In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to prevent interference with the integration of Central High School by nine Black students, marking a significant moment in the Civil Rights Movement. President Lyndon Johnson issued the first affirmative action order in 1965, requiring equality in hiring for companies with federal construction contracts. In 1962, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett defied a federal court order to block the admission of Black student James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. Maggie L. Walker, a prominent Black businesswoman, was born in 1867 and became the first Black woman to establish a bank in the U.S. In 1907, the People’s Savings Bank was incorporated in Philadelphia by former Black Congressman George H. White to advance Black economic empowerment.
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