.
- In 1931, Time Magazine published “BANKING: Up From Slavery,” an article on Wright. They also ran a piece, in the July 14, 1947 issue, when Wright died.
- Wright and his work organizing bankers is recounted in “Richard R. Wright and the National Negro Bankers Association: Early Organizing Efforts among Black Bankers, 1924-1942” by Alexa Benson Henderson, which ran in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Jan.-Apr., 1993).
- The National Foundation for Credit Counseling has a blog post and brief video on “The Legacy of Richard R. Wright and the National Bankers Association.”
- The Major Richard R. Wright, Sr. collection is housed in Asa H. Gordon Library Special Collections at Savannah State University.
- The Rand McNally Bankers Directory (through 1942 on FRASER) has limited financial information on Citizens & Southern Bank.
- Our recent Inside Adams post on the True Reformers Bank highlights another bank founded by an African American.
- If you want to widen your research, the Negro Handbook and Negro Year Book are good sources for general information on people and events. There are also a few publications of interest for anyone looking for news and articles on related topics, events, and people, including Negro History Bulletin/Black History Bulletin, Negro Digest/Black World, Jet, Crisis, the Journal of Negro History, and more. Business has also published a guide of interest: African Americans in Business and Entrepreneurship: A Resource Guide.
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