PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — West Philadelphia native Emma Chappell, the first Black woman to establish a commercial bank in the U.S., died this week at 80 years old.
“She would always say she was a little girl from West Philly who lived out her dreams,” remembered JoAnn Bell, co-convenor of the Black Women’s Leadership Council.
Her friendship with Chappell spanned four decades. She said Chappell always had a knack for numbers and got her first job in banking right out of high school.
“She rose from being a teller all the way to being a vice president of a major bank,” she said.
In fact, Chappell was the first Black vice president of Continental Bank. During her tenure, Bell said she granted more than $30 million in loans to Black businesses and enterprises.
But her reach spanned beyond business. Chappell served as the national finance director for Jesse Jackson when he ran for president in 1984. She helped co-convene the Black Women’s Leadership Council in the late 1980s and quickly befriended numerous presidents and powerhouses in politics.
“Not just to do campaigns,” Bell added, “but to sit at the table when decisions were made.”
Chappell believed majority-owned commercial banks were not doing enough lending in Black and brown communities. When she went to graduate school, she wrote a business plan for what would become the first commercial bank founded by a Black woman.
“She did it the old-fashioned way: door to door, church to church, group meeting to group meeting to raise $6 million,” said Bell.
Chappell used the money to found the United Bank of Philadelphia in 1992.
“Banking at that time in Philadelphia was very predatory,” said Angelo Perryman, CEO of Perryman Building and Construction. “There were a number of check-cashing facilities, and access to local banking facilities were limited to none.”
Perryman said Chappell gave his company its first line of credit in 1998 for $50,000. Since then, the firm has hired more than 1,000 people and worked on more than 1,000 projects.
“United Bank was key to our firm’s growth,” he said.
Perryman was an early investor in United Bank and still owns stock to this day.
“Emma was very supportive,” he recalled. “She linked us with clients and so we were always really excited to be a part of the United Bank family.”
United Bank celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. It currently has two branches in Center City and multiple ATMs across the city.
Chappell died Tuesday. She was 80.
People who knew her say she was an inspiration, blazing trails for Black women in banking and beyond and leaving a global impact.