March Book & Film Discussion
Founder, Dr. Aimee Wiest. Hosted by Lewes Public Library
Please register to attend *either* In-Person or Online. You will receive a confirmation email within minutes of registering. If you do not receive an email from LibCal, check your spam filter. Or you call the library (302-645-2733) during business hours (M – Th from 10 AM to 2 PM, F from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sat from 10 AM to 2 PM) and ask a staff person to check on your registration. DO NOT register again.
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March 24th will feature the book:
Savings and Trust:
The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank
by Justene Hill Edwards
This book reveals how the promise of economic freedom for formerly enslaved people after the Civil War was undermined by mismanagement, political interference, and broken trust. By tracing the rise and collapse of the Freedman’s Bank, Edwards shows how financial institutions can either empower communities or deepen inequality. The book not only uncovers a painful but often overlooked chapter in American history, it also helps readers understand the long roots of wealth disparities and mistrust in banking that still affect Black communities today.
A leading historian exposes how the rise and tragic failure of the Freedman’s Bank has shaped economic inequality in America.
In the years immediately after the Civil War, tens of thousands of former slaves deposited millions of dollars into the Freedman’s Bank. African Americans envisioned this new bank as a launching pad for economic growth and self-determination. But only nine years after it opened, their trust was betrayed and the Freedman’s Bank collapsed.
Fully informed by new archival findings, historian Justene Hill Edwards unearths a major turning point in American history in this comprehensive account of the Freedman’s Bank and its depositors. She illuminates the hope with which the bank was first envisioned and demonstrates the significant setback that the sabotage of the bank caused in the fight for economic autonomy. Hill Edwards argues for a new interpretation of its tragic the bank’s white financiers drove the bank into the ground, not Frederick Douglass, its final president, or its Black depositors and cashiers. A page-turning story, Savings and Trust is necessary reading for those seeking to understand the roots of racial economic inequality in America.
About the Author
Justene Hill Edwards is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia and the author of both Unfree Markets and a forthcoming Norton Short on the history of inequality in America. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The author of two books and a specialist in African American history, her research explores the intersections of race, capitalism, and economic inequality.
The 2026 Schedule
View the books and films we’ve discussed in previous meetings.
