In what would be great as the first in a series, this week’s Urban Views Weekly has a bio on Maggie Lena Walker in Early Black Entrepreneurs in Richmond:

After the Civil War, Virginia had the largest African slave population and the largest population of free blacks in the U.S., setting the stage for pioneering black entrepreneurs to prosper in “the Ward.” By the early 20th century, black-owned banks, insurance companies, newspapers and entertainment venues flourished in Jackson Ward alongside entrepreneurial African American merchants, barbers, beauticians, and restaurateurs.