Jesse Binga

Jesse Binga was a prominent American businessman who founded the first privately owned African-American bank in Chicago. He was a notable pioneer of African American business achievement in the early 20th century. Binga recalled coming to Chicago in the 1890s with $10 in his pocket. By the 1920s he was a bank president and major real estate owner. Unwilling to conform to de facto, private real-estate segregation, white real estate interests sometimes opposed him violently. After his bank failed in the Great Depression, Binga was eventually charged with embezzlement, a controversial prosecution in the African American community. Protests and public petitions helped lead to his early release. He was granted a full pardon in 1941.