African Americans established their own banks and insurance companies in response to discriminatory practices and the need to serve their communities. Black-owned and black-customer service oriented banks and insurance companies were formed out of the exclusion of African Americans from these systems, and provided a source of credit, economic development, jobs, and training opportunities for their communities.

This section examines the African American banking and insurance industries, and provides information on individuals who were able to succeed in finance, despite racial barriers. The Freedman Bank was established in 1865 to allow newly freed slaves in the South to build assets, but ended with bank failure due to speculation and fraud committed by the white managers of the bank. The bank failure created financial loss to its customers, and a loss of trust in the banking system. Its records provide a valuable source of genealogical and economic research. Between 1888 and 1934, 134 black-owned banks were formed, but only nine survived the depression. While there was a growth in banks through the 1970s to a total of 50 banks, only 27 survived the Savings and Loans crisis of the 1980s. External

The insurance industry discriminated against African Americans in response to the 1896 study "Race traits and tendencies of the American Negro," which used statistics and eugenics to argue that Negros were more prone to disease. African American insurance companies grew because people of color found purchasing insurance to be difficult or unaffordable due to bias.