The collapse of Freedman’s Bank / Remembering Abdullah Ibrahim
6/19/202645 min
‘In Savings and Trust,’ historian Justene Hill Edwards tells the story of the Freedman's Bank. Created for formerly enslaved people following the Civil War, its collapse cost depositors millions. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about how this part of history reverberates today.
Also, we remember South African pianist, composer and bandleader Abdullah Ibrahim. He died Monday, at age 91. His song “Mannenberg” was an anthem during the fight to end apartheid. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead shares an appreciation, and we listen back to Terry Gross’s 1989 interview with him.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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David Bianculli· Host0:14
This is Fresh Air. I'm David Bianculli. Today is Juneteenth, named for the day in 1865 when enslaved people of African descent in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the system of slavery, effectively ending slavery in this country. We're going to listen to Tonya Mosley's 2024 interview with Justine Hill Edwards about the story of a bank established in 1865 for formerly enslaved people. Here's Tonya.
Tonya Mosley· Host0:44
In July of 1874, waves of Black Americans rushed to their local bank branches to find out if the news they were hearing was true. The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, a bank for newly emancipated Black Americans, was abruptly shutting down, and patrons at bank branches throughout the country were met with locked doors and cashiers who had to break the news. Most of their savings were gone. The rise and fall of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company is the subject of a new book by my guest, historian Justine Hill Edwards. In the years after the Civil War, tens of thousands of formerly enslaved people deposited millions into the Freedman's Bank with high hopes that as free people, they too could create a piece of the