According to NPR, historian Justene Hill Edwards explores the Freedman's Bank in her book "Savings and Trust." The bank was created in eighteen sixty-five as a haven for formerly enslaved people to save and build wealth. But when it collapsed in eighteen seventy-four, thousands lost their savings at a moment when generational wealth-building was within reach. Edwards connects this historical betrayal to the persistent racial wealth gaps we see today. A financial institution's failure to serve the most vulnerable doesn't just rob people of money — it robs generations of opportunity.

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