Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a bank holiday on March 5, 1933, closing banks across the country until they proved financial soundness. Meanwhile, as the United States crawled out of the Great Depression, Jesse H. Mitchell and a group of black businessmen accomplished the extraordinary—they started a black-owned bank on a street known as "Black Broadway" in the nation's capital. Mitchell, a Howard University–educated lawyer and realtor, and his friends sold $65,000 in stock, and in the sweltering heat on August 20, 1934, Industrial Bank of Washington opened for business. A range of black investors rallied around the effort, from individuals, churches, and service-oriented organizations to savvy business owners. The bank has carried on for three generations: Mitchell's son B. Doyle Mitchell Sr. succeeded him as president in 1953, who was then succeeded in 1993 by his grandson B. Doyle Mitchell Jr. as president and CEO and his granddaughter Patricia A. Mitchell as executive vice president.
B. Doyle Mitchell Jr. and Patricia A. Mitchell teamed with award-winning author Lisa Frazier Page to tell the story of this remarkable institution. The bank's story is illustrated through images from the Industrial Bank archives and the Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.